Application and Development Trend of Integrated Supply Chain in China

Importing integrated supply chains have changed Chinese logistic from simplex freight to the process of product of production、circulation and consumption of logistic system. Different modal of integrated supply chain apply in the different companies, bring activity and efficiency integrated supply chain in China. The trend of Chinese integrated supply chain in the future will stress on e-commerce and customer service, and combined Chinese own logistic system to enlarge Chinese logistic, which will more international and world wild.

Evaluating watershed service availability under future management and climate change scenarios in the Pangani Basin

Watershed services are the benefits people obtain from the flow of water through a watershed. While demand for such services is increasing in most parts of the world, supply is getting more insecure due to human impacts on ecosystems such as climate or land use change. Population and water management authorities therefore require information on the potential availability of watershed services in the future and the trade-offs involved. In this study, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is used to model watershed service availability for future management and climate change scenarios in the East African Pangani Basin. In order to quantify actual “benefits”, SWAT2005 was slightly modified, calibrated and configured at the required spatial and temporal resolution so that simulated water resources and processes could be characterized based on their valuation by stakeholders and their accessibility. The calibrated model was then used to evaluate three management and three climate scenarios. The results show that by the year 2025, not primarily the physical availability of water, but access to water resources and efficiency of use represent the greatest challenges. Water to cover basic human needs is available at least 95% of time but must be made accessible to the population through investments in distribution infrastructure. Concerning the trade-off between agricultural use and hydropower production, there is virtually no potential for an increase in hydropower even if it is given priority. Agriculture will necessarily expand spatially as a result of population growth, and can even benefit from higher irrigation water availability per area unit, given improved irrigation efficiency and enforced regulation to ensure equitable distribution of available water. The decline in services from natural terrestrial ecosystems (e.g. charcoal, food), due to the expansion of agriculture, increases the vulnerability of residents who depend on such services mostly in times of drought. The expected impacts of climate change may contribute to an increase or decrease in watershed service availability, but are only marginal and much lower than management impacts up to the year 2025.

Foreign Direct Investment in Agriculture: Land Grab or Food Security Improvement?

“Large-scale acquisition of land by foreign investors” is the correct term for a process where the verdict of guilt is often quicker than the examination. But is there something really new about land grab except in its extent? In comparison with colonial and post-colonial plantation operations, should foreign investors today behave differently? We generally accept coffee and banana exports as pro-growth and pro-development, just as for cars, beef and insurance. What then is wrong with an investment contract allowing the holder to buy a farm and to export wheat to Saudi Arabia, or soybeans and maize as cattle feed to Korea, or to plant and process sugar cane and palm oil into ethanol for Europe and China? Assuming their land acquisition was legal, should foreigners respect more than investment contracts and national legislation? And why would they not take advantage of the legal protection offered by international investment law and treaties, not to speak of concessional finance, infrastructure and technical cooperation by a development bank, or the tax holidays offered by the host state? Remember Milton Friedman’s often-quoted quip: “The business of business is business!” And why would the governments signing those contracts not know whether and which foreign investment projects are best for their country, and how to attract them? This chapter tries to show that land grab, where it occurs, is not only yet another symptom of regulatory failures at the national level and a lack of corporate social responsibility by certain private actors. National governance is clearly the most important factor. Nonetheless, I submit that there is an international dimension involving investor home states in various capacities. The implication is that land grab is not solely a question whether a particular investment contract is legal or not. This chapter deals with legal issues which seem to have largely escaped the attention of both human rights lawyers and, especially, of investment lawyers. I address this fragmentation between different legal disciplines, rules, and policies, by asking two basic questions: (i) Do governments and parliaments in investor home countries have any responsibility in respect of the behaviour of their investors abroad? (ii) What should they and international regulators do, if anything?

Service Brand Relationship Quality: Hot or Cold?

Customers’ long-term brand relations are crucial drivers of a service brand’s sustainable competitive advantage. This research empirically examines the quality of customer-service brand relationships in the context of an airline’s frequent flyer program. The authors show that service brand relationship quality (BRQ) involves both a hot (based on emotions) and a cold (based on objectrelevant beliefs) component. They find that these two components have different implications for a service brand’s performance and are at least partially driven by different antecedents whose relative importance changes over time. Specifically, cold BRQ is important for word-of-mouth behavior and is strongly driven by partner quality (i.e., the generalized assessment of the brand in its role as a relationship counterpart). Hot BRQ, on the other hand, has a stronger impact on willingness to pay a price premium and consideration set size. In early stages of a customer-brand relationship hot BRQ is more strongly driven by self-congruence (i.e., consumer’s perception of the fit between his/her self and the brand’s personality), in later stages partner quality becomes more relevant. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for the development of BRQ and the implementation of alternative growth strategies in a services context.

