Flow management of first-time orders: a dental office case study

The article presents the importance of managing the flow of first-time patients in a dental practice. Three main areas of difference between the popular linear model of dental office operation on the market and the author’s model of an integrated multi-specialist dental team were analyzed. Performance indicators for working with first-time patients illustrating the ability to manage the flow of patients in the office, communicate with patients, build patient awareness of oral health conditions, and harness patients’ potential for treatment are presented and discussed. It was proven that with the fuller utilization of patients’ potential for treatment, a noticeable effect is a simultaneous increase in the profitability of the dental practice, which, with an entirely ethical process based solely on diagnosed dental problems, makes both profitable

Product recycling of automotive parts – trends and issues

Remanufacturing is a dynamically developing area of the automotive industry. It allows the original equipment manufactures to diversify their activities and sell manufacturer-warrantied subassemblies through a dealership network but at lower prices compared to new products. The paper presents the process of remanufacturing of automotive subassemblies and characterizes the benefits for the industry and vehicle end-users. Examples have been shown of the activities of vehicle manufacturers in the area of product recycling and development of remanufacturing technologies

Assessment method of end-of-life vehicles recycling network efficiency

Recycling is a final stage closing the life cycle of vehicles. The quality of this process affects the combined impact of automobiles on the environment. Recycling networks differ in the level of efficiency due to the differences in how the recycling system is organized, their environment, and the characteristics of the entities taking part in recycling process. The article presents an algorithm of a method for assessing the effectiveness of a vehicle-recycling network, which can be used in a comparative analysis of networks, or for evaluating changes over time. A set of indicators relating to the technical, economic, environmental, and social aspects was proposed. The article presents the variety of aspects involved in assessing, the efficiency of a vehicle-recycling network the best solution seems to be the inclusion of selected indicators for the assessment model, which will also act as a tool to assess the state of the network and conduct rankings of available solutions. The model for assessing the efficiency has to be preceded by determining the purpose and scope of the assessment and analysis of available evaluation tools

Passenger cars and heavy duty vehicles exhaust emissions under real driving conditions

In the assumptions regarding to the transport policy both at the level of country and Europe there is the concept of sustainable development of transport. Warsaw University of Technology in cooperation with Poznan University of Technology performs research work concerning the shaping of environmentally friendly transport system – Project EMITRANSYS. In this project, one of the conditions is to reduce exhaust emissions by means of transport. The paper presents the reasons for the testing of the exhaust emissions under Real Driving Emissions testing (RDE). Research potential of Institute of Combustion Engines and Transport at Poznan University of Technology in the area of road testing of passenger and heavy-duty vehicles has been presented in the paper. Example test results have been shown in the aspect of the emission-related classification of vehicles

End-of-life vehicles recycling network design

A growing ecological awareness in modern societies, legal regulations aiming at a reduction of waste storage and economic benefits that we can have from recycling of used products led to a situation that the creation of recycling networks has become an important issue, particularly in developed countries. The paper presents issues related to the design of recycling network whose purpose is to collect from the last owner, dismantle and properly recover end-of-life vehicles. In order to fulfil the ecological requirements and also efficient management of the whole recovery process, the conceptual framework of a reverse logistics network is presented. The collecting of vehicles, dismantling and following processes of shredding and treatment in material recycling facilities are considered jointly. Then a mathematical model is developed which minimizes the costs of setting up the network and also the relevant transportation costs. Because of the complexity of the model, a solution methodology based on the evolutionary algorithm is proposed which enables achieving good quality solutions in a reasonable algorithm run time. In particular, the participants and the flows in the recycling network and visualisation of the results for flows between dismantlers and plastic recycling facilities are presented in the paper

