Search results for: environmental management.

Authors: Marília Guterres Ferreira, Raul Sidnei Wazlawick

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As seen in literature, about 70% of the improvement initiatives fail, and a significant number do not even get started. This paper analyses the problem of failing initiatives on Software Process Improvement (SPI), and proposes good practices supported by motivational tools that can help minimizing failures. It elaborates on the hypothesis that human factors are poorly addressed by deployers, especially because implementation guides usually emphasize only technical factors. This research was conducted with SPI deployers and analyses 32 SPI initiatives. The results indicate that although human factors are not commonly highlighted in guidelines, the successful initiatives usually address human factors implicitly. This research shows that practices based on human factors indeed perform a crucial role on successful implantations of SPI, proposes change management as a theoretical framework to introduce those practices in the SPI context and suggests some motivational tools based on SPI deployers experience to support it.

Keywords: Change management, human factors, motivation, software process improvement.

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Authors: S. S. Bhandari, N. Chakpitak, K. Meksamoot, T. Chandarasupsang

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Under the limitation of investment budget, a utility company is required to maximize the utilization of their existing assets during their life cycle satisfying both engineering and financial requirements. However, utility does not have knowledge about the status of each asset in the portfolio neither in terms of technical nor financial values. This paper presents a knowledge based model for the utility companies in order to make an optimal decision on power transformer with their utilization. CommonKADS methodology, a structured development for knowledge and expertise representation, is utilized for designing and developing knowledge based model. A case study of One MVA power transformer of Nepal Electricity Authority is presented. The results show that the reusable knowledge can be categorized, modeled and utilized within the utility company using the proposed methodologies. Moreover, the results depict that utility company can achieve both engineering and financial benefits from its utilization.

Keywords: CommonKADS, Knowledge Engineering, LifeCycle Management, Power Transformer.

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Authors: Victoriano Valencia García, Luis Usero Aragonés, Eugenio J. Fernández Vicente

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Nowadays, the successful implementation of ICTs is vital for almost any kind of organization. Good governance and ICT management are essential for delivering value, managing technological risks, managing resources and performance measurement. In addition, outsourcing is a strategic IT service solution which complements IT services provided internally in organizations. This paper proposes the measurement tools of a new holistic maturity model based on standards ISO/IEC 20000 and ISO/IEC 38500, and the frameworks and best practices of ITIL and COBIT, with a specific focus on IT outsourcing. These measurement tools allow independent validation and practical application in the field of higher education, using a questionnaire, metrics tables, and continuous improvement plan tables as part of the measurement process. Guidelines and standards are proposed in the model for facilitating adaptation to universities and achieving excellence in the outsourcing of IT services.

Keywords: IT Governance, IT Management, IT Services, Maturity Model, Measurement Tools, Outsourcing.

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Authors: Saba Gachpaz, Hamid Reza Heidari

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The sharp increase in population growth leads to more pressure on agricultural areas to satisfy the food supply. This necessitates increased resource consumption and underscores the importance of addressing sustainable agriculture development along with other environmental considerations. Land-use management is a crucial factor in obtaining optimum productivity. Machine learning is a widely used technique in the agricultural sector, from yield prediction to customer behavior. This method focuses on learning and provides patterns and correlations from our data set. In this study, nine physical control factors, namely, soil classification, electrical conductivity, normalized difference water index (NDWI), groundwater level, elevation, annual precipitation, pH of water, annual mean temperature, and slope in the alluvial plain in Khuzestan (an agricultural hotspot in Iran) are used to decide the best agricultural land use for both rainfed and irrigated agriculture for 10 different crops. For this purpose, each variable was imported into Arc GIS, and a raster layer was obtained. In the next level, by using training samples, all layers were imported into the python environment. A random forest model was applied, and the weight of each variable was specified. In the final step, results were visualized using a digital elevation model, and the importance of all factors for each one of the crops was obtained. Our results show that despite 62% of the study area being allocated to agricultural purposes, only 42.9% of these areas can be defined as a suitable class for cultivation purposes.

