A PATH ANALYTICAL ANALYSIS OF ORGANIZATIONAL INTEGRATION PRACTICES'EFFECTS ON MANUFACTURING FLEXIBILITY AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGF

To cope with an increasingly turbulent environment,manufacturing firms increasingly implement integration practices to enhance flexibility in the production process.This research develops a framework to explore the relationships among organizational integration practices,manufacturing flexibility,and competitive advantage.The study develops valid and reliable instruments to measure these constructs,and it applies structural equation modeling to test relationships among these variables using a large sampl...     

A message-driving formalism for modeling and simulation of multi-agent supply chain systems

To acquire a competitive advantage in the expanding market, manufacturing enterprises should be able to manage their supply chains as effectively as possible. It is now becoming popular to model supply chains as multi-agent systems and use discrete event simulation to learn more about their behaviors or investigate the implications of alternative configurations. In order to enhance the computational efficiency and keep the simulation credibility, this paper proposes a message-driving formalism for the simulation of multi-agent supply chain systems. Through the message-driving formalism, the problem of shared variables is addressed and the parallel operation of agents is implemented. Simulation experiments with a prototype implementation show that the message-driving formalism is able to provide credible results in significantly less simulation time.     

On integration and adaptation in complex service systems

The services sector employs a large and growing proportion of workers in the industrialized nations, and it is increasingly dependent on information and communication technologies. While the interdependences, similarities and complementarities of manufacturing and services are significant, there are considerable differences between goods and services, including the shift in focus from mass production to mass customization （whereby a service is produced and delivered in response to a customer＇s stated or imputed needs）. In general, services can be considered to be knowledge-intensive agents or components which work together as providers and consumers to create or co-produce value. Like manufacturing systems, an efficient service system must be an integrated system of systems, leading to greater connectivity and interdependence. Integration must occur over the physical, temporal, organizational and functional dimensions, and must include methods concerned with the component, the management, and the system. Moreover, an effective service system must also be an adaptable system, leading to greater value and responsiveness. Adaptation must occur over the dimensions of monitoring, feedback, cybernetics and learning, and must include methods concerned with space, time, and system. In sum, service systems are indeed complex, especially due to the uncertainties associated with the human-centered aspects of such systems. Moreover, the system complexities can only be dealt with methods that enhance system integration and adaptation. The paper concludes with several insights, including a plea to shift the current misplaced focus on developing a science or discipline for services to further developing a systems engineering approach to services, an approach based on the integration and adaptation of a host of sciences or disciplines （e.g., physics, mathematics, statistics, psychology, sociology, etc.）. In fact, what is required is a services-related transdisciplinary - beyond a single disciplinary - ontology or taxon     

Special issue editorial on mass customization and sustainable value systems

Today,new products or services must be designed to satisfy ever changing consumer demand by companies to remain competitive. Mass customization,personalized services,and integration of information and decision processes are needed to produce an increasingly diverse range of products and services.At the same time efficiency as well as flexibility of design and production processes need to be improved.Successful companies align and coordinate efforts with suppliers and clients across the value chain to achieve and sustain     

INTERNET OF CONNECTED SERVGOODS:CONSIDERATIONS,CONSEQUENCES AND CONCERNS

In an earlier paper(Tien 2012),the author augurs that,in contrast to the first and second industrial revolutions which respectively focused on the development and the mass production of goods,the next-or third-industrial revolution is focused on the integration of services and/or goods;it began in this second decade of the 21 st Century.The Third Industrial Revolution(TIR) is underpinned by the integration or mass customization of services and/or goods.The benefits of real-time mass customization cannot be over-stated as goods and services become indistinguishable and are co-produced as "ServGoods",resulting in an overwhelming economic advantage to the industrialized countries where the consuming customers are at the same time the co-producing producers.Adding sensors to these ServGoods and letting them connect or communicate among themselves or with other ServGoods can result in an Internet of Things(i.e.,connected ServGoods).A number of considerations,consequences and concerns relating to such an Internet of Connected ServGoods are discussed herein.     