Quality in healthcare organizations: Its meaning and measurement

This dissertation explores two important aspects of quality in healthcare: its meaning and its measurement. For a better understanding of what quality means, the history of quality in the manufacturing and service industries is reviewed. Concepts that are similar are pointed out as are concepts that are different. The definition introduced by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) for quality in healthcare and the six IOM aims of safety, timeliness, patient-centeredness, effectiveness, efficiency, and equitableness for a high quality healthcare system are adopted. The current activities by various organizations that proclaim improvement in quality or measurement of quality as their goal are reviewed. This is followed by examining what is offered by these organizations in terms of how many of IOM aims they address.^ This dissertation ends by offering a quality measurement framework that satisfies all IOM aims. Operational aspects of the measurement framework are discussed. Future areas of research are also discussed.^

PROJECTION OF HEALTH DEMAND IN TERMS OF HOSPITAL ADMISSIONS FOR SELECTED DIAGNOSES IN HEALTH SYSTEMS AGENCY SERVICE AREAS

The National Health Planning and Resources Development Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-641) requires that health systems agencies (HSAs) plan for their health service areas by the use of existing data to the maximum extent practicable. Health planning is based on the identificaton of health needs; however, HSAs are, at present, identifying health needs in their service areas in some approximate terms. This lack of specificity has greatly reduced the effectiveness of health planning. The intent of this study is, therefore, to explore the feasibility of predicting community levels of hospitalized morbidity by diagnosis by the use of existing data so as to allow health planners to plan for the services associated with specific diagnoses.^ The specific objectives of this study are (a) to obtain by means of multiple regression analysis a prediction equation for hospital admission by diagnosis, i.e., select the variables that are related to demand for hospital admissions; (b) to examine how pertinent the variables selected are; and (c) to see if each equation obtained predicts well for health service areas.^ The existing data on hospital admissions by diagnosis are those collected from the National Hospital Discharge Surveys, and are available in a form aggregated to the nine census divisions. When the equations established with such data are applied to local health service areas for prediction, the application is subject to the criticism of the theory of ecological fallacy. Since HSAs have to rely on the availability of existing data, it is imperative to examine whether or not the theory of ecological fallacy holds true in this case.^ The results of the study show that the equations established are highly significant and the independent variables in the equations explain the variation in the demand for hospital admission well. The predictability of these equations is good when they are applied to areas at the same ecological level but become poor, predominantly due to ecological fallacy, when they are applied to health service areas.^ It is concluded that HSAs can not predict hospital admissions by diagnosis without primary data collection as discouraged by Public Law 93-641. ^

Firm dynamics in the Cambodian garment industry: firm turnover, productivity growth, and wage profile under trade liberalization

The international garment trade was liberalized in 2005 following the termination of the MFA (Multifibre Arrangement) and ever since then, price competition has intensified. Employing a unique firm dataset collected by the authors, this paper examines the changes in the performance of Cambodian garment firms between 2002/03 and 2008/09. During the period concerned, frequent firm turnover led to an improvement of the industry’s productivity, and the study found that the average total-factor productivity (TFP) of new entrants was substantially higher than that of exiting firms. Furthermore, we observed that thanks to productivity growth, an improvement in workers’ welfare, including a rise in the relative wages of the low-skilled, was taking place. These industrial dynamics differ considerably from those indicated by the “race to the bottom” argument as applied to labor-intensive industrialization in low income countries.

Mejora del comportamiento térmico de los morteros de cal aditivados y su empleo en la rehabilitación de inmuebles = Improvement of thermal behaviour of additived lime mortars and their use in rehabilitation of buildings

