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This study aims to examine how operator type moderates the relationship between hotel information technology (IT) expenditures and operating performance.

By adapting and extending O’Neill et al.’s (2008) and Hua et al.’s (2015) research, this study constructed an empirical model and tested proposed hypotheses, with Newey and West (1994) errors computed to accommodate potential heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation issues.

Operator type moderates the impact of hotel IT expenditures on operating performance. In particular, it appears that the operator type of franchising exerts a stronger moderating effect compared with other operator types explored.

This study, as the first of its kind, shows that the choice of operator type shapes how a hotel can effectively use IT expenditures to improve operating performance. This finding can be beneficial for hotel owners when making operator type decisions. In addition, operator type moderates the direct impact of IT expenditures on revenues and gross operating income. This study’s results show that franchised hotels seem to use IT expenditures more effectively compared with independently owned hotels.

This study contributes both theoretically and practically to understand how operator type moderates the relationship between IT expenditures and hotel performance. The research outcome provides a more holistic view that governs the relationships between IT expenditures, operator type and operating performance.

The time‐discretization process of transient equation systems is an important concern in computational heat transfer applications. As such, the present paper describes a formal basis towards providing the theoretical concepts, evolution and development, and characterization of a wide class of time discretized operators for transient heat transfer computations. Therein, emanating from a common family tree and explained via a generalized time weighted philosophy, the paper addresses the development and evolution of time integral operators [IO], and leading to integration operators [InO] in time encompassing single‐step integration operators [SSInO], multi‐step integration operators [MSInO], and a class of finite element in time integration operators [FETInO] including the relationships and the resulting consequences. Also depicted are those termed as discrete numerically assigned [DNA] algorithmic markers essentially comprising of both: the weighted time fields, and the corresponding conditions imposed upon the dependent variable approximation, to uniquely characterize a wide class of transient algorithms. Thereby, providing a plausible standardized formal ideology when referring to and/or relating time discretized operators applicable to transient heat transfer computations.

Construction plant and equipment harbour significant health and safety hazards. One particular item, the mini‐excavator, presents a hazard from its inherent instability and tendency to overturn during use. The purpose of this paper is to investigate turnover incidents to observe prominent factors and contribute to development of best practice guidance for improving health and safety relating to mini‐excavator use.

Comprehensive documentary data from eight case study incidents, along with anecdotal data from a further three, were qualitatively analysed in terms of: machine weight, machine activity, ground type/topography, operator competence, type of overturn, damage to property, and injury to person(s). Results were presented to experts in the field for comment and conclusions/recommendations accordingly developed.

Observed prominent casual factors include: inadequate assessment of risk and non‐adherence to safe working practice, working on poor ground, and working on inclined surfaces. The use of sealed operator cabs and proprietary seat restraint mechanisms seem to mitigate risk of personal injury to operators during overturn incidents. A need for cyclic training to reiterate good operator and banksman practice is emphasised, while construction managers should also be aware of the risks, and help implement risk controls.

Findings will inform construction plant management research generally, and the subject of mechanised workplace transport stability specifically.

Best practice protocol will inform health and safety management of mini‐excavators at the workplace.

Academic research into mini‐excavator stability is embryonic; this paper furthers evolving knowledge in the field.

The main operations of the powder-coating process are staggered along a closed-loop conveyor. Given the volatile market demands, using a fixed level of staffing may result in significant productivity losses. The present study aims to capture stochastic behavior and optimize operator assignment problems in a practical powder-coating process. By using the proposed methodology, when demand changes, the optimal operator assignment configuration can be provided, ensuring high labor productivity.

The powder-coating process is an important industrial application and is often a labor-intensive system. The present study adopts a practical case to optimize its staffing level. Because of its operational complexity, the problem is solved by a proposed simulation-optimization approach. The results are promising, and the proposed methodology is shown to be an effective approach.

The proposed methodology was tested for various demand levels. The optimized operator assignment configuration always improves on the performance of other staffing levels. Given the same daily throughput, the optimized operator assignment configuration can improve performance by as much as 19%. In scenarios where there is increased demand, the resulting reduction in overtime work improves performance by between 20.33% and 56.72%. In scenarios where there is reduced demand, the optimized staffing level produces improvements between 3.13% and 50%. Compared with the fixed staffing policy of the case company, the flexible staffing policy of the proposed methodology can maintain high labor productivity across demand variations. The results are consistent with the Shojinka philosophy of the Toyota Production System.

