Scale and Process Innovation: The Adoption of the Basic Oxygen Process by Canadian Steel Firms

At the workshop on "Size and Productive Efficiency -- The Wider Implications" held by the Management and Technology Area at IIASA in June 1979, one of the major topics of discussion was the relationship between scale and innovation, in particular the way in which the development and adoption of innovations are influenced by the size of the organization. It was, for example, suggested that for major process innovations there was an optimum organization size: not too small that there is an insufficient diversity of managerial experience, and not too large that there is bureaucratic rigidity and lack of common purpose. However, rather than seeking an explanation in terms of organization behavioral characteristics it seems reasonable to first look for explanations which focus on the technical and economic characteristics of the competing processes. In this paper a specific major process innovation -- the adoption of the basic oxygen process in steel making -- is examined within the context of the decisions on timing, size and choice of process made by Canadian steel firms. A model of "rational" investment planning is used to evaluate the actual decisions and gain insight into the technical, economic and market factors which appear to support the proposition that there is an optimum "niche" for the introduction of major process innovations

"Problems of Scale" -- Issues in an Applied Systems Analysis Project

The evolution of the research task "problems of scale" is described. The emphasis is on the key decisions involved in the conduct of the research and the way in which perceptions of the research topic changed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the features of the style of applied systems analysis used in the task

The Dynamics of Scale, Technological Substitution and Process Mix

At the workshop on "Size and Productive Efficiency -- The Wider Implications" held at IIASA in June 1979 there was a great deal of discussion on the dynamics of scale, with particular focus on scale, technology and the learning curve, scale and innovation and the effect of uncertainty about the future on scale decisions. This paper reports the results of research on using formal models of the decision on process and scale in order to understand the dynamics of change in scale and process mix

Scale in Production Systems; Based on an IIASA Workshop, June 26-29, 1979

When a new enterprise is planned or the scope of an organization is changed, a decision on scale has to be made. At a certain stage in the development of a technology, the economies of scale that have been established are overtaken by factors that had hitherto been considered secondary. Mistakes of scale have been made, from hospitals to electricity-generating boards. The mistakes of being too large are the most eye-catching, but the mistakes of being too small are probably just as frequent, and just as important. Twelve chapters of this book are based on reports of a workshop on scale and productive efficiency held at IIASA. The other eight chapters describe work done at the Institute; they also include discussion of the key issues relevant to scale that arose at the workshop, thus broadening the survey of this topic. This book treats problems of scale at various levels: at the unit (the equipment) and plant levels; and at industrial and national levels, and includes practical case descriptions that will be of value to managers and decision makers, as well as material of value to research workers

C3 or Garbage Can - Alternative Models of Organizational Performance

Two alternative approaches for modeling the performance of organizations are discussed -- C^3 (command-control-communication) systems and the garbage can approach. Existing formal models using each approach are reviewed and some extensions and alternative models are proposed. The implications of the models are discussed, with particular emphasis on the impact of information technology developments on organizations

Stochastic make-to-stock inventory deployment problem: an endosymbiotic psychoclonal algorithm based approach

Integrated steel manufacturers (ISMs) have no specific product, they just produce finished product from the ore. This enhances the uncertainty prevailing in the ISM regarding the nature of the finished product and significant demand by customers. At present low cost mini-mills are giving firm competition to ISMs in terms of cost, and this has compelled the ISM industry to target customers who want exotic products and faster reliable deliveries. To meet this objective, ISMs are exploring the option of satisfying part of their demand by converting strategically placed products, this helps in increasing the variability of product produced by the ISM in a short lead time. In this paper the authors have proposed a new hybrid evolutionary algorithm named endosymbiotic-psychoclonal (ESPC) to decide what and how much to stock as a semi-product in inventory. In the proposed theory, the ability of previously proposed psychoclonal algorithms to exploit the search space has been increased by making antibodies and antigen more co-operative interacting species. The efficacy of the proposed algorithm has been tested on randomly generated datasets and the results compared with other evolutionary algorithms such as genetic algorithms (GA) and simulated annealing (SA). The comparison of ESPC with GA and SA proves the superiority of the proposed algorithm both in terms of quality of the solution obtained and convergence time required to reach the optimal/near optimal value of the solution

Dynamic inventory management with cash flow constraints

In this article, we consider a classic dynamic inventory control problem of a self-financing retailer who periodically replenishes its stock from a supplier and sells it to the market. The replenishment decisions of the retailer are constrained by cash flow, which is updated periodically following purchasing and sales in each period. Excess demand in each period is lost when insufficient inventory is in stock. The retailer's objective is to maximize its expected terminal wealth at the end of the planning horizon. We characterize the optimal inventory control policy and present a simple algorithm for computing the optimal policies for each period. Conditions are identified under which the optimal control policies are identical across periods. We also present comparative statics results on the optimal control policy. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 2008Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61323/1/20322_ftp.pd

Multiple recombinant dengue type 1 viruses in an isolate from a dengue patient

Between 2000 and 2004, dengue virus type 1 (DENV-1) genotypes I and II from Asia were introduced into the Pacific region and co-circulated in some localities. Envelope protein gene sequences of DENV-1 from 12 patients infected on the island of New Caledonia were obtained, five of which carried genotype I viruses and six, genotype II viruses. One patient harboured a mixed infection, containing viruses assigned to both genotypes I and II, as well as a number of inter-genotypic recombinants. This is the first report of a population of dengue viruses isolated from a patient containing both parental and recombinant viruses

Analysis of the value of information used in inventory control of an inventory-production system

This paper studies the value of information in an inventory-production system consisting of a warehouse and a workshop. The focal point is the use of information about the production status of the workshop in inventory control in the warehouse. Systems with various information levels are analyzed to determine what information is most valuable. Examples are presented to demonstrate how to identify the most important information about production status