We study the effects of industrial robots on US labor markets. We show theoretically that robots may reduce employment and wages and that their local impacts can be estimated using variation in ...exposure to robots—defined from industry-level advances in robotics and local industry employment. We estimate robust negative effects of robots on employment and wages across commuting zones. We also show that areas most exposed to robots after 1990 do not exhibit any differential trends before then, and robots’ impact is distinct from other capital and technologies. One more robot per thousand workers reduces the employment-to-population ratio by 0.2 percentage points and wages by 0.42%.
To accurately assess pain and support broadly-based analgesic protocols to mitigate swine pain, it is imperative to develop and validate a species-specific pain scale. The objective of this study was ...to investigate the clinical validity and reliability of an acute pain scale (UPAPS) adapted for newborn piglets undergoing castration. Thirty-nine male piglets (five days of age, 1.62 ± 0.23 kg BW) served as their own control, were enrolled in the study and underwent castration in conjunction with an injectable analgesic administered one-hour post-castration (flunixin meglumine 2.2 mg/kg IM). An additional 10, non-painful female piglets were included to account for the effect of natural behavioral variation by day on pain scale results. Behavior of each piglet was video recorded continuously at four recording periods (24 h pre-castration, 15 min post-castration, 3 and 24 h post-castration). Pre- and post-operative pain was assessed by using a 4-point scale (score 0-3) including the following six behavioral items: posture, interaction and interest in surroundings, activity, attention to the affected area, nursing, and miscellaneous behavior. Behavior was assessed by two trained blinded observers and statistical analysis was performed using R software. Inter-observer agreement was very good (ICC = 0.81). The scale was unidimensional based on the principal component analysis, all items except for nursing were representative (r.sub.s greater than or equal to 0.74) and had excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha greater than or equal to 0.85). The sum of scores were higher in castrated piglets post-procedure compared to pre-procedure, and higher than in non-painful female piglets confirming responsiveness and construct validity, respectively. Scale sensitivity was good when piglets were awake (92.9%) and specificity was moderate (78.6%). The scale had excellent discriminatory ability (area under the curve > 0.92) and the optimal cut-off sum for analgesia was 4 out of 15. The UPAPS scale is a valid and reliable clinical tool to assess acute pain in castrated pre-weaned piglets.
Preventing insect infestations is a critical component for establishing a pest management plan for storedproduct insects. Long-lasting insecticide-treated netting (LLIN) is a potential tool to reduce ...insect movement by providing a chemical barrier, where insects may be able to physically pass through but ultimately die after exposure to the netting. Sublethal effects, such as reduced movement immediately after exposure and reduced ability to colonize, have been reported. Here we examine the sublethal effects of exposure to LLIN on two beetle species, Trogoderma variabile Ballion, warehouse beetle, and Tribolium castaneum Herbst, red flour beetle. We found that both female and male T. castaneum exposed to LLIN produced significantly less adult progeny than those exposed to untreated netting. Adult progeny output did not differ for T. variabile, but survivorship increased in T. variabile females exposed to LLIN. Importantly, the overall net reproductive rate was significantly decreased for both T. variabile and T. castaneum. The number of copulation attempts did not differ between males or females exposed to LLIN compared to untreated netting, but males exposed to LLIN showed increased durations of attempted and successful copulation events. This research demonstrates that the implications of LLIN exposure extend past direct mortality, with sublethal effects on reproductive output potentially increasing the effectiveness of this tool for preventing insect infestations. Assays for adult Tribolium castaneum and larval Trogoderma variabile exposed to long-lasting insecticide-treated netting. Increase and decrease arrows represent the response following exposure to LLIN compared to untreated netting. Key words: sublethal effects, post-harvest grain, life history, mating behavior
