Total Ownership Cost Modeling Of Technology Adoption Using System Dynamics: Implications For Erp Systems

Investment in new technologies is considered by firms as a solution to improve their productivity, product and service quality and their competitive advantages in the global market. Unfortunately, not all technology adoption projects have met their intended objectives. The complexity of technology adoption along with little consideration of the long term cost of the technology, are among the factors that challenge companies while adopting a new technology. Companies often make new technology adoption decision without enough attention to the total cost of the technology over its lifecycle. Sometimes poor decision making while adopting a new technology can result in substantial recurring loss impacts. Therefore, estimating the total cost of the technology is an important step in justifying the technology adoption. Total Ownership Cost (TOC) is a wildly-accepted financial metric which can be applied to study the costs associated with the new technology throughout its lifecycle. TOC helps companies analyze not only the acquisition and procurement cost of the technology, but also other cost components occurring over the technology usage and service stage. The point is that, technology adoption cost estimation is a complex process involving consideration of various aspects such as the maintenance cost, technology upgrade cost and the cost related to the human-resource. Assessing the association between the technology characteristics (technology upgrades over its life cycle, compatibility with other systems, technology life span, etc) and the TOC encompasses a high degree of complexity. The complexity exists because there are many factors affecting the cost over time. Sometimes decisions made today can have long lasting impact on the system costs and there is a lag between the time the decision is taken and when outcomes occur. iv An original contribution of this dissertation is development of a System Dynamics (SD) model to estimate the TOC associated with the new technology adoption. The SD model creates casual linkage and relationships among various aspects of the technology adoption process and allows decision makers to explore the impact of their decisions on the total cost that the technology brings into the company. The SD model presented in this dissertation composes of seven sub-models including (1) technology implementation efforts, (2) workforce training, (3) technology-related workforce hiring process, (4) preventive and corrective maintenance process, (5) technology upgrade, (6) impact of technology on system performance and (7) total ownership cost sub model. A case study of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system adoption has been used to show the application of the SD model. The results of the model show that maintenance, upgrade and workforce hiring costs are among the major cost components in the ERP adoption case study presented in Chapter 4. The simulation SD model developed in this dissertation supports trade-off analysis and provides a tool for technology scenarios evaluation. The SD model presented here can be extended to provide a basis for developing a decision support system for technology evaluation

Study of flower and corm quantitative characteristics of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) ‎under organic, biological, and chemical nutrition systems in Gonabad area

In order to evaluation the response of saffron to different manure, biological and chemical fertilizers, an ‎experiment was carried out as split-plot based on randomized complete blocks design with three replications in ‎Research Farm of Gonabad Agriculture Jihad during 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 growing seasons. Main factor ‎was 60 t/ha manure, and no manure application, and sub factor concluded of control (no fertilizer use), nitroxin ‎‎(5 L/ha), biophosphorus (3 L/ha), biosulphur (5 kg/ha), humic acid (10 kg/ha), and chemical fertilizer (150, 100, ‎and 100 kg/ha urea, triple superphosphate, and potassium sulfate). Experiment results indicated that interaction ‎effect of manure and biological and chemical fertilizers on fresh flower yield, fresh and dry stigma yield was ‎significant. The highest fresh flower yield (181 kg/ha) achieved by biophosphorus along with application of 60 ‎t/ha manure. Fresh stigma yield in chemical fertilizer under manure application treatment showed the highest ‎increase (mean yield of 10405 g/ha). While, dry stigma yield due to biophosphorus application obtained the ‎highest value (5351 g/ha). The effect of manure on corm traits was significant. Corm number per unit area and ‎corm yield showed 19% increase in second year due to manure application than control. Among biological and ‎chemical fertilizer treatments, the highest value of corm number (440 corm/m2) and corm yield (4401 kg/m2) ‎was obtained due to biophosphorus application. Based on obtained results, combined application of ‎recommend manure with biological fertilizers especially biophosphorus under climatic and edaphic conditions ‎similar to this experiment area is recommended.

Investigation the effect of manure and planting pattern on some flower and corm quantitative traits of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) in Gonabad climatic conditions

In order to study the response of saffron medicinal plant to planting density and different levels of manure, a two year experiment was conducted in split-plot as complete block design with three replications in 2015-16 and 2016-2017 in Gonabad area. Main factor consisted of 5, 10, and 15 cm plant spacing on row and sub factor was control (no manure application), and application of 0, 20, 40, and 60 t/ha cow manure. Experiment results showed that maximum value of fresh flower yield in first year (127.4 kg/ha) achieved in 60 t/ha and in second year (72.3 kg/ha) obtained from 40 t/ha manure application under 5 cm plant spacing in row. The highest fresh stigma yield in both years (10.300 and 5.383 kg/ha, respectively) was obtained due to high planting density (5 cm plant spacing in row) and 40 t/ha manure application. Also, dry stigma yield under this treatment with 2.300 and 1.770 kg/ha, respectively had more increase in both years than other treatments. The highest daughter corm number in both years (614 and 591 corm/m2, respectively) obtained from highest corm planting density. In first year, 40 t/ha manure treatment had the highest value (592 corm/m2) and in second year, 60 t/ha manure application showed the highest value (572 corm/m2). In first year, the highest corm yield with 22724 kg/ha achieved from 5 cm plant spacing in row and 40 t/ha manure. But, in second year the highest mean value (12429 kg/ha) obtained from the same planting density and use of 60 t/ha manure. Therefore, to achieve suitable economic yield in saffron cultivation, application of 40 t/ha cow manure in 20×5 cm planting density under climatic and edaphic conditions similar to this experiment location is suggested