This study proposes a solution to the operator assignment decision in a labor-intensive manufacturing system – a powder-coating processing system. Powder coating provides a solid powder coating without any solvent. Because of its excellent application performance and environmental protection, it is widely used in the field of metal coating, especially appliances for offices and homes. Most of the existing literature has solved the problem by making unrealistic assumptions. The present study proposes a simulation-optimization method to solve a practical problem in powder-coating processing. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology is illustrated by a practical application. According to the experimental results, five operators can be saved for the same daily throughput. An average of 35 and 19 min of overtimes can be saved when demand increases by 10% and 20% with one less operator; between 2 and 16 operators can be saved when demand falls by 10%–60%.

Recently, manufacturing companies have been evaluating measurement equipment used for in‐process inspection. The precision and accuracy of the measurement operation are a major factor of an overall quality control programme. Compares two measurement systems of scales and callipers in three laboratory settings for the purpose of identifying sources of significant differences in measurements. The experimental design used was a nested and crossed design with blocking on manufactured parts. Operators and types of equipment (digital and analogue) were nested within laboratories and crossed with one another. Finds, at a significance level of 0.001, that variation exists among laboratories and between types of scales, while, for callipers, significant variation occurred among laboratories, between types of callipers and between operators.

The purpose of this paper is to obtain a numerical scheme for finding numerical solutions of linear and nonlinear Hadamard-type fractional differential equations.

The aim of this paper is to develop a numerical scheme for numerical solutions of Hadamard-type fractional differential equations. The classical Haar wavelets are modified to align them with Hadamard-type operators. Operational matrices are derived and used to convert differential equations to systems of algebraic equations.

The upper bound for error is estimated. With the help of quasilinearization, nonlinear problems are converted to sequences of linear problems and operational matrices for modified Haar wavelets are used to get their numerical solution. Several numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the applicability and validity of the proposed method.

The numerical method is purposed for solving Hadamard-type fractional differential equations.

The principles of the author's theory of classification are summarized, and the necessity of expressing true relations between concepts in a classification is stressed. The logical faults in existing classifications (especially U.D.C., Bliss, and Colon) are discussed in comparison. The psychological and logical bases of the author's theory are considered in greater detail than before, especially as regards the derivation of the operators. In this connexion a change has been found necessary in the writing of the reaction operator, being A/—B, for B acts on A (instead of A—/B). Four new operators are introduced, being ‘dimensional’ (time and space, &c.), ‘comparison’, ‘association’, and ‘concurrence’, the last three on a basis of learning theory and work on conditioned responses in psychology. Examples are given of their uses. Operators represent logical relations, and their meanings, in everyday language, are discussed. The selection of a preferred order for the construction of a classification is shown to be possible on a logical basis, being the fully deductive order. The problem of notation is then dealt with in detail. It is shown that a fully elastic ‘deductive’ notation, allowing extrapolation and interpolation in all ways, not achieved in other classifications, is possible, but still does not meet the requirements of inductive classification. A notation is developed which provides arbitrary symbols for isolates, connected by operator symbols, and this is shown to be the only solution which meets all the requirements for expressing an inductive classification according to the author's theory.

The regulatory environment dismantled by the 1980 Transport Act (which deregulated scheduled express coach services) is outlined. This is followed by a description of the characteristics of the long distance travel market and implications for providing and marketing scheduled services, comparing the strategies of successful and unsuccessful independent operators in the field.

Operating procedure synthesis (OPS) has been used to generate plant operating procedures for chemical plants. However, the application of AI planning to this domain has been rarely considered, and when it has the scope of the system used has limited it to solving “toy” problems. This paper describes the application of state‐of‐the‐art AI planning techniques to the generation of operating procedures for chemical plant as part of the INT‐OP project at the Universities of Salford and Loughborough. The CEP planner is outlined and its application to a double effect evaporator test rig is discussed in detail. Particular attention is paid to the issues involved in domain modelling, requiring the description of the domain, development of AI planning operators, the definition of safety restrictions, and the definition of the problem. There is then a presentation of the results, lessons learned and problems still remaining.