Adapting from System Dynamics methodology for model building and simulation, this paper provides a structural and systematic approach toward analyzing the actual operations of Vendor Managed Inventory in fastener supply chain and constructs application steps for implementation. Optimum replenishment parameters of VMI model are established through scenario designs, dynamic simulations, parameters tuning and key performance index measuring. Four key findings are: (1) VMI model is able to reinvent the competitive advantage of an enterprise and enhance the competitiveness of the entire industry; (2) the key success factor of VMI is acquisition and integration of the dynamic information over the supply chain; (3) the efficiency and effectiveness of VMI operation can be enhanced through dynamic modeling and parameter tuning; (4) Systematic modeling approach provide feasible methodology in solving real world VMI problems.

This thesis aims to construct an organizational political behavioral inventory. Frequently the tactics was used by members of an organization to affect their fellow members. Moreover they take adavntage of the opportunities of mastering and distributing organizational resources to make a profit for themselves. The data are collectted from the subjects of scholars and experts who participate in the organization located in southern Taiwan. The subjects who own the substantial power include the experts in Human Resource Management, company managers, factory directors and chiefs in the personnel department. They are asked to describe some incidents in which people at their company influence others in a short statement. Then according to the operational definition, it is eliminated, polished and integrated to make a forty-eight-item script of organizational political behavioral inventory which adopts the Likert¡¦s 5-point scale. The research chooses members of eleven companies to be the subjects of the script with a convenient sampling. These questionnaires are analyzed with different analytical methods. These include factor analysis (principal, varimax), communality, item analysis(internal consistent criterial) and Cronbach¡¦s £\ value. It also analyzes whether the subjects are affected by social desirability as well as the relationship of Machivalli's ¢¼ between subjects in order to construct a more valid, reliable, and practical inventory related to organizational political behavior. Base on the analyses mentioned above, ten items of the inventory script are deleted. The result of factor analysis obtains eight components. Total variance explained 69.181 %, and the community of each item is 0.5 above. The Cronbach¡¦s £\ in total inventory is 0.9438. Only two are lower than 0.6 among factors, where as the rest are higher than 0.7. The relationship of item-total of every factor achieves a significant level(p¡Õ.001). The test of the discriminatory power of each item also achieves a significant level. It concludes that the inventory resposed by the subjects aren¡¦t affected by social desirability. The comparison in Machivalli¡¦s ¢¼ doesn¡¦t have any significant difference between the chiefs in the basic and the chiefs in the middle or high level, between the people in the basic and the people in the middle or high level, between the people other than chiefs in the middle or high level and the chiefs in the middle or high level. The eight factors of the organizational political behavior are described in brief as follows: Factor 1: This includes seven items. It means that members are good at circulating the rumors, fomenting discord and lashing others. Factor 2: This includes nine items. It means that members use the power to oppress the opponent parties or groups and force them to accept what they don¡¦t really want. Factor 3: This includes eight items. It means that members make use of authority of office to oppress others and deal with the things arbitrarily. Factor 4: This includes five items. It means that members deal with the things successfully, by encouraging the subordinates, and rewarding subordinates. Factor 5: This includes two items. It means that members don¡¦t have their own opinions and flatter others on purpose. Factor 6: This factor includes two items. It means that members keep a low profile to get the information and are good at tricks. Factor 7: This includes two items. It means that members play an active role in expressing personal opinions and attracting others¡¦ attention. Factor 8: This includes three items. It means that members build up their professional images, express their intentions in a roundabout way, and never expose their inner feelings easily.

