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The year 1980, the decade of the 80s, twenty years until the year 2000. The next ten years may be among the most critical faced by American business, and physical distribution managers in particular, in our history. Further, the developments in physical distribution practice and management, and especially the way in which some of the critical problems are solved, will have impacts on the health and progress of business into the year 2000 and beyond. The following paragraphs address some of the critical problems and issues faced by physical distribution managers. Where possible recent trends which affect these concerns are identified and the potential development of these trends through the 1980s is traced.

The physical distribution function of a firm is a complex process. It consists of all the activities involved in the flow of goods from the raw material supplier to the final consumer and incorporates the major activity centres of purchasing, warehousing, transportation, order processing, and inventory control. The goal of a firm's distribution operation is to insure that established customer service levels are achieved at a minimum total cost.

Reveals that physical distribution organization and information system development among US manufacturing firms is still in a period of transmission. Concludes that many problems have arisen because of the move towards the formalization of physical distribution management as an integral part of a firm’s management organization.

Self‐service food stores are a new emerging form of retail technology in Saudi Arabia. By focusing on relevant institutional, planning and operational dimensions, this exploratory study describes and analyses the process by which this form of food retailing was adopted. Data were collected from 96 stores located in three metropolitan areas of the Kingdom, and the results suggest that the sudden proliferation of these stores during the past decade was characterised by the lack of rational planning, short‐term decision making orientation, and limited concern for promotional activities. The analysis of the 62 study variables indicated that differences in store size exerted limited influence on store marketing activities and had a moderate effect on store planning and institutional dimensions.

The fully developed laminar mixed convection flow in inclined tubes subject to axially and circumferentially uniform heat flux has been studied numerically for a Boussinesq fluid. Dual solutions characterized by a two‐ and a four‐vortex secondary flow structure in a cross‐section normal to the tube’s longitudinal axis have been found for different combinations of the Grashof number Gr and of the tube inclination α for all Prandtl numbers between 0.7 and 7. In the two‐parameter space defined by Gr and α dual solutions occur: at a given α, if the Grashof number exceeds a critical value Gr_ℓ (for horizontal tubes Gr_ℓ is approximately 5.5 × 10⁵, 1.7 × 10⁵ and 1.7 × 10⁴ respectively for Pr = 0.7, 7 and 70); at a given Gr, if the tube inclination is below a critical value α_c (for Gr = 10⁶ this critical angle is approximately 62.5° and 83.5° respectively for Pr = 0.7 and 7). Numerical experiments carried out for developing flows indicate that the two‐vortex solution is the only stable flow structure.

This paper aims to show the interaction effects between clusters and cluster-specific attributes and the industrial internet of things (IoT) knowledge of a firm on the innovativeness of firms. Cluster theory and the concept of key enabling technologies are linked to test their effect on a firm’s incremental and radical knowledge generation.

Quantitative approach at the firm-level. By combining several data sources (e.g. ORBIS, PATSTAT and German subsidy catalogue) the paper relies on a unique database encompassing 8,347 firms in Germany. Ordinary least squares (OLS)-regression techniques are used for data analysis.

Industrial IoT is an important driver of radical patents, mediated positively by firm size. For incremental knowledge, a substitution effect occurs between a cluster and IoT effects, which is bigger for larger firms and dependent on cluster attributes and firms’ outside connections.

The paper opens up new research paths considering long-term disruptive effects of the industrial IoT compared to short-term effects on the innovativeness of firms within clusters. Additionally, it enables further research enriching the discussion about cluster attributes and how these affect ongoing processes.

Linking cluster theory and policy with Industry 4.0 raises awareness for being considerate in terms of funding and scrutinising one-size-fits-all approaches.

Connecting the concepts of a cluster and advanced manufacturing technologies as a proxy for industrial IoT, specifically focussing on both radical and incremental innovations is a new approach. Especially, taking into account the interaction effects between cluster attributes and the influence of industrial IoT on the innovativeness of firms.

This paper aims to address the problem of double-diffusive magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) non-Darcy convective flow of heat and mass transfer over a stretching sheet embedded in a thermally-stratified porous medium. The controlling parameters such as chemical reaction parameter, permeability parameter, etc., are extensively discussed and illustrated in this paper.