La envolvente de la edificación es la responsable de equilibrar el intercambio energético entre el interior y el exterior, por lo tanto cualquier actuación encaminada a la reducción del consumo energético ha de establecer, como uno de sus objetivos prioritarios, la mejora del comportamiento de la misma. Las edificaciones anteriores a 1940 constituyen la mayor parte de las existentes en áreas rurales y centros urbanos. En ellas, la repercusión de la fachada sobre las transmitancias globales pone de manifiesto la necesidad de intervención. Sin embargo, su elevada inercia térmica y los importantes saltos térmicos característicos de gran parte de España plantean la importancia de que aquélla se efectúe por el exterior. A tal respecto, la falta de disponibilidad de espesor suficiente para implantar sistemas tipo SATE deriva en que, frecuentemente, la única solución viable sea la de aislar por el interior perdiendo con ello la capacidad de acumulación térmica del muro y con el asociado riesgo de condensaciones. La amplia tradición en el empleo de revestimientos, especialmente en base de cal, permiten que éstos sean utilizados no sólo como elemento estético o de protección de la obra de fábrica antigua sino también para la mejora del comportamiento térmico del soporte, si se aprovecha el mecanismo de transmisión térmica por radiación. Éste es el objetivo de la presente Tesis Doctoral en la que se estudia la modificación de las propiedades radiantes de los morteros de revestimiento para la mejora de la eficiencia energética de las construcciones históricas, principalmente las constituidas por muros monolíticos, aunque podría ser de aplicación a otro tipo de construcciones compuestas por diversas capas. Como punto de partida, se estudió y revisó la documentación disponible sobre las investigaciones de las tres áreas científico-tecnológicas que convergen en la Tesis Doctoral: rehabilitación, material y comportamiento térmico, a partir de lo cual se comprobó la inexistencia de estudios similares al objeto de la presente Tesis Doctoral. Complementariamente, se analizaron los revestimientos en lo concerniente a los materiales que los constituyen, la composición de las mezclas y características de cada una de las capas así como al enfoque que, desde el punto de vista térmico, se estimaba más adecuado para la obtención de los objetivos propuestos. Basándonos en dichos análisis, se preseleccionaron ochenta materiales que fueron ensayados en términos de reflectancia y emisividad para elegir cuatro con los que se continuó la investigación. Éstos, junto con la cal elegida para la investigación y el árido marmóreo característico de la última capa de revestimiento, fueron caracterizados térmicamente, de forma pormenorizada, así como química y físicamente. Los fundamentos teóricos y los estudios preliminares desarrollados con distintos materiales, en estado fresco y endurecido, fueron empleados en la dosificación de componentes de las mezclas, en dos proporciones distintas, para el estudio del efecto del agregado. Éstas se ensayaron en estado fresco, para comprobar su adecuación de puesta en obra y prever su VI adherencia al soporte, así como en estado endurecido a 28 y 90 días de curado, para conocer las propiedades que permitieran prever su compatibilidad con aquél y estimar el alcance de la reducción de transferencias térmicas lograda. Además, se estudiaron las características generales de las mezclas que sirvieron para establecer correlaciones entre distintas propiedades y entender los resultados mecánicos, físicos (comportamiento frente al agua) y energéticos. Del estudio conjunto de las distintas propiedades analizadas se propusieron dos mezclas, una blanca y otra coloreada, cuyas características permiten garantizar la compatibilidad con la obra de fábrica antigua, desde el punto de vista físico y mecánico, y preservar la autenticidad de los revestimientos, en cuanto a la técnica de aplicación tradicional en sistemas multicapa. El comportamiento térmico de las mismas, sobre una obra de fábrica de 40 cm de espesor, se estimó, en estado estacionario y pseudo-transitorio, demostrándose reducciones del flujo térmico entre 16-48%, en condiciones de verano, y entre el 6-11%, en invierno, en función de la coloración y de la rugosidad de la superficie, en comparación con el empleo de la mezcla tradicional. Por lo que, se constata la viabilidad de los materiales compuestos propuestos y su adecuación al objetivo de la investigación. VII ABSTRACT The envelope is responsible for balancing the energy exchange between the inside and outside in buildings. For this reason, any action aimed at reducing energy consumption must establish, as one of its key priorities, its improvement. In rural areas and urban centers, most of the constructions were built before 1940. In them, the impact of the façade on the global transmittance highlights the need for intervention. However, its high thermal inertia and fluctuation of temperatures in the majority of Spain bring up that it should be placed outside the insulation. In this regard, the lack of availability of enough thickness to implement systems such as ETICS results in that often the only viable solution is to isolate the interior, losing thereby the wall’s heat storage capacity with the associated risk of condensation. The tradition in the use of renders, especially lime-based, allows us to use them not only as an aesthetic element or to protect the ancient masonry, but also for improved thermal performance of the support by taking advantage of the heat transfer mechanism by radiation. This is the aim of this Doctoral Thesis in which the modification of the radiative properties of lime mortars for renders to improve the energy efficiency of historic buildings, mainly composed of monolithic walls, is studied, although it could be applied to other structures composed of several layers. As a starting point, the available literature in the three scientific-technological areas that converge at the Doctoral Thesis: rehabilitation, material and thermal behaviour, was reviewed, and confirmed the absence of researches similar to this Doctoral Thesis. Additionally, the renders were studied with regard to the materials that constitute them, the composition of the mixtures and the characteristics of each layer, as well as to the approach which, from a thermal point of view, was deemed the most suitable for achieving the objectives sets. Based on thre aforementioned analysis, eighty materials tested in terms of reflectance and emissivity were pre-selected, to choose four with which the research was continued. Common marble sand, used in the last layer of the renders, together with the appointed materials and hydrated lime were characterized thermally, in detail, as well as chemically and physically. The theoretical bases and preliminary studies with different materials, in fresh and hardened state, were used in the dosage of the composition of the mixtures. In order to study their effect they were used in two different proportions, that is, ten mixtures in total. These were tested in their fresh state to evaluate their setting-up suitability and foresee their adhesion to the support, as well as in their hardened state, at 28 and 90 days of curing, to establish the properties which enabled us to anticipate their compatibility with the old masonry walls and estimate the scope of the reduction of heat transfers achieved. In addition, the general characteristics of the mixtures used to establish correlations and to understand the mechanical, physical and energy results were studied. Two mixtures, one white and one colored, were proposed as the result of the different properties analysed, whose characteristics allow the guarantee of mechanical and physical compatibility VIII with the old masonry and preserve the authenticity of the renders. The thermal behavior of both, applied on a masonry wall 40 cm thick, was estimated at a steady and pseudo-transient state, with heat flow reductions between 16-48% during summertime and 6-11% during wintertime, depending on the color and surface roughness, compared to the use of the traditional mixture. So, the viability of the proposed composite materials and their fitness to the aim of the research are established.