<p>The purpose of this master thesis is to point out possibilities for reducing the inventory of semi-finished products based on the example of a German SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) in the steel rope industry. Inventory reduction increases the flexibility of the company and decreases tied up capital. Therefore it is necessary to identify the factors which are influencing the inventory level. Theory provided market related, product related and pro-duction related factors. These factors have been analysed by collecting empirical data and comparing these results with theory. Product delivery strategy, decoupling point strategy and postponement strategy are the theo-retical frame work used to answer the main research question: How can the decrease of inventory of semi-finished products be exemplified without reducing the ability to deliver based on product delivery strategies? The main result of this thesis is that Drako is not able to move the decoupling point dramatically because this change would increase the set-up times. Therefore postponement strategies have to be applied to delay the point of product definition. This can be achieved on the one hand by ensuring that components are useable for other products. Nowadays this point of product definition occurs in the first production step when the chosen wire is fixed in the stranding machine. On the other hand it is easily possible to use free capacity so that the production process can be split up on more machines. The utilisation of the relevant machines for producing elevator steel wire rope is very low. Based on the value stream analysis, which was the major source for collection of the empirical data, waste in the production has been identified. Quality checks at the end of a process are not sufficient, because it is not possible to repair errors. Also the rewinding of the wire is wasted time for the company because the supplier is able to deliver the raw material also on bobbins, which avoids the rewinding process. All in all it can be said that the current production strategy of Drako allows many proposals for inventory reduction.</p> / <p>Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die Bestandsreduzierung von Zwischenprodukten dargestellt am Beispiel eines Klein- und Mittelunternehmens aus der Stahlseilbranche. Bestandsreduzierungen erhöhen die Flexibilität eines Unternehmens, indem nur das auf Lager liegt, was auch benötigt wird, und reduzieren somit das gebundene Kapital. Um eine Bestandsreduzierung durchführen zu können ist es nötig die Einflussfaktoren zu identifizieren. In der Literatur findet man drei Gruppen von Faktoren – marktbezogene, produktbezogene und prozessbezogene – auf, welche im Rahmen der Diplomarbeit identifiziert, analysiert und diskutiert werden. Dazu werden die empirischen Daten mit der Theorie verglichen. Methoden zur Erfüllung des Kundenbedarfs wie MTS, ATO, MTO und ETO, Theorien über den Entkopplungspunkt und Möglichkeiten zur Verschiebung des Variantenbildungspunktes bilden die theoretischen Grundkonzepte der Diplomarbeit um die folgende Hauptforschungsfrage zu beantworten: Wie kann der Bestand von Zwischenproduktion beispielhaft mit Produktionsmethoden reduziert werden ohne die Liefertreue zu verschlechtern? Das Resultat der Arbeit ist, dass man den Entkopplungspunkt nicht wesentlich verschieben kann, da sich sonst die Rüstzeiten dramatisch erhöhen würden. Deshalb ist es nur möglich mit ausgewählten Methoden den Variantenbildungspunkt zum Kunden hin zu verschieben. Dafür muss gewährleistet sein, dass die selben Zwischenprodukte auch für andere Fertigprodukte verwendet werden können. In dem Unternehmen ist der Variantenbildungspunkt ganz am Anfang der Wertschöpfungskette, d.h. im ersten Bearbeitungsschritt ist das fertige Produkt schon definiert. Ebenso wurde festgestellt, dass die Auslastung der Maschinen sehr niedrig ist. Deswegen ist es leicht möglich Arbeitsschritte aufzuteilen um so eine Verkürzung der Produktionsdurchlaufszeit zu ermöglichen. Mittels einer Wertstromanalyse, welche als Grundlage für die empirische Datenerhebung verwendet wurde, wurde festgestellt, dass sich im Produktionsablauf Verschwendungen ein-geschlichen haben. Zum einen gibt es am Ende der Produktion eine Qualitätskontrolle. Bei dieser „Leichenbeschau“ ist es nicht mehr möglich Fehler zu korrigieren, deshalb muss die Prozessstabilität erhöht werden um die geforderte Qualität sicherstellen zu können. Zum anderen wird der Draht von machen Lieferanten ohne Spulen geliefert. Das führt dazu, dass das Unternehmen einen Umspulvorgang einführen muss, welcher keine wertschöpfende Tätigkeit ist und somit vermieden werden sollte.</p>

Thesis (M.S.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Industrial Engineering. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-78). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Department of Systems Science and Industrial Enngineering, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-111).

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 61 p. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 31-37).