With the help of appropriate similarity variables, the governing partial differential equations are converted into ordinary differential equations. The transformed equations are solved using the spectral homotopy analysis method (SHAM). SHAM is a numerical method, which uses Chebyshev pseudospectral and homotopy analysis method in solving science and engineering problems.

The effects of all controlling parameters are presented using graphical representations. The results revealed that the applied magnetic field in the transverse direction to the flow gives rise to a resistive force called Lorentz. This force tends to reduce the flow of an electrically conducting fluid in the problem of heat and mass transfer. As a result, the fluid velocity reduces in the boundary layer. Also, the suction increases the velocity, temperature, and concentration of the fluid, respectively. The present results can be used in complex problems dealing with double-diffusive MHD non-Darcy convective flow of heat and mass transfer.

The uniqueness of this paper is the examination of double-diffusive MHD non-Darcy convective flow of heat and mass transfer. It is considered over a stretching sheet embedded in a thermally-stratified porous medium. To the best of the knowledge, a problem of this type has not been considered in the past. A novel method called SHAM is used to solve this modelled problem. The novelty of this method is its accuracy and fastness in computation.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the numerical laminar two‐dimensional unsteady natural convection in a partial sector‐shaped enclosure submitted respectively to a constant heat flux density q1 and a uniform temperature T1 on the inner cylindrical wall. The numerical model performed in this paper is applied more particularly for high Grashof numbers, in order to point out the advent and the development of pre‐turbulent flows. Results of numerical runs are presented. The mean Nusselt number on active walls is represented as a function of the Grashof number Gr and the aspect ratio F_r. The results may be correlated very well with an expression of the form \overlineNu = k1 Gr₁^k2, for technical calculations.

The purpose of this study is to numerically investigate the confined single-walled carbon nanotube-water nanofluid jet impingement heating of a cooled surface with a uniform heat flux in the presence of a porous layer. The analysis of the convective heat transfer mechanism is introduced considering the buoyancy force effect under local thermal non-equilibrium conditions.

The governing equations for the nanofluid and solid phase are discretized by the finite volume method and the SIMPLE algorithm is used to solve these equations.

It is observed that there is an increase in a local variation of temperature along the upper wall with increasing Reynolds, Darcy and Grashof numbers. For given parameters, the optimum values of thermal conductivity ratio and porous layer thickness leading to better heating on the upper wall are found as K_r = 1.0 and S = 0.5, respectively. The maximum and minimum values of temperature on the upper wall are obtained in the case of higher nanoparticle volume fraction at Re = 100, however, the temperature values get higher along the upper wall with increasing nanoparticle volume fraction at Re = 300.

The effects of various parameters, such as Reynolds number, Darcy number and Grashof number, on thermal behavior and nanofluid flow are examined to determine the desirable heating conditions for the upper wall. This paper provides a solution to problems such as icing on the surface with a suitable thermal design and optimum geometric configuration.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the thermal-diffusion and diffusion-thermo effects on magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) natural convective flow through porous medium in a rotating system with ramped temperature.

Using the non-dimensional variables, the flow governing equations along with corresponding initial and boundary conditions have been transformed into non-dimensional form. These non-dimensional partial differential equations are solved by using finite element method. This method is powerful and stable. It provides excellent convergence and flexibility in providing solutions.

The effects of Soret number, Dufour number, rotation parameter, magnetic parameter, Hall current parameter, permeability parameter, thermal Grashof number, solutal Grashof number, Prandtl number, thermal radiation parameter, heat absorption parameter, Schmidt number, chemical reaction parameter and time on the fluid velocities, temperature and concentration are represented graphically in a significant way and the influence of pertinent flow governing parameters on the skin frictions and Nusselt number are presented in tabular form. On the other hand, a comparison for validation of the numerical code with previously published work is performed, and an excellent agreement is observed for the limited case existing literature.

A very useful source of information for researchers on the subject of MHD flow through porous medium in a rotating system with ramped temperature.

The problem is moderately original, as it contains many effects like thermal-diffusion (Soret) and diffusion-thermo (Dufour) effects and chemical reaction.