How and Why Freight Trains Deviate from the Timetable : Evidence from Sweden

European infrastructure managers (IMs) create annual timetables for trains that will run during a year. Freight trains in Sweden often deviate from this by being added, cancelled, delayed or early, resulting in increased costs for IMs and railway undertakings (RUs). We investigate the frequency of and causes for these deviations, using one year of operational data for 48,000 trains, and 15 stakeholder interviews. We find that about 20% of freight trains are added once the timetable has been created, and that cancellations occur for about 35% of freight trains, mostly at the RUs’ initiative. Delays are common: some 40% of departures, 30% of runtimes, and 20% of dwell times are delayed. Running early is even more common: 80% are ready to depart early, and 60% do so, while 40% of runtimes and 75% of dwell times are shorter than scheduled. We find links and feedback loops between the root causes for these deviations and suggest that IMs reserve more of the capacity that is needed for freight trains and instead distribute it throughout the year. This could lead to more appropriate, attractive, and reliable timetables for freight trains, whilst greatly reducing the amount of planning effort

Supply chain risk management strategies in normal and abnormal times:Policymakers’ role in reducing generic medicine shortages

Purpose – This paper links supply chain risk management to medicine supply chains to explore the role ofpolicymakers in employing supply chain risk management strategies (SCRMS) to reduce generic medicineshortages.Design/methodology/approach – Using secondary data supplemented with primary data, the authors mapand compare seven countries’ SCRMS for handling shortage risks in their paracetamol supply chains beforeand during the first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.Findings – Consistent with recent research, the study finds that policymakers had implemented few SCRMSspecifically for responding to disruptions caused by COVID-19. However, shortages were largely avoided sincemultiple strategies for coping with business-as-usual disruptions had been implemented prior to the pandemic.The authors did find that SCRMS implemented during COVID-19 were not always aligned with thoseimplemented pre-pandemic. The authors also found that policymakers played both direct and indirect roles.Research limitations/implications – Combining longitudinal secondary data with interviews sheds lighton how, regardless of the level of preparedness during normal times, SCRMS can be leveraged to avertshortages in abnormal times. However, the problem is highly complex, which warrants further research.Practical implications – Supply chain professionals and policymakers in the healthcare sector can use thefindings when developing preparedness and response plans.Social implications – The insights developed can help policymakers improve the availability of high-volumegeneric medicines in (ab)normal times.Originality/value – The authors contribute to prior SCRM research in two ways. First, the authorsoperationalize SCRMS in the medicine supply chain context in (ab)normal times, thereby opening avenues forfuture research on SCRM in this context. Second, the authors develop insights on the role policymakers playand how they directly implement and indirectly influence the adoption of SCRMS. Based on the study findings,the authors develop a framework that captures the diverse roles of policymakers in SCRM

GWAS of random glucose in 476,326 individuals provide insights into diabetes pathophysiology, complications and treatment stratification

Conventional measurements of fasting and postprandial blood glucose levels investigated in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) cannot capture the effects of DNA variability on ‘around the clock’ glucoregulatory processes. Here we show that GWAS meta-analysis of glucose measurements under nonstandardized conditions (random glucose (RG)) in 476,326 individuals of diverse ancestries and without diabetes enables locus discovery and innovative pathophysiological observations. We discovered 120 RG loci represented by 150 distinct signals, including 13 with sex-dimorphic effects, two cross-ancestry and seven rare frequency signals. Of these, 44 loci are new for glycemic traits. Regulatory, glycosylation and metagenomic annotations highlight ileum and colon tissues, indicating an underappreciated role of the gastrointestinal tract in controlling blood glucose. Functional follow-up and molecular dynamics simulations of lower frequency coding variants in glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP1R), a type 2 diabetes treatment target, reveal that optimal selection of GLP-1R agonist therapy will benefit from tailored genetic stratification. We also provide evidence from Mendelian randomization that lung function is modulated by blood glucose and that pulmonary dysfunction is a diabetes complication. Our investigation yields new insights into the biology of glucose regulation, diabetes complications and pathways for treatment stratification