Bilateral relations between China and the United States: Policy prioritization with the ANP

Improving relations between the People’s Republic of China(PRC)and the United States of America(US)and ensuring that they work together as allies rather than as competitors can serve as a stabilizing force against armed conflict,particularly with surrounding nations.The economic,social,and political relationships between the PRC and US have progressed along a hilly journey.As the second largest economy in the world,the PRC has continued to develop its military and is determined to climb the technological ladder.This growth has led the US and the PRC to be referred to as a G-2 of superpowers.As the US hegemony continues to weaken this G-2 relationship is becoming more important.With significant economic,political,and security issues at stake it is crucial that efforts to strengthen these relations are prioritized and implemented.A rigorous prioritization process,the Analytic Network Process(ANP)is used herein to prioritize the efforts and initiatives in the G-2relationship.The model is presented with results and the extensive sensitivity analysis present additional insight into the suggested solutions.     

Analysis of effect factors-based stochastic network planning model

Looking at all the indeterminate factors as a whole and regarding activity durations as independent random variables, the traditional stochastic network planning models ignore the inevitable relationship and dependence among activity durations when more than one activity is possibly affected by the same indeterminate factors. On this basis of analysis of indeterminate effect factors of durations, the effect factors-based stochastic network planning （EFBSNP） model is proposed, which emphasizes on the effects of not only logistic and organizational relationships, but also the dependent relationships, due to indeterminate factors among activity durations on the project period. By virtue of indeterminate factor analysis the model extracts and describes the quantitatively indeterminate effect factors, and then takes into account the indeterminate factors effect schedule by using the Monte Carlo simulation technique. The method is flexible enough to deal with effect factors and is coincident with practice. A software has been developed to simplify the model-based calculation, in VisualStudio.NET language. Finally, a case study is included to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model and comparison is made with some advantages over the existing models.     

The next industrial revolution: Integrated services and goods

The outputs or products of an economy can be divided into services products and goods products (due to manufacturing,construction,agriculture and mining).To date,the services and goods products have,for the most part,been separately mass produced.However,in contrast to the first and second industrial revolutions which respectively focused on the development and the mass production of goods,the next - or third - industrial revolution is focused on the integration of services and/or goods; it is beginning in this second decade of the 21st Century.The Third Industrial Revolution(TIR) is based on the confluence of three major technological enablers(i.e.,big data analytics,adaptive services and digital manufacturing);they underpin the integration or mass customization of services and/or goods.As detailed in an earlier paper,we regard mass customization as the simultaneous and real-time management of supply and demand chains,based on a taxonomy that can be defined in terms of its underpinning component and management foci.The benefits of real-time mass customization cannot be over-stated as goods and services become indistinguishable and are co-produced - as "servgoods" - in real-time,resulting in an overwhelming economic advantage to the industrialized countries where the consuming customers are at the same time the co-producing producers.     

Motivations of Chinese outward direct investment: The sector perspective

From the sector perspective of mining,manufacturing and services,the motivations of Chinese outward direct investment(further ODI)are discussed during the period from 2001 to 2012,acknowledging different host countries and firms’ownership structures.The estimated results justify that the location determinants of Chinese ODI differ between sectors,which implies the motivation behind such investment may vary.As expected,resource-seeking is the most important motivation for Chinese ODI in mining sector;market-and strategic asset-seeking motivations are possessed by both manufacturing and services sectors.The probability of the host country receiving Chinese FDI,as well as high FDI openness and frequent bilateral trade with China is favorable for doing business.Results also suggest that the factors increasing the probability of a country being chosen as a location for Chinese ODI vary between different host countries,as do different ownership structures.     

