Operations research/management science tools for integrating people with disabilities into employment. A study on Valencia`s Sheltered Work Centres for Disabled

People with disabilities have a right to a full life in every sense and one of those fundamental rights is the possibility to work. In this paper, the importance of social employment integration of disabled people is highlighted as one of the stakeholders to be satisfied by companies in the new framework that corporate social responsibility is constructing. The objective of the paper is to revise the benefits of some well-known operations research/management science tools that, if applied correctly, have a double positive impact on work accessibility and improved productivity. The responses collected from managers of Valencia`s ShelteredWork Centres for Disabled by means of a structured questionnaire are used to analyse the level of implementation of these tools and their impact depending on the type of centre, the kind of disability and other structural variables.

Simulation of Sawmill Yard Operations Using Software Agents

Bergkvist insjön AB is a sawmill yard which is capable of producing 350,000 cubic meter of timber every year this requires lot of internal resources. Sawmill operations can be classified as unloading, sorting, storage and production of timber. In the company we have trucks arriving at random they have to be unloaded and sent back at the earliest to avoid queuing up of trucks creating a problem for truck owners. The sawmill yard has to operate with two log stackers that does several tasks including transporting the logs from trucks to measurement station where the logs will be sorted into classes and dropped into pockets from pockets to the sorted timber yard where they are stored and finally from there to sawmill for final processing. The main issue that needs to be answered here is the lining up trucks that are waiting to be unload, creating a problem for both sawmill as well as the truck owners and given huge production volume, it is certain that handling of resources is top priority. A key challenge in handling of resources would be unloading of trucks and finding a way to optimize internal resources.To address this problem i have experimented on different ways of using internal resources, i have designed different cases, in case 1 we have both the log stackers working on sawmill and measurement station. The main objective of having this case is to make sawmill and measurement station to work all the time. Then in case 2, i have divided the work between both the log stackers, one log stacker will be working on sawmill and pocket_control and second log stacker will be working on measurement station and truck. Then in case 3 we have only one log stacker working on all the agents, this case was designed to reduce cost of production, as the experiment cannot be done in real-time due to operational cost, for this purpose simulation is used, preliminary investigation into simulation results suggested that case 2 is the best option has it reduced waiting time of trucks considerably when compared with other cases and it showed 50% increase in optimizing internal resources.

Towards an epistemological theory of historical consciousness

This paper presents a theoretical analysis of the concept of historical consciousness. It argues that a focus on the epistemological problems of the concept can be a way of constructing a theory of the concept that both incorporates the diverse perspectives that exist in research about the concept and specifies how a historical consciousness can be developed in an individual.

Multi-agent simulation of sawmill yard operations

This paper reports the findings of using multi-agent based simulation model to evaluate the sawmill yard operations within a large privately owned sawmill in Sweden, Bergkvist Insjön AB in the current case. Conventional working routines within sawmill yard threaten the overall efficiency and thereby limit the profit margin of sawmill. Deploying dynamic work routines within the sawmill yard is not readily feasible in real time, so discrete event simulation model has been investigated to be able to report optimal work order depending on the situations. Preliminary investigations indicate that the results achieved by simulation model are promising. It is expected that the results achieved in the current case will support Bergkvist-Insjön AB in making optimal decisions by deploying efficient work order in sawmill yard.

Managing Dual Enrollment Programs: Review of Program Models, Operations, and Outcomes

Universities that offer dual enrollment programs for high school students must manage increasing student demand in the face of changing state legislation. This brief examines how institutions finance their dual enrollment programs, and how they ensure academic rigor as their programs continue to grow. The report also considers how dual enrollment programs ensure that students can transfer credits, and what strategies they use to encourage DE students to matriculate as undergraduates.

Developing a Credit for Prior Learning Program: System-Wide Strategies for Program Creation, Operations, and Recruitment

Credit for prior learning programs help students complete degrees more quickly and for less money. This report addresses the challenges of scaling up a credit for prior learning program at the university system level, and explores the delineation of responsibilities between system staff and institutional staff.

