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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1781

Water as a Public Good in Indonesia: An evaluation of water supply service performance in an Indonesian water supply enterprise as a means to address social and environmental justice concerns

Wijaya, Andy Fefta, wija0002@flinders.edu.au January 2006 (has links)
A water supply service can be seen as a public or private good, but this thesis makes the argument that water is vital for society and so to ensure accountability it is important that water governance includes citizens' participation for social and environmental justice concerns. Public goods are generally defined as goods and services that are provided by 'means of public policy' (Lane, 1993, p. 21), or 'collective political choice' (Stretton & Orchard, 1994, p. 54) rather than by means of an individual market mechanism in which private goods are usually provided. This thesis addresses the function of water as a public good. If social and environmental goals of water use are ignored, the implications can be detrimental particularly for the poorest members of society. An organization's goal effectiveness is usually related to its success in achieving desired outcomes of the organization's goals through a systemic management interaction across organizational aspects at the input, process, output, and outcome/impact stages. This thesis argues an evaluation model of performance measurement can be developed to reflect the characteristics of a public good for a water supply utility, and this model of performance measurement can assist in addressing issues of social and environmental justice. Harris et al argue that better governance can only be achieved by working for democracy in multiple arenas (Harriss, Stokke, & Tornquist, 2004, pp. 7-8). This study considers multidimensional performance measures taking on board the values of many stakeholders with different backgrounds. It 'unfolds' and 'sweeps in' in many dimensions in an attempt at systemic representation (Ulrich, 1983, p. 169). McIntyre- Mills states that 'service need to reflect the values of the users and for this to occur the users need to participate in and decide on policy design and governance' (McIntyre-Mills, 2003, p. 14). Performance measurement systems can be used to detect a gap between services supplied by providers and various needs demanded by stakeholders. The thesis develops an outcome performance measurement model for evaluating social equity and environmental justice concerns. It draws on and adapts four performance measurement models of the International Water Association, World Bank, Indonesian Home Affairs Department and Indonesian Water Supply Enterprise Association. A complementary combined method was developed that addresses qualitative and quantitative governance concerns as they perform to water supply performance problems. Three research methods were used, namely the case study, survey and focus group discussion for collecting qualitative and quantitative data from the three governance sectors. These were triangulated. Five research tools in the case study method were used for collecting information from stakeholders in the three governance sectors including interview, personal communication or email, document analysis, direct observation and documentation. The survey was used to investigate 431 respondents from three case study locations in Cinusa1 city, and the two focus groups were conducted in the city's water supply company management for discussing problems of water supply performance as summarized from the survey. The locus of this study was concentrated in the Cinusa city jurisdiction area, and the focus was the performance problem of the water supply company in Cinusa during 2001-2004. However, a comparative study of water supply performance nationally and internationally is presented for analyzing relative performance gaps.This research evaluates interconnections among cost inefficiency, tariff escalation and other non-financial performances: water supply quantity, quality, continuity and pressure. Inefficient costs because of corrupt, collusive and nepotistic practices in this Indonesian water supply company implicate cost burdens in the company and prevent this water local public enterprise perform its social and environmental missions. The Cinusa local government as the owner of this local public enterprise and the Cinusa local parliament hold a monopoly power in some important decisions related to this local public enterprise, including tariff policy, senior management positions and the total amount of profit share paid to the local government. Such customers from lower income household instead of being subsidized as specified in the national regulation are paying at a profitable tariff and subsidizing this enterprise's inefficiency and the government's locally generated revenue. The inefficiency alongside the profit sharing policy also weakens this enterprise's capacity to invest and improve its service performances. Improving the service performance is essential for current and potential customers and could also benefit the society economically, socially and environmentally, besides being of economic benefit to the enterprise itself. Securing public health concerns and groundwater preservations can be conducted by improving the accessibility, the availability and the reliability of water quality, quantity, pressure and continuity. This research presents an evaluation model for improving the accountability of water supply by means of performance management tool and it makes policy recommendations.
1782