Keywords: Land suitability, machine learning, random forest, sustainable agriculture.

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Authors: Essa Alenazi, Zulfikar Adamu

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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is not an exception in relying on the growth of its construction industry to support rapid population growth. However, its need for infrastructure development is constrained by low productivity levels and cost overruns caused by factors such as delays to project completion. Delays in delivering a construction project are a global issue and while theories such as Optimism Bias have been used to explain such delays, in KSA, client-related causes of delays are also significant. The objective of this paper is to develop a framework-based approach to explore how the country’s construction industry can manage and reduce delays in construction projects through building information modelling (BIM) in order to mitigate the cost consequences of such delays.  It comprehensively and systematically reviewed the global literature on the subject and identified gaps, critical delay factors and the specific benefits that BIM can deliver for the delay management.  A case study comprising of nine hospital projects that have experienced delay and cost overruns was also carried out. Five critical delay factors related to the clients were identified as candidates that can be mitigated through BIM’s benefits. These factors are: Ineffective planning and scheduling of the project; changes during construction by the client; delay in progress payment; slowness in decision making by the client; and poor communication between clients and other stakeholders. In addition, data from the case study projects strongly suggest that optimism bias is present in many of the hospital projects. Further validation via key stakeholder interviews and documentations are planned.

Keywords: BIM, client perspective, delay management, optimism bias, public sector projects.

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Authors: Nazar Younis, Raied Salman

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It has been always observed that the effectiveness of MIS as a support tool for management decisions degenerate after time of implementation, despite the substantial investments being made. This is true for organizations at the initial stages of MIS implementations, manual or computerized. A survey of a sample of middle to top managers in business and government institutions was made. A large ratio indicates that the MIS has lost its impact on the day-to-day operations, and even the response lag time expands sometimes indefinitely. The data indicates an infant mortality phenomenon of the bathtub model. Reasons may be monotonous nature of MIS delivery, irrelevance, irreverence, timeliness, and lack of adequate detail. All those reasons collaborate to create a degree of degeneracy. We investigate and model as a bathtub model the phenomenon of MIS degeneracy that inflicts the MIS systems and renders it ineffective. A degeneracy index is developed to identify the status of the MIS system and possible remedies to prevent the onset of total collapse of the system to the point of being useless.

Keywords: MIS, management theory, information technology, information systems, IS, organizational environment, organizations, degeneracy, organizational change.

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Authors: So Jeong Nam, Seung Woo Lee, Jai-Kyung Lee

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With the globalized production and logistics environment, the need for reducing the product development interval and lead time, having a faster response to orders, conforming to quality standards, fair tracking, and boosting information exchanging activities with customers and partners, and coping with changes in the management environment, manufacturers are in dire need of an information management system in their manufacturing environments. There are lots of information systems that have been designed to manage the condition or operation of equipment in the field but existing systems have a decentralized architecture, which is not unified. Also, these systems cannot effectively handle the status data extraction process upon encountering a problem related to protocols or changes in the equipment or the setting. In this regard, this paper will introduce a system for processing and saving the status info of production equipment, which uses standard representation formats, to enable flexible responses to and support for variables in the field equipment. This system can be used for a variety of manufacturing and equipment settings and is capable of interacting with higher-tier systems such as MES.

Keywords: DAS, Equipment Status, Regular Expression

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Authors: L. Krpalkova, N. O' Mahony, A. Carvalho, S. Campbell, S. Harapanahalli, J. Walsh

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The objective of this study was to determine the effects of environmental stressors on the performance of lactating dairy cows and discuss some future trends. There exists a relationship between the meteorological data and milk yield prediction accuracy in pasture-based dairy systems. New precision technologies are available and are being developed to improve the sustainability of the dairy industry. Some of these technologies focus on welfare of individual animals on dairy farms. These technologies allow the automatic identification of animal behaviour and health events, greatly increasing overall herd health and yield while reducing animal health inspection demands and long-term animal healthcare costs. The data set consisted of records from 489 dairy cows at two dairy farms and temperature measured from the nearest meteorological weather station in 2018. The effects of temperature on milk production and behaviour of animals were analyzed. The statistical results indicate different effects of temperature on milk yield and behaviour. The “comfort zone” for animals is in the range 10 °C to 20 °C. Dairy cows out of this zone had to decrease or increase their metabolic heat production, and it affected their milk production and behaviour.