Service needs forecasting: an approach for the automotive industry using analogies with medical ER management models.

During the past years, the industry has shifted position and moved towards “the luxury universe” whose customers are demanding, treating individuals as unique and valued customer for the business, offering vehicles produced with the state of the art technologies and implementing the highest finishing standards. Due to the competitive level in the market, car makers enable processes which equalizes customer services to E.R. management, being dealt with the maximum urgency that allows the comparison between both, car workshops and emergency rooms, where workshop bays or ramps will be equal to emergency boxes and skilled technicians are equivalent to the health care specialist, who will carry out tests and checks prior to afford any final operation, keeping the “patient” under control before it is back to normal utilization. This paper establishes a valid model for the automotive industry to estimate customer service demand forecasting under variable demand conditions using analogies with patient demand models used for the medical ER.

SERVICE NEEDS FORECASTING: An Approach for the Motor Industry Using Analogies with Medical ER Management Models.

During the past years, the industry has shifted position and moved towards “the luxury universe” whose customers are demanding, treating individuals as unique and valued customer for the business, offering vehicles produced with the state of the art technologies and implementing the highest finishing standards. Due to the competitive level in the market, motor makers enable processes which equalizes customer services to E.R. management, being dealt with the maximum urgency that allows the comparison between both, car workshops and emergency rooms, where workshop bays or ramps will be equal to emergency boxes and skilled technicians are equivalent to the health care specialist, who will carry out tests and checks prior to afford any final operation, keeping the “patient” under control before it is back to normal utilization. This paper ratify a valid model for the automotive industry to estimate customer service demand forecasting under variable demand conditions using analogies with patient demand models used for the medical ER

Desarrollo de una metodología de integración paisajística de las autopistas

El presente trabajo se enmarca dentro del proyecto “Operación de Autopistas Seguras, Inteligentes y Sostenibles (OASIS)”, cuyo principal objetivo es definir la autopista del futuro, aquella que en su operación presentará niveles notablemente altas de seguridad, servicio al usuario y sostenibilidad. Para lograrlo, uno de los parámetros a tener en cuenta es la conservación y optimización del paisaje por el que discurren. Esta tesis desarrolla una metodología de valoración del paisaje de las autopistas, aplicando dicha metodología a diversos tramos de las autopistas gestionadas por empresas del proyecto (OHL Concesiones, Iridium y Abertis). El estudio se ha llevado a cabo en más de 2.000 km de autopistas, identificando los diferentes paisajes vistos desde la carretera y elaborando un catálogo de fotografías digitalizadas y georreferenciadas de los paisajes; desarrollando y aplicando una novedosa metodología de valoración de la calidad del paisaje; determinando las diferencias entre el paisaje percibido desde las autopistas por medio de fotografías y mediante la utilización de mapas representativos de paisaje; identificando los elementos de diseño paisajístico (puentes, estaciones de servicio, etc.) y estableciendo alternativas para su mejor adecuación paisajística; y estimando el impacto que provocan estas infraestructuras al observarse desde fuera. Es de esperar que las conclusiones extraídas de este proyecto permitan una mejor integración paisajística de las autopistas del futuro, convirtiéndose en instrumentos para mostrar paisajes de mayor calidad, y reduciendo el impacto como elementos modificadores del territorio. Summary This work is within the framework of the project "Operation of Safe, Intelligent and Sustainable Highways (OASIS)," whose main objective is to define the highway of the future, which in its operation will present significantly high levels of safety, customer service and sustainability. To achieve this, one of the parameters to consider is landscape conservation and improvement along highways. This thesis develops a methodology for assessing the landscape of highways, applying the model to different stretches of highway managed by project companies (OHL Concessions, Iridium and Abertis). The study was carried out in more than 2.000 km of highways, identifying the different landscapes seen from the road and developing a catalog of digitized and georeferenced photographs of landscapes; developing and applying a new methodology for assessing the quality of the landscape; determining the differences between the landscape seen from highways through photographs and use of landscape maps; identifying the landscape design elements (bridges, service area, etc.) and providing alternatives for better landscape; and integration estimating the impact that cause these infrastructures when viewed from outside. It is expected that the conclusions extract from this project allow to better landscape integrate of the future highways, become instruments to show higher quality landscapes, reducing the impact as modifiers´ elements of the territory.

A sharing-based approach to supporting adaptation in service compositions

Data-related properties of the activities involved in a service composition can be used to facilitate several design-time and run-time adaptation tasks, such as service evolution, distributed enactment, and instance-level adaptation. A number of these properties can be expressed using a notion of sharing. We present an approach for automated inference of data properties based on sharing analysis, which is able to handle service compositions with complex control structures, involving loops and sub-workflows. The properties inferred can include data dependencies, information content, domain-defined attributes, privacy or confidentiality levels, among others. The analysis produces characterizations of the data and the activities in the composition in terms of minimal and maximal sharing, which can then be used to verify compliance of potential adaptation actions, or as supporting information in their generation. This sharing analysis approach can be used both at design time and at run time. In the latter case, the results of analysis can be refined using the composition traces (execution logs) at the point of execution, in order to support run-time adaptation.