Population Dynamics of Eastern Grey Kangaroos in Temperate Grasslands

Fletcher, Donald Bryden, N/A January 2006 (has links)
This thesis is about the dynamics of eastern grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) populations and their food supplies in temperate grasslands of south-eastern Australia. It is based on the study of three populations of eastern grey kangaroos inhabiting �warm dry�, �cold dry�, and �warm wet� sites within the Southern Tablelands climatic region. After a pilot survey and methods trial in early 2001, the main period of study was from August 2001 to July 2003. The study populations were found to have the highest densities of any kangaroo populations, 450 to 510 km-2. Their density was the same at the end of the two year study period as at the beginning, in spite of a strong decline in herbage availability due to drought. The eastern grey kangaroo populations were limited according to the predation-sensitive food hypothesis. Fecundity, as the observed proportion of females with late pouch young in spring, was high, in spite of the high kangaroo density and restricted food availability. Age-specific fecundity of a kangaroo sample shot on one of the sites in 1997 to avert starvation was the highest reported for kangaroos. Thus, limitation acted through mortality rather than fecundity. Population growth rate was most sensitive to adult survival but the demographic rate that had the greatest effect in practice was mortality of juveniles, most likely sub-adults. The combination of high fecundity with high mortality of immatures would provide resilience to low levels of imposed mortality and to fertility control. The normal pattern of spring pasture growth was not observed in the drought conditions and few of the recorded increments of growth were of the magnitude considered typical for sites on the southern and central tablelands. Temperature was necessary to predict pasture growth, as well as rainfall, over the previous two months. The best model of pasture growth (lowest AICc) included negative terms for herbage mass, rainfall over the previous two months, and temperature, and a positive term for the interaction between rainfall and temperature. It accounted for 13% more of the variation in the data than did the simpler model of the type used by Robertson (1987a), Caughley (1987) and Choquenot et al. (1998). However this was only 63% of total variation. Re-evaluation of the model based on measurements of pasture growth in more typical (non-drought) conditions is recommended. Grazing had a powerful influence on the biomass of pasture due to the high density of kangaroos. This is a marked difference to many other studies of the type which have been conducted in semi-arid environments where rainfall dominates. The offtake of pasture by kangaroos, as estimated on the research sites by the cage method, was linear on herbage mass. It was of greater magnitude than the more exact estimate of the (curved) functional response from grazedowns in high�quality and low�quality pastures. The widespread recognition of three forms of functional response is inadequate. Both the theoretical basis, and supporting data, have been published for domed, inaccessible residue, and power forms as well (Holling 1966; Noy-Meir 1975; Hassell et al. 1976, 1977; Short 1986; Sabelis 1992). Eastern grey kangaroos had approximately the same Type 2 functional response when consuming either a high quality artificial pasture (Phalaris aquatica), or dry native pasture (Themeda australis) in autumn. Their functional response rose more gradually than those published for red kangaroos and western grey kangaroos in the semi-arid rangelands, and did not satiate at the levels of pasture available. This gradual behaviour of the functional response contributes to continuous stability of the consumer-resource system, as opposed to discontinuous stability. The numerical response was estimated using the ratio equation, assuming an intrinsic rate of increase for eastern grey kangaroos in temperate grasslands of 0.55. There is indirect evidence of effects of predation in the dynamics of the kangaroo populations. This is demonstrated by the positive relationship between r and kangaroo density. Such a relationship can be generated by predation. A desirable future task is to compile estimates of population growth rate and simultaneous estimates of pasture, in the absence of predation, where kangaroo population density is changing, so that the numerical response can be estimated empirically. The management implications arising from this study are numerous and a full account would require a separate report. As one example, kangaroos in these temperate grasslands are on average smaller, eat less, are more numerous, and are more fecund, than would be predicted from other studies (e.g. Caughley et al. 1987). Thus the benefit of shooting each kangaroo, in terms of grass production, is less, or, in other words, more kangaroos have to be shot to achieve a certain level of impact reduction, and the population will recover more quickly, than would have been predicted prior to this study. Secondly, of much importance to managers, the interactive model which can readily be assembled from the products of Chapters 4, 5 and 8, can be used to test a range of management options, and the effect of variation in weather conditions, such as increased or decreased rainfall. For example, the model indicates that commercial harvesting (currently under trial in the region), at the maximum level allowed, results in a sustainable harvest of kangaroos, but does not increase the herbage mass, and only slightly reduces the frequency of crashes when herbage mass falls to low levels. (To demonstrate this with an ecological experiment would require an extremely large investment of research effort.) However, an alternative �national park damage mitigation� formula, which holds kangaroo density to about 1 ha-1, is predicted to increase herbage mass considerably and to reduce the frequency of crashes in herbage mass, but these effects would be achieved at the cost of having to shoot large numbers of kangaroos. Thus, aside from many specific details of kangaroo ecology, the knowledge gained in this study appears to have useful potential to illustrate to managers the dynamic properties of a resource-consumer system, the probabilistic nature of management outcomes, and the consequences of particular kangaroo management proposals.
1783