Tillage and crop residue management play an imperative role in soil physico-chemical properties that eventually affects crop productivity. The objective of the study to find out a compatible ...combination of tillage and crop residue management for achieving sustainable food production by improving soil properties, providing favorable environment to crop plants. Secondly, managing crop residues effectively to reduce environmental pollution arising due to crop residue burning. With this aim, a field experiment was conducted on six years continued running experiment under conservation agricultural practices during rabi season of 2019-20 on chickpea. The experiment was comprised of five tillage operations with or without crop residue in main plot and three levels of nutrients in sub plots laid out in split plot design with three replications. Reduced Tillage with 60cm residue height (RT60) was recorded higher growth and yield attributes over conventional tillage practice that attributed to economic yield enhancement. The percent yield increment under NT and RT with 30 and 60cm height residue retention varied from 6.91% to 9.67% over conventional tillage. Maximum grain (2380 kg ha.sup.-1) and biological output (5762 kg ha.sup.-1) was recorded under RT60 (T.sub.4 ), which ascribed to higher net return (Rs 60551 ha.sup.-1) and benefit-cost ratio (2.97). The augmentation in net monetary benefit among tillage systems was lies between 24.32% to 37.78% over conventional tillage. The seed protein content ranged between 20.38 to 21.69% among the treatments. Moreover, total N uptake was maximum under RT60, while total P and K uptake was higher in No Tillage with 30cm residue height (T.sub.1). No-Tillage with 60cm residue height (NT60) recorded relatively higher soil moisture content (SMC) (22.71 and 15.40%). Treatment NT30 accrued relatively higher value of soil bulk density (1.42 Mg m.sup.-3) followed by NT60 and RT60 in comparison to conventional tillage (1.34 Mg m.sup.-3). In conclusion, NT and RT with 60cm residue height along with STCR (N.sub.3) nutrient dose was found effective for sustainable food production.
Dynamic supply chain capabilities Aslam, Haris; Blome, Constantin; Roscoe, Samuel ...
International journal of operations & production management,
10/2018, Letnik:
38, Številka:
12
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Purpose
This paper positions market sensing, supply chain agility and supply chain adaptability as a coherent cluster of dynamic supply chain capabilities. The purpose of this paper is to understand ...how dynamic supply chain capabilities interrelate and their effect on supply chain ambidexterity.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a survey of Pakistani manufacturing firms, a theoretically-derived model was tested in a structural equation model.
Findings
The results of the study show that a market-sensing capability is an antecedent of supply chain agility and supply chain adaptability. Furthermore, supply chain agility, directly, and supply chain adaptability, indirectly, affect supply chain ambidexterity. Supply chain agility, therefore, mediates the relationship between supply chain adaptability and supply chain ambidexterity.
Originality/value
The contribution of this study lies in: first, identifying dynamic capability clusters relevant for achieving supply chain ambidexterity; second, evaluating performance implications of dynamic capabilities in the supply chain, specifically supply chain agility and adaptability; and third, proposing a unique measurement of supply chain ambidexterity in the light supply chain theory, and empirically evaluating the relationship between dynamic capabilities and supply chain ambidexterity.
This study investigates the role of supply chain risk management (SCRM) in mitigating the effects of disruptions impacts on supply chain resilience and robustness in the context of COVID-19 outbreak. ...Using structural equation modeling on a survey data from 470 French firms, the results confirm the basic tenets of resource-based view and organizational information processing theories regarding the combination of dynamic resources to face disruptions’ uncertainty. Furthermore, the findings reveal the mediating role of SCRM practices and the prominent role they play in fostering supply chain resilience and robustness. Overall, by providing empirical assessment of a comprehensive SCRM framework, this research contributes to the extant literature and suggests further avenues for research.
•Supply chain risk management practices mitigation role during COVID-19 is examined.•Resources-Based View and organizational information processing theory inform study.•Supply chain risk management practices foster Supply Chain resilience and robustness.•Research discussion provide guidance for further investigation.
This study tests the hypothesis that lean manufacturing improves the social performance of manufacturers in emerging markets. We analyze an intervention by Nike, Inc., to promote the adoption of lean ...manufacturing in its apparel supply chain across 11 developing countries. Using difference-in-differences estimates from a panel of more than 300 factories, we find that lean adoption was associated with a 15 percentage point reduction in noncompliance with labor standards that primarily reflect factory wage and work hour practices. However, we find a null effect on factory health and safety standards. This pattern is consistent with a causal mechanism that links lean to improved social performance through changes in labor relations, rather than improved management systems. These findings offer evidence that capability-building interventions may reduce social harm in global supply chains.
