Alavancagem como instrumento de estratégia operacional: o caso da obra de construção da nova sede da Assembléia Legislativa do Estado do Maranhão

Devido à grande competitividade do mercado atual, estão em vantagem competitiva aquelas empresas que conhecem profundamente seus resultados financeiros, para que a partir deste conhecimento seus gestores possam tomar decisões visando a maximização do lucro. Dentro deste pensamento, esta pesquisa trata da alavancagem como instrumento de estratégia operacional, para isso apresenta o estudo de caso de uma obra de construção civil, setor este cuja mão-de-obra é um significante insumo, cujos funcionários de produção trabalham horas extras, aumentando o lucro da empresa. O objetivo do presente trabalho é demonstrar como a alavancagem operacional pode ser utilizada como instrumento de estratégia operacional neste contexto. Quanto aos fins se trata de uma pesquisa descritiva e aplicada; quanto aos meios é bibliográfica, documental e de campo. Foi realizada na obra de construção da nova sede da Assembléia Legislativa do Estado do Maranhão que está sendo executada pela empresa Petra Construções Ltda na cidade de São Luís.

Cost-volume ratios in the motor-vehicle industry; final assembly

Information Paper, No 19

Schedule, cost, and profit control with PERT : a comprehensive guide for program management,.

Bibliography: p. 203-206.

Sähkökaupan asiakassegmenttien riskikorjattu kannattavuus

Työn tavoitteena oli luoda laskentamalli sähkökaupan asiakassegmenttien riskikorjatun kannattavuuden selvittämiseksi. Lisäksi tavoitteena oli löytää tekijät, jotka aiheuttavat hyvän ja huonon kannattavuuden esiintymisen. Työssä selvitettiin sähkökaupan kustannusten ja riskien taustatekijät. Lisäksi työssä laadittiin menetelmät kustannusten laskemiselle ja kohdistamiselle sekä riskien määrittämiselle. Asiakkaat segmentoitiin kustannuksiin sekä riskeihin vaikuttavien tekijöiden mukaan. Kannattavuuslaskennan perustana käytettiin katetuottoajattelua ja asiakkaan sähkönhankintakustannus määritettiin markkinaehtoisesti siten, että sähkönkäytölle laskettiin tarkasteluhetken markkina-arvo. Kustannusten jakamisessa noudatettiin aiheuttamisperiaatetta ja riskit laskettiin historialliseen simulaatioon perustuen. Laskentamallilla saatujen tulosten perusteella puolet segmenteistä ja 83 % asiakkaista oli kannattavia. Kannattavuuteen vaikuttivat eniten sopimuksen pysyvyys ja hinnoittelutapa sekä erityisesti annetut alennukset ja tuote eli tariffi. Lisäksi havaittiin, että nykyinen asiakastietojärjestelmä ei tue riittävästi asiakaskannattavuuksien selvittämistä uusiutuneilla sähkömarkkinoilla.

The implications of cost behaviour for profit planning and control

The work described in the following pages was carried out at various sites in the Rod Division of the Delta Metal Company. Extensive variation in the level of activity in the industry during the years 1974 to I975 had led to certain inadequacies being observed 1n the traditional cost control procedure. In an attempt to remedy this situation it was suggested that a method be found of constructing a system to improve the flexibility of cost control procedures. The work involved an assimilation of the industrial and financial environment via pilot studies which would later prove invaluable to home in on the really interesting and important areas. Weaknesses in the current systems which came to light made the methodology of data collection and the improvement of cost control and profit planning procedures easier to adopt. Because of the requirements of the project to investigate the implications of Cost behaviour for profit planning and control, the next stage of the research work was to utilise the on-site experience to examine at a detailed level the nature of cost behaviour. The analysis of factory costs then showed that certain costs, which were the most significant exhibited a stable relationship with respect to some known variable, usually a specific measure of Output. These costs were then formulated in a cost model, to establish accurate standards in a complex industrial setting in order to provide a meaningful comparison against which to judge actual performance. The necessity of a cost model was •reinforced by the fact that the cost behaviour found to exist was, in the main, a step function, and this complex cost behaviour, the traditional cost and profit planning procedures could not possibly incorporate. Already implemented from this work is the establishment of the post of information officer to co-ordinate data collection and information provision.