Keywords: Behaviour, milk yield, temperature, precision technologies.

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Authors: Napoleana-Anna Chaliasou, Andrew Heath, Kevin Paine

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Fly ash-slag based Geopolymer Cement (GPC) is presenting mechanical properties and environmental advantages that make it the predominant “green” alternative to Portland Cement (PC). Although numerous life-cycle analyses praising its environmental advantages, disposal after the end of its life remains as an issue that has been barely explored. The present study is investigating the recyclability of fly ash-slag GPC as aggregate in mortars. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of GPC fine Recycled Aggregates (RA), at replacement levels of 25% and 50%, on the main mechanical properties of PC and GPC mortar mixes. The results were compared with those obtained by corresponding mixes incorporating natural and PC-RA. The main physical properties of GPC-RA were examined and proven to be comparable to those of PC-RA and slightly inferior to those of natural sand. A negligible effect was observed at 28-day compressive and flexural strength of PC mortars with GPC aggregates having a milder effect than PC. As far as GPC mortars are concerned, the influence of GPC aggregates was enhancing for the investigated mechanical properties. Additionally, a screening test showed that recycled geopolymer aggregates are not prone of inducing alkali silica reaction.

Keywords: Concrete recycling, geopolymer cement, recycled concrete aggregates, sustainable concrete technology.

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Authors: T. M. Mousa-Balabel

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This study was carried out to investigate lamb mortalities relating to ewes' breed and some managemental factors on 250 pregnant ewes (190-Rahmani, 30-Ossimi and 30-Romanov) at Mehallet Mousa, Animal Production Research Station, Kafr El- Sheikh Province, Egypt. These animals divided into five groups according to the managemental factors used. The results revealed that the lamb mortality was higher in Ossimi breed and lower in Romanov one. In addition, the highest lamb mortality occurred among lambs for unsupplemented ewes, for those had body condition score two and for lambs which born outdoor. Moreover, the lamb survivability was increased by the parity of ewes. From this study it can be concluded that the lamb mortality depends on ewes' body condition score, parity, lambing system (indoor or outdoor), nutrition during pregnancy period and selected breed. In addition, the most important period for lamb survival is the first week of age.

Keywords: lamb mortality, sheep breeds, sheep management, sheep parity.

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Authors: Redha M. Elhuni

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The critical key success factors, which have to be targeted with appropriate change management, are the user acceptance and support of a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system at the early implementation stages. This becomes even more important in Arab context where national and organisational culture with a different value and belief system, resulting in different management styles, might not complement with Western business culture embedded in the predefined standard business processes of existing ERP packages. This study explains and critically evaluates research into national and organizational culture and the influence of different national cultures on the implementation and reengineering process of ERP packages in an Arab context. Using a case study, realized through a quantitative survey testing five of Martinsons’s and Davison’s propositions in a Libyan sample company, confirmed the expected results from the literature review that culture has an impact on the implementation process and that employee empowerment is an unavoidable consequence of an ERP implementation.

Keywords: Enterprise resource planning, ERP systems, organisational culture, Arab context.

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Authors: Amit Kumar Meena, Joydip Dhar

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This paper is focused on the analysis and comparison of liquidity ratios and asset liability management practices in top three banks from public, private and foreign sector in India. The analysis is based upon the liquidity ratios calculation and the determination of maturity gap profiles for the banks under study. The paper also compares these banks maturity gap profiles with their corresponding group’s maturity gap profiles. This paper identifies the interest rate sensitivity of the balance sheet items of these banks to determine the gap between rate sensitive assets and rate sensitive liabilities. The results of this study suggest that overall banks in India have very good short term liquidity position and all banks are financing their short term liabilities by their long term assets.