Supply and Demand of Creative Arts in Regional Victoria, Australia

Masters, Tristan Andrew, tristan.masters@acma.gov.au January 2007 (has links)
Creative arts can make vital contributions to both economies and communities. Moreover, these impacts can be keenly felt by smaller, regional communities, where shifts away from traditional rural industries are apparent, and in the context of the Inew economy' which emphasises the importance of knowledge industries and creative industries. This research investigates creative arts supply and demand in regional Victoria, Australia through the collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data in three target communities. Fundamentally, this thesis presents a detailed analysis of the current supply and demand environment, including the impacts of regional arts festivals, and determines the conditions, events and characteristics which could strengthen regional Victorian supply and demand of creative arts. This thesis analyses focus group data to investigate current levels of supply of creative arts in regional Victoria. Qualitative analysis of the data shows that the supply of creative arts in the target areas is limited by scarce resources, isolation, negative community attitudes towards creative arts, and a small audience or sales market and an over-reliance on volunteers. Small and micro-businesses in the regional Victorian arts sector are seen as having motivations for operating beyond making money, limited business acumen, and have difficulty in marketing themselves effectively. Best-practice strategies to strengthen the operations of small and micro-businesses include adopting a more entrepreneurial attitude towards arts business, using an agent to source new audiences or sales markets and to maximise the promotion of their product, creating art which is accessible to the local community, and to engage in skills development and business training. Using attitudes towards creative arts, participation in creative arts and expenditure on creative arts as a measure of current demand levels, this thesis applies a range of statistical and econometric tests to the data collected from the three target communities. Contrary to the view emergent from the supply data, this thesis shows that regional Victorians have strong levels of demand for creative arts. Results show higher than average levels of overall monthly arts expenditure, and strong demand for cinema, craft fairs or exhibitions, books, CDs and other music formats. Low levels of demand were noted for classical music, opera or ballet. Chi-Squared analysis and ordered probit results show that gender, age, festival attendance, education, and individual levels of overall arts expenditure are all determinants of creative arts demand. Analysis regarding impacts and key aspects of two regional arts festivals found that regional festival patrons are more likely to be female, local to the host region, have a middle income, and hold a high school or equivalent qualification. An econometric model, including two versions of an Ordinary Least Squares regression in addition to Tobit and probit estimations, was used to more accurately estimate individual expenditure characteristics, notably accounting for the zero-expenditure of attendees who are local to the host region. This thesis provides valuable contributions to knowledge regarding the supply and demand of creative arts in regional areas. It also provides practical insights for policy makers, festival organisers, and the regional arts industry.
1784

Vertical coordination in the Chinese agri-food system : a transaction cost approach / Naiquan Sang.