Influencia de un nuevo marco jurídico en la competitividad del sistema portuario español

El sistema portuario español movió en el año 2013 aproximadamente 458,54 millones de toneladas, 13,8 millones de TEUs, con un total de 131.128 buques que accedieron a puerto para el conjunto de las 28 Autoridades Portuarias. Con el 62% de las exportaciones y el 86% de las importaciones realizadas por vía marítima, una rentabilidad del 2,34 %, muy cerca del objetivo del 2,5 % de rentabilidad media annual establecida legalmente, y una cifra de negocios aproximada de 1.028 millones de euros equivalentes al 1,1 % del PIB que genera un empleo directo e indirecto vinculado de 145.000 personas, concluimos que estamos hablando de un sector estratégico para la economía del país. Desde hace décadas, en muchos puertos del mundo se han venido desarrollando terminales “hub” o de concentración y distribución de cargas. Las navieras concentran entre este tipo de terminales sus líneas transoceánicas con buques de enormes dimensiones y capacidad de carga para producir los tránsitos de contenedores desde estas líneas a otras líneas llamadas “feeder”, con buques de menor tamaño que enlazan el “hub” con los puertos de su área marítima de influencia. La excepcional ubicación geoestratégica de España, con aproximadamente ocho mil kilómetros de costa, ha originado que los puertos españoles de mayor dimensión aspiren a incorporarse a esta red marítima internacional de contenedores y determina que en nuestro sistema portuario los movimientos de contenedores de tránsito tengan gran importancia. Sin embargo, la crisis económica ha tenido un efecto decisivo en el sector marítimo, determinando una lucha feroz entre todos los puertos, nacionales e internacionales, por captar este tipo de tráficos, lo que origina una búsqueda de las compañías navieras de puertos cada vez más eficientes en términos calidad/coste del servicio. La entrada en vigor del Texto Refundido de la Ley de Puertos y la piedra angular de su reforma, la Ley 33/2010, plantea como objetivo principal la mejora de la competitividad del sistema portuario español y liderar su recuperación, ofreciendo unas condiciones de entorno favorables a los puertos españoles que acaben por incentivar la captación de tráficos e inversión privada a través de una oferta de servicios e infraestructura de calidad y a precios competitivos que consoliden su posición dentro del tráfico marítimo mundial. Surge, por tanto, la conveniencia de investigar la influencia de las medidas propuestas por dicha norma legal y las soluciones ofrecidas a las demandas de un sector considerado estratégico para la economía del país, y cuya resolución se considera imprescindible para consolidar su recuperación. Por eso, se han analizado los aspectos más importantes de la reforma mediante la realización de un resumen ejecutivo y se ha estudiado la influencia de las medidas que incorpora desde el punto de vista de tres factores, que previamente se han considerado como fundamentales para la recuperación del sistema portuario español, y que históricamente habían sido demandados por el mismo, como son, en primer lugar, un progresivo sistema de flexibilización tributaria que permitiera a los puertos españoles ganar en términos de competitividad respecto a otros modelos portuarios mucho más flexibles en materia tarifaria, en segundo lugar, una necesaria liberalización del régimen de prestación de los servicios portuarios que posibilite el libre acceso a cualquier interesado en su prestación y, en último lugar, el progresivo abaratamiento de los costes inherentes a dichos servicios, fundamentalmente la manipulación de mercancías. Con posterioridad se ha investigado el trámite parlamentario al que se ha sometido la ley, fruto del enorme consenso alcanzado entre las dos principales fuerzas políticas del país, que determinó que se presentaran más de 700 enmiendas al proyecto original, y en algunos casos, se ha prestado especial atención a determinadas enmiendas que se consideran, en opinión de este investigador, novedosas y aventuradas, razón por la cual quizás no fueron incorporadas definitivamente al texto legal. Y se han analizado las principales demandas y aportaciones extraídas de la Sesión Informativa sobre la tramitación del entonces proyecto de ley ofrecida por la Comisión de Fomento del Congreso de los Diputados a los principales representantes del sector, comunidad portuaria, universidad y sindicatos. Siendo conscientes de la incidencia que tiene el servicio portuario de manipulación de mercancías en el paso de la mercancía por el puerto, se ha hecho una referencia concreta al peculiar régimen jurídico y laboral del personal vinculado al servicio. Avanzamos que las características de la relación laboral especial, y su peculiar régimen jurídico, con una dualidad de relaciones laborales, tiene una influencia decisiva en la nómina del trabajador que se repercute en los usuarios del servicio, fundamentalmente el naviero y el operador de la terminal, que en definitiva, incide en la competitividad del puerto. Y se ha constatado el auge aperturista de numerosas legislaciones portuarias europeas, prestando especial atención al proyecto frustrado de liberalización de los servicios portuarios en la Unión Europea de la conocida como Directiva Loyola de Palacio del año 2003 y al Libro Blanco de Transportes del año 2011. Así como a las deficiencias advertidas por el Dictamen de la Comisión Europea de fecha 27/09/2012 en relación al régimen jurídico del servicio portuario de manipulación de mercancías, que lo considera disconforme y contrario con las normas de libertad de establecimiento en Europa y que amenaza con una previsible reforma unilateral de la legislación portuaria española, a instancias europeas. Bajo este planteamiento, se ha procedido a analizar el marco de prestación de dichos servicios desde el punto de vista de la propia comunidad portuaria. Inicialmente, a través de un estudio de fuerzas de la competitividad del sector de los servicios portuarios en el sistema portuario español que nos permitirá trazar un mapa estratégico del mismo a través del “Modelo de las Cinco Fuerzas de Porter” concluyendo, que el poder de los prestadores de servicios portuarios como proveedores de los mismos, fundamentalmente en la manipulación de mercancías, es máximo, con un único colectivo, los estibadores portuarios, que al amparo de la normativa legal vigente tienen la exclusividad de su prestación. Dichas circunstancias restan competitividad al sistema frente a alternativas portuarias más flexibles y desincentivan la inversión privada. Y, en segundo lugar, mediante un proceso participativo en distintas encuestas sobre el modelo legislativo y sobre el marco formativo del sector con los propios agentes afectados dentro de la comunidad portuaria, desde la triple perspectiva de la vertiente pública que representan las Autoridades Portuarias, como gestores de las infraestructuras, la vertiente privada que representan los usuarios y prestadores de servicios, como principal cliente del puerto y desde el punto de vista de la propia mano de obra portuaria materializada en la representación sindical de dichos trabajadores. Los resultados nos permitirán concluir, respectivamente, la incidencia del servicio portuario mercancía por el puerto, por representar más de la mitad de los costes. Así como la aspiración de los trabajadores adscritos a dicho servicio de consolidar un título formativo que unifique y potencie su capacitación profesional, circunstancia esta última, también demandada por toda comunidad portuaria. Analizadas las conclusiones extraídas en cada una de las