Data, as supplemental material, are available at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2015.2369
.
This paper was accepted by Bruno Cassiman, business strategy
.
While there is overwhelming support for the negative consequences of product recalls, empirical evidence of operational drivers of recalls is almost nonexistent. In this study, we identify product ...variety (measured as the number of factory installed options), plant variety (measured as the number of models per assembly line in a plant), and capacity utilization as drivers of subsequent manufacturing-related recalls. We examine their individual and joint effects using a unique data set compiled for a seven-year period by linking assembly line production data for North American automotive manufacturers with recall data from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration. We show that manufacturing-related recalls are positively associated with product variety and plant utilization, but not with plant variety. We also find that the joint effect of plant variety and utilization is positively associated with increased recalls. In quantitative terms, a one-standard-deviation increase in the number of options (four additional options) is associated with two additional recalls and costs $46.2 million to automakers over the sample duration. We observe similar results with plant utilization, and find that a car built in a plant that is being utilized above 100% capacity is associated with more than eight additional recalls corresponding to an incremental cost of $167 million.
This paper was accepted by Yossi Aviv, operations management
.
Assembly line balancing problems (ALBP) have plagued scholars and practitioners for decades. This paper investigates a new assembly system called flexible assembly line (FAL) derived from empirical ...observations in an air-conditioner assembly workshop. FAL can avoid the ALBP itself thanks to its structural flexibility and reconfigurability. However, field investigation highlights new challenges in the FAL - the mismatch between production (assembly) and intralogistics (material supply) leads to long waiting/idle time and workflow chaos, consequently lowers productivity and increases backorders. The production-intralogistics (PiL) processes are spatiotemporally coupled and interactional. Its complexity is much higher than considering the production or intralogistics optimization solely. And the PiL processes are further complicated by uncertain events such as new job arrivals, stochastic operational time, and equipment failures. The advent of Industry 4.0 technologies shows the tremendous potentials to revolutionize the contemporary notions of production management. Massive production data can be collected and analyzed in real-time. Nevertheless, there is little methodological research regarding utilizing real-time data to support production decisions under uncertainties. Thus, how to leverage real-time data collected in Industry 4.0 environments to support the decision-making of PiL processes for achieving a matched, coordinated, and synchronous operations management under various uncertainties, is a novel research problem. This paper develops a five-phase Graduation intelligent Manufacturing System (GiMS) to achieve PiL synchronization with flexibility and resilience. The underlying principles and rationale of GiMS are formulated as a synchronization mechanism, which includes a graph-theory based clustering for planning/scheduling and real-time decentralized ticketing for execution/control. Comprehensive numerical results validate the superiority of GiMS and the benefits of visibility and traceability in various scenarios. Moreover, the effects of uncertainties and trolley capacity are investigated in the sensitivity analysis.
•A novel production-intralogistics synchronization problem in flexible assembly lines is studied.•A 5-phase implementation framework of GiMS is developed for PiL Synchronization in FAL.•A flexible and resilient real-time decision-making mechanism under GiMS is proposed.•Numerical study has validated the superiority of the proposed GiMS and real-time data.•The effects of uncertainty level and trolley capacity are studied in the sensitivity analysis.
We analyze a joint pricing and inventory control problem for a perishable product with a fixed lifetime over a finite horizon. In each period, demand depends on the price of the current period plus ...an additive random term. Inventories can be intentionally disposed of, and those that reach their lifetime have to be disposed of. The objective is to find a joint pricing, ordering, and disposal policy to maximize the total expected discounted profit over the planning horizon taking into account linear ordering cost, inventory holding and backlogging or lost-sales penalty cost, and disposal cost. Employing the concept of
L
-concavity, we show some monotonicity properties of the optimal policies. Our results shed new light on perishable inventory management, and our approach provides a significantly simpler proof of a classical structural result in the literature. Moreover, we identify bounds on the optimal order-up-to levels and develop an effective heuristic policy. Numerical results show that our heuristic policy performs well in both stationary and nonstationary settings. Finally, we show that our approach also applies to models with random lifetimes and inventory rationing models with multiple demand classes.
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