Search results

This study proposes targeted modernization of the Department of Defense (DoD's) Joint Forces Ammunition Logistics information system by implementing the optimized innovative information technology open architecture design and integrating Radio Frequency Identification Device data technologies and real-time optimization and control mechanisms as the critical technology components of the solution. The innovative information technology, which pursues the focused logistics, will be deployed in 36 months at the estimated cost of $568 million in constant dollars. We estimate that the Systems, Applications, Products (SAP)-based enterprise integration solution that the Army currently pursues will cost another $1.5 billion through the year 2014; however, it is unlikely to deliver the intended technical capabilities.

In the quest for better construction workforce management, this chapter explored the background of workforce management and related theories, models, and practices. Through a review, the chapter provided meaning to the concept of construction and workforce management. The chapter concluded that while the construction industry worldwide is important to the economic growth of the countries where it operates, the industry’s management of its workforce is challenged by several problems. These problems include the nature of the industry, skill shortage, unhealthy working environment, and poor image of the industry, among others. Also, while the construction industry is rich in diversity, this has been a major source of problems for workforce management. The chapter further revealed that to improve workforce management and attain better-performing construction organisations, careful recruitment, effective training, providing a safe working environment, putting policies to promote diversity, and ensuring innovativeness, among others, are essential.

The twenty-first century has been characterized by the intensification of concerns related to tourism safety and security. These issues are playing an increasingly significant role over recent years, due to the increase of terrorist attacks in several countries, political instability, natural disasters, epidemics and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding tourist safety and security in the tourism context is, thus, critical to increasing the competitiveness and attractiveness of tourist destinations.

Through the bibliometric methods of performance analysis and science mapping, this study aims to contribute to the advancement of knowledge on tourist safety and security at the destination.

A total of 445 records published between 1989 and 2021, covering 191 academic journals and 1,000 authors from 91 different countries, were analysed.

The main findings show that this research field has attracted a substantial and growing interest of researchers, institutions, journals and countries. Opportunities for future research are related to decision making, tourist behaviour, risk perception, tourism safety, destination image, safety engineering and sustainable development.

In the post-pandemic context, this research field can be critical to providing a set of tailored strategies to improve tourists' safe destination environment and increase tourism destinations' competitiveness and attractiveness.

Inappropriate cardiac monitoring leads to increased hospital resource utilization and alarm fatigue, which is ultimately detrimental to patient safety. Our institution implemented a continuous cardiac monitoring (CCM) policy that focused on selective monitoring for patients based on the American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines. The primary goal of this study was to perform a three-year median follow-up review on the longitudinal impact of a selective CCM policy on usage rates, length of stay (LOS), and mortality rates across the medical center. A secondary goal was to determine the effect of smaller-scale interventions focused on reeducating the nursing population on the importance of cardiac alarms.

A system-wide policy was developed at The Ohio State University in December 2013 based on guidelines for selective CCM in all patient populations. Patients were stratified into Critical Class I, II, and III with 72 hours, 48 hours, or 36 hours of CCM, respectively. Pre- and post-implementation measures included average cardiac monitoring days (CMD), emergency department (ED) boarding rate, mortality rates, and LOS. A 12-week evaluation period was analyzed prior to, directly after, and three years after implementation.

There was an overall decrease of 53.5% CMDs directly after implementation of selective CCM. This had remained stable at the three-year follow-up with slight increase of 0.5% (p = 0.2764). Subsequent analysis by hospital type revealed that the largest and most stable reductions in CMD were in noncardiac hospitals. The cardiac hospital CMD reduction was stable for roughly one year, then dipped into a lower stable level for nine months, then returned to the previous post-implementation levels. This change coincided with a smaller intervention to further reduce CMD in the cardiac hospital. There was no significant change in mortality rates with a slight decrease of 3.1% at follow-up (p = 0.781). Furthermore, there was no significant difference in LOS with a slight increase of 1.1% on follow-up (p = 0.649). However, there was a significant increase in ED boarding rate of 7.7% (p < 0.001) likely due to other hospital factors altering boarding times.

Implementing selective CCM decreases average cardiac monitoring rate without affecting LOS or overall mortality rate. Selective cardiac monitoring is also a sustainable way to decrease overall hospital resource utilization and more appropriately focus on patient care.

Purpose – The focus of this chapter is on state-of-the-art methodology for observational before–after evaluations. The purpose of such evaluations is to acquire information on the safety effects of site-specific treatments that could be used by road agencies for future interventions that may have an impact on safety.

Methodology – Information, illustrated by a detailed example, is presented mainly on what is still regarded as the gold standard – the Empirical Bayes (EB) method. The methodology accounts for observed changes in crash frequencies that may be due to regression-to-the-mean, changes in traffic volume and time trends. Two related approaches – a comparison group method and the Full Bayes approach, which have been legitimately used for evaluations under special circumstances – are discussed in brief.

Findings – The EB before–after methodology remains the gold standard but must be applied properly.

Research implications – Some issues, for example, the selection of reference groups, still require further research.

Practical implications – Key issues in the application of the before–after evaluation methods in general are also discussed.

This chapter presents a theoretical framework of the industrial relations (IR) system in China’s coal mining industry, combining the roles of management organizations, workers, and trade unions, as well as government agencies. It is one of the first empirical attempts to investigate the relationship between human resource (HR) practices, labor relations, and occupational safety in China’s coal mining industry over the past 60 years, based on the secondary data on coal mining accidents and case studies of two state-owned coal mines in a northern city in Anhui Province, China. The fluctuating occupational safety has been affected by government regulations over different time spans, marked by key political agendas, and by coal mining firms taking concrete measures to respond to these regulations, while exhibiting differing safety performance in state-owned versus township-and-village-owned mines. The field studies compared a safety-oriented to a cost-control-oriented HR and labor relations system, and their influences on safety performance. Coal mining firms and practitioners are advised to shift the traditional personnel management paradigm to a modern HR management system. In addition, although workers are often blamed directly for accidents, it is suggested that workers’ participation and voice in various processes of decision-making and policy implementation, and trade unions’ active involvement in protecting workers from occupational hazards, be encouraged.

Two-dimensional warranty policies exist for certain consumer products, such as automobiles. Here, warranty is specified in terms of the time since the sale of the product as well as mileage incurred during that period. Thus, at the time of purchasing the product, the manufacturer may offer a warranty of three years or 30,000 miles, whichever occurs first. Failures in the product within this specified period of time or mileage will be covered by the manufacturer.

In this chapter, we consider the scenario of enterprise warranty programs, where customers are given the option of extending the original warranty. Thus, the buyer could be given an option to purchase a five year—50,000 mile warranty, whichever occurs first. Of course, the buyer will be expected to pay a premium to purchase this extended warranty. Such enterprise warranty programs are also found in other consumer durables, such as refrigerators, washers, dryers, and cooking ranges.

This chapter explores determination of the decision variables, such as product price, warranty time, and usage limit under the original conditions and further, for the enterprise warranty, that is, the extended warranty time and extended usage limit, as well as the premium to be charged to the buyer who selects the extended warranty. Mathematical models are developed based on maximizing the expected unit profit by selecting an enterprise warranty program. Additionally, some other objectives are also considered based on the proportional increase in the expected unit profit due to the increased market share attained through the offering of an enterprise warranty program. Some results are obtained through consideration of various goal values of the chosen objectives.