Modelling and simulation for logistic service company : case study on customer service operation

Modelling and simulation approach is widely used in the management, manufacturing and services industries. The purpose of using modeling and simulation is to improve in business performance and achieve in business goals and targets. However, there is lack of such an application in the customer service operation for the logistic industry. The project is performed to evaluate the roles and responsibilities of Customer Service Officer (CSO) in the import and export operations for a logistic service company, to ensure customer satisfaction for the services provided by CSO from a logistic service company in the import and export operations and to recommend appropriate parameters for a logistic service company for improvement of business performance after operation re-engineering. The research method consists of interview, observation, document review and simulation. The project was conducted in DNE group, a logistic service company located in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The general manager and CSO of import and export operation (five CSO for each operation) were interviewed. The work of CSO of both import and export operations were observed. The relevant forms for the import and export operations and the CSO import and export operational procedure where the company intends to adhere to ISO 9001:2008 were reviewed. ARENA simulation was used to simulate the suggested methods for the purpose of improving business performance. There are four proposals for the import operation. The proposals are to add two working hours for each CSO, to add an extra officer to each import process, to allow two shifts for the CSO and to have more job separation. The export operation consists of three proposals. The proposals are to add two working hours for each CSO, to add an extra officer to each export process and to allow two shifts for the export CSO. These suggestions can be applied to other logistical companies and a conceptual model can be established for future research

Three Empirical Essays on Energy and Labor Economics

This dissertation analyzes the differences between private and non-private firms in two contexts. Chapters 1 and 2 examine the electricity industry in the United States and the motivation behind electric utilities\u27 usage of demand side management programs. The first chapter focuses on load management programs, which decrease electricity demand during the peak hours of the day. It looks into the impact of a plausibly exogenous decrease in natural gas prices on the utilization and capacity of these programs. The second chapter analyzes the relationship between electricity market deregulation and electric utilities\u27 energy efficiency activity. The third chapter investigates the impact of Chinese enterprise restructuring on employment, wage bills, and productivity. All three chapters show that different objectives due to ownership type lead to differences in firm behavior

Turnover intentions and political influence behavior: a test of "fight-or-flight" responses to organizational injustice

Open accessWe examined the role of organizational frustration as a linking mechanism between the perception of organizational injustice and fight (political influence behavior)/flight (turnover intentions) responses. The participants were 201 middle-level managers drawn from manufacturing and logistic companies in northern Malaysia. Data were collected by means of a printed questionnaire. Whereas all the three components of injustice--procedural, distributive, and interactional--had significant positive impact on turnover intentions and political influence behavior, only procedural injustice and distributive injustice had such impact on frustration. Interestingly, organizational frustration played a partial mediating role in the relationship of distributive and procedural injustice with turnover intentions and political influence behavior. Implications of the findings for those in managerial roles and directions for future research are suggested.Ye

Properties of particleboard with oil palm trunk as core layer in comparison to three-layer rubberwood particleboard

Compaction ratio is highly dependent on the density of the wood materials used in the production of particleboard. Lower density wood materials will produce particleboard with higher compaction ratio and is believed to give better properties. The objective of this study was to evaluate the properties of threelayer particleboard made from rubberwood and oil palm trunk with different bulk density as the core layer, while the rubberwood fine particles served as surface layers for both types of particleboard. This study also investigated the effect of shelling ratios on the mechanical and physical properties of the threelayer particleboard. Melamine-fortified urea formaldehyde (UF) resin was used as the binder. The modulus of rupture (MOR), internal bond strength (IB) and thickness swelling (TS) of the particleboards were evaluated based on the Japanese Industrial Standard for particleboard (JIS A 5908:2003). The results showed that both species and shelling ratios are variables that influenced the mechanical and physical properties of the particleboard. Despite its lower compaction ratio, particleboard made from rubberwood alone had better strength properties and dimensional stability than particleboard made from a mixture of rubberwood and oil palm trunk

Patterns of Pain and Functional Improvement in Patients with Bone Metastases after Conventional External Beam Radiotherapy and a Telephone Validation Study

Patients experiencing lower body pain resulting from bone metastases have greater levels of functional interference than those with upper body pain. The purpose of this study was to assess the levels of interference caused by pain after treatment with conventional radiotherapy using the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and to validate this tool for telephone use. After radiotherapy, a total of 159, 129, and 106 patients completed the BPI over the telephone at months 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Cronbach's alpha, confirmatory factor analysis, and discriminant validity tests were performed to assess the validity of the BPI. One-way ANOVA was used to compare BPI scores. There was no statistically significant difference in functional interference among patients after treatment. Internal consistency of the BPI was high. Functional interference may be inherently higher in patients with pain in the lower body. Telephone use of the BPI is reliable and recommended in this population

Advertising in Medical Journals: Should Current Practices Change?

Fugh-Berman and colleagues surveyed medical journals' policies and practices on advertising. Pharmaceutical products, they say, dominate journals' advertising pages, creating conflicts of interests

Signature-Based Small Molecule Screening Identifies Cytosine Arabinoside as an EWS/FLI Modulator in Ewing Sarcoma

BACKGROUND: The presence of tumor-specific mutations in the cancer genome represents a potential opportunity for pharmacologic intervention to therapeutic benefit. Unfortunately, many classes of oncoproteins (e.g., transcription factors) are not amenable to conventional small-molecule screening. Despite the identification of tumor-specific somatic mutations, most cancer therapy still utilizes nonspecific, cytotoxic drugs. One illustrative example is the treatment of Ewing sarcoma. Although the EWS/FLI oncoprotein, present in the vast majority of Ewing tumors, was characterized over ten years ago, it has never been exploited as a target of therapy. Previously, this target has been intractable to modulation with traditional small-molecule library screening approaches. Here we describe a gene expression–based approach to identify compounds that induce a signature of EWS/FLI attenuation. We hypothesize that screening small-molecule libraries highly enriched for FDA-approved drugs will provide a more rapid path to clinical application. METHODS AND FINDINGS: A gene expression signature for the EWS/FLI off state was determined with microarray expression profiling of Ewing sarcoma cell lines with EWS/FLI-directed RNA interference. A small-molecule library enriched for FDA-approved drugs was screened with a high-throughput, ligation-mediated amplification assay with a fluorescent, bead-based detection. Screening identified cytosine arabinoside (ARA-C) as a modulator of EWS/FLI. ARA-C reduced EWS/FLI protein abundance and accordingly diminished cell viability and transformation and abrogated tumor growth in a xenograft model. Given the poor outcomes of many patients with Ewing sarcoma and the well-established ARA-C safety profile, clinical trials testing ARA-C are warranted. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate that a gene expression–based approach to small-molecule library screening can identify, for rapid clinical testing, candidate drugs that modulate previously intractable targets. Furthermore, this is a generic approach that can, in principle, be applied to the identification of modulators of any tumor-associated oncoprotein in the rare pediatric malignancies, but also in the more common adult cancers