Optimization of sales in fashion retail by warehouse integration in multichannels

Issue of study: The thesis studies the optimization of sales in fashion retail by integrating multichannels. The multichannel integration relates to reallocation of articles between brick and mortar store warehouses and online warehouses. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to investigate how increased multichannel integration, in terms of reallocating articles between online store warehouses and brick and mortar store warehouses, affect sales for retailers within the fashion industry. The thesis investigates the potential in increasing the sales by increasing the availability online and by decreasing the share of reductions in price, by reallocating articles to the most suitable channel. Method: The research was conducted as an embedded single case study with one subunit studying the effects of increasing availability online and the other subunit studying the effects of decreasing price reductions. Data was gathered from four main sources: archival records, documentation, interviews, and observations. The analysis was performed by estimating sales figures if the reallocations had not been performed and compare it to the sales figures after the reallocations. Conclusions: By reallocating articles to the online warehouse, the sales on the reallocated articles increased on average by 67 percent, and had the potential of contributing to an overall increase of 1.2 percent. The sales potential can be further increased by a larger share of the additional store stock a larger share of comparable articles between the channels. The reallocation with the purpose of reducing price reductions contributed to a decrease of 19 percent of the reallocated articles, and an overall decrease in the total price reductions in the online store by 0.4 percent. Reallocating articles between channels with the purpose of reducing price reductions is considered to be less risky in terms of the likelihood of sending the wrong article, than the reallocation purpose of increasing sales, which can be explained by the impact of the short life cycles of the articles in fashion retail and thus the impact of timing

Ett hållbart pensionssparande

Samhällets intresse för hållbarhet är i dagsläget ett hett ämne vilket manifesteras i pensionssystemets växande hållbara fondutbud. Huruvida hållbara investeringar leder till en uppoffring av den finansiella prestationen eller inte finns det olika uppfattningar om. I denna studie undersöker vi via portföljoptimering om en aktiv sparare kunnat uppnå högre hållbarhet än det statliga förvalsvalet AP7, utan att offra den finansiella prestationen. Vi utgår från den svenska Premiepensionens fondutbud åren 2011 till 2016. Genom regressionsanalys fastställer vi sedan om den finansiella prestationen haft något samband med hållbarhet under 2016. Resultaten från vår studie indikerar att det var möjligt via portföljoptimering att uppnå en högre hållbarhet 2011 till 2016 än AP7, utan att offra den finansiella prestationen. Regressionsanalysen visar dock på ett negativt samband mellan hållbarhet och prestation. Utifrån vårt resultat drar vi slutsatsen att en mer hållbar portfölj kunde skapas 2011 till 2016 utan att offra prestationen, men att det 2016 inte berodde på hållbarheten. Avslutningsvis konstaterar vi att hållbarhetsbegreppet saknar en enhetlig definition och att en branschstandard är nödvändig för att göra framtida studier mer tillförlitliga

Life Cycle Sustainability Performance Assessment Method for Comparison of Civil Engineering Works Design Concepts: Case Study of a Bridge

Standardized and transparent life cycle sustainability performance assessment methods are essential for improving the sustainability of civil engineering works. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the potential of using a life cycle sustainability assessment method in a road bridge case study. The method is in line with requirements of relevant standards, uses life cycle assessment, life cycle costs and incomes, and environmental externalities, and applies normalization and weighting of indicators. The case study involves a short-span bridge in a design-build infrastructure project, which was selected for its generality. Two bridge design concepts are assessed and compared: a concrete slab frame bridge and a soil-steel composite bridge. Data available in the contractor’s tender phase are used. The two primary aims of this study are (1) to analyse the practical application potential of the method in carrying out transparent sustainability assessments of design concepts in the early planning and design stages, and (2) to examine the results obtained in the case study to identify indicators in different life cycle stages and elements of the civil engineering works project with the largest impacts on sustainability. The results show that the method facilitates comparisons of the life cycle sustainability performance of design concepts at the indicator and construction element levels, enabling better-informed and more impartial design decisions to be made