Uppsatsen besvarar en uppmärksammad problematik rörande statistisk tillförlitlighet och representativitet i webbundersökningar. Detta genom att utreda en alternativ metod för att angripa svarsbortfall. Tidigare studier har visat att svarsfrekvensen kan påverkas av att deltagare drivs av olika motivationsfaktorer, och modellen Volunteer Function Inventory (VFI) har studerats i syfte att utreda motivationssegmentering av paneldeltagare. Ett av modellens motiv, värderingar, har visat sig ha särskild stor betydelse. Uppsatsen ämnar därmed undersöka hur motivet, utifrån VFI, samt utifrån den teoretiska definitionen av begreppet, inverkar på deltagaraktivitet. En kvalitativ undersökning av Coop Medlemspanel har möjliggjort att besvara uppsatsens syfte. Resultatet har att visat motivation, utifrån värderingar, kan vara av intresse i driften av panelverksamhet. Det framkommer att deltagarnas motivation grundar sig i olika värderingar som i sin tur kan kopplas till svarsfrekvens. Studien har visat att de värderingar som har stor betydelse för motivationen till deltagandet kan härledas till påverkan. Avsaknad av feedback samt tidsbrist kan dock ha negativ inverkan för värderingen, men då värderingar som hjälpsamhet och omtanke kombineras med påverkan, verkar dessa hinder kunna övervinnas.

Nigeria is the most densely populated country in Africa and one of the most advanced economically in terms of both industry and soil and landscape utilization. This country is projected to have one of the largest urban growth rates by 2050. Thus, the demands of the rapidly increasing human population and its material consumption represent a severe threat to biodiversity. Nigeria has the highest deforestation rate of natural forest in the world, its original vegetation has largely been replaced by farming activities, urban development and other products of human activities. The principal causes of the decline and loss of biodiversity in Nigeria include human exploitation of natural resources, fragmentation of habitats and populations, conversion of wild areas to agriculture and other intensive human use and alterations in the structure and function of ecosystems. Amphibians are the vertebrate group with the highest number of species threatened with extinction and habitat loss and fragmentation are considered to be among the leading causes of their declines and extinctions. It has been recognized that one of the most severe problems in conservation biology is the scarcity of baseline data. Such lack prevents evaluation of the effect of the expanding anthropogenic impact and determination of potential population declines. The mountains of eastern Nigeria, within Taraba State, are regionally important in terms of biodiversity and endemism, however, its herpetofaunal diversity has received little attention. Moreover, no studies have investigated how habitat loss and fragmentation may affect dispersal and gene flow among small and isolated amphibian populations, and in the absence of such studies attempts at amphibian conservation are compromised. The aims of this project were threefold. Firstly, a comprehensive inventory of the amphibians and reptiles of Ngel Nyaki and Kurmin Danko Reserve on the Mambilla Plateau was compiled. The outcome, an annotated list of 21 amphibians and 11 reptiles, represent the most thorough inventory to date of the herpetofauna on the Mambilla Plateau. Based on this inventory four key anuran species were selected to conduct a population genetics study. Secondly, molecular tools specifically AFLP markers were developed and used to analyze the genetic population structures of the four frog species Cardioglossa schioetzi, Leptodactylodon bicolor, Astylosternus sp. 1 and Astylosternus sp. 2. differing in geographic distribution and life history traits within the study area. Thirdly, these species were assessed to understand dispersal and connectivity among fragmented and continuous populations on the Ngel Nyaki and Kurmin Danko Reserve. Genetic differentiation among the forest and the riparian fragment populations was observed for three of the target species, however, no significant genetic differentiation was detected among the populations located in continuous forest for any of the four frog species. In addition, geographic and genetic distances were not correlated significantly for any of the four target species, suggesting no isolation by distance at this fine geographic scale. Results from both the inventory and the genetic population structure study revealed that the riparian forest fragments are of utmost importance for the persistence and migration of Cardioglossa schioetzi, and potentially for many other amphibian species. The new scientific findings are now part of the valuable baseline data on the diversity and genetic population structure of amphibian species in Ngel Nyaki and Kurmin Danko Forest Reserve. These results will better inform conservation managers who need to make decisions around management of montane habitat for amphibian species.