With the advancement of industrial manufacturing and the shift toward high automation, machines have increasingly taken over many production tasks, greatly improving efficiency and reducing human labor. However, this also introduces new challenges, particularly the inability of machines to autonomously detect and diagnose faults. Such undetected issues may cause unexpected breakdowns, interrupting critical operations, leading to economic losses and potential safety hazards. To address this, the present study proposes a novel hybrid deep learning framework that integrates Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) for feature extraction with Transformer architecture for temporal modeling. The model is validated using NASA’s CMAPSS dataset, a widely used benchmark that includes multi-sensor data and Remaining Useful Life (RUL) labels from aeroengines. By learning from time-series sensor data, the framework achieves accurate RUL predictions and early fault detection. Experimental results show that the model attains over 97% accuracy under both single and multiple operating conditions, highlighting its robustness and adaptability. These findings suggest the framework’s potential in developing intelligent maintenance systems and contribute to the field of Prognostics and Health Management (PHM), enabling more reliable, efficient, and self-monitoring industrial systems.
Zhenning Yang, Archit Bhatnagar, Yiming Qiu
et al.
Cloud infrastructure is the cornerstone of the modern IT industry. However, managing this infrastructure effectively requires considerable manual effort from the DevOps engineering team. We make a case for developing AI agents powered by large language models (LLMs) to automate cloud infrastructure management tasks. In a preliminary study, we investigate the potential for AI agents to use different cloud/user interfaces such as software development kits (SDK), command line interfaces (CLI), Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) platforms, and web portals. We report takeaways on their effectiveness on different management tasks, and identify research challenges and potential solutions.
The role and impact of females in supply chain management have received insufficient attention in extant research. In addition, research investigating the relationship between upper-echelon leadership and supply chain phenomena is extremely scant. To address these limitations, we collected archival data from 433 publicly traded Fortune 500 firms from 2007 to 2015 (3464 firm-year observations) and analyzed them using fixed-effect regressions. Our findings indicate that female top management team representation directly and positively influences a firm's supplier orientation. This influence of female representation is attenuated for firms that have a Chief Supply Chain Officer present in their top management team and for firms operating in environments characterized by high dynamism and low munificence. Furthermore, our findings show that supplier orientation mediates the impact of female top management team representation on firm performance. We put forth several interesting theoretical and managerial contributions. Most importantly, we hope that our findings, highlighting the positive impact of female executives on supplier orientation and providing additional evidence regarding women's managerial capabilities, will contribute towards eliminating bias and discrimination faced by women in the area of supply chain management and business in general.
Brooke A Gazdag, Niels Van Quaquebeke, Maria Besiou
In this essay, our analysis takes important insights on diversity and inclusion from the behavioral literature but critically contextualizes them against the reality of humanitarian operations. Humanitarian operations are characterized by system immanent diversity, particularly between local and expatriate aid workers, who not only bring valuable different perspectives to the table but also differ along multiple dimensions of diversity into a so-called diversity faultline. Such a faultline, however, provides fertile ground for continued conflict resulting in relational fractures and, ultimately, inefficient collaboration. While, in theory, inclusion could help overcome the negative effects of faultlines, in practice, the time pressure for humanitarian organizations to quickly respond to disasters makes it effectively impossible to engage in it. Against this background, we argue, humanitarian organizations should take preemptive action before disaster strikes. Specifically, we posit that the pre-disaster phase presents an opportunity to engage in inclusion in order to cultivate relational resilience between local and expatriate aid workers. Such resilience would enable them to not only better weather the inevitable relational fractures during a disaster response (and thus stay more functional throughout), but also quickly realign with each other in the post-disaster phase. We conclude with a set of concrete recommendations for practicing inclusion in the pre-disaster phase.
