In this thesis, we study large-scale dynamic optimization problems in the context of inventory management. We analyze inventory problems with constraints coupling the items or facility locations in the inventory systems, and we propose efficient solutions that are asymptotically optimal or empirically near-optimal. In Chapter 1, we analyze multi-item, single-location inventory systems with storage capacity limits which are formulated as both unconditional expected value constraints and unconditional probability constraints. We first show that problems with unconditional expected value constraints only can be solved to optimality through Lagrangian relaxation. Then, under an assumption on the correlation structure of the demands that is valid under most practical setting, we show that the original problem can be sandwiched between two other problems with expected value constraints only. One of these problems yields a feasible solution to the original problem that is asymptotically optimal as the number of items grows. In Chapter 2, we consider the same problem but with conditional probability constraints, that impose limits on overflow frequency for every possible state in each period. We construct an efficient feasible solution in two steps. First, we solve an unconditional expected value constrained problem with reduced capacity. Second, in each period, given the state information, we solve a single-period convex optimization problem with a conditional expected value constraint. We further show that the heuristic is asymptotically optimal as number of items I grows. In addition, we design another efficient method for moderate values of I, which works empirically well in an extensive numerical study. Moreover, we extract key managerial insights from the numerical study which are critical to decision making in real business problems. In Chapter 3, we analyze single-item, multi-location systems on inventory networks that can be described by directed acyclic graphs (DAG). We propose an innovative reformulation of the problem so that Lagrangian relaxation can still be applied, which, instead of decomposing the problem by facility location, aggregates the state information, leading to a tractable lower bound approximation for the problem. The Lagrange multiplier, which provides information on the value function from the lower bound dynamic program, is used in designing a feasible heuristic. An extensive numerical study is conducted which suggests that both the lower bound approximation and upper bound heuristic perform very well.

The introduction of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens transferred through ships' ballast water and sediments from one coastal region to another has ecological, economic, environmental, and human impacts. The international community, through numerous binding and non-binding instruments, also sought to combat this problem. Ultimately, the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments, 2004 was adopted by the International Maritime Organization as the dedicated legal regime intended to prevent, control and ultimately eradicate the introduction and spread of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens through ships' ballast water and sediments. By its Regulations, the Convention sets out coastal/port and flag State obligations along with subsequently adopted technical Guidelines by which to implement it. Despite the importance of this problem, the Convention has not entered into force. This study assesses the potential of the Convention to promote achievement of the goal to prevent and eliminate this source of marine and biodiversity degradation and destruction. The study finds that the Convention constitutes a useful global legal regime within which steps can be taken to establish uniform ground rules, standards and practices to combat the introduction, transfer and spread of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens across the world's coastal and marine areas. Nevertheless, its potential is undermined, among others, by the exemption of some categories of ships from its application, financial costs, especially to developing States, of implementing its requirements, and by the fact that its provisions do not account for other salient sources by which harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens are spread. Suggestions are made to encourage more ratification to bring the Convention into force and on remedying some of the weaknesses in the formulation of its rules. It is concluded that if it is ratified by sufficient and wide number of States as well as conscientiously implemented by States, adopting additional national laws and policies to regulate areas which are not addressed by the Convention, it would facilitate progress in the global effort to improve the protection of marine environments, ecosystems, and biodiversity, specifically, as regards the contribution towards combating the introduction and transfer of harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens via ships' ballast water and sediments. / The threat posed by harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens to the society at large is devastating. The Ballast Water Management Convention 2004 was adopted to remedy this problem. Though the Convention has potential to combat the threat, it has some ambiguities. This study concludes that if the provisions of the Convention, coupled with the recommendations made in this study are implemented at State level, we will have an international community that is free from the menace posed by harmful aquatic organisms and pathogens introduced through ships' ballast water and sediments, and a safer marine ecosystems will be ensued for us in due time.

This thesis is focused on the example of process approach used as the tool for quality management in a real company. The aim of this paper is to get readers acquaint with quality control management eight principles from the ISO/IEC 9001 perspective. The thesis then elaborates the practical site of process management approach. The paper describes process management evolution stages, its benefits, there are introduced specific types of modelling methods and ways for process performance measurement. The implementation of process approach is then shown on practical example. The thesis's practical part provides process charts for key organization processes drafted according to the one selected modelling method, descriptions for such processes, suggestions for change aiming to process optimisation and finally also proposes measurable process performance indicators.

