Search results

The purpose of this paper is to analytically examine the viability of using blockchain technology (BT) in a public distribution system (PDS) supply chain to overcome issues of shrinkage, misplacement and ghost demand.

The authors use a standard news vendor model with two objectives, the first of which includes a reduction of the total cost of stock, while the second includes minimization of the negative impact of human suffering due to the nonavailability of subsidized food supplies to the needy people.

The authors applied the model to a real-life case to draw meaningful insights. The authors also analyzed the cost/benefit tradeoff of adopting BT in a PDS supply chain. The results show that the adoption of BT in a charitable supply chain can reduce pilferage and ghost demand significantly.

The paper is positioned for utilizing inventory visibility via consistent and tamper-resistant data stream flow capability of BT to enhance the overall efficiency of PDS. Notably, Indian PDS faces three major challenges in terms of its supply chain efficiency.

The first Principia Mathematica (1686) by Sir Isaac Newton with reference to natural philosophy and his system of the world has largely contributed to the first revolution in scientific thinking in modern times. It has created the conceptual basis of modern science in the classical tradition by providing the tools of analysis and the technique of reasoning in terms of stability—from—within or, as we would say today, the model of stable equilibrium conditions.

The equation of unified knowledge says that S = f (A,P) which means that the practical solution to a given problem is a function of the existing, empirical, actual realities and the future, potential, best possible conditions of general stable equilibrium which both pure and practical reason, exhaustive in the Kantian sense, show as being within the realm of potential realities beyond any doubt. The first classical revolution in economic thinking, included in factor “P” of the equation, conceived the economic and financial problems in terms of a model of ideal conditions of stable equilibrium but neglected the full consideration of the existing, actual conditions. That is the main reason why, in the end, it failed. The second modern revolution, included in factor “A” of the equation, conceived the economic and financial problems in terms of the existing, actual conditions, usually in disequilibrium or unstable equilibrium (in case of stagnation) and neglected the sense of right direction expressed in factor “P” or the realization of general, stable equilibrium. That is the main reason why the modern revolution failed in the past and is failing in front of our eyes in the present. The equation of unified knowledge, perceived as a sui generis synthesis between classical and modern thinking has been applied rigorously and systematically in writing the enclosed American‐British economic, monetary, financial and social stabilization plans. In the final analysis, a new economic philosophy, based on a synthesis between classical and modern thinking, called here the new economics of unified knowledge, is applied to solve the malaise of the twentieth century which resulted from a confusion between thinking in terms of stable equilibrium on the one hand and disequilibrium or unstable equilibrium on the other.

Looks at Arrow’s early background in New York and his subsequent development in the field of econometrics and mathematical economics. Covers his work in depth and his achievements in the school of thought of economics, adding that the modern school of thought is complementary to the classical school.

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of differentiation price which has been utilized to segment demand, but results in imperfect segmentation. The use of a differentiation price is among the most widely used Revenue Management (RM) techniques to segment a firm’s demand to augment profitability.

Mathematical models are developed for a firm’s RM which use a differentiation price to categorize its market demand into two segments. Three distinct demand situations are considered: price-dependent deterministic demand, price-dependent stochastic demand whose distribution is known and price-dependent stochastic demand whose distribution is unknown. Models are analyzed to determine optimal joint control of a firm’s pricing and inventory decisions for each market segment.

The analysis of the firm’s RM model has shown that revenue is jointly concave in pricing and order quantity. In most demand situations, closed-form mathematical expressions for optimal pricing and inventory are obtained.

In RM models developed in this paper, a firm only selects a differentiation price. Thus, an optimal selection of the differentiation price along with the pricing and inventory decisions may lead to an additional profitability which has not been explored in this research.

The findings reported are relevant to RM managers and practitioners and help them to calibrate their optimal revenues by segmenting markets using a differentiation price.

This paper provides a quantitative perspective of a firm’s decision on the use of the differentiation price and the market response.

The paper provides a firm’s optimal decision on pricing and inventory when it experiences demand leakage due to categorizing its market demand into two segments using a differentiation price.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the possibilities of continuous water supply in New Delhi, India and nearby places; also to scrutinize/assess/recognize the role of the Municipal Corporation and Delhi Jal Board (DJB), the departments which take care of water supply and demand in the region.

The paper takes the form of a case study and a literature review.

The authors infer that there is a bright possibility of continuous water supply in the region, provided there is improvement of water supply networks, auditing of supplied water, educating people for water conservation and rain water harvesting and proper distribution by building underground reservoirs (UGR) in different areas.