A harmonized method for automatable life cycle sustainability performance assessment and comparison of civil engineering works design concepts

The life cycle sustainability performance of civil engineering works is increasingly important. The possibility to influence the sustainability of a project design is larger in the conceptual stage than in later stages. Better-informed decisions regarding design choices’ impact on sustainability can be made by comparing conceptual project designs based on an assessment of their life cycle sustainability performance. It is essential that concepts are assessed in a harmonized way and compared impartially. Current standards provide the general framework for the assessment of sustainability performance, but do not give detailed guidance on calculation of sustainability indicators and their aggregation. Since design in automated systems is becoming increasingly common, there is a growing need for machine-readable data and automatable assessment methods. Assessment methods which can be applied using open-access data is important to achieve fair competition. This paper aims to provide a method for life cycle sustainability performance assessment and comparison of civil engineering works design concepts, possible to apply using open-access Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and life cycle assessment (LCA) data. The purpose is to enable fair and automatable sustainability assessments of design concepts, to facilitate impartial comparisons of such assessments as a basis for choosing sustainable designs. A literature review of relevant standards and scientific papers on sustainability assessment of construction and civil engineering works was performed. A harmonized, fair and automatable method for life cycle sustainability assessment and comparison of civil engineering works design concepts, well-suited for optimization purposes, is presented. However, the aim currently limits categories and indicators possible to include. The proposed method includes guidance on the calculation of environmental, social and economic indicators, based on LCA, life cycle costing (LCC) and external costs, and aggregation using normalisation and weighting factors of the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF). The proposed method allows for an impartial comparison of the sustainability of design concepts, resulting in better-informed decisions

Biodegradation in soil effects on PLA/sisal and PHBV/sisal biocomposites

The use of bio-based composites like lignocellulosic fibres/polymer composites as an alternative materials are continuously increasing in several applications such as automobile manufacturing, packaging, construction or household and agricultural equipments. In order to warranty the durability on green biocomposites based on polymer matrixes like poly(hydroxy butyrate-co-valerate) (PHBV) and poly(lactide) (PLA), the previous knowledge about the influence of the ambient agents on their macromolecular properties is necessary. In this sense, biodegradation in soil normalised experiments are useful. In this work, two commercial PHBV and PLA were reinforced with sisal fibres at 10 %, 20% and 30% of weight, with the aid of maleic anhydride as coupling agent.the influence of the amount of sisal fiber and the effect of the coupling agent on the impact of the biodegradation in soil on the materiales, in terms of the variation of the physico-chemical properties of the biocomposites

Impact of hydrothermal ageing on the thermal stability, morphology and viscoelastic performance of PLA/sisal biocomposites

The influence of the combined exposure to water and temperature on the behaviour of polylactide/sisal biocomposites coupled with maleic acid anhydride was assessed through accelerated hydrothermal ageing. The biocomposites were immersed in water at temperatures from 65 to 85 C, between the glass transition and cold crystallisation of the PLA matrix. The results showed that the most influent factor for water absorption was the percentage of fibres, followed by the presence of coupling agent, whereas the effect of the temperature was not significant. Deep assessment was devoted to biocomposites subjected to hydrothermal ageing at 85 C, since it represents the extreme degrading condition. The morphology and crystallinity of the biocomposites were evaluated by means of X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The viscoelastic and thermal performance were assessed by means of dynamic mechanic thermal analysis (DMTA) and thermogravimetry (TGA). The presence of sisal generally diminished the thermal stability of the biocomposites, which was mitigated by the addition of the coupling agent. After composite preparation, the effectiveness of the sisal fibre was improved by the crystallisation of PLA around sisal, which increased the storage modulus and reduced the dampening factor. The presence of the coupling agent strengthened this effect. After hydrothermal ageing, crystallisation was promoted in all biocomposites therefore showing more fragile behaviour evidencing pores and cracks. However, the addition of coupling agent in the formulation of biocomposites contributed in all cases to minimise the effects of hydrothermal ageing