Keywords: ALM, Liquidity ratios, Rate sensitive Assets, Rate Sensitive Liabilities.

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Authors: Nooshin La'l Mohamadi

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Due to the fact that in the new century customers tend to express globally increasing demands, networks of interconnected businesses have been established in societies and the management of such networks seems to be a major key through gaining competitive advantages. Supply chain management encompasses such managerial activities. Within a supply chain, a critical role is played by quality. QFD is a widely-utilized tool which serves the purpose of not only bringing quality to the ultimate provision of products or service packages required by the end customer or the retailer, but it can also initiate us into a satisfactory relationship with our initial customer; that is the wholesaler. However, the wholesalers- cooperation is considerably based on the capabilities that are heavily dependent on their locations and existing circumstances. Therefore, it is undeniable that for all companies each wholesaler possesses a specific importance ratio which can heavily influence the figures calculated in the House of Quality in QFD. Moreover, due to the competitiveness of the marketplace today, it-s been widely recognized that consumers- expression of demands has been highly volatile in periods of production. Apparently, such instability and proneness to change has been very tangibly noticed and taking it into account during the analysis of HOQ is widely influential and doubtlessly required. For a more reliable outcome in such matters, this article demonstrates the application viability of Analytic Network Process for considering the wholesalers- reputation and simultaneously introduces a mortality coefficient for the reliability and stability of the consumers- expressed demands in course of time. Following to this, the paper provides further elaboration on the relevant contributory factors and approaches through the calculation of such coefficients. In the end, the article concludes that an empirical application is needed to achieve broader validity.

Keywords: Analytic Network Process, Quality Function Deployment, QFD flaws, Supply Chain Management

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Authors: Whee Yen Wong, Kim Yeow Tshai, Chan Wai Lee

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There are various approaches to implement quality improvements. Organizations aim for a management standard which is capable of providing customers with quality assurance on their product/service via continuous process improvement. Carefully planned steps are necessary to ensure the right quality improvement methodology (QIM) and business operations are consistent, reliable and truly meet the customers' needs. This paper traces the evolution of QIM in Malaysia-s Information Technology (IT) industry in the past, current and future; and highlights some of the thought of researchers who contributed to the science and practice of quality, and identifies leading methodologies in use today. Some of the misconceptions and mistakes leading to quality system failures will also be examined and discussed. This paper aims to provide a general overview of different types of QIMs available for IT businesses in maximizing business advantages, enhancing product quality, improving process routines and increasing performance earnings.

Keywords: Evolution, Integrating and Aligning, Malaysia's Quality Improvement Methodology, Six Sigma Data Quality Management.

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Authors: Sung-Min Park, Chan Kwon Park, Chae-Bogk Kim

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The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between transaction fairness, social capital, supply chain integration and sustainability. Based on the previous studies, measurement items were determined by using SPSS 22 and exploratory factor analysis was performed, and again, using AMOS 21 for confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis was performed by using study items that satisfy reliability, validity, and appropriateness of measurement model. It has shown that transaction fairness has a (+) significant effect on social capital, social capital on supply chain integration, supply chain integration on economic sustainability and social sustainability, and has a (+), but not significant effect on environmental sustainability. It has shown that supply chain integration has been proven to play a role as a parameter between social capital and economic and social sustainability, but not as a parameter between environmental sustainability. Through this study, it is suggested that clearly examining the relationship between fairness of trade, social capital, supply chain integration and sustainability, maintaining fairness of the transaction make formation of social capital, and further integration of supply chain, and achieve sustainability of entire supply chain.

Keywords: Transaction fairness, social capital, supply chain integration, sustainability.