The conclusion and inferences of this research may enhance the existing literature on water supply, for the first time focusing on the Indian context, where there is no major problem in supply of water but the designed infrastructure creates shortages in the area.

This study investigates the pricing and inventory control decisions of a company that owns a coffeehouse chain providing drip coffee and a coffee manufacturing factory producing ready-to-drink (RTD) coffee. To determine a way to maximize profit, optimal pricing and inventory control strategies are studied for both the RTD coffee as well as the coffeehouse chain network.

It is assumed that the company sells only drip coffee through its coffeehouse chain and would like to launch RTD coffee via other channels such as convenience stores, supermarkets and so on to maximize its total profit. A mathematical model–based optimization is adopted to address the decision-making for the given problem situation, where the demand for both drip and RTD coffee are dependent on the values of decision variables. To solve the proposed mathematical model, particle swarm optimization (PSO) is applied due to nonlinearity of the developed model.

It is confirmed that a company can earn more profit by launching RTD coffee, even though the profit from drip coffee would reduce. In addition, the scenario analysis shows that by launching RTD coffee under various conditions, the total profits would also improve.

The value of this study is the proposed basic framework for the industry. In addition to the modeling framework and cost structure, realistic cost figures and technical details can be considered when applying the model to a practical setting.

This paper aims to develop a framework to assist the identification of robust adaptation options that account for uncertainty in future climate change impacts for the water sector.

The water evaluation and planning (WEAP) tool, is to identify future water resource vulnerability in the Glore sub‐catchment within the Moy catchment in the West of Ireland. Where water stress is evident, a detailed hydrological modelling approach is developed to enable an assessment of the robustness to uncertainty of future adaptation decisions. WEAP is coupled with a rainfall runoff model (hydrological simulation model), and forced using climate scenarios, statistically downscaled from three global climate models to account for the key sources of uncertainty. While hydrological models are widely applied, they are subject to uncertainties derived from model structure and the parameterisation of the catchment. Here, random sampling of key parameters is employed to incorporate uncertainty from the hydrological modelling process. Behavioural parameter sets are used to generate multiple future streamflow series to determine where the bounds within future hydrological regimes may lie and the ranges within which future adaptation policy pathways need to function.

This framework allows the identification of adaptation options that are robust to uncertainty in future simulations.

Future research will focus on the development of more site‐specific adaptation options including soft and hard adaptation strategies. This approach will be applied to multiple water resource regions within Ireland.

A robust adaptation assessment decreases the risk of expensive and/or mal‐adaptations in a critical sector for society, the economy and the aquatic environment.

A whole life costing (WLC) methodology has been developed for determining long term maintenance expenditure requirements for water distribution networks. The methodology utilises an accounting scheme that ties the costs incurred by the operator and other stakeholders to the attributes or performance that drive the costs. It has specifically been derived with the requirements placed by the regulatory regime on the water companies that operate in England and Wales in mind. Expenditure constraints are implied by the regulator through price caps that companies can charge their customers. Appropriate levels of expenditures included as part of the price cap determinations are required by the regulator to be economically robust and tied to the service received by the customers. Therefore, maintenance decisions must reflect more immediate concerns of meeting performance requirements, but must ensure that such levels are sustainable in the long term. The WLC methodology achieves this through an integrated platform that links costs identified within a structured accounting scheme with their performance based drivers commonly modelled based on historical data. Thus, a robust and fully auditable methodology is provided that can address the requirements of all stakeholders. This methodology is the basis for software (WiLCO) that provides decision support in determining appropriate pipe rehabilitation and operational strategy and thus expenditure levels over extended time horizons.

Considerable interest has been shown in recent years in the calculation of regional income and/or employment multipliers. Their role in the formulation and evaluation of regional policy has been stressed by Wilson (1968) and some writers have been prepared to suggest that high levels of leakage and consequent low multipliers are causes of economic decline or slow growth in the peripheral regions just as much as are economic structure or locational disadvantages (Thirlwell, 1972). The early approaches to the calculation of income or employment multipliers generally used aggregate data on employment, where data on output were not available, national input—output tables to identify input mixes and generalised economic base concepts to distinguish local and nonlocal purchases and sales (Archibald, 1967; Brown et al, 1967; Steele, 1969). More recent work, however, had identified another approach, forsaking the use of aggregated national data sets and employing intensive survey methods of individual industrial plants, such as Greig's study of the pulp and paper mills at Fort William (1971), of educational establishments such as universities (Brownrigg, 1973; Lewes and Kirkness, 1973) or of service sectors such as tourism (Blake and MacDowell, 1967). More recently Lever (1974a) has introduced a more rigorous comparative method into the study of individual manufacturing establishments.