Total acquisition cost of overseas outsourcing/sourcing: A framework and a case study

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework of total acquisition cost of overseas outsourcing/sourcing in manufacturing industry. This framework contains categorized cost items that may occur during the overseas outsourcing/sourcing process. The framework was tested by a case study to establish both its feasibility and usability. Design/methodology/approach - First, interviews were carried out with practitioners who have the experience of overseas outsourcing/sourcing in order to obtain inputs from industry. The framework was then built up based on combined inputs from literature and from practitioners. Finally, the framework was tested by a case study in a multinational high-tech manufacturer to establish both its feasibility and usability. Findings - A practical barrier for implementing this framework is shortage of information. The predictability of the cost items in the framework varies. How to deal with the trade off between accuracy and applicability is a problem needed to be solved in the future research. Originality/value - There are always limitations to the generalizations that can be made from just one case. However, despite these limitations, this case study is believed to have shown the general requirement of modeling the uncertainty and dealing with the dilemma between accuracy and applicability in practice. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Stress on the ward: evidence of safety tipping points in hospitals

Do hospitals experience safety tipping points as utilization increases, and if so, what are the implications for hospital operations management? We argue that safety tipping points occur when managerial escalation policies are exhausted and workload variability buffers are depleted. Front-line clinical staff is forced to ration resources and, at the same time, becomes more error prone as a result of elevated stress hormone levels. We confirm the existence of safety tipping points for in-hospital mortality using the discharge records of 82,280 patients across six high-mortality-risk conditions from 256 clinical departments of 83 German hospitals. Focusing on survival during the first seven days following admission, we estimate a mortality tipping point at an occupancy level of 92.5%. Among the 17% of patients in our sample who experienced occupancy above the tipping point during the first seven days of their hospital stay, high occupancy accounted for one in seven deaths. The existence of a safety tipping point has important implications for hospital management. First, flexible capacity expansion is more cost-effective for safety improvement than rigid capacity, because it will only be used when occupancy reaches the tipping point. In the context of our sample, flexible staffing saves more than 40% of the cost of a fully staffed capacity expansion, while achieving the same reduction in mortality. Second, reducing the variability of demand by pooling capacity in hospital clusters can greatly increase safety in a hospital system, because it reduces the likelihood that a patient will experience occupancy levels beyond the tipping point. Pooling the capacity of nearby hospitals in our sample reduces the number of deaths due to high occupancy by 34%.

The rise heights of low-and high-Froude-number turbulent axisymmetric fountains

We present the results of an experimental investigation across a broad range of source Froude numbers, 0. 4 ≤ Fr 0 ≤ 45, into the dynamics, morphology and rise heights of Boussinesq turbulent axisymmetric fountains in quiescent uniform environments. Typically, these fountains are thought to rise to an initial height, z i, before settling back and fluctuating about a lesser (quasi-) steady height, z ss. Our measurements show that this is not always the case and the ratio of the fountain's initial rise height to steady rise height, λ = z i/z ss, varies widely, 0. 5 ≈ λ ≈ 2, across the range of Fr 0 investigated. As a result of near-ideal start-up conditions provided by the experimental set-up we were consistently able to form a vortex at the fountain's front. This enabled new insights into two features of the initial rise of turbulent fountains. Firstly, for 1. 0 ≈ Fr 0 ≈ 1. 7 the initial rise height is less than the steady rise height. Secondly, for Fr 0 ≈ 5. 5, the vortex formed at the fountain's front pinches off, separates from the main body and rises high above the fountain; there is thus a third rise height to consider, namely, the maximum vortex rise height, z v. From our observations we propose classifying turbulent axisymmetric fountains into five regimes (as opposed to the current three regimes) and present detailed descriptions of the flow in each. Finally, based on an analysis of the rise height fluctuations and the width of fountains in (quasi-) steady state we provide further insight into the physical cause of height fluctuations. © 2011 Cambridge University Press.

The high strain rate response of Ultra High Molecular-weight Polyethylene: From fibre to laminate

The effect of strain rate upon the uniaxial response of Ultra High Molecular-weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibres, yarns and laminates of lay-up [0/90]48 has been measured in both the 0/90 and ±45 configurations. The tensile strength of the matrix-dominated ±45 laminate is two orders of magnitude less than that of the fibre-dominated 0/90 laminate, and is more sensitive to strain rate. A piezoelectric force sensor device was developed to obtain the high strain rate data, and this achieved a rise time of less than 1 μs. It is found that the failure strength (and failure strain) of the yarn is almost insensitive to strain rate within the range (10 -1-103 s-1). At low strain rates (below 10 -1 s-1), creep of the yarn dominates and the failure strain increases with diminishing strain rate. The tensile strength of the dry yarn exceeds that of the laminate by about 20%. Tests on single fibres exceed the strength of the yarn by 20%. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Full cost accounting for the life cycle of coal.