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Authors: Syamsul Syafiq, Maslina Daud, Hafizah Hasan, Ahmad Zairi, Shazil Imri, Ezaini Akmar, Norbazilah Rahim

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Over recent years, web development has changed significantly. Driven largely by the rise of trends like mobiles, the world of development is rapidly evolving. The rise of the Internet makes web applications crucial nowadays. The web application has been an interface for a company and one of the ways they present their portfolio to the client. On the other hand, the web has become part of the file management system which takes over the role of paper. Due to high demand in web applications, developers are required to develop a web application that are cost-effective, secure and well coded. A framework has been proposed to develop an application rather than using library style development. The framework is helping the developer in creating the structure of a web automatically. This paper will compare the advantages and disadvantages of web development using framework against library-style development. This comparison is based on a previous research paper focusing on two main indicators, which are the impact to management and impact to the developer.

Keywords: Framework, library Style development, web application development, traditional web, static web, dynamic web.

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Authors: M. R. Gholizadeh, N. Bhuiyan, M. Salari

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In the near future, companies will be increasingly forced to shift their activities along a new road in order to decrease the harmful effects of their design, production and after-life on our environment. Products must meet environmental standards to not only prevent penalties but to consider the sustainability for future generations. However, the most important factor that companies will face is selecting a reasonable strategy to maximize their profit. Thus, companies need to have precise forecast from their profit after design stage through Trade-off analysis. This paper is an attempt to introduce a mathematical model that considers effective factors that impact the total profit when products are designed for resource and energy efficiency or recyclability. The modification is according to different strategies based on a Cost-Volume-Profit model. Here, the cost structure consists of Recycling cost, Development cost, Ramp-up cost, Production cost, and Pollution cost. Also, the model shows the effect of implementation of design for recyclable on revenue structure through revenue of used parts and revenue of recycled materials. A numerical example is used to evaluate the proposed model. Results show that fulfillment of Green Product Development not only can reduce the environmental impact of products but also it will increase profit of company in long term.

Keywords: Green Product, Design for Environment, C-V-P Model, Trade-off analysis.

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Authors: Nor-Edine Abriak, Mouhamadou Amar, Mahfoud Benzerzour

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The transition to a more sustainable economy is directed by a reduction in the consumption of raw materials in equivalent production. The recovery of byproducts and especially the dredged sediment as mineral addition in cements matrix represents an alternative to reduce raw material consumption and construction sector’s carbon footprint. However, the efficient use of sediment requires adequate and optimal treatment. Several processing techniques have so far been applied in order to improve some physicochemical properties. The heat treatment by calcination was effective in removing the organic fraction and activates the pozzolanic properties. In this article, the effect of the optimized heat treatment of marine sediments in the physico-mechanical and environmental properties of mortars are shown. A finding is that the optimal substitution of a portion of cement by treated sediments by calcination at 750 °C helps to maintain or improve the mechanical properties of the cement matrix in comparison with a standard reference mortar. The use of calcined sediment enhances mortar behavior in terms of mechanical strength and durability. From an environmental point of view and life cycle, mortars formulated containing treated sediments are considered inert with respect to the inert waste storage facilities reference (ISDI-France).

Keywords: Sediment, calcination, cement, reuse.

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Authors: Ejaz Ali, Muhammad Younas, Tahir Saeed

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In this age of information technology, organizations are revisiting their approach in great deal. E-administration is the most popular area to proceed with. Organizations in order to excel over their competitors are spending a substantial chunk of its resources on E-Administration as it is the most effective, transparent and efficient way to achieve their short term as well as long term organizational goals. E-administration being a tool of ICT plays a significant role towards effective management of HR practices resulting into optimal performance of an organization. The present research was carried out to analyze the impact of moderating role of e-administration in the relationships training and performance appraisal aligned with perceived organizational performance. The study is based on RBV and AMO theories, advocating that use of latest technology in execution of human resource (HR) functions enables an organization to achieve and sustain competitive advantage which leads to optimal firm performance.

Keywords: Human resource management, HR function, e-administration, performance appraisal, training, organizational performance.