Supply Chain Risk Governance: Towards a Conceptual Multi-Level Framework

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) is currently putting high pressure on most countries’ critical infrastructures (not only health care), creating huge uncertainties in supply and demand, and disrupting global supply chains. The global crisis will demonstrate the extent to which different parties (countries, public authorities, private companies etc.) can work together and take holistic decisions in such situations. A core question in supply chain management asks how independent decision-makers at many levels can work together and how this joint work can be governed. Supply chain risk management (SCRM), however, has focused mostly on how focal private companies apply SCRM processes to identify, analyse and mitigate risk related to upstream and downstream flows in their supply networks. At the same time, interorganisational collaboration to handle diverse risks is always needed. A risk that hits one organisation often affects other, interconnected organisations. This study aims to develop the term supply chain risk governance with an associated conceptual framework that embraces various types of supply chains and actors. In a cross-disciplinary literature study, we dissect, compare and combine risk governance with interorganisational aspects of SCRM and find that the mechanisms suggested in the risk governance literature coincide with many of those in SCRM. We suggest a combination of these to govern risk processes at an inter-organisational level, regardless of the type of organisation included in the supply chain. This would be suitable for critical infrastructures that often contain a mixture of private and public actors. The scope of the literature employed is limited, and some articles have played a larger role in the framework development. The paper explores new territory through this cross-disciplinary study, extends existing multi-level frameworks with inter-organisational governance mechanisms and proposes new governance mechanisms to the field. This study could support the understanding of how critical infrastructures in our society are governed so as to increase their resilience to both smaller and larger disruptions

Att resurseffektivisera ett distributionsnätverk för asfaltslastbilar -En fallstudie hos Skanska Industrial Solutions AB

Problem - Skanska Industrial Solutions AB lays asphalt over a wide geographical area, and never in the same place and is also a work that is dependent on the weather. Asphalt is a product with low to no capacity to be stored. These factors contribute to a distribution that has the necessity to follow the JIT-principles. The asphalt production is in of a steady flow of asphalt being transported from the manufacturing plants and if it is left without this leads to large costs that Skanska Industrial Solutions Ab want to avoid to the largest possible extent. This, however leads to a willingness to order more asphalt than perhaps needed, just to avoid a shortage at the production sites. With information sharing and communication often lacking this increases the effects. These factors often lead to trucks not being fully utilised or not contracted for whole work days which also drives up costs. This study aims at trying to understand all the issues relating to these stated problems and how their effects can be negated or mitigated. Purpose -The purpose of this master thesis is to identify the potential for more resource efficient transportation of asphalt at Skanska Industrial Solutions AB, also to evaluate solutions on how to realise this goal. Research Questions - RQ1: What are the possibilities for a more resource efficient distribution of asphalt? RQ2: How can the supply chain be designed, both organizational and physically to realise potential resource efficiency? RQ3: What are the potential consequences for the proposed changes to the supply chain? Method - The master thesis is based on a single case study of Skanska Industrial Solutions AB and its distribution network of its asphalt production in Scania, Sweden. The empirical data largely stems for around 20 qualitative interviews with persons at different levels and with different functions within the organisation. This data is complimented with quantitative data gathered from different sources such as the newly implemented information system and data from the manufacturing plants. The empirical data is then analysed through various theories and methods which are gathered from a thorough literature review on the subject. Lastly the analysis leads to proposed solutions to the issues that has been identified throughout the study. The solutions are then critically discussed and some of them are recommended for further study or implementations. Conclusion - The study has identified numerous possible solutions to increase the resource efficiency in a number of areas of the operations. A number of actions are recommended to the company for implementation and further study. The actions are often interdependent to be fully utilised. In conclusion there is possibility for Skanska Industrial Solutions Ab. However, this will not be a sprint but rather a steeplechase

Closeness and separation in neonatal intensive care

In this paper, we highlight the need for acknowledging the importance and impact of both physical and emotional closeness between the preterm infant and parent in the neonatal intensive care unit. Physical closeness refers to being spatially close and emotional closeness to parental feelings of being emotionally connected to the infant (experiencing feelings of love, warmth and affection). Through consideration of the literature in this area, we outline some of the reasons why physical closeness and emotional closeness are crucial to the physical, emotional and social well-being of both the infant and the parent. These include positive effects on infant brain development, parent psychological well-being and on the parent-infant relationship. The influence of the neonatal unit environment and culture on physical and emotional closeness is also discussed. Conclusions:  Culturally sensitive care practices, procedures and the physical environment need to be considered to facilitate parent-infant closeness, such as through early and prolonged skin-to-skin contact, family-centred care, increased visiting hours, family rooms and optimization of the space on the units. Further research is required to explore factors that facilitate both physical and emotional closeness to ensure that parent-infant closeness is a priority within neonatal care