As the global problems of environmental pollution and ecological degradation are becoming important obstacles to the realisation of sustainable development, green technological innovation (GTI) has received wide attention in the academic and practical communities worldwide. Commonly, the GTI process can be divided into two stages: green technology R&D and green achievement transformation. The contribution of GTI to economic development and environmental protection depends to a large extent on green innovation efficiency (GIE). Based on the panel data on inputs and outputs of 30 provinces in China from 2007 to 2021, this study applied the super efficiency SBM model considering undesirable outputs to evaluate green technology R&D efficiency (GTRDE) and green achievement transformation efficiency (GATE). Additionally, this study adopted the global and local Moran’s I index for spatial autocorrelation analysis. First, GTRDE showed a trend of “eastern > western > central > northeastern”, while GATE showed a trend of “eastern > central > western > northeastern”. Second, although GATE was higher than GTRDE in most provinces, the differences between provinces were significantly larger for the former than for the latter. Third, global spatial autocorrelation in GIE across provinces was significant only in a few years, while local spatial autocorrelation existed only in a few provinces. Based on the two-stage value chain perspective, the green innovation process is divided into green technology R&D and green achievement transformation. This paper also introduces a super-efficiency SBM model that considers undesirable outputs when calculating GIE. This is in line with the basic laws of GTI and development in reality. Thus, to enhance the efficiency of green innovation, governments and enterprises should raise awareness of GTI, enhance inter-regional exchanges and collaboration, and take a variety of measures to narrow the gap between regions.
Carolina Machado Fraguas Soares, Chaylana Saldanha Santos, Francisco Santos Sabbadini
et al.
Buscando solucionar a escassez de recursos naturais advindas das revoluções industriais e dos modelos de produções, a integração entre os conceitos e tecnologias habilitadoras com a economia circular, deverão cumprir novas otimizações dos recursos. Este estudo teve como objetivo realizar uma pesquisa bibliométrica, a partir das bases científicas Scopus e Web Of Science, e mapear os casos de aplicação conjunta de economia circular com a indústria 4.0 comparativamente a empresa MW. Através dessa pesquisa, demonstrou-se o crescimento do tema economia circular ou indústria 4.0 nos últimos anos, porém faltando estudos sobre o uso conjunto dos processos. Concluiu-se que as tecnologias habilitadoras existentes na Indústria 4.0 e a economia circular (EC), superam os desafios de operacionalização, suavizando a transição da cadeia de suprimentos de um modelo linear para circular. O uso combinado destas contribuem para a sustentabilidade da organização.
Production management. Operations management, Production capacity. Manufacturing capacity
It is well-recognized that Air Cargo revenue management is quite different from its passenger airline counterpart. Inherent demand volatility due to short booking horizon and lumpy shipments, multi-dimensionality and uncertainty of capacity as well as the flexibility in routing are a few of the challenges to be handled for Air Cargo revenue management. In this paper, we present a data-driven revenue management approach which is well-designed to handle the challenges associated with Air Cargo industry. We present findings from simulations tailored to Air Cargo setting and compare different scenarios for handling of weight and volume bid prices. Our results show that running our algorithm independently to generate weight and volume bid prices and summing the weight and volume bid prices into price optimization works the best by outperforming other strategies with more than 3% revenue gap.
Totaling at 7.4 billion people, the world's population is rapidly growing, bringing along with it an increase in waste generation. The impact of this exponential increase in waste generation has resulted in the increased formation and utilization of landfills. In the present day, landfills are utilized to dispose of chemical, hazardous, municipal, and electronic wastes. However, despite their convenience, most landfills are improperly managed and face constant changes from the surrounding environment that interfere with their internal landfill processes. The objectives of this mixed review are to highlight the negative impacts landfills have on the environment and public health as well as outline the need for proper management practices to mitigate these effects. Inadequate management of landfills leads to issues concerning leachate collection and landfill gas (LFG) generation, which give rise to groundwater contamination and air pollution. This paper recognizes the disadvantages of utilizing landfills as the main disposal method by focusing on these two primary effects that improper management of landfills has on the environment and human health. Many experts have also reported that communities within close proximity to improperly managed landfills have an increased risk of health issues. Apart from implementing proper landfill management practices, it is important to develop solutions to reduce waste generation altogether. This review discusses some of the innovative methods implemented by other countries to reduce landfill waste and the production of greenhouse gases as well as possible steps individuals can take to minimize their ecological footprints.