Supply chain management is one of the fundamental topics in the field of operations research, and a vast literature exists on the subject. Many recent developments in the field are rapidly narrowing the gap between the systems handled in the literature and the real-life problems companies need to solve on a day-to-day basis. However, there are certain features often observed in real-world systems that elude even these most recent developments. In this thesis, we consider a number of these features, and propose some new heuristics together with methodologies to evaluate their performance. In Chapter 2, we consider a general two-echelon distribution system consisting of a depot and multiple sales outlets which face random demands for a given item. The replenishment process consists of two stages: the depot procures the item from an outside supplier, while the retailers' inventories are replenished by shipments from the depot. Both of the replenishment stages are associated with a given facility-specific leadtime. The depot as well as the retailers face a limited inventory capacity. We propose a heuristic for this class of dynamic programming models to obtain an upper bound on optimal costs, together with a new approach to generate lower bounds based on Lagrangian relaxation. We report on an extensive numerical study with close to 14,000 instances which evaluates the accuracy of the lower bound and the optimality gap of the various heuristic policies. Our study reveals that our policy performs exceedingly well almost across the entire parameter spectrum. In Chapter 3, we extend the model above to deal with distribution systems involving several items. In this setting, two interdependencies can arise between items that considerably complicate the problem. First, shared storage capacity at each of the retail outlets results in a trade-off between items; ordering more of one item means less space is available for another. Second, economies of scope can occur in the order costs if several items can be ordered from a single supplier, incurring only one fixed cost. To our knowledge, our approach is the first that has been proposed to handle such complex, multi-echelon, multi-item systems. We propose a heuristic for this class of dynamic programming models, to obtain an upper bound on optimal costs, together with an approach to generate lower bounds. We report on an extensive numerical study with close to 1,200 instances that reveals our heuristic performs excellently across the entire parameter spectrum. In Chapter 4, we consider a periodic-review stochastic inventory control system consisting of a single retailer which faces random demands for a given item, and in which demand forecasts are dynamically updated (for example, new information observed in one period may affect our beliefs about demand distributions in future periods). Replenishment orders are subject to fixed and variable costs. A number of heuristics exist to deal with such systems, but to our knowledge, no general approach exists to find lower bounds on optimal costs therein. We develop a general approach for finding lower bounds on the cost of such systems using an information relaxation. We test our approach in a model with advance demand information, and obtain good lower bounds over a range of problem parameters. Finally, in Appendix A, we begin to tackle the problem of using these methods in real supply chain systems. We were able to obtain data from a luxury goods manufacturer to inspire our study. Unfortunately, the methods we developed in earlier chapters were not directly applicable to these data. Instead, we developed some alternate heuristic methods, and we considered statistical techniques that might be used to obtain the parameters required for these heuristics from the data available.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-02T21:42:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mauricio Pelanda - GTI.pdf: 896750 bytes, checksum: 215944fec31935c742d360ac53010be4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-12-19 / IT Governance has grown to be more critical in the Brazilian business atmosphere as a direct result of world changing events such as the fall of the American stock exchange, NASDAQ, the configuration restructure after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 on the United States and the passing of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002. This management model has been adopted by organizations looking for not only obtaining better IT administrative control but also to comply with requirements enforced by legal agencies. Implementing IT Governance is a complex process as the challenge is identifying the best model within the business world. Companies ought to evaluate and implement those models that better suit their needs. The objective of this study is to analyze IT Governance models adopted by organizations in Brazil evaluating their results, maturity levels, benefits, challenges and tendencies leading to a better understanding of these models further contributing to the lack of IT Governance studies in Brazil. This empirical research studies multiple management models employed by several companies and how their framework, methodologies and best practices have been used for their effectiveness. Furthermore, the findings of this research reveal all aspects