Interactions and Cooperation in Local Production Systems: An Analysis of Inhibiting Factors Related to Specificities of Small Enterprises

The purpose of this article is to present some organizational and environmental factors that inhibit interactions and cooperation among several types of actors in a local production system (LPS) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To this end an exploratory study was carried out in an embryonic LPS of farming machinery and equipment factories located in West Paraná State, Brazil. The assessment of cooperation and interaction relations in the LPS led to the identification of inhibiting factors, which were correlated to specificities of the participating enterprises. Empirical evidence demonstrated that the inhibiting factors that impacted joint interactions and actions the most are of an organizational nature and strongly related to characteristics intrinsic to the size of the enterprises under consideration.The purpose of this article is to present some organizational and environmental factors that inhibit interactions and cooperation among several types of actors in a local production system (LPS) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To this end an exploratory study was carried out in an embryonic LPS of farming machinery and equipment factories located in West Paraná State, Brazil. The assessment of cooperation and interaction relations in the LPS led to the identification of inhibiting factors, which were correlated to specificities of the participating enterprises. Empirical evidence demonstrated that the inhibiting factors that impacted joint interactions and actions the most are of an organizational nature and strongly related to characteristics intrinsic to the size of the enterprises under consideration.The purpose of this article is to present some organizational and environmental factors that inhibit interactions and cooperation among several types of actors in a local production system (LPS) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To this end an exploratory study was carried out in an embryonic LPS of farming machinery and equipment factories located in West Paraná State, Brazil. The assessment of cooperation and interaction relations in the LPS led to the identification of inhibiting factors, which were correlated to specificities of the participating enterprises. Empirical evidence demonstrated that the inhibiting factors that impacted joint interactions and actions the most are of an organizational nature and strongly related to characteristics intrinsic to the size of the enterprises under consideration

Integration, uncertainty and information: how do they affect planning performance?

Purpose – Effective planning requires the participation of different functions and may be hampered by lack ofintegration and information quality (IQ). This paper aims to investigate the relationships among integration,uncertainty, IQ and performance, in the context of the production planning and control function. The literaturelacks in-depth studies that consider these factors altogether, showing how they interact and how theycontribute to improve business performance.Design/methodology/approach – The authors introduce the variable of planning performance, whichrepresents the quality of the production plans/planning process and is related to the frequency and causes ofmodifications to these plans. The relationships among the mentioned constructs are investigated by means ofmultiple case studies.Findings – The results illustrate that integration is positively related to planning performance, and thisrelationship is mediated by IQ and moderated by uncertainty.Originality/value – The presented analysis may help practitioners to foster interfunctional integration,better cope with uncertainty and improve information management, aiming to achieve better planningperformance. The managers can choose integration and IQ improvement mechanisms that better fit to theirenvironment/reality, using the four different cases as a benchmark. Moreover, this research contributes to theliterature exploring this contingency perspective by means of in-depth case studies, considering that most ofthe existing research adopting this perspective is survey-based

Cash management policies by evolutionary models: a comparison using the Miller-Orr model

This work aims to apply genetic algorithms (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) to managing cash balance, comparing performance results between computational models and the Miller-Orr model. Thus, the paper proposes the application of computational evolutionary models to minimize the total cost of cash balance maintenance, obtaining the parameters for a cash management policy, using assumptions presented in the literature, considering the cost of maintenance and opportunity for cost of cash. For such, we developed computational experiments from cash flows simulated to implement the algorithms. For a control purpose, an algorithm has been developed that uses the Miller-Orr model defining the lower bound parameter, which is not obtained by the original model. The results indicate that evolutionary algorithms present better results than the Miller-Orr model, with prevalence for PSO algorithm in results

Main dimensions that impact knowledge management and university-business-government collaboration in the Brazilian scenario

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how certain characteristics of the university–industry– government collaboration facilitate knowledge creation and management, hence innovation focusing on particularities of the Brazilian scenario. Design/methodology/approach – As a conceptual basis, there are correlations between theories of knowledge management and the Triple Helix, a model referenced to university–industry–government cooperation. The research was conducted through a multiple case study at two National Institutes of Science and Technology (INCTs in Portuguese). Findings – The main results show the importance of participation in the INCT program, as it enables the creation of an organizational structure with the coordinator’s leadership, who directs the flow of knowledge among organizations and stimulates innovation. Originality/value – The choice of the topic is justified by the lack of studies on the identification and analyses of the main aspects of this type of collaboration in an integrated way

Heuristic for flow shop sequencing with separated and sequence independent setup times

This paper deals with the permutation flow shop scheduling problem with separated and sequence-independent machine setup times. A heuristic method with the objective of minimizing the total time to complete the schedule is introduced. The proposed heuristic is based on a structural property of this scheduling problem, which provides an upper bound on the idle time of the machines between the completion of the setup task and the beginning of job processing. Experimental results show that the new heuristic outperforms two existing ones.(CNPq) National Council for Scientific and Technological Developmen

Total Tardiness Minimization in a Single-Machine with Periodical Resource Constraints