Dwukryterialne modele lokalizacji przedsiębiorstw sieci recyklingu pojazdów

The paper presents the issues related to modeling of a vehicle recycling network. The functioning of the recycling network is within the realm of interest of a variety of government agendas, companies participating in the network, vehicle manufacturers and vehicle end users. The interests of these groups need to be considered when deciding about the network organization. The paper presents bicriteria models of network entity location that take into account the preferences of the vehicle owners and network participants related to the network construction and reorganization. A mathematical formulation of the optimization tasks has been presented including the objective functions and limitations that the solutions have to comply with. Then, the models were used for the network optimization in Poland.W artykule przedstawiono zagadnienia modelowania sieci recyklingu pojazdów samochodowych. Funkcjonowaniem sieci recyklingu zainteresowane są różne podmioty od administracji państwowej, przez przedsiębiorstwa uczestniczące w sieci, producentów samochodów po właścicieli pojazdów. Interesy tych grup należy uwzględnić przy podejmowaniu decyzji dotyczących organizacji sieci. W artykule przedstawiono dwukryterialne modele lokalizacji podmiotów sieci uwzględniające preferencje właścicieli pojazdów i uczestników sieci służące do budowy i przebudowy sieci recyklingu. Przedstawiono sformułowanie matematyczne zadań optymalizacyjnych, ograniczenia, które muszą spełniać rozwiązania oraz funkcję kryterium. Następnie modele zostały zastosowane do optymalizacji sieci recyklingu w Polsce

Planning of end-of-life vehicles recycling network

Tworzenie sieci recyklingu powinno przebiegać w sposób zaplanowany i zorganizowany tak, aby zapewnić efektywność sieci i optymalne zagospodarowanie zasobów. Stąd też kształtowanie sieci recyklingu wymaga zastosowania odpowiednich narzędzi, które zapewnią właściwą lokalizację elementów struktury systemu. Model wspomagania decyzji powinien obejmować etapy takie jak: identyfikacja problemu, konstruowanie modelu matematycznego oraz weryfikację modelu.Designing of a recycling network should be planned and organized carefully to ensure its efficiency and resource optimization. That is why the creation of the network requires appropriate tools that will allow a proper location of the recycling network structural elements. Decision support model should include several steps such as: problem identification, model construction and model verification

Problematyka optymalizacji lokalizacji podmiotów sieci recyklingu pojazdów

The paper presents issues related to the optimization of the location of the entities that belong to the end-of-life vehicle recycling network. A structure of the network has been presented, the criteria of optimization have been defined and the factors that have impact on the selection of the entities while designing the network have been listed. The paper also presents a formulation of an example optimization task in the aspect of total network costs.Artykuł poświęcony jest zagadnieniu optymalizacji lokalizacji podmiotów sieci recyklingu pojazdów wycofanych z eksploatacji. Przedstawiono strukturę sieci, zdefiniowano kryteria optymalizacji oraz wskazano czynniki wpływające na wybór lokalizacji podmiotów przy projektowaniu sieci recyklingu. W artykule przedstawiono również przykładowe sformułowanie zadania optymalizacyjnego z punktu widzenia kosztów całkowitych sieci

End-of-life vehicles recycling network organization in selected European countries

Wprowadzane przez poszczególne państwa regulacje dotyczące recyklingu pojazdów różnią się co do zakresu odpowiedzialności i obciążeń finansowych podmiotów gospodarczych oraz co do stopnia odzysku i recyklingu odpadów. Nawet w Unii Europejskiej stosowane rozwiązania co do organizacji sieci znacząco się między sobą różnią. Jest to efekt tego, że Dyrektywa 2000/53/EC wyznacza jedynie cele, jakie należy osiągnąć oraz ogólne ramy funkcjonowania systemu pozostawiając krajom członkowskim swobodę w wyborze narzędzi implementacji wymogów. W artykule przedstawiono trzy systemy organizacji sieci recyklingu na przykładzie Francji, Wielkiej Brytanii i Danii. Opisano obowiązujące w tych krajach przepisy prawne odnoszące się do recyklingu pojazdów, zakres obowiązków producentów samochodów, stacji demontażu, strzępiarek i właścicieli pojazdów oraz wskazano podstawowe różnice w systemie organizacji sieci.The laws regarding vehicles recycling vary as to the responsibility and financial burden for operators and the degree of recovery and recycling of waste. Even in the European Union solutions applied for network organization differ significantly from each other. The reason for this, is that the Directive 2000/53/EC only sets goals to be achieved and the overall framework of the system, leaving member states the freedom to choose the tools to implement the requirements. The paper presents three different systems of recycling network organization on the example of France, the United Kingdom and Denmark. It describes laws relating to the recycling of vehicles, car manufacturers, dismantling stations, shredders and vehicle owners responsibilities and it identifies key differences in the organization of the system network