Critical Success Factors For Supplier Selection: An Update

For many organizations effective supplier evaluation and purchasing processes are of vital importance. As the pace of market globalization quickens, the number of potential suppliers and the number of factors to consider when selecting suppliers increases. In this paper we present the critical success factors (CSFs) for supplier selection reported in the literature emanating from the seminal work of Dickson and provide an update based on reviewing more than 110 research papers. Our study indicates significant change in the relative importance of various critical success factors in the research reported during 1966-1990 versus 1990-2001. Increased competition and globalization of markets facilitated by Internet-based technologies have combined to dramatically change the ranking of factors while introducing new criteria to the supplier selection process. Based on the results of this study, we conclude that supplier selection criteria will continue to change based on an expanded definition of excellence to include traditional aspects of performance (quality, delivery, price, service) in addition to non-traditional, evolving ones (just-in-time communication, process improvement, supply chain management)

Revenue Management In Manufacturing: A Research Landscape

Revenue management is the science of using past history and current levels of order activity to forecast demand as accurately as possible in order to set and update pricing and product availability decisions across various sales channels to maximize profitability. In much the same way that revenue management has transformed the airline industry in selling tickets for the same flight at markedly different rates based upon product restrictions, time to departure, and the number of unsold seats, many manufacturing companies have started exploring innovative revenue management strategies in an effort to improve their operations and profitability. These strategies employ sophisticated demand forecasting and optimization models that are based on research from many areas, including management science and economics, and that can take advantage of the vast amount of data available through customer relationship management systems in order to calibrate the models. In this paper, we present an overview of revenue management systems and provide an extensive survey of published research along a landscape delineated by three fundamental dimensions of capacity management, pricing, and market segmentation

Comparative Analysis Of Production Control Systems Through Simulation

This paper presents a comparative analysis of seven different production control systems in a complex factory setup through computer simulation. Batch size, arrival rate, inter-arrival time, and maintenance type are the input parameters to the model. Work-in-process (WIP) and throughput (TH) are the system performance measurement output parameters. The study shows that a pull-based system does not outperform a push-based system with respect to WIP under all conditions. Pull-based systems prefer a smaller batch size to better control WIP. Each of the seven production control systems performs best at a specific inter-arrival time, although it is different for each system. Preventive maintenance is preferred over repair maintenance in a pull system and in a just-in-time (JIT) system. The computer simulation confirms that no single production control system is best under all conditions. The performance of a production control system depends not only on the type of manufacturing strategy chosen, but also on the values of the input parameters. This research shows that it makes no sense to comment on the superiority of one strategy over another without regard to the value of input parameters and the type of factory setup

Is coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) associated with renal involvement? A review of century infection

Context: The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is one of the most threatening pandemics in history involving multiple organs, including the kidney. This study aimed to review the association of COVID-19 with renal involvement. Evidence Acquisition: International databases, including the Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar, were searched for articles by April 1, 2020. Keywords were COVID-19, coronavirus disease, SARS-CoV-2, kidney, renal function, acute kidney injury, and acute renal failure, or a combination of them in title/abstracts. Results: There were a few studies concerning COVID-19 and renal failure due to the short time elapsed from the epidemic onset. The results showed that hematuria and proteinuria were common in patients with COVID-19. Conclusions: Patients with elevated creatinine are at risk of mortality two times more than patients with normal creatinine. Also, elevated BUN, proteinuria, and hematuria can increase the risk of mortality in patients with COVID-19 up to four times compared to patients with normal tests. Therefore, it is important to check creatinine, BUN, proteinuria, and hematuria in primary assessments. Generally, all routine measures for people affected with COVID-19 can be done for COVID-19 patients with acute renal failure until the current knowledge is changed. Chloroquine phosphate may improve the chance of treatment. © 2020, Author(s)

Power and Time Slot Allocation in Cognitive Relay Networks Using Particle Swarm Optimization

The two main problems in cognitive radio networks are power and time slot allocation problems which require a precise analysis and guarantee the quality of service in both the primary and secondary users. In this paper, these two problems are considered and a method is proposed to solve the resulting optimization problem. Our proposed method provides an improved performance in solving the constrained nonlinear multiobject optimization for the power control and beamforming in order to reach the maximum capacity and proper adaption of time slots, and as a result a new scheme for joint power and time slot allocation in cognitive relay networks is proposed. We adopt space diversity access as the secondary users access scheme and divide the time between multiple secondary users according to their contribution to primary user's transmission. Helping primary users provides more opportunities for secondary users to access the channel since the primary users can release the channel sooner. In contrast, primary network leases portion of channel access time to the secondary users for their transmission using particle swarm optimization (PSO). Numerical studies show good performance of the proposed scheme with a dynamic cost function in a nonstationary environment

COVID-19 under spotlight: A close look at the origin, transmission, diagnosis, and treatment of the 2019-nCoV disease

Months after the outbreak of a new flu-like disease in China, the entire world is now in a state of caution. The subsequent less-anticipated propagation of the novel coronavirus disease, formally known as COVID-19, not only made it to headlines by an overwhelmingly high transmission rate and fatality reports, but also raised an alarm for the medical community all around the globe. Since the causative agent, SARS-CoV-2, is a recently discovered species, there is no specific medicine for downright treatment of the infection. This has led to an unprecedented societal fear of the newly born disease, adding a psychological aspect to the physical manifestation of the virus. Herein, the COVID-19 structure, epidemiology, pathogenesis, etiology, diagnosis, and therapy have been reviewed. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Comparative evaluation of carbamazepine release from single and bi-polymeric based matrices

In the present study the release rate and kinetics of  carbamazepine as a model drug from various single and bi-polymeric matrices were studied. Matrices containing different percentages of hydroxylpropyl methylcellulose (HPMC), ethylcellulose (EC), Eudragit RS (EuRS) or various ratios of polymer blends based on HPMC were prepared. In vitro release studies were carried out in 1% sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS) aqueous solution. Mean dissolution times (MDT) were calculated and the release kinetics were evaluated using different mathematical models. The results showed that carbamazepine release was sustained in the presence of 15% HPMC for 6 hrs, but increasing the polymer content had no obvious effect. Application of EC or EuRS both in the percentages of 20% and 25% had more influence in retarding drug release rate (MDTs about 6 hrs). The results for bi-polymeric matrices revealed that overall, adding EC or EuRS as inert polymers to HPMC matrices resulted in a noticeable reduction in carbamazepine release rate compared to single polymer based matrices. Application of bi-polymeric matrices could be considered as a suitable approach for delivering the drug in a prolonged manner