Water absorption and hydrothermal performance of PHBV/sisal biocomposites

The performance of biocomposites of poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-valerate) (PHBV) and sisal fibre subjected to hydrothermal tests at different temperatures above the glass transition of PHBV (TH = 26, 36 and 46 °C) was evaluated in this study. The influences of both the fibre content and presence of coupling agent were focused. The water absorption capability and water diffusion rate were considered for a statistical factorial analysis. Afterwards, the physico-chemical properties of water-saturated biocomposites were assessed by Fourier-Transform Infrared Analysis, Size Exclusion Chromatography, Differential Scanning Calorimetry and Scanning Electron Microscopy. It was found that the water diffusion rate increased with both temperature and percentage of fibre, whereas the amount of absorbed water was only influenced by fibre content. The use of coupling agent was only relevant at the initial stages of the hydrothermal test, giving an increase in the diffusion rate. Although the chemical structure and thermal properties of water-saturated biocomposites remained practically intact, the physical performance was considerably affected, due to the swelling of fibres, which internally blew-up the PHBV matrix, provoking cracks and fibre detachment

Thermal and thermo-oxidative stability and kinetics of decomposition of PHBV/sisal composites

The decomposition behaviours of composites made of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) and sisal were assessed in terms of thermal stability and decomposition kinetics, under inert and oxidative conditions, by means of multi-rate linear non-isothermal thermogravimetric experiments. A statistical design of experiments was applied to study the influence of the addition of sisal (0-10-20-30%wt), the presence coupling agent (Yes/No) and the applied conditions of work (inert or oxidative). An improvement of the thermal and thermo-oxidative stability of PHBV with the addition of sisal was observed for all cases. An accurate methodology based on iso-conversional methods was applied to simulate the potential of thermal recovery technologies, such as pyrolysis and controlled combustion, to use these biocomposites after the end of their service life. The mathematical descriptions of both thermo-chemical reactions were helpful in the evaluation of the eventual optimal operational conditions to carry out a suitable energetic valorisation. A minimum of 240°C and 137 kJ/mol of activation energy in inert conditions and 236°C and 118 kJ/mol in oxidative conditions ensured the feasibility of the reactions regardless the composition of the PHBV/sisal biocomposites, which may ease the operability of further energy valorisation with the aim to turn biowaste into new fuels

The complete linkage disequilibrium test: a test that points to causative mutations underlying quantitative traits

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Genetically, SNP that are in complete linkage disequilibrium with the causative SNP cannot be distinguished from the causative SNP. The Complete Linkage Disequilibrium (CLD) test presented here tests whether a SNP is in complete LD with the causative mutation or not. The performance of the CLD test is evaluated in 1000 simulated datasets.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The CLD test consists of two steps i.e. analysis I and analysis II. Analysis I consists of an association analysis of the investigated region. The log-likelihood values from analysis I are next ranked in descending order and in analysis II the CLD test evaluates differences in log-likelihood ratios between the best and second best markers. Under the null-hypothesis distribution, the best SNP is in greater LD with the QTL than the second best, while under the alternative-CLD-hypothesis, the best SNP is alike-in-state with the QTL. To find a significance threshold, the test was also performed on data excluding the causative SNP. The 5^th, 10^thand 50^thhighest T_CLDvalue from 1000 replicated analyses were used to control the type-I-error rate of the test at p = 0.005, p = 0.01 and p = 0.05, respectively.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In a situation where the QTL explained 48% of the phenotypic variance analysis I detected a QTL in 994 replicates (p = 0.001), where 972 were positioned in the correct QTL position. When the causative SNP was excluded from the analysis, 714 replicates detected evidence of a QTL (p = 0.001). In analysis II, the CLD test confirmed 280 causative SNP from 1000 simulations (p = 0.05), i.e. power was 28%. When the effect of the QTL was reduced by doubling the error variance, the power of the test reduced relatively little to 23%. When sequence data were used, the power of the test reduced to 16%. All SNP that were confirmed by the CLD test were positioned in the correct QTL position.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The CLD test can provide evidence for a causative SNP, but its power may be low in situations with closely linked markers. In such situations, also functional evidence will be needed to definitely conclude whether the SNP is causative or not.</p