The tariff rate quota (TRQ) is a widely utilized market access instrument in global agricultural trade that allows a predetermined quantity of a product to be imported at a lower tariff rate than the usual rate. This study examines the design and administration of TRQ systems from an operations management perspective and analyzes their impact on market access, fill rates, and revenue for policymakers. We investigate the two most common TRQ administration methods, namely, licensing and first‐come, first‐served (FCFS) systems. We characterize the Nash equilibria (NE) of importers' strategies and observe how information delays and lead times can result in under‐utilization (i.e., imports being less than the quota limit) in licensing and over‐utilization (i.e., imports exceeding the quota limit) in FCFS TRQ systems. We introduce a dual TRQ system and demonstrate its superiority over licensing and FCFS systems. We study the effects of stock‐keeping options through customs‐bonded warehouses and the choice of logistics channels on arrival patterns and fill rates. We conduct a case study of the United Kingdom and the European Union imported beef market using customs data. Our numerical study provides an explanation for the suboptimality of the current TRQ systems and proposes modifications to transform the existing systems. Our findings offer practical directions for agricultural traders to reassess their supply chain strategies by considering the logistical implications of TRQ systems and understanding their competition. This study also urges policymakers to adopt an integrative approach in (re)designing TRQ systems, recognizing the pivotal role of supply chains in global agricultural trade.
We examine competing brands' incentive to offer a self‐designable package that consumers can modify to ensure fit, in addition to offering a standard, pre‐configured product. While “amateurs” with low self‐design capability prefer a standard, pre‐configured product and can have strong preference for a particular brand, “experts” with high self‐design capability prefer a self‐designable package and tend to be indifferent between competing brands. First, we find that asymmetric equilibrium can arise where only one brand offers a self‐designable package and the other brand offers a standard product only. That is, brands can avoid the lose–lose situation, where both offer the self‐designable package but intensified price competition makes both lose profit. This lose–lose situation can be completely avoided when the two brands offer self‐designable packages that are completely nondifferentiated, but may arise in equilibrium and cause the “prisoner's dilemma” when the packages are slightly differentiated. Second, we show that between two competing brands whose standard products have different attractions, the less powerful brand that offers the less attractive standard product is more likely to be the only provider of the self‐designable package. Finally, we find that consumer surplus can be greater when the more powerful brand is the only provider of the self‐designable package than when the less powerful brand is the only provider.
Eduard Ary Binsar Naibaho, Ni Made Crivanty Mayayogini
This research aims to examine the impact of risk management, especially operational risk, credit risk, and liquidity risk on firm performance with corporate governance as a moderating variable. The research was conducted using secondary data from 48 companies in the Southeast Asia region which are included in the Consumer Durable and Apparel, Consumer Service, and Consumer Staples industry categories at S&P Capital IQ during the 2017-2021 period. The sample collection technique in this study used a purposive random sampling method. The result of this study finds that operational risk and credit risk do not affect firm performance, while credit risk has a negative effect on firm performance. This study also found that corporate governance can reduce the negative effect of liquidity risk on firm performance but strengthen the relationship between operational risk and credit risk on firm performance. The result found in this study has implications and contribution for the company to develop a good corporate governance in order to maximize the risk management and also for investor to assess the company risks.
Production management. Operations management, Management. Industrial management
Phosphorus (P) is a vital element required by all living organism (plants, animals and microbes etc.). Its application in agriculture, whether in conventional or conservation agriculture, requires careful attention due to its low use efficiency, which typically does not exceed 20%. With the increasing acceptance of conservation agriculture (CA), it is crucial to develop protocols for P management to ensure sustainable wheat production. Therefore, a field trial was conducted from 2016–2017 to 2017–2018 in the India's semiarid eco-region to study the role of P on wheat productivity, quality, and resource use efficiency under CA-based production system. We assessed the impact of tillage operations and P management practices on wheat productivity, quality, and resource use efficiency. Three tillage and residue management options such as CT-R (conventional tillage without residue); NT-R (no tillage without maize residue) and NT + R (no tillage with maize residue @ 2.5 Mg ha−1) were laid-out in main plot and five P management options subplots viz. P1 (nitrogen and potash according to recommended but not P); P2 (17.2 kg P ha−1); P3 (17.2 kg of P ha−1 + microbial fertilizer); P4 (17.2 kg P ha−1 + compost inoculant culture) and P5 (34.4 kg P ha−1) in split plot design with three replicates. The results indicates that the combination of no-tillage with residue retention (maize residue @ 2.5 Mg ha−1) (NT + R) and the application of 34.4 kg P ha−1 (P5) significantly improved grain yield by ~43.2% compared to the control treatment (conventional tillage with no residue, CT – R, and no phosphorus application). NT + R also resulted in significantly better amino acid (~22.7%) and net protein yield (~21.2%) compared to CT – R. Regarding the P management strategy, the highest amino acid (49.1%) and protein yield (12.5%) were observed under the P5 treatment compared to the no-phosphorus treatment. Conjoint use of NT – R, along with the application of 17.2 kg P ha−1 and PSB (Phosphorus Solubilizing Bacteria), resulted in a significant increase in energy use efficiency of ~58% over other treatments combination. Furthermore, the NT + R plot that received 17.2 kg P ha−1 + PSB demonstrated higher P agronomic efficiency (~43%) and recovery efficiency (~53%) over control. The study's findings underscore the significance of adopting efficient P management strategies in CA to ensure the sustainable production of wheat.