Sang, Naiquan January 2003 (has links)
"May 2003" / Bibliography: leaves 161-180. / x, 180 leaves : ill., map ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / This study analyses driving forces, determinants and implications of emerging contractual arrangements in the Chinese agri-food system based on the transaction cost approach. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, School of Economics, 2003
1785

The Impact of the RFID Technology in Improving Performance of Inventory Systems subject to Inaccuracies

Rekik, Yacine 08 December 2006 (has links) (PDF)
Contrairement à un système d'identification plus traditionnel tel que le code à barres, la nouvelle technologie RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) utilise des ondes radio fréquence pour transmettre des données entre une étiquette et un lecteur pour pouvoir identifier, localiser ou suivre une entité dans une chaîne d'approvisionnement. Cette propriété lui procure certains avantages (facilité d'accès à l'information, suivi continu, amélioration de l'exactitude des données, détection du vol et de la contrefaçon, etc..) par rapport à d'autres systèmes d'identification et de capture de données. Nous partons du constat que l'utilisation de cette nouvelle technologie permettra aux acteurs de la chaîne logistique de pouvoir partager une information de meilleure qualité, plus exhaustive et fiable concernant le flux physique et le suivi de la localisation produits. Or, l'hypothèse implicite considérée dans la plupart des modèles classiques de gestion de stock est que l'on a une connaissance parfaite du flux entrant et sortant. L'objectif de recherche sera d'intégrer dans ces modèles des dégradations venant fausser le flux nominal et d'en analyser les conséquences (en termes de coût additionnel). Un accent fort sera mis sur le développement de solutions combinant efficacité et simplicité. L'accent sera mis aussi sur le mode de partage du coût de cette technologie entre plusieurs acteurs de la chaîne logistique : serait-il mieux de partager les bénéfices de cette technologie dans un environnement de coordination ou dans un environnement de compétitivité entre acteurs? Les résultas de cette thèse porte sur l'élaboration de modèles théoriques -de type gestion de stock – concernant la production, la distribution et l'approvisionnement dans une chaîne logistique et faisant intervenir et le coût et les gains potentiels de cette nouvelle technologie d'identification automatique.
1786

A qualitative and quantitative analysis of the impact of the Auto ID technology on supply chains

Sahin, Evren 23 November 2004 (has links) (PDF)
On s'intéresse à l'impact de l'utilisation de nouvelles technologies d'identification et de capture de données et en particulier de la technologie RFID sur les performances des chaînes logistiques.
1787

Transportation flow analysis in a centralised supply chain at Toyota Material Handling Europe

Gustavsson, Styrbjörn, Öberg, Mikael January 2010 (has links)
<p>This report is the result of a Master Thesis written at Toyota Material Handling Europe (TMHE), with the purpose to map the existing spare part supply chain structure and to analyse future suggested supply chain structures with a focus on transportation flows.</p><p>TMHE is one of the world’s largest producing forklift distributers with large market shares throughout Europe. Besides the main activity of forklifts the aftermarket of distributing spare parts is a major business. With a current decentralised supply chain, the Future Logistic Concept (FLC) project was established to analyse the possibilities of a more centralised European supply chain.</p><p>While earlier analyses within the FLC have been focusing on the customer market, this thesis aims towards completing with analyses on the opposite side of the supply chain. It will present an aggregated view over a possible FLC supply chain setup with focus on suppliers, replenishment flows and usage of express transportation solutions.</p><p>An analysis was performed based on supplier localisation and historically delivered tonnages. To be able to analyse the replenishment flows between European Distribution Centre (EDC) and Regional Distribution Centres (RDC), an inventory control and transportation model was developed. The model calculates costs for inventory holding, replenishment flows and express flows and optimises the relationships between these controlling variables. This makes it possible to analyse the transportation flows in a specified set of possible supply chain structures.</p><p>The results of the localisation analyses based on suppliers, show that the central part of the supply chain should be located in the northern parts of central Europe. To be able to minimise the supplier inflow facilities should be established in Mjölby and Ancenis. A warehouse in Eastern Europe is probably necessary to be able to keep customer lead times at an acceptable level, but from a supply point of view this location is not supported due to the low amount of Easter European suppliers.</p><p>The results from the model suggests a supply chain structure with a central distribution centre in Antwerp, Belgium (Scenario 2 in the analysis) and regional warehouses in Sweden, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and the Czech Republic.</p>
1788