Each stage in the life cycle of coal-extraction, transport, processing, and combustion-generates a waste stream and carries multiple hazards for health and the environment. These costs are external to the coal industry and are thus often considered "externalities." We estimate that the life cycle effects of coal and the waste stream generated are costing the U.S. public a third to over one-half of a trillion dollars annually. Many of these so-called externalities are, moreover, cumulative. Accounting for the damages conservatively doubles to triples the price of electricity from coal per kWh generated, making wind, solar, and other forms of nonfossil fuel power generation, along with investments in efficiency and electricity conservation methods, economically competitive. We focus on Appalachia, though coal is mined in other regions of the United States and is burned throughout the world.

Role of a high gain of the medium in superradiance generation and in observation of coherent effects in semiconductor lasers

A theoretical model of superradiant pulse generation in semiconductor laser structures is developed. It is shown that a high optical gain of the medium can overcome phase relaxation and results in a built-up superradiant state (macroscopic dipole) in an assembly of electron - hole pairs on a time scale much longer than the characteristic polarisation relaxation time T2. A criterion of the superradiance generation is the condition acmT2 > 1, where α is the gain coefficient and cm is the speed of light in the medium. The theoretical model describes both qualitatively and quantitatively the author's own experimental results.

A fracture criterion for the notch strength of high strength steels in the presence of hydrogen

High strength steels can suffer from a loss of ductility when exposed to hydrogen, and this may lead to sudden failure. The hydrogen is either accommodated in the lattice or is trapped at defects, such as dislocations, grain boundaries and carbides. The challenge is to identify the effect of hydrogen located at different sites upon the drop in tensile strength of a high strength steel. For this purpose, literature data on the failure stress of notched and un-notched steel bars are re-analysed; the bars were tested over a wide range of strain rates and hydrogen concentrations. The local stress state at failure has been determined by the finite element (FE) method, and the concentration of both lattice and trapped hydrogen is predicted using Oriani's theory along with the stress-driven diffusion equation. The experimental data are rationalised in terms of a postulated failure locus of peak maximum principal stress versus lattice hydrogen concentration. This failure locus is treated as a unique material property for the given steel and heat treatment condition. We conclude that the presence of lattice hydrogen increases the susceptibility to hydrogen embrittlement whereas trapped hydrogen has only a negligible effect. It is also found that the observed failure strength of hydrogen charged un-notched bars is less than the peak local stress within the notched geometries. Weakest link statistics are used to account for this stressed volume effect. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

High performance transistors based on the controlled growth of triisopropylsilylethynyl-pentacene crystals via non-isotropic solvent evaporation

Triisopropylsilylethynyl-pentacene (TIPS-PEN) has proven to be one of the most promising small molecules in the field of molecular electronics, due to its unique features in terms of stability, performance and ease of processing. Among a wide variety of well-established techniques for the deposition of TIPS-PEN, blade-metered methods have recently gained great interest towards the formation of uniform crystalline films over a large area. Following this rationale, we herein designed a versatile approach based on blade-coating, which overcomes the problem of anisotropic crystal formation by manipulating the solvent evaporation behaviour, in a way that brings about a preferential degree of crystal orientation. The applicability of this method was evaluated by fabricating field-effect transistors on glass as well as on silicon dioxide/silicon (SiO2/Si) substrates. Interestingly, in an attempt to improve the rheological and wetting behaviour of the liquid films on the SiO2/Si substrates, we introduced a polymeric interlayer of polystyrene (PS) or polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) which concurrently acts as passivation and crystallization assisting layer. In this case, the synergistic effects of the highly-ordered crystalline structure and the oxide surface modification were thoroughly investigated. The overall performance of the fabricated devices revealed excellent electrical characteristics, with high saturation mobilities up to 0.72 cm2 V-1 s-1 (on glass with polymeric dielectric), on/off current ratio >104 and low threshold voltage values (<-5 V). This journal is © the Partner Organisations 2014.