Nutrition. Foods and food supply, Food processing and manufacture
Girma Gebresenbet, Techane Bosona, David Patterson
et al.
Future agricultural systems should increase productivity and sustainability of food production and supply. For this, integrated and efficient capture, management, sharing, and use of agricultural and environmental data from multiple sources is essential. However, there are challenges to understand and efficiently use different types of agricultural and environmental data from multiple sources, which differ in format and time interval. In this regard, the role of emerging technologies is considered to be significant for integrated data gathering, analyses and efficient use. In this study, a concept was developed to facilitate the full integration of digital technologies to enhance future smart and sustainable agricultural systems. The concept has been developed based on the results of a literature review and diverse experiences and expertise which enabled the identification of stat-of-the-art smart technologies, challenges and knowledge gaps. The features of the proposed solution include: data collection methodologies using smart digital tools; platforms for data handling and sharing; application of Artificial Intelligent for data integration and analysis; edge and cloud computing; application of Blockchain, decision support system; and a governance and data security system. The study identified the potential positive implications i.e. the implementation of the concept could increase data value, farm productivity, effectiveness in monitoring of farm operations and decision making, and provide innovative farm business models. The concept could contribute to an overall increase in the competitiveness, sustainability, and resilience of the agricultural sector as well as digital transformation in agriculture and rural areas. This study also provided future research direction in relation to the proposed concept. The results will benefit researchers, practitioners, developers of smart tools, and policy makers supporting the transition to smarter and more sustainable agriculture systems.
Adam Amos-Binks, Dustin Dannenhauer, Leilani H. Gilpin
Anticipatory thinking drives our ability to manage risk - identification and mitigation - in everyday life, from bringing an umbrella when it might rain to buying car insurance. As AI systems become part of everyday life, they too have begun to manage risk. Autonomous vehicles log millions of miles, StarCraft and Go agents have similar capabilities to humans, implicitly managing risks presented by their opponents. To further increase performance in these tasks, out-of-distribution evaluation can characterize a model's bias, what we view as a type of risk management. However, learning to identify and mitigate low-frequency, high-impact risks is at odds with the observational bias required to train machine learning models. StarCraft and Go are closed-world domains whose risks are known and mitigations well documented, ideal for learning through repetition. Adversarial filtering datasets provide difficult examples but are laborious to curate and static, both barriers to real-world risk management. Adversarial robustness focuses on model poisoning under the assumption there is an adversary with malicious intent, without considering naturally occurring adversarial examples. These methods are all important steps towards improving risk management but do so without considering open-worlds. We unify these open-world risk management challenges with two contributions. The first is our perception challenges, designed for agents with imperfect perceptions of their environment whose consequences have a high impact. Our second contribution are cognition challenges, designed for agents that must dynamically adjust their risk exposure as they identify new risks and learn new mitigations. Our goal with these challenges is to spur research into solutions that assess and improve the anticipatory thinking required by AI agents to manage risk in open-worlds and ultimately the real-world.