As operações mentais e a aprendizagem da física teórica

O ensino dos Princípios de Física nas escolas de Ensino de Primeiro Grau oficial tem se mostrado ineficaz no que diz respeito ao preparo do aluno para compreender a Física do 2º grau, dificultando a integração do indivíduo na sociedade tecnológica contemporânea, quer no acesso a um mercado de trabalho de mão-de-obra especializada, como técnico, quer como candidato ao ensino de 3º grau. Os princípios da Ciência Contemporânea podem e devem ser mobilizados para a solução de problemas. A compreensão da Física contemporânea no nível de abstração em que se encontra, requer do indivíduo um pensamento favorito por estruturas que possibilitem operações abstratas. A Epistemologia Genética de Jean Piaget mostra que a explicação do mundo físico pelo indivíduo data dos primeiros contatos com a realidade. A estratutação dessa realidade vai-se tornando cada vez mais complexa de acordo com as possibilidades de raciocínio que o indivíduo possua para interpretá-la. O raciocínio é o resultado das operações realizadas pelo indivíduo, possibilitadas por estraturas mentais subjacentes. Essas estruturas se desenvolvem à medida que o indivíduo interage com o meio, permitindo de início uma interação sensório-motora, que, aos poucos, vai se operacionalizando até dominar o pensamento concreto, podendo então passar a realizar operações sobre operações que são chamadas de operações formais ou abstratas. Estas acontecem a partir da adolescência. Os princípios da Física lecionados nas escolas de Ensino de Primeiro Grau requerem para a sua compreensão, além do domínio do pensamento concreto, o pensamento formal. Realizou-se uma pesquisa com alunos de 7ª e 8ª séries do Ensino de Primeiro Grau e alunos da 2ª série do curso de formação de professores; verificou-se que esses sujeitos não haviam dominado as operações concretas nem tinham ainda atingido o início do pensamento formal. Consequentemente, a aprendizagem dos principios de Física que lhes são ministrados acha-se seriamente comprometido, fazendo-se necessária uma mudança de atitude do professor frente aos alunos, a fim de desenvolver o seu raciocfnio propiciando uma aprendizagem efetiva.

Gestão de defesa: o sistema de inovação no segmento de não-guerra

Com o fim da Guerra Fria e os acontecimentos que marcaram o “onze de setembro”, novas ameaças surgiram, impactando negativamente a percepção de segurança coletiva, e impondo profundas modificações nas estruturas e no modo de atuação do Poder Militar de diversas nações. A marginalidade social, o narcotráfico, o crime organizado, a degradação do meio ambiente e outras tantas ameaças, fizeram com que algumas nações se vissem motivadas a empregar suas Forças Armadas, prioritariamente, no combate a estas mazelas, ou seja, nas operações de não-guerra. Este fenômeno vem causando uma ebulição nas ciências militares, com reflexo no campo social, político e econômico, provocando um processo conhecido como “Transformação da Defesa”, que só é viável com a ruptura de alguns modelos tradicionais de administração e com a introdução de uma nova cultura organizacional que promova um ambi-ente adequado ao processo de inovações no setor de Defesa. Para fazer gestão deste processo, deve haver um sistema de inovação setorial de Defesa, já que o atual modelo, conforme apon-tou a investigação, é fragmentado e desarticulado, que produz, fundamentalmente, inovações incrementais e, raramente as de ruptura. Trata-se de um sistema virtual, que não existe for-malmente como tal, mas que possui toda a infraestrutura necessária para funcionar como um sistema formal e gerenciável. A pesquisa, de caráter epistemológico estruturalista, teve por objetivo desenvolver um modelo conceitual para gestão do sistema de inovação do setor de Defesa (segmento de não-guerra), com base em uma estrutura subjacente desvelada, que, de forma oculta, dá suporte ao sistema atual. O desvelamento desta estrutura permitiu concluir que, no campo estudado, os agentes do sistema de inovação, agindo de acordo com seus inte-resses, mobilizam, de forma consciente ou inconsciente, os fatores valorativos da inovação presentes na cultura organizacional em que estão imersos, os quais, juntamente com a influên-cia dos fatores de suporte (o Capital), são fundamentais para a formação de alianças e, em consequência, para o processo de inovação no segmento de não-guerra do setor de Defesa. Como era esperado, o desvelamento da estrutura subjacente propiciou a realização de um di-agnóstico preciso do sistema estudado, permitindo ao pesquisador o lançamento de um olhar crítico sobre o mesmo, o que contribui para a proposição de uma intervenção segura no modelo vigente. O modelo proposto buscou incentivar, também, a criação, o avanço e a difusão das inovações não-tecnológicas, contrapondo-se ao atual, que privilegia fundamentalmente a abordagem tecnológica. Adicionalmente, foram sugeridas algumas medidas, no sentido de incrementar as interações entre os principais agentes do sistema.