líneas de investigación se han detectado una serie de ineficiencias dentro del mismo que dicho marco regulador no ha sabido resolver, por lo que se ha considerado la conveniencia de formular, como herramienta de ayuda a gestores del sistema portuario español, una relación de medidas que, en opinión de este investigador, se consideran necesarias para mejorar el régimen de prestación de los servicios portuarios y se ha propuesto un borrador de modificación del actual Texto Refundido que pueda servir de base para materializar una futura reforma legal. Las conclusiones obtenidas en la investigación deben sentar las bases de una profunda reflexión sobre la necesidad de encaminar, como alternativa a una previsible modificación a instancias europeas, una reforma legal que decididamente apueste por la competitividad del sistema portuario español desde el punto de vista de la liberalización de servicios, el abaratamiento de los costes de la estiba y la necesaria profesionalización de los trabajadores adscritos al servicio portuario de manipulación de mercancías. During 2013 the Spanish Port System moved nearly 458,54 million tons of freight, 13,8 million TEUs, involving a total of 131.128 ships for the 28 existing Port Authorities. With 62% of exports and 86% of imports made through sea transportation, a 2,34% profit, close to the 2,5% average annual profit goal legally established, revenues of 1.028 million € equivalent to a 1.1% of Spain’s GDP and a figure of 145.000 people a directly or indirectly employed we can conclude that maritime industry is undoubtedly one of the strategic and key sectors for the country’s economy. Since several decades many ports in the world have been increasingly developing “Hub” terminals, those which concentrate and distribute freight. Shipping companies place among these type of terminals their transoceanic sea liners along with huge dimension & capacity ships to make the container transit from these liners to other called “feeder” which are smaller freight ships that connect the “hub” with the ports within its maritime area of influence. Spain’s exceptional geostrategic location with over 8.000 km of coastline has originated that those big dimension Spanish ports aspire to become a part of a container international maritime network which also determines that transit container move is key within our port system. Nevertheless the economic crisis has had a decisive impact on the maritime sector originating a fierce battle between all ports, national and international ones, all of them fight against each other to catch this type of maritime traffic which triggers an ongoing shipping companies search in cost/service quality efficient ports. The cornerstone of the Restated Text of Port Law is Law 33/2010, which lays out as main goal the Spanish Port System competitiveness improvement and lead its recovery offering favorable environment conditions to Spanish ports which help encourage maritime traffic attraction and private investment through a wide offer of services, quality of infrastructure and competitive prices which can consolidate its positioning within the world’s maritime traffic. It is therefore key to investigate the influence of the measures proposed by the above mentioned law and also the solutions offered to the demands of a sector which is considered strategic for the country’s economy and which solution is essential to consolidate the recovery. It is because of this that the most important aspects of the reform have been analyzed through the making of an executive summary and it has also been studied the influence of the measures it includes from the point of view of three factors which have previously been considered as key for the Spanish port system recovery. The system has historically demanded a progressive tax flexibility, which would permit Spanish ports be more competitive compared to other port models much more flexible in rates, a necessary liberalization of the port service provision regime and last but not least, to cut the price of costs related to those services, mainly freight handling. Following this, the parliamentary process of the law has also been studied as a consequence of the vast consensus reached by the main political forces in the country which clearly determined that more than 700 amendments to the original project were presented. In some cases the focus has been on amendments which are adventurous and new, reason why they were finally not included to the final legal text. Being well aware of the importance that freight handling procedure has, I have made a specific reference to the legal and working framework of those employees related to this service. We conclude that the special working relationship, its different legal regime, along with the working relationship dualism has a big impact and decisive influence over the worker’s salary which also affects service users, mainly shipowners and terminal operators, having a bad effect on the port’s competitiveness. The above confirms the new opening trend of main European port laws with special attention to the frustrated European Union port services liberalization project, also known as Directive Loyola de Palacio (2003) and the White Paper on Transports (2011). It is important to highlight that the European Commission has also observed several deficiencies with regard to the freight handling port service Law Regime being in disagreement with it, considering it is against the free establishment rules in Europe. The Commission is likely to present a unilateral reform to the Spanish Port Law. Under this approach the service provision framework is being analyzed from the Port Community point of view. Initially the analysis will focus on the study of the competition forces within the port services industry in Spain, this will allow us to draw up an strategic map through “Porter’s Five Forces Model” concluding that the power of port services providers as freight handlers is maximum, with an only collective, stevedores, which has the exclusivity for their services. All these circumstances not only decrease the system’s competitiveness versus other more flexible but also restrain private investments. Secondly, through a participating procedure in different surveys about the legislative model and about the training framework with the affected agents within the port community, there is a triple perspective: Public point of view represented by Port Authorities as infrastructure managers, Private point of view represented by users and service suppliers as main Port’s customer and finally, port workforce, represented by union leaders. Results will let us conclude that freight handling service is the most critical port service and represents more than half of the costs. This service related workers aspire to obtain a training certificate that unifies and boosts their professional role which is also chased by the entire port community. Once conclusions have been analyzed for all research lines, several deficiencies have been found and the regulatory framework hasn’t yet been able to solve them, it has therefore been a series of necessary measures that help improve the port services provision regime. A new proposal to the Restated Law Text has been drafted as the first step to embrace a future legal reform. Conclusions obtained on the research should set the new basis of a deep reflection about the need to bent on a new legal reform which firmly bets on Spanish port system competitiveness from three key points of view, service liberalization, ship load cost reduction and professionalization of freight handling related workers.

