Search results

How large should a distribution facility be initially? What size additions to the facility should be planned and when? For example, should a regional distribution centre be built to accommodate the projected inventory volume at the time of its completion or the projected volume some five, ten or fifteen years in the future? Should investments in the building and the materials handling system coincide or be planned separately? Finally, can planned expansions be economically postponed by temporarily leasing outside space or by temporarily expanding the work force to achieve above‐capacity utilisation of the existing facility?

Significant transitions in firms (e.g. outsourcing) may impact the relative importance of production and inventory assets, affecting the hierarchical separation of planning decisions. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to planning literature by investigating how the production system and the planning environment influence the performance difference between hierarchical and monolithic planning. Further, it seeks to reduce the prevailing theory-practice gap in tactical planning.

Through an action research study, a monolithic model integrating tactical production planning decisions, subject to upstream supply chain constraints, with strategic investments decisions was developed, tested and implemented in a global OEM. Using the developed model and a measure of the capital cost of production assets relative to the cost of holding inventory, it is numerically examined how the production system and planning environment influence the performance of hierarchical and monolithic planning.

The research demonstrates the potential of integrating decisions and reveals significant performance differences between hierarchical and monolithic planning for firms with low capital cost relative to inventory holding cost.

The findings suggest a fit between planning processes, the production system and planning environment. Future research should empirically validate the findings and propositions.

The paper combine capital investments and production planning decisions, which usually transpire at different hierarchical levels and on different time-horizons, and investigates the consequences of hierarchical separation through a real-life validated case and numerical analysis.

Following the neo‐liberal trend of less government intervention and more room for market forces, the introduction of private sector models in the public or non‐profit sector has gained a lot of attention and popularity. This has also been the case in several European non‐profit social housing sectors. This paper aims to reflect on the practicability of strategic business planning models in the Dutch non‐profit housing sector and to present suggestions for improvement of these models.

Case studies have been held among six Dutch non‐profit landlords. These case studies included interviews with both policy staff and staff responsible for individual investment projects.

In the Dutch non‐profit housing sector, models based on principles of strategic business planning and similar models have been applied to structure and to systematise decision making about investments in the housing stock. These models, however, appear to be unsuccessful in their impact on actual investments in estates or buildings. The main weakness is that these models implicitly suppose a vertical, top‐down implementation of policies, whereas policies are also formed by other strategies, beliefs and motives in the organisation, either documented or undocumented.

The research is confined to the Dutch non‐profit housing sector. However, similarities of the findings with other policy implementation studies suggest that the implications for strategic planning models also apply in many other non‐profit sectors and maybe even in commercial sectors.

This paper challenges classic strategic planning models and gives an adapted version of these models which meets the shortcomings identified in the research.

Since the 1960s, interconnection technology has been dominated by implementations of printed circuit board (PCB) technology. However, in response to the ever increasing demand for higher routing densities and improved electrical performance, this technology has been increasingly challenged by multichip module (MCM) technology and in particular the MCM‐L type. MCM‐L technology is a laminate construction and is basically a further development of PCB technology with two or more bare chips and fine line interconnects. Consequently, it is perceived that the current PCB fabricators are ideally positioned to take the initiative with MCM‐L technology. Reviews the current state of PCB industry and MCM‐L technological (process and material) requirements, within the UK, such that a comparison can be made between the two technologies. Planning, training and investment requirements for new technology implementation are then identified and compared with PCB fabricators’ technological, training, planning and investment capabilities. The shortfalls between MCM‐L fabrication requirements and PCB fabricators capability are identified and discussed.

Scenario planning has significant applications in the field of strategic management and facilitating decision making under uncertainty, and hence this study aims to integrate scenario planning and the preference ranking organisation method for enrichment evaluations (PROMETHEE) method to propose a new methodology to design a portfolio.

The methodology has been designed in two stages, the first of which identifies the investment environment in Iran and defines possible scenarios for the future based upon the opinion of experts and uncertainties established in the identified environment. In the second stage, the views of experts are elicited on business area performance within each scenario. The business areas are subsequently ranked based on their final performance scores in each scenario area using the PROMETHEE method. Through use of a linear programming model, the percentage of investment in each business area is then determined according to the net flow of the area (i.e. the priority of a certain area relative to others).

The portfolio design in an Iranian investment company has been considered as a case study. The building industry and cement industry have been selected as preferable strategic business areas based on hypothetical scenarios for investment environment in Iran over five years (2008‐2012) and the strategies of the investment company.

The integration of scenario planning and multi‐criteria decision analysis (MCDA) holds great potential for strategic decision support due to the complementary nature of these two approaches. In this article, the authors provide a methodology to apply scenario planning alongside other MCDA methods to portfolio design, focusing on an innovative use of the PROMETHEE method with scenario planning.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze some Brazilian companies’ use of the information technology portfolio management (ITPM) technique as an aid to their information technology (IT) investments management.

It was carried out in five case studies in different Brazilian companies from several economic sectors which were using ITPM or were in the initial implementation phase. Eight interviews were conducted. The persons interviewed were high-level executives working in the IT department in the studied companies.

Different levels of ITPM use was found with respect to IT investment management (planning, control and evaluation). It was observed, in the analyzed cases, that ITPM is used most frequently in IT investment planning, which is the process most discussed and used in analyzed companies. The ITPM technique is used more frequently in Company 2 than in the other cases because the organization of the IT area in the company is structured according to ITPM dimensions.

The ITPM technique has received little attention in IT research and research in this area identifying the use and applicability of ITPM in companies is still very limited in the information systems literature.

The paper presents IT investment management in different Brazilian companies and how ITPM was used to help companies in this process compose by planning, control and evaluation.