Interrelationships among noncooperative and coalition stability concepts

Insightful theorems are established on interrelationships among coalition and noncooperative stability concepts defined within the paradigm of the Graph Model for Conflict Resolution. More specifically, the newly defined coalition stability def＇mitions that are considered are coalition Nash stability （CNash）, coalition general metarationality （CGMR）, coalition symmetric metarationality （CSMR） and coalition sequential stability （CSEQ）, along with their earlier-defined noncooperative versions. A range of interesting new theorems are derived to establish connections among these coalition stability concepts as well as between noncooperative and coalition stability definitions. Applications with respect to the games of Prisoner＇s Dilemma and Chicken, as well as a groundwater contamination dispute, demonstrate how the various stability definitions can be applied in practice and confirm the validity of some of the theorems as well as point out, by example, certain types of relationships which cannot hold.     

IT APPLICATIONS PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT UNDER BUSINESS AND IMPLEMENTATION UNCERTAINTY

Corporations need to improve business processes in order to enhance velocity and service levels while reducing their processing costs and differentiating themselves in the face of competition. The levitation of importance beyond support roles has raised IT investment decisions to high priority in chief executive officers＇ agendas. Corporate planning groups as well as lines of business are increasingly applying techniques of IT applications portfolio management in a more systematic fashion to improve decision-making and resource-allocation processes.
Recent advances in software engineering and IT service delivery methodologies have achieved the logical separation of business functions from implementation. This separation has made a new breed of innovative IT project possible with a new project risk structure; the adjustment of portfolio management techniques is appropriate. We present an integrated portfolio management model so that the corporation can focus on organic growth through sources at both the department and top management levels. The research gives clear advice as to how top management can seek economic growth by selecting an entrepreneurial strategic posture, implying a strong risk-taking propensity. By integrating a risk-return model and risk-tolerance paradigm to cope with today＇s risk structure, overall capabilities can improve the decision process and the corporation＇s performance as well. The application of the integrated technique to a Japanese manufacturing firm is described.     

GOAL PROGRAMMING ALGORITHM FOR A TYPE OF LEAST ABSOLUTE VALUE REGRESSION PROBLEM

This paper develops goal programming algorithm to solve a type of least absolute value (LAV) problem. Firstly, we simplify the simplex algorithm by proving the existence of solutions of the problem. Then, we present a goal programming algorithm on the basis of the original techniques. Theoretical analysis and numerical results indicate that the new method contains a lower number of deviation variables and consumes less computational time as compared to current LAV methods.     

COMPLEX ECO-ECONOMY SYSTEM

In the past there were a lot of researches on the topic of economic growth. Nevertheless, the environment has been a bit abstracted by standard economics. Scarce natural resources and our choices to protect them or exploit them jointly determine the economic and environmental systems. In this paper we describe a model with a particular focus on the relationship among income, pollution, and non-renewable resources. We want to combine both economic and environmental sectors. The system dynamics approach is used in analyzing these complex relationships. This paper gives an insight into the possibilities for replacing non-renewable resources with more renewable ones. Next, we present the simulation runs of the model that are conducted with the help of existing system dynamics modeling tools. Only the relationships simulated so far between the variables ought to be put under yet more cautious examination.     

Coopetition Model： Evidence from Electric Power Market in the Southwest of China

To be a necessity for life issue as well as an important engine to country＇s economy, electricity has private and public goods properties simultaneously, leading it difficult to balance economic profit and social responsibility for a single state-owned cor- poration especially in large rural areas. In this paper, we suggest that occurrence of local company may provide us a new insight for this issue. Using objective programming model, we discuss different outcomes under competitive and cooperative situations. Our results suggest coopetitive relations among state company and local company would be a practical choice for achieving the economic profit and social duty simultaneously. Furthermore, tak- ing Sichuan province as a case, we investigate three types of coopetition relation between state company and local companies. Our findings suggest that coopetition strategy may lead to better solution to dealing with the conflicts between economic profit and social responsibility for both state-owned corporation and local electric power company.     

Business Environment and Resource Allocation Based on the Perspective of the National Value Chain

China is actively upgrading its industrial structure through industries transferring between developed and undeveloped areas; however, the overall level of the national value chain is still not high, and the asymmetric competition pattern between the upstream and the downstream has not been broken. Therefore, this paper establishes a competitive equilibrium model for the production of manufacturing enterprises, with factor price distortion, under the condition of constant returns to scale.The au...     