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Authors: Sherine Beshara, Khaled S. El-Kilany, Noha M. Galal

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Supply chain management has become more challenging with the emerging trend of globalization and sustainability. Lately, research related to perishable products supply chains, in particular agricultural food products, has emerged. This is attributed to the additional complexity of managing this type of supply chains with the recently increased concern of public health, food quality, food safety, demand and price variability, and the limited lifetime of these products. Inventory management for agrifood supply chains is of vital importance due to the product perishability and customers- strive for quality. This paper concentrates on developing a simulation model of a real life case study of a two echelon production-distribution system for agri-food products. The objective is to improve a set of performance measures by developing a simulation model that helps in evaluating and analysing the performance of these supply chains. Simulation results showed that it can help in improving overall system performance.

Keywords: Agri-food supply chains, inventory model, modelling and Simulation, supply chain.

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Authors: Mei-Fang Wu, Shu-Li Wang, Feng-Tsung Cheng

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Highly developed technology and highly competitive global market highlight the important role of competitive advantages and operation performances in sustainable company operation. Activity-Based Costing (ABC) provides accurate operation cost and operation performance information. Rich literatures provide relevant research with cases study on Activity-Based Costing application, but the research on cause relationship between key success factors and its specific outcome, such as profitability or share market are few. These relationships provide the ways to handle the key success factors to achieve the specific outcomes for ensuring to promote the competitive advantages and operation performances. The main purposes of this research are exploring the key success paths by Key Success Paths approach which will lead the ways to apply Activity-Base Costing. The Key Success Paths is the innovative method which is exploring the cause relationships and explaining what are the effects of key success factors to specific outcomes of Activity-Based Costing implementation. The cause relationships between key success factors and successful specific outcomes are Key Success Paths (KSPs). KSPs are the guidelines to lead the cost management strategies to achieve the goals of competitive advantages and operation performances. The research findings indicate that good management system design may affect the well outcomes of Activity-Based Costing application and achieve to outstanding competitive advantage, operating performance and profitability as well by KSPs exploration.

Keywords: Activity-Based Costing, Key success factors, Key success paths approach, Key success paths, Key failure paths.

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Authors: T. Spiegel, J. Siegmann, C. F. Durach

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Challenges resulting from an international and dynamic business environment are increasingly being passed on from manufacturing companies to external service providers. Especially providers of complex, customer-specific industry services have to cope with continuously changing requirements. This is particularly true for contract logistics service providers. They are forced to develop efficient and highly flexible structures and strategies to meet their customer’s needs. One core element they have to focus on is the reorganization of their service development and sales process. Based on an action research approach, this study develops and tests a concept to streamline tender management for contract logistics service providers. The concept of modularized service architecture is deployed in order to derive a practice-oriented approach for the modularization of complex service portfolios and the design of customized quotes. These findings are evaluated regarding their applicability in other service sectors and practical recommendations are given.

Keywords: Contract Logistics, Modularization, Service Development, Tender Management.

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Authors: Guo Yanru, Zhu Xiaobo, Lee Chu Keong

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This paper maps the structure of the social network of the 2011 class ofsixty graduate students of the Masters of Science (Knowledge Management) programme at the Nanyang Technological University, based on their friending relationships on Facebook. To ensure anonymity, actual names were not used. Instead, they were replaced with codes constructed from their gender, nationality, mode of study, year of enrollment and a unique number. The relationships between friends within the class, and among the seniors and alumni of the programme wereplotted. UCINet and Pajek were used to plot the sociogram, to compute the density, inclusivity, and degree, global, betweenness, and Bonacich centralities, to partition the students into two groups, namely, active and peripheral, and to identify the cut-points. Homophily was investigated, and it was observed for nationality and study mode. The groups students formed on Facebook were also studied, and of fifteen groups, eight were classified as dead, which we defined as those that have been inactive for over two months.