involving the implementation of IT Governance in the organizations and how such aspects have shaped each models, trends and performance. Keywords: IT Governance, Control Management, Best Practices, Agency Theory. / O tema Governança de Tecnologia da Informação (GTI) tornou-se mais premente no ambiente empresarial brasileiro, principalmente após as repercussões mundiais ocorridas com a queda da bolsa de valores americana Nasdaq, com a nova configuração mundial após os ataques aos Estados Unidos em 11 de setembro de 2001 e a partir da promulgação da Lei Sarbanes-Oxley em 2002. Esse modelo de gestão tem sido implementado por organizações que buscam não somente obter melhor controle de gestão em Tecnologia da Informação, como para aquelas que têm de atender às conformidades legais exigidas pelos órgãos de controle. Implementá-la é um processo complexo e desafiador em virtude da necessidade de se identificar o melhor modelo de GTI dentre as práticas existentes no mundo empresarial. As empresas precisam fazer uma composição daquelas que melhor se aderem às suas realidades. Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar os modelos de GTI adotados em organizações no Brasil, avaliar os seus resultados, seus níveis de maturidade, os seus benefícios, suas dificuldades e suas tendências, contribuindo assim para o seu melhor entendimento e para amenizar a carência de estudos nessa área no Brasil. Este estudo, que é de natureza empírica, baseou-se na metodologia de estudo de casos múltiplos realizado em cinco empresas para explorar como este modelo de gestão vem sendo adotado, quais estruturas, metodologias e práticas de mercado têm sido utilizadas para a sua efetividade. Neste contexto, apresentam-se os resultados obtidos, os aspectos que envolvem a implementação dos modelos de GTI nas organizações, as dificuldades encontradas, o que têm condicionado o seu desempenho e suas tendências.

Titel: Anpassning av balanserat styrkort - en fallstudie av serviceavdelningen på Region Kronoberg Nivå: C-uppsats i ämnet Företagsekonomi Författare: Andres Gonzalez Castro, Fredrik Johansson & Safet Kopic Handledare: Yuliya Ponomareva Datum: 2018-04-29 Nyckelord: Balanserat styrkort, Ekonomistyrning, New public management, Offentlig sektor, Anpassning Bakgrund: Begreppet “new public management” uppkom under 1980-talet som en konsekvens av att den offentliga sektorn tyngdes av höga kostnader och bristande kostnadskontroll. New public management syftar till att effektivisera den offentliga sektorn genom att hämta inspiration från den privata sektorn. Parallellt med begreppet “new public management” växte det balanserade styrkortet fram som en ny innovativ styrmodell. Det balanserade styrkortet tog inte enbart hänsyn till finansiella mått, utan även till icke-finansiella sådana för att skapa värde på lång sikt. Problemdiskussion: För att anpassningen av styrmodellen ska fungera måste en organisation ta hänsyn till flera aspekter; dels att styrmodellen är utformad efter verksamhetens specifika behov, dels att de olika perspektiven och styrtal har ett så kallat “orsaks-verkan”– samband. Det finns flera utmaningar med det balanserade styrkortet som kan påverka hur en organisation anpassar och utvecklar sitt styrkort. Det balanserade styrkortet inom offentlig sektor har ifrågasatts, där kritiker menar att styrkortet inte tillför någon nytta och att styrdokumenten som införs inte implementeras fullt ut. Frågeställning: I vilken utsträckning kan ett regionalt övergripande styrkort anpassas till avdelningsnivå? Syfte: Studien ämnar undersöka anpassning och tillämpning av det balanserade styrkortet på Region Kronoberg med särskilt fokus på serviceavdelningen.  Metod: En fallstudie har genomförts på Växjö lasaretts serviceavdelning, som ingår i Region Kronoberg. Intervjuerna som genomfördes gjordes både enskilt och i grupp. Vårt tillvägagångssätt tar ansats i den kvalitativa forskningsmetoden. Både primär och sekundär data har använts för insamling av information. Analys: Både det övergripande och serviceavdelningens balanserade styrkort har modifierats i förhållande till Kaplan och Nortons grundmodell. Flera indikatorer antyder att anpassningen av styrkorten på de olika nivåerna saknar samband – något som Kaplans och Nortons teori anser vara viktigt. Det övergripande styrkortet får på grund av detta en annan funktion än den som är tänkt, vilket medfört att det balanserade styrkortet inte når sin fulla potential genom de fyra perspektiven. Slutsats: Det vi har kommit fram till med denna studie är att anpassningen av det balanserade styrkortet i en stor och komplex organisation som Region Kronoberg kan innebära flera utmaningar. Grunden till dessa är att sambandet mellan det övergripande styrkortet för Region Kronoberg och den enskilda serviceavdelningen inte är optimalt. Det övergripande styrkortet fungerar mer som en modell för att beskriva övergripande mål till serviceavdelningen än ett styrningsverktyg. / Title: The adaptation of the balanced scorecard - a case study of the service department at Region Kronoberg Level: Final assignment for Bachelor of Science in Business and Economics Authors: Andres Gonzales Castro, Fredrik Johansson & Safet Kopic Supervisor: Yuliya Ponomareva Date: 2018-04-29 Key words: Balanced scorecard, financial control management accounting, New public management, public sector, adaptation Background: The concept of New Public Management emerged during the 1980’s as a result of the public sector being burdened by high costs and lack of cost control. New public management aims to streamline the public sector by gaining inspiration from the private sector. In parallel with the concept of New Public Management, the balanced scorecard grew as a new innovative control model. The balanced scorecard not only took into account the financial measurements but also non-financial measures to create value in the future. Problemdiscussion: In order for the adaptation of the control model to succeed, an organization must take several aspects into account, and that the control model is designed according to the specific needs of the business, but also that the different perspectives and control numbers have a causal relationship. There are several challenges with the balanced scorecard that can affect how an organization adapt and develops the scorecard. The balanced public sector scorecard has been questioned, where critics argue that the scorecard does not provide any benefit and that the steering documents that were introduced were not fully implemented. Research question: To what extent can a regional overall scorecard be adapted to departmental level? Purpose: The study aims to investigate the adaptation and application of the balanced scorecard at Region Kronoberg with special focus on the service department. Method: A case study has been carried out at the service department at Växjö lasarett, which is part of the Kronoberg Region. This case study contains the use of individual as well as group interviews. Our starting point has been a qualitative research method. Both primary and secondary data have been used to collect the data. Analyse: Both the overall and service department's balanced scorecards have been modified in relation to Kaplan and Norton's basic model. Several reasons suggest that the use of the control cards at the different levels lacks a connection, which, according to the theory, is considered important. Because of those reasons, the overall scorecard has a different function than the one intended, which means that the balanced scorecard does not reach its full potential through the four perspectives.  Conclusion: What we have achieved with this study is that the adaption of the balanced scorecard in a large and complex organization as Region Kronoberg can pose several challenges. The reason for these challenges is that the connections are not optimal between the overall balanced scorecard for Region Kronoberg and the individual service department. The overall scorecard works more like a model to describe overall goals to the service department than a control tool.

When performing an analysis of the evolution of software quality and software metrics,there is a need to get access to as many versions of the source code as possible. There isa lack of research on how data or source code can be extracted from the source controlmanagement system Git. This thesis explores different possibilities to resolve thisproblem. Lately, there has been a boom in usage of the version control system Git. Githubalone hosts about 6,100,000 projects. Some well known projects and organizations thatuse Git are Linux, WordPress, and Facebook. Even with these figures and clients, thereare very few tools able to perform data extraction from Git repositories. A pre-studyshowed that there is a lack of standardization on how to share mining results, and themethods used to obtain them. There are several tools available for older version control systems, such as concurrentversions system (CVS), but few for Git. The examined repository mining applicationsfor Git are either poorly documented; or were built to be very purpose-specific to theproject for which they were designed. This thesis compiles a list of general issues encountered when using repositorymining as a tool for data gathering. A selection of existing repository mining tools wereevaluated towards a set of prerequisite criteria. The end result of this evaluation is thecreation of a new repository mining tool called Doris. This tool also includes a smallcode metrics analysis library to show how it can be extended.

The thesis deals with audit quality and auditor selection. These can indeed have a significant effect on audit quality. The introductory chapters of the thesis describe a quality in general form. It offers a basic characteristic of audit and auditor. It is deal with a legislative framework, necessary standards and another regulation of audit quality. Subsequently, it explains control system of audit quality in the Czech Republic and it describes watchdog bodies in the Czech Republic. After that the publication of Federation of European Accountants (FEE) from 2013 is analysed and criteria are presented. These criteria proceed from survey of FEE and determine the auditor selection. In conclusion it deals with application of discovered information on the individual practical examples of application for execution of audit or other audit services. This achieved information is used to create a sample form. This sample form of application for execution of audit could serve to improve of audit quality in the first stage of auditor selection. The ISO standards, book of Audit and the FEE publication are the main information source for the thesis.