Extranet in Development of Supply Chain

Leivo, Maria January 2006 (has links)
<p>Extranets as they have come to be termed are revolutionizing supply chains and their management. Companies and organizations with quite different internal information systems can now access data from other supply chain members. Information can be shared easily and at relatively low cost. A major benefit that flows from this greater</p><p>transparency is that internal operation of the business can become more efficient as a result.</p><p>This thesis studies extranet in development of supply chain from case company’s perspective. Finnsementti Oy was chosen as a case company because they had a desire to improve the operation of their supply chain by developing an extranet. Finnsementti Oy is a Finnish cement manufacturer since 1914. At the moment Finnsementti</p><p>produces 85% of the cement needed in Finland. Most of company’s business is B-to-B.Finnsementti actively develops its operation and this thesis also supports that goal by aiming to improve the efficiency of Finnsementti’s supply chain which again is assumed to have a positive impact on competitive advantage and profitability.</p><p>Based on a CRM study conducted in spring 2005 Finnsementti Oy decided to develop its existing rarely used customer forum into an efficient customer-oriented extranet. Finnsementti aims to improve its customer service, improve supply chain performance and make its order and delivery process more efficient. In advance extranet was</p><p>assumed to enable all this. Extranet project was initiated in early fall 2005 and this study was initiated simultaneously. The starting-point of this thesis was Finnsementti’s desire to implement a supply chain improving extranet, and in order to do that, the implementation had to be successful. Due to the fact that supply chains are currently evolving towards networked e-supply chains there is quite lot of existing literature about how a supply chain performance can be improved by using electronic tools. This study concentrates on these facts, related assumption and expectations. It was also evaluated from case company’s perspective how likely these expected improvements are going to realized; is there something unexpected and additional that Finnsementti has not been able to predict? In order to find this out extranet was studied at first from literature and then from case company’s and their employee’s perspective. One of the goals of this study was to determine what is the actual condition for completing this extranet project successfully because only that can enable the realization of supply chain improvements. How to make employees and customers adopt this new extranet and so that they will start to use it actively in their daily activities? The foundation for this part of the study was the comprehensive literature review conducted on supply chain improvements. Based on that, observations and interviews, an expectations theory was built. According to this theory user’s realistic and accurate expectations make a good foundation for accepting a new information system. If the user’s expectations are fulfilled, user will perceive the new system easy to use and useful which on the other hand leads to acceptance of the system. This</p><p>expectations theory can be used as a starting point for almost any information system implementation where user acceptance is considered critical.</p>
1789

The Role of Supply Chain Management in Humanitarian Logistics : The Role of Supply Chain Management in Humanitarian Logistics / The Role of Supply Chain Management in Humanitarian Logistics : The Role of Supply Chain Management in Humanitarian Logistics