Mohammad Jobayer Hossain, Mengdi Sun, Kristopher O. Davis
With the practical efficiency of the silicon photovoltaic (PV) cell approaching its theoretical limit, pushing conversion efficiencies even higher now relies on reducing every type of power loss that can occur within the device. Limiting optical losses is therefore critical and requires effective management of incident photons in terms of how they interact with the device. Ultimately, photon management within a PV cell means engineering the device and constituent materials to maximize photon absorption within the active semiconductor and therefore reduce the number of photons lost through other means, most notably reflection and parasitic absorption. There have been great advancements in the front and the rear side photon management techniques in recent years. This review aims to discuss these advancements and compare the various approaches, not only in terms of increases in photogenerated current, but also their compatibility with different PV cell architectures and potential trade-offs, like increased surface recombination or scalability for high-volume manufacturing. In this review, a comprehensive discussion of a wide variety of the front and the rear side photon management structures are presented with suggestions to improve the already achieved performance further. This review is unique because it not only presents the recent development in photon management techniques, but also offer through analysis of these techniques and pathways to improve further.
Maria Besiou, Alfonso J. Pedraza‐Martinez, Luk N. Van Wassenhove
During emergencies humanitarian supply chains need to respond swiftly, very often without time for good planning that may end up in excessive waste and emissions. This short‐term focus on saving people's lives during disaster responses may harm communities and the planet in the long‐run. Even long‐term (development) focus on improving the life conditions of the poor may be either unsustainable due to the lack of community involvement or inequitable due to lack of resources. At the same time, countries closer to fulfilling the United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) suffer less from disasters but still struggle with issues such as social equity. There appears to be an important link between humanitarian operations and SDGs. This special issue focuses on this interaction through a rich variety of contributions using different methodologies, data and lenses, while proposing ways to advance the SDGs. The special issue clearly shows the value operations management can bring to short‐term and long‐term problems society faces.
Anindita Chakravarty, Alok R. Saboo, Guiyang Xiong
This study centers on the roles of marketing and operations capabilities in preventing future recalls. However, prior literature identifies operations capability as critical for recall prevention, the current research highlights the equivalent importance of marketing capability. Furthermore, rather than limiting marketing's role to damage control efforts after a recall, this study identifies its potential for preventing future recall incidents. With research conducted in the consumer packaged goods industry, the authors determine that firms that improve their marketing and operations capabilities after a recall lower their likelihood of future recalls. A proposed motivation‐based model for post‐recall marketing and operations capability improvement predicts that recalling public firms, by default, do not invest in capability improvements. The test of the propositions, with a sample of 276 product recalls using joint estimation, reveals that stock market penalties for recalls, combined with analyst following and independent boards, push recalling firms to make capability improvements. However, well‐reputed firms and those whose competitors recently engaged in recalls push back against investors' demands.
This research considers situations in which buyers pay to reserve their suppliers' capacity for future use. The study specifically explores whether suppliers should provide transfer rights, allowing buyers unable to use all of their reserved capacity to transfer the excess to another buyer, and whether they should charge a transfer fee. The study finds that, in most cases, the supplier maximizes financial outcomes when the buyer releasing the excess capacity keeps most of the retail‐level profit from the transfer and the supplier does not charge a transfer fee.
Sulaimon Olanrewaju Adebiyi, Queen E. Bassey, Bilqis B. Amole
The need for lean concepts application in the safety management of logistics processes cannot be emphasized as it can help in enhancing the flow of information and expediting processes within the supply network for improved organizational outcomes. The study investigated the application of lean management models to the safety management of logistics firms in Nigeria. The study population includes 215 employees of Manal Plant hire Ltd Nigeria. 138 employees were chosen using a purposive sampling method. A self-administered questionnaire was designed to collect the primary data from the respondents. The data collected were analyzed using the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique to test the hypotheses developed in the study. The study's findings suggest that Process and Equipment Management has a positive and significant effect on the operational efficiency and workplace safety of the studied firms; employee empowerment has a positive and significant effect on operational efficiency; technological innovation has a positive and significant effect on the operational efficiency, and that continuous improvement has a positive and significant effect on the operational efficiency and workplace safety. It is, therefore, concluded that the adoption of Lean Management has a positive and significant effect on the safety management of logistics firms. The study recommends that manufacturing, logistics, and service industries should be committed to carrying out process mapping to eliminate non-value-adding operations in production as well as logistics and ensure the effective and continuous flow of logistics operations.