Search results

The purpose of this paper is to describe a real‐world system developed for a large food distribution company which requires forecasting demand for thousands of products across multiple warehouses. The number of different time series that the system must model and predict is on the order of 10⁵. The study details the system's forecasting algorithm which efficiently handles several difficult requirements including the prediction of multiple time series, the need for a continuously self‐updating model, and the desire to automatically identify and analyze various time series characteristics such as seasonal spikes and unprecedented events.

The forecasting algorithm makes use of a hybrid model consisting of both statistical and heuristic techniques to fulfill these requirements and to satisfy a variety of business constraints/rules related to over‐ and under‐stocking.

The robustness of the system has been proven by its heavy and sustained use since being adopted in November 2009 by a company that serves 91 percent of the combined populations of Australia and New Zealand.

This paper provides a case study of a real‐world system that employs a novel hybrid model to forecast multiple time series in a non‐static environment. The value of the model lies in its ability to accurately capture and forecast a very large and constantly changing portfolio of time series efficiently and without human intervention.

The purpose of this paper is to explore a real world vehicle routing problem (VRP) that has multi-depot subcontractors with a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles that are available to pickup/deliver jobs with varying time windows and locations. Both the overall job completion time and number of drivers utilized are analyzed for the automated job allocations and manual job assignments from transportation field experts.

A nested genetic algorithm (GA) is used to automate the job allocation process and minimize the overall time to deliver all jobs, while utilizing the fewest number of drivers – as a secondary objective.

Three different real world data sets were used to compare the results of the GA vs transportation field experts’ manual assignments. The job assignments from the GA improved the overall job completion time in 100 percent (30/30) of the cases and maintained the same or fewer drivers as BS Logistics (BSL) in 47 percent (14/30) of the cases.

This paper provides a novel approach to solving a real world VRP that has multiple variants. While there have been numerous models to capture a select number of these variants, the value of this nested GA lies in its ability to incorporate multiple depots, a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles as well as varying pickup times, pickup locations, delivery times and delivery locations for each job into a single model. Existing research does not provide models to collectively address all of these variants.

In many countries, both the number of older people in need of care and the number of employed caregivers of elderly relatives will increase over the next decades. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which perceived organizational, supervisor, and coworker support for eldercare reduce employed caregivers’ strain and weaken the relationship between eldercare demands and strain.

Survey data were collected from 100 employed caregivers from one organization.

Results showed that eldercare demands were positively related to strain, and perceived organizational eldercare support (POES) was negatively related to strain. In addition, high POES weakened the relationship between eldercare demands and strain.

The cross-sectional design and use of self-report scales constitute limitations of the study.

POES is a resource for employed caregivers, especially when their eldercare demands are high.

This research highlights the relative importance of different forms of perceived support for reducing employed caregivers’ strain and weakening the relationship between eldercare demands and strain.

Previous research on the work-family nexus has tended to concentrate on childcare responsibilities. This neglects consideration of an increasing population of employees who care for dependents such as elders, impaired partners or disabled children. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate organizational and personal resources as antecedents of work-family conflict (WFC) and irritation in a sample of employed family caregivers.

Data were collected from 508 employees within one organization who had informal family caregiving responsibilities.

The results indicate that a supportive work-family culture was an important resource for reducing WFC and health-related self-efficacy reduced irritation. In sum, when a company fosters a family-friendly culture that includes working in a constructive and understanding manner with employees who have informal family caregiver responsibilities, it becomes easier for the employees to integrate the demands of work and family demands. Moreover, health-related self-efficacy is an important resource that can improve stress and future researchers should give it greater consideration.

This study contributes to existing literature by the identification of personal and organizational resources of informal family caregivers with the aim to reduce their stress experiences.

This study aims to deepen the understanding of the challenges and implications entailed by deploying mobile clinics in conflict zones to reach populations affected by violence and cut off from health-care services.

This research combines an integrated literature review and an instrumental case study. The literature review comprises two targeted reviews to provide insights: one on conflict zones and one on mobile clinics. The case study describes the process and challenges faced throughout a mobile clinic deployment during and after the Iraq War. The data was gathered using mixed methods over a two-year period (2017–2018).

Armed conflicts directly impact the populations’ health and access to health care. Mobile clinic deployments are often used and recommended to provide health-care access to vulnerable populations cut off from health-care services. However, there is a dearth of peer-reviewed literature documenting decision support tools for mobile clinic deployments.

This study highlights the gaps in the literature and provides direction for future research to support the development of valuable insights and decision support tools for practitioners.

The West Africa coastal area faced with the serious health challenge is the most underdeveloped place. Through making the visualized spatial analysis of this area, this study aims to identify which factor of social vulnerability predominantly affects infant mortality.

This study uses the spatial data available from NASA-affiliated institution and a geographic information system for analysis.

This study reveals that the Poverty and Adaptive Capacity Index, as economic aspect of social vulnerability, is spatially correlated with the infant mortality rate, whereas the Population Exposure Index, as population aspect of social vulnerability, does not. Thus, the economic rather than population factor is probably the driving force of high infant mortality.

This study clarifies the determinant of infant mortality in the West Africa coastal area in space dimension.

This chapter aims to consider workplace spirituality from a cross-cultural perspective. The terms workplace spirituality and culture are so intangible, and both start with the attitude and behavior of humans but are meaningful in a community. Because of the constraint of understanding these abstract settings, it is necessary to define and specify the dimensions of both concepts to achieve the aim of this chapter. In this regard, the section starts with the conceptuality of workplace spirituality and the dimensions of the term, which cumulate at individual, group, and organizational levels. It goes with the part of cultural dimensions in the light of Hofstede's (2001) direction, Chhokar, Brodbeck, and House's (2007) extension, and Sharma's (2010) derivation of cultural dimensions for national, organizational, and individual levels, respectively. After joining the dots, the chapter focuses on one of the most sacred research areas for academic literature, cross-cultural differences, and workplace spirituality. The last part of the chapter is the conclusion to point to final notes about the concepts and help guide future studies.

The early institutional theory literature highlighted religion as a core societal institution that influences the behaviours of individuals and organisations. Yet to date, religion has remained relatively unexplored in the management and organisational theory literature. This chapter draws on the idea of homophily – similarity breeds connection to explore a peculiarly instructive case focussing on how religion might influence employees’ trust in the CEO in the Nigerian context – generally assumed to be a religious society. The qualitative study employed a multiple case study design with 40 interviewees from two private sector organisations. The study found religion to be instrumental in developing trust relationships. However, contrary to the idea of homophily, it is not religious similarities per se that influence employees’ trust in the CEOs. Instead, employees’ trust is predicated upon them attributing inherent to the CEOs. Therefore, the study provides theoretical and practical insights into how institutional logics, specifically religious logic, influence employees’ behaviours.