Bilal, Mudassar January 2010 (has links)
<p>Natural disaster hits and damages the lives thousand of human beings and their infrastructure. Natural disaster can not be stopped but we can minimize the volume of devastation and destruction caused by the disaster. Especially, in third world countries the level to respond the disaster is limited and narrow, so these countries have to suffer more then the developed countries, where as in developed countries valuable recourses and effective planning are existed to deal with natural disasters. So this thing insists me to write something just to get know how about all humanitarian and relief activities.I have utilized the SCM Supply chain management practices and techniques in order to conquer barriers faced by logistician of humanitarian response/ relief operation during disaster. I will use methodology of empirical data technique, barriers will be discovered and analyzed then proposed solutions would be picked up from the literature of supply chain management for the barriers to effective humanitarian logistics.There is a mixture of SCM principle from various organizations such as military, private sector and nonprofit organization in order to provide a utility to disaster/ response operations. The output of this research will show the easy makeup of SCM remedies to control the complexities and difficulties of logistics process during disaster relief operation in results and analysis chapter.Natural disaster hits and damages the lives thousand of human beings and their infrastructure. Natural disaster can not be stopped but we can minimize the volume of devastation and destruction caused by the disaster. Especially, in third world countries the level to respond the disaster is limited and narrow, so these countries have to suffer more then the developed countries, where as in developed countries valuable recourses and effective planning are existed to deal with natural disasters. So this thing insists me to write something just to get know how about all humanitarian and relief activities.I have utilized the SCM Supply chain management practices and techniques in order to conquer barriers faced by logistician of humanitarian response/ relief operation during disaster. I will use methodology of empirical data technique, barriers will be discovered and analyzed then proposed solutions would be picked up from the literature of supply chain management for the barriers to effective humanitarian logistics.There is a mixture of SCM principle from various organizations such as military, private sector and nonprofit organization in order to provide a utility to disaster/ response operations. The output of this research will show the easy makeup of SCM remedies to control the complexities and difficulties of logistics process during disaster relief operation in results and analysis chapter.</p>
1790

Kundtillfredsställelse i livsmedelsbranschen : Kundvård och logistik

Nilsson, Jonas, Jonsson, Martin January 2007 (has links)
<p>Problembakgrund: Hur gör företagen för att upprätthålla en god relation med sina kunder? Hur klarar företagen att anpassa sig för att hålla god kvalitet och hantera logistiska problemlösningar med bibehållet goda relationer?</p><p>Syfte: Att undersöka hur svenska livsmedelsproducenter gör för att förvalta och utveckla relationerna med sina kunder samt maximera kundnyttan genom ett logistiskt synsätt.</p><p>Resultat: Båda leverantörerna anser att sitt respektive varumärke är starkt och att kunderna väljer varumärket före produkten. Kunderna å andra sidan säger att de väljer produkten före varumärket. Likheterna mellan de båda företagens arbetssätt är stora, förutom deras logistikstrategier. Det vill säga på vilket sätt som logistiken anses ge störst kundnytta i form av konkurrenskraft.</p><p>Främsta skillnaden hos leverantörerna för att skapa mervärde åt kunden, är att Pågen arbetar med personliga relationer genom butikssäljarna. Polarbröd skapar mervärdet genom Polfärskt personal samt automatisk orderläggning i Pipe chain. Företagen hanterar avlastning och plockning i butikerna vilket minskar personalbehovet från butikens sida. Pågen har transportbilar som inte är så kallad ”fullhöjd” och därmed kommer åt att lasta av vid alla lastkajer. Polarbröd överlåter till distributören Polfärskt att sköta anpassningen till kundernas godsmottagningar. Enkäterna visar att respondenterna är nöjda med de båda leverantörernas kundanpassningar.</p> / <p>Background: How do companies maintain good relations to their customers? How do companies adapt in order to keep high standards and deal with logistics problem solving and still keep good relations to their customers?</p><p>The main objective of the study: To find out how Swedish grocery industries maintain and develop relations to their costumers with maximum costumer satisfaction from a logistic point of view.</p><p>Results: Both suppliers think that their brand is vital and that the costumers choose the brand instead of the product. The costumers on the other hand say that they choose the product instead of the brand. The suppliers’ way of dealing with the costumers are almost the same except their strategies regarding logistics.</p><p>Between Polarbröd and Pågen the main differences are how customer value is created. Pågen has a classic sales structure were the orders are registered by personal to personal contact. Polarbröd is making the orders through an auto misted computer system. To classify which system that is to prefer is a matter of taste. Does the customer prefer less contact or does he prefer the personal contact of communication. The survey result shows that the differences between Polarbröd and Pågen is not significant and cannot be stated. But some differences has been noted.</p>

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