Effect of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria on Yield and Yield Components of Garlic Medicinal Plant (Allium sativum L.) under the Conditions of Different Organic and Chemical Fertilizers Application

Introduction: In recent years, the effect of exogenous organic amendments on soil properties and plant growth characteristics has received renewed attention. Although the utilization of mineral fertilizers could be viewed as the best solution in terms of plant productivity, this approach is often inefficient in long-term in tropical ecosystems due to the limited ability of low-activity clay soils to retain nutrients. Intensive use of agrochemicals in agricultural systems is also known to have irreversible effects on soil and water resources. Vermicompost is currently being promoted to improve soil quality, reduce water and fertilizer needs and therefore increase the sustainability of agricultural practices in tropical countries. Vermicomposting is a process which stabilizes organic matter under aerobic and mesophilic conditions through the joint action of earthworms and microorganisms. The products of vermicomposting have been successfully used to suppress plant pests and diseases, as well as increase crop productivity. Cow manure is an excellent fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other nutrients. It also adds organic matter to the soil which may improve soil structure, aeration, soil moisture-holding capacity, and water infiltration. Biofertilizers are defined as preparations containing living cells or latent cells of efficient strains of microorganisms that help plants' nutrients uptake by their interactions in the rhizosphere when applied through seed or soil. They accelerate certain microbial processes in soil which augment the extent of availability of nutrients in a form easily assimilated by plants. Very often microorganisms are not as efficient in natural surroundings as one would expect them to be and therefore artificially multiplied cultures of efficient selected microorganisms play a vital role in accelerating the microbial processes in soil. Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is a very powerful medicinal plant that is often underestimated. Garlic is easy to grow and can be grown year-round in mild climates. Garlic cloves are used for consumption (raw and cooked) or for medicinal purposes. They have a pungent characteristic, spicy flavor that mellows and sweetens considerably with cooking. Materials and Methods: In order to evaluate the effect of biofertilizers and organic and chemical fertilizers on yield and yield components of garlic (Allium sativum L.), a split plot experiment based on RCBD with three replications was conducted in 2015-2016 growing seasons, in Gonabad University, Iran. Main plot included different organic and chemical fertilizers (1- vermicompost, 2- cow manure, 3- chemical fertilizer and 4- control) and sub plot included plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (nitroxin, biophosphorous and control). In order to determine physic-chemical properties of soil, sampling was performed at the depth of 0 to 30 cm. Before cultivation, 7 and 30 t.ha-1 vermicompost and cow manure were added to the soil, respectively. Nutrient requirement of garlic for nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium from the chemical source was considered 40, 50 and 60 kg.ha-1. For application of biofertilizers, bulblets inoculated with plant growth promoting rhizobacteria for 15 minutes. Distance in and between rows was considered 10 and 20 cm, respectively. Weeds were controlled manually three times. At the end of the growing season, economic yield, biological yield, plant height, shoot dry weight, bulb diameter, bulblet weight per plant, bulblet volume per plant and bulblet number per plant were measured. Analysis of data variance was performed by using SAS software (Ver 9.1). Results and Discussion: The results showed that simple effect of chemical fertilizer on bulb diameter was not significant but combined application of chemical fertilizer and biophosphorous increased bulb diameter as much as 18% compared to control. Combined application of nitroxin and cow manure increased bulblet weight per plant by 41% compared to single application of nitroxin. Biophosphorous plus vermicompost, cow manure and chemical fertilizer increased biological yield, respectively, by 25, 18 and 15% compared to single application of these fertilizers. The highest economic yield obtained in treatment of nitroxin plus cow manure. Organic and biological fertilizers are among the most significant resources for improvement of agricultural soil quality and increase in the yield of different medicinal plants. It has been reported that these ecological inputs provide favorable conditions for plant growth and development through improvement of physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil (10, 39), therefore, it can be concluded that improvement in most studied traits in the present study was due to the use of organic fertilizers. Fallahi et al. (22) reported the positive effects of organic and biological fertilizers on the improvement of quantitative and qualitative characteristics in chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.). Conclusion: In general, the results of this research showed that combined use of organic and biological inputs can improve quantitative characteristics of plant, and thus decrease the environmental risks of chemical inpus