Integration of spatial attractions between and within pixels for sub-pixel mapping

As a promising technique to enhance the spatial resolution of remote sensing imagery,sub-pixel mapping is processed based on the spatial dependence theory with the assumption that the land cover is spatially dependent both within pixels and between them.The spatial attraction is used as a tool to describe the dependence.First,the spatial attractions between pixels,subpixel/pixel spatial attraction model (SPSAM),are described by the modified SPSAM (MSPSAM) that estimates the attractions according to the distribution of sub-pixels within neighboring pixels.Then a mixed spatial attraction model (MSAM) for sub-pixel mapping is proposed that integrates the spatial attractions both within pixels and between them.According to the expression of the MSAM maximumising the spatial attraction,the genetic algorithm is employed to search the optimum solution and generate the sub-pixel mapping results.Experiments show that compared with SPSAM,MSPSAM and pixel swapping algorithm modified by initialization from SPSAM (MPS),MSAM can provide higher accuracy and more rational sub-pixel mapping results.     

The impacts of pricing schemes on decentralized assembly systems

We study an assembly system where one assembler produces a final product to satisfy the price sensitive and uncertain demands. One unit of final product needs inputs from n complementary components each provided from a distinct supplier. The assembler orders from the suppliers and their relationships are governed by price-only contracts. The assembler practices two alternative pricing schemes： a fixed pricing scheme by which she fixes a retail price in all market situations, and a responsive pricing scheme by which she adjusts retail prices after observing actual demand curves. We find that, when the assembler practices the two pricing schemes, the suppliers charge the same wholesale prices, channel profit is allocated among the firms according to the same proportions, and the relative performances of the system under decentralized decision makings with respect to those under centralized decision makings are the same. Furthermore, responsive pricing improves the assembler＇s absolute performance, and the gains pass over to the suppliers in terms of higher profits and to the customers in terms of enhanced product availability and lowered market price.     

A game theoretical study of cooperative advertising with multiple retailers in a distribution channel

Extant studies of cooperative advertising mainly consider a single-manufacturer-single-retailer channel structure.This can provide limited insights,because a manufacturer,in real practices,usually deals with multiple retailers simultaneously.In order to examine the impact of the retailer’s multiplicity on channel members’ decisions and on total channel efficiencies,this paper develops a multiple-retailer model.In this model,the manufacturer and the retailers play a Stackelberg game to make the optimal advertising decisions.Based on the quantitative results,it is observed that:1) When there are multiple symmetric retailers,as the number of retailers scales up,the manufacturer’s national advertising investment contributes increasingly to add to channel members’ profits in equilibrium,but the total channel efficiency deteriorates quickly and converges down to a certain value;2) When there are multiple asymmetric retailers,the distribution channel suffers from the manufacturer’s uniform participation strategy due to the retailer’s free-riding,and benefits with the manufacturer’s retailer-specific participation strategy.This study derives equilibrium solutions in closed form for all games considered and measures explicitly the gains/losses of channel efficiencies under different game settings.     

Data-driven fault diagnosis method for analog circuits based on robust competitive agglomeration

The data-driven fault diagnosis methods can improve the reliability of analog circuits by using the data generated from it. The data have some characteristics, such as randomness and incompleteness, which lead to the diagnostic results being sensitive to the specific values and random noise. This paper presents a data-driven fault diagnosis method for analog circuits based on the robust competitive agglomeration (RCA), which can alleviate the incompleteness of the data by clustering with the competing process. And the robustness of the diagnostic results is enhanced by using the approach of robust statistics in RCA. A series of experiments are provided to demonstrate that RCA can classify the incomplete data with a high accuracy. The experimental results show that RCA is robust for the data needed to be classified as well as the parameters needed to be adjusted. The effectiveness of RCA in practical use is demonstrated by two analog circuits.