由於現代企業面臨之風險是多變的，許多有關之法令規定已過時，企業組織可用之資源、成本和效益會產生變化，故企業要能適應未來的變局更需落實風險管理。 企業實施風險管理之重要目標，是為了在損失發生前能以節約的原則，減少憂慮，符合外界規定，並善盡社會責任；在損失發生後能生存，繼續營運，維持收益穩定，以求繼續成長等。然而企業往往會多角化擴充經營範疇，甚至在各處實施特定的經營活動，如此其風險管理將更形複雜。 本文擬以風險管理與損害防阻的實務經驗，佐以理論基礎，說明導入風險管理與損害防阻之目標、策略、程序、計畫、績效評核等，期能使各企業認識、衡量風險，藉由選擇並執行最符合經濟效益之風險管理方法，達到企業永續經營的目標。 其次，以個人在集團內執行安全管理系統和損害防阻安全查勘服務計畫的個案，說明企業損害防阻管理意義、風險的確認、分析與評估、損害防阻管理的執行與考核、績效評估等。最後再以身為企業推動風險管理與損害防阻的一份子，檢視以往歷程提出建議，期能拋磚引玉，讓更多的組織、企業和相關人士重視並推動主動式的風險控制及損害防阻管理。 / Since the risks faced by the modern enterprises are changeable, the laws and stipulations are obsolete and outdated, the resources, costs and benefits used by the enterprises organizations are subject to change, and therefore the enterprises have to carry out the risk management in order to be able to adapt the future changes in situations. The major targets for the enterprises to implement the risk management are for the purposes of reducing the anxiety, conforming to the outside stipulations and fulfilling the social responsibilities sincerely before the losses occur; surviving, operating continually, maintaining the incomes and continuing to grow, etc. if the losses should occur. However, the enterprises often run their business diversified and even operate the specific business activities everywhere, that will make their risk management more complex. This article intends to be written in the view of practical experiences to engage in the risk management, loss prevention and control as well as the assists of theory foundations, depicts the implementations of goals, strategies, procedures, plans and performance evaluations, etc. in risk management, loss prevention and control, anticipating various enterprises to identify and measure the risks by means of selecting and executing the risk management methods which conform to the utmost economical benefits for the goals of running businesses continually. Next, in the case where the writer personally carried out the safety management systems and safety survey service plans of loss prevention and control in group enterprises illustrates the meaning of loss control management, the identification, analysis and evaluation of risk, and the implementation, the verification and performance evaluation of loss control management, etc. Finally, as the member of implementing enterprises risk management and loss prevention and control, the writer examines the past working processes and experiences to offer some recommendations, expecting to throw stones and bring back jade to let much more organizations, enterprises and the parties concerned think highly of and enforce the proactive risk control and loss control management.

近幾年來金融科技快速發展,傳統金融業被破壞式創新顛覆, 智能投顧的興起改變了資產管理行業的傳統模式,填補了一般大 眾理財市場的空缺。隨著互聯網理財模式在中國得到大眾認可, 智能投顧平台在中國開始萌芽,處於探索階段。在這樣的背景下, 本研究以中國智能投顧市場為研究對象,採用歸納法和對比分析 法,探究中國智能投顧業發展趨勢之相關實務。 本文根據前人的研究,對智能投顧的概念、特徵以及類型進 行了總結,歸納全球各國智能投顧業發展現況;根據中國財富管 理市場成熟程度來分析中國智能投顧業發展前景;參考美國智能 投顧發展模式和中國 P2P 網路借貸平台發展模式,歸納出適合中 國發展智能投顧業的經驗:1)讓傳統金融業者成為行業領導者, 2)明確服務範疇,規範從業證照,3)對算法進行嚴格監管,4) 發展被動型基金,財富管理市場產品多樣化,5)儘早建立完善 的風控體系;此外還根據各國智能投顧業之監管措施,對中國監 管機關􏰀出宏觀的監管建議,並希望此研究報告對之後想要進一 步研究智能投顧的學者􏰀供參考。