Operations strategy in perspective: the means for achieving superior performance

Manufacturing strategy has been widely studied and it is increasingly gaining attention. It has a fundamental role that is to translate the business strategy to the operations by developing the capabilities that are needed by the company in order to accomplish the desired performance. More precisely, manufacturing strategy comprises the decisions that managers take during a certain period of time in order to achieve a desire result. These decisions are related to which operational practices and resources are implemented. Our goal was to identify the relationship between these two decisions with operational performance. We based our arguments on the resource-based view for identifying sources of competitive advantage. Hence, we argued that operational practices and resources affect positively the operational performances. Additionally, we proposed that in the presence of some resources the implementation of operational practices would lead to a greater performance. We used previous scales for measuring operational practices and performance, and developed new constructs for resources. The data used is part of the High Performance Manufacturing project and the sample is composed by 291 plants. Through confirmatory factor analysis and multiple regressions we found that operational practices to a certain extant are positively related to operational performance. More specifically, the results show that JIT and customer orientation practices have a positive relationship with quality, delivery, flexibility, and cost performances. Moreover, we found that resources like technology and people explain a great variance of operational performance.

Arrecadação recorrente, ciclo econômico e on-off operations

Instituto Brasileiro de Economia

Cultural strategies: how do national cultures impact the operations strategy?

Through the assessment of the fourth round of the High Performance Manufacturing (HPM) project and the introduction of Hofstede’s Cultural Classification, the present work aims to deepen the comprehension of the impact of National Cultures on firms’ Operations Strategy. The ANOVA comparisons of four Operations Strategy elements in countries with different industrialization and development backgrounds (e.g. Germany, China, Brazil and South Korea) suggest that while Integrating Leadership and Implementation of Manufacturing Strategy are affected by the cultural levels of Power Distance, Individualism vs. Collectivism and Uncertainty Avoidance, the other two elements of Operations Strategy, Functional Integration and Formal Manufacturing Strategy, show effects of the degree of Individualism vs. Collectivism and Long-Term Orientation. The results of the study are expected to offer new perspectives on the planning and implementation of strategic and operations management for both practitioners and academics. More specifically, the analysis of cross-cultural influence over operations strategy may contribute to a better understanding of how cooperative behavior may lead firms to generate higher rents through the strengths and weaknesses of their relations, particularly in terms of global supply chains.

Structuring a startup's operations in an emerging market

The present work analyzes the establishment of a startup’s operations and the structuring all of the processes required to start up the business, launch the platform and keep it working. The thesis’ main focus can therefore be described as designing and structuring a startup’s operations in an emerging market before and during its global launch. Such business project aims to provide a successful case regarding the creation of a business and its launch into an emerging market, by illustrating a practical example on how to structure the business’ operations within a limited time frame. Moreover, this work will also perform a complete economic analysis of Brazil, thorough analyses of the industries the company is related to, as well as a competitive analysis of the market the venture operates in. Furthermore, an assessment of the venture’s business model and of its first six-month performance will also be included. The thesis’ ultimate goal lies in evaluating the company’s potential of success in the next few years, by highlighting its strengths and criticalities. On top of providing the company’s management with brilliant findings and forecasts about its own business, the present work will represent a reference and a practical roadmap for any entrepreneur willing to establish his operations in Brazil.