Item-level life-cycle model for maintenance network – from cost to additional value

The importance of industrial maintenance has been emphasized during the last decades; it is no longer a mere cost item, but one of the mainstays of business. Market conditions have worsened lately, investments in production assets have decreased, and at the same time competition has changed from taking place between companies to competition between networks. Companies have focused on their core functions and outsourced support services, like maintenance, above all to decrease costs. This new phenomenon has led to increasing formation of business networks. As a result, a growing need for new kinds of tools for managing these networks effectively has arisen. Maintenance costs are usually a notable part of the life-cycle costs of an item, and it is important to be able to plan the future maintenance operations for the strategic period of the company or for the whole life-cycle period of the item. This thesis introduces an itemlevel life-cycle model (LCM) for industrial maintenance networks. The term item is used as a common definition for a part, a component, a piece of equipment etc. The constructed LCM is a working tool for a maintenance network (consisting of customer companies that buy maintenance services and various supplier companies). Each network member is able to input their own cost and profit data related to the maintenance services of one item. As a result, the model calculates the net present values of maintenance costs and profits and presents them from the points of view of all the network members. The thesis indicates that previous LCMs for calculating maintenance costs have often been very case-specific, suitable only for the item in question, and they have also been constructed for the needs of a single company, without the network perspective. The developed LCM is a proper tool for the decision making of maintenance services in the network environment; it enables analysing the past and making scenarios for the future, and offers choices between alternative maintenance operations. The LCM is also suitable for small companies in building active networks to offer outsourcing services for large companies. The research introduces also a five-step constructing process for designing a life-cycle costing model in the network environment. This five-step designing process defines model components and structure throughout the iteration and exploitation of user feedback. The same method can be followed to develop other models. The thesis contributes to the literature of value and value elements of maintenance services. It examines the value of maintenance services from the perspective of different maintenance network members and presents established value element lists for the customer and the service provider. These value element lists enable making value visible in the maintenance operations of a networked business. The LCM added with value thinking promotes the notion of maintenance from a “cost maker” towards a “value creator”.

Custeio direto: elemento de apoio na tomada de decisão

Apresenta o método do custeio direto ou variável e sua utilização no planejamento estratégico e controle gerencial como elemento de apoio na tomada de decisão empresarial. A dissertação tem como objetivo apresentar um método called.direct custeio e sua utilização para a tomada de decisão dos Entreprises a dissertação abrange cinco tópicos.

A criação de valor no mercado da saúde enquanto fator diferenciador para a negociação de preços e competitividade em contexto de crise mundial

Numa altura em que o setor da saúde é apontado como uma área crítica de gastos, nunca foi tão pertinente, pela falta de verbas, refletir e discutir o formato de contratação e de gestão dos cuidados de saúde. A sua fundamentação em custo, volume ou diferenciação, bem como, os indicadores que refletem o investimento, a eficiência e eficácia dos cuidados. Pretendeu-se como objetivo principal estudar a criação de valor no mercado da saúde enquanto fator diferenciador para a negociação de preços e competitividade em contexto de crise económica. Com vista a alcançar este objetivo, procedeu-se à revisão dos modelos teóricos, recorrendo a pesquisa bibliográfica. Procedeu-se também à comparação dos resultados operacionais de uma empresa enquanto prestadora de serviços de oxigenoterapia ao domicílio, tendo por base duas estratégias diferentes: redução direta de preços ou manutenção de preços com criação de valor para o cliente. Tendo em vista as duas estratégias, foram elaboradas duas propostas e posteriormente apresentadas para avaliação e votação on-line por um grupo oito gestores hospitalares. O valor em cuidados de saúde é visível nos benefícios clínicos alcançados pelo dinheiro investido. A estrutura dos atuais sistemas de saúde apenas reconhece redução de gastos, fontes de receita, volume de cuidados, sem orientação para a valorização dos resultados clínicos. Os prestadores deviam competir pela focalização na obtenção de melhores resultados clínicos, pois deve ser a essa a preocupação central dos serviços médicos. Uma boa gestão pode levar a que numa negociação de contratos, uma proposta baseada em valor possa garantir a manutenção dos preços.