Customer Relationship Management-PeopleSoft CRM

1 RESUMEN 1.1 Resumen (español) El intercambio y comercio tanto de bienes como servicios se remonta a tiempos inmemoriales dentro de la historia de la humanidad. Desde sus inicios tempranos con el intercambio o trueque de productos en el Neolítico hasta nuestra época híper globalizada, en la que existen clientes potenciales en el otro extremo del mundo, podemos decir que se ha recorrido un largo camino. Con el paso del tiempo y la evolución de la sociedad y la tecnología, así como la evolución empresarial, se ha visto necesario la implementación de estrategias para lograr la fidelización y satisfacción de los clientes. De esta forma entendimos que ya no valía simplemente con vender un producto a un cliente, si no que si queríamos establecer una relación continúa con el mismo, debíamos lograr su satisfacción y por tanto su fidelización. Como forma de extender la relación más allá de una simple venta, las empresas modernas empezaron a implementar diversas estrategias. De esta forma aparecieron los primeros centros de atención al cliente, las primeras aplicaciones hechas a medida para dar soporte a los clientes y por fin los sistemas CRM tal y como los concebimos hoy día. El presente proyecto fin de carrera da una explicación de dichos sistemas indicando cuáles son sus objetos fundamentales y cómo implementan la estrategia CRM y profundiza en uno de los sistemas CRM más utilizados: PeopleSoft CRM, dando una explicación detallada de dicho sistemas así como de los conceptos y lenguaje de programación de dicho sistema CRM. 1.2 SUMMARY (ENGLISH) The exchange and trade of goods as well and services goes back to ancient times in the history of mankind. Since its early beginning with the bartering of products in the Neolithic to our globalized hyper era, in which there are potential customers on the other side of the world, we can say that it has come a long way. After a certain length of time, the society and technology evolution, and also the enterprise development, has been necessary to implement strategies to achieve customer loyalty and satisfaction. We understood in this way that it no longer simply worth to sell a product to a customer, otherwise if we wanted to establish a relationship continues with the same, we should ensure their satisfaction and thus their loyalty. As a way to extend the relationship beyond a simple sale, modern enterprises began to implement several strategies. Therefore appeared the first customer service centers, the first applications tailored to support customers and finally the CRM systems as we know it today. This final project gives an explanation of such systems by indicating what the core objects are and how to implement the CRM strategy, deeping into one of the most widely used CRM systems: PeopleSoft CRM, and also giving a detailed explanation of this system and its programming language.

