There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

Knowledge Management

https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/118668/Multi-critea decision_24.pdf

Multi-criteria decision making approaches for supplier evaluation and selection: A literature review

Intelligent Manufacturing in the Context of Industry 4.0: A Review

In a real-life dynamic production environment, problems such as workers’ absenteeism, machine breakdowns and loss of materials frequently occur. Small batches of production materials have to be delivered from a warehouse to the production shop floor often within a short period of time. In order to handle such material demand orders so as to maintain the productivity of the shop floor, it is essential to allocate warehouse resources effectively. In this article, an efficient production material demand order management system (PMDOMS) is proposed to cope with such issues. An automated data capturing technology – radio frequency identification and an advanced problem solving technique – genetic algorithms, are adopted in the PMDOMS. The integration of these technologies helps enterprises improve their operational efficiency on the production floor. Through application in a case study in the ABC Company, it is proved that PMDOMS significantly improves the productivity in both the production and the warehouse ...

An efficient production material demand order management system for a mould manufacturing company

In the highly competitive market of the fast-fashion industry, the fashion trend keeps on changing rapidly while customers always chase after new fashionable products. To meet customers' expectation and to cater for seasonal demand fluctuation, the product life cycle becomes shorter. The result of this is that frequent delivery of new products from the distribution center to the fashion retailers is necessary. This puts extra pressure on the warehouse of the fashion retailer, in which a large number of fashion products of different sizes have to be handled within a limited period of time. Due to the lack of an appropriate storage location assignment strategy, fashion products are always stored randomly, which increases the difficulties of picking the designated products. This results in low warehouse operations efficiency. In this paper, a decision support system for facilitating hybrid storage location assignment decisions is proposed to improve the warehouse operations by considering the fashion product characteristics and the order picking patterns. By integrating the class-based storage assignment policy and association rule mining, the fashion products are classified into different classes and stored according to the correlation between products. Through conducting a pilot study in a retailer store, it was found that the systematic storage location assignment strategy improves the order picking efficiency in terms of shorter travel distance.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel7/6624250/6641565/06641642.pdf

A hybrid decision support system for storage location assignment in the fast-fashion industry

This﻿article﻿aims﻿at﻿identifying﻿significant﻿factors﻿influencing﻿behavioural﻿intention﻿and﻿resistance﻿ of﻿patients﻿ toward﻿electronic﻿health﻿ record﻿sharing﻿systems﻿by﻿using﻿PLS-SEM.﻿A﻿questionnaire﻿ was﻿selected﻿as﻿the﻿major﻿data﻿collection﻿method﻿and﻿243﻿responses﻿were﻿collected.﻿Thus,﻿this﻿paper﻿ reviewed﻿different﻿theoretical﻿models﻿to﻿illustrate﻿the﻿factors﻿which﻿influence﻿the﻿behavioural﻿intention﻿ of﻿patients﻿towards﻿the﻿usage﻿of﻿the﻿system﻿and﻿to﻿identify﻿the﻿most﻿important﻿factors﻿for﻿acceptance﻿ and﻿resistance﻿of﻿patients’﻿respectively.﻿The﻿responses﻿were﻿then﻿divided﻿into﻿two﻿groups,﻿specialist﻿ patients﻿and﻿normal﻿patients,﻿which﻿had﻿the﻿common﻿factors﻿including﻿performance﻿expectancy﻿and﻿ effort﻿expectancy.﻿For﻿specialist﻿patients,﻿transition﻿costs﻿were﻿identified﻿as﻿the﻿only﻿factor﻿significantly﻿ affecting﻿resistance﻿to﻿use.﻿For﻿normal﻿patients,﻿sunk﻿costs﻿and﻿regret﻿avoidance﻿were﻿found﻿to﻿be﻿ positively﻿correlated﻿with﻿resistance﻿to﻿using﻿of﻿normal﻿patients. KEywoRdS Electronic Health Record Sharing System, Empirical Study, Smart-PLS, Structural Equation Modelling

/pdf/an-empirical-study-on-patients-acceptance-and-resistance-536fiiz4lv.pdf

An Empirical Study on Patients' Acceptance and Resistance Towards Electronic Health Record Sharing System: A Case Study of Hong Kong

The emerging trend of e-commerce business poses serious challenges in the field of logistics. To handle e-commerce shipments, warehouses must be able to efficiently handle a large number of stock-keeping units (SKUs), pick and pack small volume orders, and deliver them on time in small parcel shipments to consumers. In this sense, traditional order fulfillment, which encompasses receiving, put-away, picking, and transport through the warehouse, might not be able to fully fulfill the requirements of e-commerce. Considering the fact that order picking in warehouses is one of the most costly activities amongst the logistics operating categories, there is a crucial need to adopt a wave picking strategy to handle e-commerce shipments, an order picking approach that groups the orders for picking at the same time to minimize repeated visits to nearby storage locations. To apply the wave picking strategy properly, decision support for establishing the timing of each wave and the quantity of items to be picked is essential. Therefore, in this paper, a case-based multi-agent wave picking decision support system is proposed to help decision-makers in generating wave picking sequences in order to handle e-commerce shipments, through the integration of case-based reasoning and multi-agent technique. After a pilot study of the proposed system in a third-party logistics service provider, the order-processing efficiency was greatly enhanced.

Design of a case-based multi-agent wave picking decision support system for handling e-commerce shipments

– The purpose of this paper is to determine the optimal sale effort deployment under dual-channel distribution which combines a traditional brick and mortar retail channel from the partner retailer and an online direct channel from the manufacturer. , – A sales effort competition game is set up in the dual-channel distribution between the manufacturer and the retailer. Demand under sales efforts is determined based on the consumer valuation, consumer’s channel preference and sales efforts. Then, the optimal sales effort deployment is studied with a game theory approach which allow the retailer and the manufacturer to maximize their own profit. , – Consumer’s channel preference is a key parameter of the demand assignment in the dual-channel distribution. Interestingly, the optimal sales effort and the profit of the manufacturer and the retailer can be limited by the other’s efficiency of sales effort. The finding suggests that the manufacturer and the retailer should collaborate to enhance the efficiency of the sales effort. It also shows that the manufacturer can utilize the direct channel as an important marketing channel even though no profit is obtained through the direct channel. , – This research provides a new method to model the sales effort in the dual-channel distribution. The optimal sales efforts based on the consumer behavior are determined. However, since this study assumes a consistent product price across channels, the results is not applicable for a retailer who can set their own price. , – It is a win-win situation for adoption of the dual-channel distribution although the manufacturer can benefit more. Additionally, direct channel can be used as an effective marketing channel. , – This research contributes to a better understanding of demands in dual-channel distribution under sales efforts. Additionally, the research results provide a useful framework of sales effort deployment under different consumers’ channel preferences in the dual-channel distribution.

King Lun Tommy Choy

Papers

An efficient production material demand order management system for a mould manufacturing company

A hybrid decision support system for storage location assignment in the fast-fashion industry

An Empirical Study on Patients' Acceptance and Resistance Towards Electronic Health Record Sharing System: A Case Study of Hong Kong

Design of a case-based multi-agent wave picking decision support system for handling e-commerce shipments

Sales effort deployment in decentralized dual-channel distribution