Planning stability in a product recorvery syste

Recovery of used products is an issue of growing importance due to customer expectations and environmental regulation. As a consequence, companies need to adapt their material management taking into account inbound flows of used products. Corresponding inventory control models have been proposed in literature. In this paper we address the issue of planning stability in a product recovery context. To this end, we consider rolling horizon planning for a stock point facing stochastic demand and product returns. We analyze the impact of the return flow on planning stability and compare the system behaviour with a traditional production environment. We show that structural results derived for traditional inventory models remain valid in a product recovery context. Moreover we discuss counterintuitive effects resulting from interaction between planning stability and stock levels. Zusammenfassung. In den letzten Jahren besteht aufgrund gesetzlicher Bestimmungen und gestiegenem Umweltbewußtsein in der Bevölkerung zunehmend die Tendenz, daßUnternehmen ihre Produkte nach deren Gebrauch vom Kunden zurücknehmen. Die Produktionsplanung und -steuerung der Unternehmen muß diesen Produktrückflüssen angepaßt werden. In der Literatur sind für verschiedene kreislaufwirtschaftliche Probleme optimale Lagerhaltungspolitiken abgeleitet worden. Dieser Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der Planungsstabilität in einem kreislaufwirt- schaftlichen Basismodell, wo alle zurückkommenden Produkte aufgearbeitet werden müssen. Insbesondere wird der Einflußder Produktrückflüsse auf die Stabilität untersucht und ein Vergleich mit der Stabilität eines traditionellen Lagerhaltungsmodells durchgeführt. Es wird aufgezeigt, daß beide Modelle im wesentlichen dieselben strukturellen Eigenschaften besitzen

Mathematical Modelling of Chemical Diffusion through Skin using Grid-based PSEs

A Problem Solving Environment (PSE) with connections to remote distributed Grid processes is developed. The Grid simulation is itself a parallel process and allows steering of individual or multiple runs of the core computation of chemical diffusion through the stratum corneum, the outer layer of the skin. The effectiveness of this Grid-based approach in improving the quality of the simulation is assessed

Engineers are using social media for work purposes

Given the nowadays often distributed nature of product development and the tendency of engineers to rely on their colleagues and people they can easily reach, social media may offer solutions to support information seeking and efficient and effective knowledge sharing. This paper explores the use of social media in the Danish engineering industry. Results from over 130 survey participants show that 88% report to actually use social media for work purposes. The most addressed purposes are to search for information, knowledge and solutions, together with networking

Physics at the e+ e- Linear Collider

A comprehensive review of physics at an e+e- Linear Collider in the energy range of sqrt{s}=92 GeV--3 TeV is presented in view of recent and expected LHC results, experiments from low energy as well as astroparticle physics.The report focuses in particular on Higgs boson, Top quark and electroweak precision physics, but also discusses several models of beyond the Standard Model physics such as Supersymmetry, little Higgs models and extra gauge bosons. The connection to cosmology has been analyzed as well.Comment: 179 pages, plots and references updated, version to be published at EPJ

New physics searches with heavy-ion collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

This document summarises proposed searches for new physics accessible in the heavy-ion mode at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), both through hadronic and ultraperipheral γγ interactions, and that have a competitive or, even, unique discovery potential compared to standard proton-proton collision studies. Illustrative examples include searches for new particles - such as axion-like pseudoscalars, radions, magnetic monopoles, new long-lived particles, dark photons, and sexaquarks as dark matter candidates - as well as new interactions, such as nonlinear or non-commutative QED extensions. We argue that such interesting possibilities constitute a well-justified scientific motivation, complementing standard quark-gluon-plasma physics studies, to continue running with ions at the LHC after the Run-4, i.e. beyond 2030, including light and intermediate-mass ion species, accumulating nucleon-nucleon integrated luminosities in the accessible fb-1 range per month

A European lens upon adult and lifelong learning in Asia

In this article, we seek to assess the extent to which adult and lifelong learning policies and practices in Asia have distinctiveness by comparison to those found in western societies, through an analysis of inter-governmental, national and regional policies in the field. We also inform our study through the analysis of the work of organisations with an international remit with a specific focus on Asia and Europe. In one case, the Asia–Europe Meeting Lifelong Learning (ASEM LLL) Hub has a specific function of bringing together researchers in Asia and Europe. In another, the PASCAL Observatory has had a particular focus on one aspect of lifelong learning, that of learning cities, with a concentration in its work on Asia and Europe. We focus on learning city development as a particular case of distinction in the field. We seek to identify the extent to which developments in the field in Asia have influenced and have been influenced by practices elsewhere in world, especially in Europe, and undertake our analysis using theories of societal learning/the learning society, learning communities and life-deep learning. We complement our analysis through assessment of material contained in three dominant journals in the field, the International Journal of Lifelong Education, the International Review of Education and Adult Education Quarterly, each edited in the west

Assessing Communities of Practice in health policy : A conceptual framework as a first step towards empirical research

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