Estudio de los criterios de calidad, expectativas y satisfacción de los usuarios de las cartas de servicio de la Administración General del Estado aplicados al sector marítimo. Análisis de las necesidades de desarrollo de futuro

La aproximación de las organizaciones a la mejora de sus procesos ha venido por distintos caminos. Muchas Administraciones Públicas se acercaron a este universo a través del modelo EFQM de calidad y excelencia que surgió en la década de los 80 y que sirvió como referente en el ámbito de la Unión Europea como vía de autoevaluación y determinación de procesos de mejora continua. Está basado en la identificación de los puntos fuertes y débiles aplicados a diferentes ámbitos de la organización, siendo éstos el punto de partida para el proceso de mejora continua. Se trata de un modelo en el que puedes decir que estás en calidad aunque tu puntuación sea muy pequeña, por lo que, por imagen, muchas empresas públicas empezaron a implantarlo. La empresa privada sin embargo se decantó por los sistemas de calidad basados en normas ISO. En estos sistemas has de tener un nivel mínimo para poder exhibir una certificación o acreditación del sistema de calidad. La más extendida es la ISO 9001:2008 ya que es válida para todo tipo de empresa. Este sistema se centra en la satisfacción del cliente y está basada en gran medida en el PDCA, acrónimo de Plan, Do, Check, Act (Planificar, Hacer, Verificar y Actuar). Al tratarse de sistemas documentados, pasados los años se llega a la misma conclusión, aquellas empresas que simplemente tienen un certificado colgado en la pared y que arreglan los papeles antes de la auditoría no tienen nada que aporte valor añadido a la empresa y se autoengañan. La potencia de todo sistema de gestión de calidad reside en aprovechar el potencial de sus recursos humanos dirigiendo los recursos de la empresa de forma eficiente y haciendo participe de los objetivos de la organización a su personal para que se impliquen y sepan que se espera de cada uno. La formación de ingeniero siempre nos hace ser críticos con los modelos existentes y tratar de buscar caminos alternativos que sean más eficientes. Para ello es necesario tener un conocimiento muy preciso de la organización. Por ello, después de más de cinco años trabajando en la Organización, desempeñando diversos cometidos, analizando diferentes esferas de actuación y tras estudiar informes de diferentes organizaciones que supervisan el funcionamiento de la empresa me di cuenta que la Dirección General de la Marina Mercante podía cambiar de forma de actuar para modernizarse y ser más transparente, eficaz y eficiente. Esta tesis versa sobre la posibilidad de implantar un nuevo servicio en la Dirección General de la Marina Mercante que le permita mejorar su competitividad a nivel mundial, como estado de abanderamiento, y que, dentro de nuestras fronteras, haga que sus servicios se reorienten aprovechando el conocimiento de su personal, teniendo en cuenta las necesidades de sus usuarios y los recursos de la Organización. Las cartas de servicio permiten acercar al ciudadano al funcionamiento de la organización. Le informa de las condiciones en las que se presta el servicio, los compromisos de la empresa y la forma en la que puede participar para mejorarlos, entre otros. Por otra parte, la empresa no necesita previamente tener ningún sistema de calidad implantado, aunque, como veremos en el capítulo tres y cuatro siempre ayuda a la hora de tener sistemas de aseguramiento implantados. En el capítulo seis se detallan los objetivos que se lograrían con la implantación de las cartas de servicio en la DGMM y en el capítulo siete se discuten dichos resultados y conclusiones. ABSTRACT Different ways have been used by organizations to approach process improvement. Many Public Administrations chose quality and excellence EFQM model for that approachment. This quality program began in 80 decade and that it was the Europe Unión reference to continuous improvement autoevaluation and determination. It is based on strong and weak points of different organization fields, and they are considered as starting point for continuous improvement. This model allows enterprises to say that they are working on a quality scheme even though their score is very little, and this was why a lot of Public Administrations began using it. Nevertheless private enterprises chose quality management systems based on ISO standards. In these systems there is a threshold you must have to be able to have a certification or an accreditation of quality management system. ISO 9001:2008 is the standard most used because of it can be applied to a great range of enterprises. This system is focused on customer satisfaction and it is based on PDCA, Plan, Do, Check, Act. All these systems are documented ones, so once time goes by the same conclusion is reached: enterprises that have the certificate hung on the wall and that papers are fixed for audits have nothing that give them added value and they self-delusion. Quality management system power is related to the usage of human resources potential to lead enterprise resources efficiently and to make them participate in organization objectives. Naval architect training makes them to be critic with existing models and to try to find alternative ways to be more efficient. To achieve this goal, a precise knowledge of the organization is needed. That is the reason why, after five years in quality related issues in the Organization, in different chores, analyzing our scope and reports of organizations that supervise our operation, I realized that Merchant Marine Directorate could change the way of operation to modernize and be more transparent, efficient and effective. This thesis is about the possibility of implantation of a new service in Merchant Marine Directorate that will make it possible to improve their worldwide competitiveness as Flag State, and that to reorient all services taking into account citizens needs and Organization resources. Citizen’s charters able approachment to organization operation. It gives the following information: which are terms in which service is given, enterprise compromises, ways in which citizen can collaborate to improve them, and etc. Additionally, no quality management system is needed to be implemented. Although we’ll see in chapter three and four that having it is of great help. In chapter six are detailed goals achieved if citizen’s charters are implemented in Merchant Marine Directorate, and in chapter seven conclusions and results are discussed.