Sähköä ja lämpöä tuottavien voimalaitosten kannattavuusanalyysin kehittäminen

Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli laskea voimalaitoskannattavuudet vuosilta 2007–2009 kohdeyrityksen biovoimalaitokselle sekä kombivoimalaitokselle. Lisäksi laskettiin kohdeyrityksen uuden hyötyvoimalaitoksen käyttöönottovuoden 2009 kannattavuus sekä odotetun käyttöasteen kannattavuus. Tavoitteena oli muodostaa tuotantolaitoskohtaiset tuotekannattavuudet vuodelta 2009 Kotkan Energia Oy:ssä sekä muodostaa kirjatut jakoperusteet kannattavuuksien laskentaa varten ja analysoida saatuja kannattavuuksia. Tutkimusmetodologiana on käytetty soveltavaa tutkimusotetta. Kannattavuusanalyysin kehittäminen vaatii yrityksen kustannusten, tuottojen ja toiminnan sekä toimialan luonteen ymmärtämistä. Haasteena tutkimuksessa oli sähkön, lämmön ja höyryn valmistuksen periaatteiden omaksuminen, joka on kustannusten ja tuottojen oikean kohdistamisen perusta. Tutkimuksen tuloksena todettiin, että kombivoimalaitos on tuotantolaitoksista kannattamattomin. Kohdeyrityksen kannattavuutta voitaisiin parantaa investoimalla kombivoimalaitoksen tilalle halvempaa polttoainetta käyttävä tuotantolaitos. Tuotteista kannattavimmaksi todettiin kaukolämpö. Tutkimuksen tuloksina saatuja kannattavuuksia voidaan hyödyntää Kotkan Energian päätöksenteossa ja niitä hyödyntämällä pystytään kohdeyritykselle laskemaan nopeasti tarpeellisia tulevaisuudenskenaarioita. Kannattavuuslaskelmien tuloksien analyysin jatkoksi pohdittiin Kotkan Energialle jatkotutkimusehdotelmia.

Technical and economic analysis of irrigation of asparagus bean in protected environment

This experiment was conducted in Lavras - state of Minas Gerais (MG), Brazil, in a protected environment, and aims to estimate the irrigation depths that maximize productivity and economic returns in the cultivation of asparagus bean and analyze the economic viability of irrigation management. The experimental delineation was randomized blocks with five treatments and four replications. The treatments consisted of five drip irrigation depths: 40, 70, 100, 130 and 160% of water replacement depth up to field capacity. The depths of water that maximize productivity and economic returns were obtained from the regression model adjusted to productivity data, cost of product relations and water cost. The economic viability was achieved on the benefit/cost ratio basis. The depth with the maximum economic return was estimated in 434.4mm, with a productivity of 35,160.6kg ha-1, which is economically viable for the cultivation of asparagus bean, with a expected profitability of R$ 1.70 for every real invested.

Plantas de cobertura, fontes de nitrogênio e fornecimento de molibdênio no cultivo de arroz de terras altas em sistema de plantio direto

Pós-graduação em Agronomia - FEIS

Análise da sustentabilidade econômica e social na produção extensiva de ostras em uma região subtropical

Pós-graduação em Aquicultura - FCAV

Referee Assignment Problem Case: Italian Volleyball Championships

This thesis addresses the formulation of a referee assignment problem for the Italian Volleyball Serie A Championships. The problem has particular constraints such as a referee must be assigned to different teams in a given period of times, and the minimal/maximal level of workload for each referee is obtained by considering cost and profit in the objective function. The problem has been solved through an exact method by using an integer linear programming formulation and a clique based decomposition for improving the computing time. Extensive computational experiments on real-world instances have been performed to determine the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

A novel monetary incentive for commercial P2P streaming

Today P2P faces two important challenges: design of mechanisms to encourage users’ collaboration in multimedia live streaming services; design of reliable algorithms with QoS provision, to encourage multimedia providers employ the P2P topology in commercial streaming services. We believe that these two challenges are tightly-related and there is much to be done with respect. This paper proposes a novel monetary incentive for P2P multimedia streaming. The incentive model classifies the users in groups according to the perceived video quality. We apply the model to a streaming system’s billing model in order to evaluate its feasibility and visualize its quantitative effect on the users’ motivation and the provider’s profit. We conclude that monetary incentive can boost up users’ cooperation, loyalty and enhance the overall system integrity and performance. Moreover the model defines the constraints for the provider’s cost and profit when the system is leveraged on the cloud. Considering those constraints, a multimedia content provider can adapt the billing model of his streaming service and achieve desirable discount-profit trade-off. This will moreover contribute to better promotion of the service, across the users on the Internet.

Developing foreign bank efficiency models for DEA grounded in finance theory

We develop foreign bank technical, cost and profit efficiency models for particular application with data envelopment analysis (DEA). Key motivations for the paper are (a) the often-observed practice of choosing inputs and outputs where the selection process is poorly explained and linkages to theory are unclear, and (b) foreign bank productivity analysis, which has been neglected in DEA banking literature. The main aim is to demonstrate a process grounded in finance and banking theories for developing bank efficiency models, which can bring comparability and direction to empirical productivity studies. We expect this paper to foster empirical bank productivity studies.