Keywords: Facebook, friending relationships, Social network analysis, social network sites, structural position

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Authors: Ahmad Rouhani, Masoud Jabbari, Sima Honarmand

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This paper introduces a method to optimal design of a hybrid Wind/Photovoltaic/Fuel cell generation system for a typical domestic load that is not located near the electricity grid. In this configuration the combination of a battery, an electrolyser, and a hydrogen storage tank are used as the energy storage system. The aim of this design is minimization of overall cost of generation scheme over 20 years of operation. The Matlab/Simulink is applied for choosing the appropriate structure and the optimization of system sizing. A teaching learning based optimization is used to optimize the cost function. An overall power management strategy is designed for the proposed system to manage power flows among the different energy sources and the storage unit in the system. The results have been analyzed in terms of technical and economic. The simulation results indicate that the proposed hybrid system would be a feasible solution for stand-alone applications at remote locations.

Keywords: Hybrid energy system, optimum sizing, power management, TLBO.

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Authors: S. Mahdi Sadatmansouri, Maryam Khalili

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World, nowadays, encounters serious water scarcity problem. During the past few years, by advent of Smart Energy and Water Meter (SEWM) and its installation at the electro-pumps of the water wells, one had believed that it could be the golden key to address the groundwater resources over-pumping issue. In fact, implementation of these Smart Meters managed to control the water table drawdown for short; but it was not a sustainable approach. SEWM has been considered as law enforcement facility at first; however, for solving a complex socioeconomic problem like shared groundwater resources management, more than just enforcement is required: participation to conserve common resources. The well owners or farmers, as water consumers, are the main and direct stakeholders of this system and other stakeholders could be government sectors, investors, technology providers, privet sectors or ordinary people. Designing a socio-technical system not only defines the role of each stakeholder but also can lubricate the communication to reach the system goals while benefits of each are considered and provided. Farmers, as the key participators for solving groundwater problem, do not trust governments but they would trust a fair system in which responsibilities, privileges and benefits are clear. Technology could help this system remained impartial and productive. Social aspects provide rules, regulations, social objects and etc. for the system and help it to be more human-centered. As the design methodology, Design Thinking provides probable solutions for the challenging problems and ongoing conflicts; it could enlighten the way in which the final system could be designed. Using Human Centered Design approach of IDEO helps to keep farmers in the center of the solution and provides a vision by which stakeholders’ requirements and needs are addressed effectively. Farmers would be considered to trust the system and participate in their groundwater resources management if they find the rules and tools of the system fair and effective. Besides, implementation of the socio-technical system could change farmers’ behavior in order that they concern more about their valuable shared water resources as well as their farm profit. This socio-technical system contains nine main subsystems: 1) Measurement and Monitoring system, 2) Legislation and Governmental system, 3) Information Sharing system, 4) Knowledge based NGOs, 5) Integrated Farm Management system (using IoT), 6) Water Market and Water Banking system, 7) Gamification, 8) Agribusiness ecosystem, 9) Investment system.

Keywords: Design Thinking, Human Centered Design, participatory management, Smart Energy and Water Meter (SEWM), socio-technical system, water table drawdown, Internet of Things, Gamification

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Authors: A. Banovcinova, M. Zakova

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Labor market activity and paid employment should be a key factor in protecting individuals and families from falling into poverty and providing them with sufficient resources to meet the needs of their members. However, due to various processes in the labor market as well as the influence of individual factors and often insufficient social capital, there is a relatively large group of households that cannot eliminate paid employment and find themselves in a state of so-called working poverty. The aim of the research was to find out what strategies families use in managing poverty and meeting their needs and which of these strategies prevail in the Slovak population. A quantitative research strategy was chosen. The method of data collection was a structured interview focused on finding out the use of individual management strategies and also selected demographic indicators. The research sample consisted of members of families in which at least one member has a paid job. The condition for inclusion in the research was that the family's income did not exceed 60% of the national median equalized disposable income. The analysis of the results showed 5 basic areas to which management strategies are related - work, financial security, needs, social contacts and perception of the current situation. The prevailing strategies were strategies aimed at increasing and streamlining labor market activity and the planned and effective management of the family budget. Strategies that were rejected were mainly related to debt creation. The results make it possible to identify the preferred ways of managing poverty in individual areas of life, as well as the factors that influence this behavior. This information is important for working with families living in a state of working poverty and can help professionals develop positive ways of coping for families.