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate on specific risk mitigation approach which is known as “scenario approach”. Description of stepwise process of their elaboration, which is worth considering for managers, offers feasible tool not only for company risk management improvement but also for significant enhancement of the quality of company strategic planning. Authors also draw attention to advantages and disadvantages of investment and strategic scenario planning. Theoretical implications of using scenario approaches are exemplified both by the set of investment projects and company strategic planning process where method in question was applied.

As for methods applied which fulfilled research strategies, it is worth mentioning following items: analysis which explores particular parts of methodology of scenario elaboration and application, the way of obtaining information, impact on strategy, working with risks and organizational support of outcomes in company environment; synthesis observing context and natural relation of problems solved which supports research hypotheses formulation; induction generalizing facts acquired from results in companies; deduction to be grounds on which conclusion of this paper was drawn up; abstraction used upon evaluation of case studies; comparison assessing consistency and inconsistency of phenomena and objects; description inevitable for characterization of companies and environment in which they operate; interview collecting information inevitable for the evaluation of the way of working with scenarios and company knowledge standards; modelling was used upon consideration about possible future development of factors observed.

The paper arrived at conclusion, that scenario approach, when used appropriately, may significantly mitigate risk exposure of the company. Conclusions which have been made on selected industrial companies can be extended to other industrial branches. Practical application of scenario planning method confirmed that this approach was superior to deterministic single scenario model. Scenario technique thus compensates for deficiencies and omissions which are inherent in simplistic deterministic model. In cases where an investment scenario planning process proved to be insufficient, the paper refers to more advanced techniques like simulation methods or real options.

Over past ten years practical test of proposed stepwise process of scenarios elaboration was repeatedly tested on approx ten industrial companies during the tenure of Mr Soucek and Mr Špaček in top managerial positions.

This paper offers flexible and feasible toll for scenario elaboration and their further development. Such an approach contributes significantly to the enhancement of company risk management process. Proceedures described were successfully tested in managerial practice by two of authors while holding CEO positions in oil prcessing and pharma business.

This paper does not have direct social implication. But scenario approach as a powerful tool of risk management process may significantly contribute to company survival and thus impact social status all stakeholders concerned. Therefore social implications should be identified rather on the background of the problem.

Notwithstanding some general notion about scenario concept, there is still little evidence that scenario approach is applied in larger extent. It is prevalently due to lack of expertise of respective managers who are obviously puzzled with numerous outcomes to be obtained by this approach. Clearly define procedure of scenarios formation may be conducive to larger exploitation of this approach. Design of the elaboration and application of scenario approach which was proven to be functioning in the practice brings new benefits to risk management exploration.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of demographical factors (age, education and income); psychological factors which are future time perspective (FTP) and financial risk tolerance (FRT); along with financial literacy on retirement planning among female workers in Indonesia.

This study applies a quantitative approach, where primary data was acquired through online surveys to 529 workers in various locations in Indonesia. After data cleaning, the final sample size was 304. The PLS-SEM technique was utilised to assess the structural model in the study.

The results of this study show that income affects an individual's perspective towards the future. Financial literacy is confirmed to have a direct effect on retirement planning activity. Furthermore, financial literacy appears to be a significant mediator between demographical factors and FTP in affecting retirement planning. An individual's acceptance towards risk is also affected by financial literacy.

The general public, especially female workers group who have no retirement funds, need to be educated on financial literacy. The government might need to encourage other parties and work together to financially educate the public, specifically regarding investments for retirement planning.

Most previous studies on retirement planning focused on demographical factors in general, and not specifically on a certain group. Filling the gap of existing studies, this study specifically discusses retirement planning done by female workers in Indonesia. Women's role as a workforce, with their psychological conditions and financial literacy, makes for an interesting topic to be studied further in terms of retirement planning.

Obviously, the development of a robust optimization framework is the main step in energy and climate policy. In other words, the challenge of energy policy assessment requires the application of approaches which recognize the complexity of energy systems in relation to technological, social, economic and environmental aspects. This paper aims to develop a two-sided multi-agent based modelling framework which endogenizes the technological learning mechanism to determine the optimal generation plan. In this framework, the supplier agents try to maximize their income while complying with operational, technical and market penetration rates constraints. A case study is used to illustrate the application of the proposed planning approach. The results showed that considering the endogenous technology cost reduction moves optimal investment timings to earlier planning years and influences the competitiveness of technologies. The proposed integrated approach provides not only an economical generation expansion plan but also a cleaner one compared to the traditional approach.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, so far there has not been any agent-based generation expansion planning (GEP) incorporating technology learning mechanism into the modelling framework. The main contribution of this paper is to introduce a multi-agent based modelling for long-term GEP and undertakes to show how incorporating technological learning issues in supply agents behaviour modelling influence on renewable technology share in the optimal mix of technologies. A case study of the electric power system of Iran is used to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed planning approach and also to demonstrate its efficiency.

As seen, the share of the renewable technology agents (geothermal, hydropower, wind, solar, biomass and photovoltaic) in expanding generation increases from 10.2% in the traditional model to 13.5% in the proposed model over the planning horizon. Also, to incorporate technological learning in the supply agent behaviour leads to earlier involving of renewable technologies in the optimal plan. This increased share of the renewable technology agents is reasonable due to their decreasing investment cost and capability of cooperation in network reserve supply which leads to a high utilization factor.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, so far there hasn’t been any agent-based GEP paying attention to this integrated approach. The main contribution of this paper is to introduce a multi-agent based modelling for long-term GEP and undertakes to show how incorporating technological learning issues in supply agents behaviour modelling influence on renewable technology share in the optimal mix of technologies. A case study of the electric power system of Iran is used to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed planning approach and also to demonstrate its efficiency.