In this paper we introduce a variant of the single machine considering resource restriction per period. The objective function to be minimized is the total tardiness.  We proposed an integer linear programming modeling based on a bin packing formulation. In view of the NP-hardness of the introduced variant, heuristic algorithms are required to find high-quality solutions within an admissible computation times. In this sense, we present a new hybrid matheuristic called Relax-and-Fix with Variable Fixing Search (RFVFS).  This innovative solution approach combines the relax-and-fix algorithm and a strategy for the fixation of decision variables based on the concept of the variable neighborhood search metaheuristic. As statistical indicators to evaluate the solution procedures under comparison, we employ the Average Relative Deviation Index (ARDI) and the Success Rate (SR). We performed extensive computational experimentation with a testbed composed by 450 proposed test problems. Considering the results for the number of jobs, the RFVFS returned ARDI and SR values of 35.6% and 41.3%, respectively. Our proposal outperformed the best solution approach available for a closely-related problem with statistical significance

NEW HEURISTICS FOR THE NO-WAIT FLOWSHOP WITH SEQUENCE-DEPENDENT SETUP TIMES PROBLEM

In this paper, we address the problem of scheduling jobs in a no-wait flowshop with sequence-dependent setup times with the objective of minimizing the makespan and the total flowtime. As this problem is well-known for being NP-hard, we present two new constructive heuristics in order to obtain good approximate solutions for the problem in a short CPU time, named GAPH and QUARTS. GAPH is based on a structural property for minimizing makespan and QUARTS breaks the problem in quartets in order to minimize the total flowtime. Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed approachs over three of the best-know methods in the literature: BAH and BIH, from Bianco, Dell´Olmo and Giordani (1999) and TRIPS, by Brown, McGarvey and Ventura (2004)

A behavioral analysis of the volatility of interbank interest rates in developed and emerging countries

Purpose – This paper aims to analyse the volatility of the fixed income market from 11 countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, USA, Germany and Japan) from January 2000 to December 2011 by examining the interbank interest rates from each market. Design/methodology/approach – To the volatility of interest rates returns, the study used models of auto-regressive conditional heteroscedasticity, autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (ARCH), generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH), exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (EGARCH), threshold generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (TGARCH) and periodic generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (PGARCH), and a combination of these with autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models, checking which of these processes were more efficient in capturing volatility of interest rates of each of the sample countries. Findings – The results suggest that for most markets, studied volatility is best modelled by asymmetric GARCH processes – in this case the EGARCH – demonstrating that bad news leads to a higher increase in the volatility of these markets than good news. In addition, the causes of increased volatility seem to be more associated with events occurring internally in each country, as changes in macroeconomic policies, than the overall external events. Originality/value – It is expected that this study has contributed to a better understanding of the volatility of interest rates and the main factors affecting this market.Propósito – Este estudio analiza la volatilidad del mercado de renta fija de once países (Brasil, Rusia, India, China, Sudáfrica, Argentina, Chile, México, Estados Unidos, Alemania y Japón) de enero de 2000 a diciembre de 2011, mediante el examen de las tasas de interés interbancarias de cada mercado. Diseño/metodología/enfoque – Para la volatilidad de los retornos de las tasas de interés, se utilizaron modelos de heteroscedasticidad condicional autorregresiva: ARCH, GARCH, EGARCH, TGARCH y PGARCH, y una combinación de estos con modelos ARIMA, comprobando cuáles de los procesos eran más eficientes para capturar la volatilidad de interés de cada uno de los países de la muestra. Hallazgos – Los resultados sugieren que para la mayoría de los mercados estudiados la volatilidad es mejor modelada por procesos GARCH asimétricos —en este caso el EGARCH— demostrando que las malas noticias conducen a un mayor incremento en la volatilidad de estos mercados que las buenas noticias. Además, las causas de una mayor volatilidad parecen estar más asociadas a eventos que ocurren internamente en cada país, como cambios en las políticas macroeconómicas, que los eventos externos generales. Originalidad/valor – Se espera que este estudio contribuya a un mejor entendimiento de la volatilidad de las tasas de interés y de los principales factores que afectan a este mercado

Knowledge management in environmental education

Information and knowledge are resources of environmental education (EE) that can be performed through knowledge management (KM). The aim of this paper is to propose measures of knowledge creation (KC) to improve performance of EE. This study is based on the research literature without empirical findings; therefore, the results are limited by the methodological resources of the theoretical essay. However, this limitation is the greatest motivation for future research which could investigate the proximity of EE with KM and KC in empirical investigations. Some suggestions for developing the requirements of KC programs to EE are presented as the results: possibility of the SECI process to better perform various aspects of environmental education such as social learning, interaction activities, dialogue, experience exchanging, information and knowledge, and of different ideas and ways of acting, done by EE and, finally, the possibility of Ba to develop a proper space for creation of new environmental knowledge. This article contains academic contributions to KM by providing greater discussion and understanding of KC; to EE when it allows a different view based on the work of information and knowledge about the processes of teaching, when contributing to social programs for EE, improving their practices and, consequently, contributing to an environmentally sustainable economic development