Keywords: Copying strategies, family, in-work poverty, quantitative research.

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Authors: H. Ahmad, S. Kermanshahani, A. Simonet, M. Simonet

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The data exchanged on the Web are of different nature from those treated by the classical database management systems; these data are called semi-structured data since they do not have a regular and static structure like data found in a relational database; their schema is dynamic and may contain missing data or types. Therefore, the needs for developing further techniques and algorithms to exploit and integrate such data, and extract relevant information for the user have been raised. In this paper we present the system OSIX (Osiris based System for Integration of XML Sources). This system has a Data Warehouse model designed for the integration of semi-structured data and more precisely for the integration of XML documents. The architecture of OSIX relies on the Osiris system, a DL-based model designed for the representation and management of databases and knowledge bases. Osiris is a viewbased data model whose indexing system supports semantic query optimization. We show that the problem of query processing on a XML source is optimized by the indexing approach proposed by Osiris.

Keywords: Data integration, semi-structured data, views, XML.

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Authors: B. A. Mir, Asim Malik

Abstract:

Bottom ash is a by-product of the combustion process of coal in furnaces in the production of electricity in thermal power plants. In India, about 75% of total power is produced by using pulverized coal. The coal of India has a high ash content which leads to the generation of a huge quantity of bottom ash per year posing the dual problem of environmental pollution and difficulty in disposal. This calls for establishing strategies to use this industry by-product effectively and efficiently. However, its large-scale utilization is possible only in geotechnical applications, either alone or with soil. In the present investigation, bottom ash was collected from National Capital Power Station Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, India. Test samples of bottom ash admixed with 20% clayey soil were prepared and treated with different cement content by weight and subjected to various laboratory tests for assessing its suitability as an engineered construction material. This study has shown that use of 10% cement content is a viable chemical additive to enhance the mechanical properties of bottom ash, which can be used effectively as an engineered construction material in various geotechnical applications. More importantly, it offers an interesting potential for making use of an industrial waste to overcome challenges posed by bottom ash for a sustainable environment.

Keywords: Bottom ash, environmental pollution, solid waste, sustainable environment, waste utilization.

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Authors: A. Boudiaf

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and apprehend, through four case studies, the interest of the project of the implementation of the quality management system (QMS) at four Moroccan small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This project could generate significant organizational change to improve the functioning of the organization. In fact, quality is becoming a necessity in the current business world. It is considered to be a major component in companies’ competitive strategies. It should be noted that quality management is characterized by a set of methods and techniques that can be used to solve malfunctions and reorganize companies. It is useful to point out that the choice of the adoption of the quality approach could be influenced by the circumstances of the business context, it could also be derived from its strategic vision; this means that this choice can be characterized as either a strategic aspect or a reactive aspect. This would probably have a major impact on the functioning of the QMS and also on the perception of the quality issue by company managers and their employees.

Keywords: Business context, organizational change, quality, reorganization.

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Authors: Feddaoui Amina

Abstract:

Income smoothing represents an attempt on the part of the company's management to reduce variations in earnings through the manipulation of the accounting principles. In this study, we aimed to measure income smoothing practices in a sample of 30 French joint stock companies during the period (2007-2009), we used Dummy variables method and “ECKEL” model to measure income smoothing practices and Binomial test accourding to SPSS program, to confirm or refute our hypothesis. This study concluded that there are no significant statistical indicators of income smoothing practices in the sample studied of French companies during the period (2007-2009), so the income series in the same sample studied of is characterized by stability and non-volatility without any intervention of management through accounting manipulation. However, this type of accounting manipulation should be taken into account and efforts should be made by control bodies to apply Eckel model and generalize its use at the global level.

Keywords: Income, smoothing, “Eckel”, French companies.

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