Rozprawy doktorskie na temat „Policy assemblage”

The change in regional governance in Sweden is regularly understood in terms of a shift from ’government’ to ’governance’, from a redistributive policy to a policy that aims to encourage regional innovation, competitiveness and growth. This shift also includes the adoption of global policy models, such as ’clusters’.  In the literature on the global spread of policies it has been argued that a market for global policies has developed. This is not least evident through the expansion of global consultancy firms, international policy organisations as well as a cosmopolitan elite of travelling policy technocrats. Theoretically and methodologically this study contributes to scholarly discussions of how new forms of governance can be analysed, and especially how governmentality studies can be utilised and combined with analyses of the messy political practices of specific policies and programs. The study analyses the discursive shift in regional policy in Sweden: contested elements erased, conflicts concealed and the political order produced. By empirically departing from a ’cluster policy network’ lodged within a Swedish region, cluster policy is analysed as an assemblage of global circuits of knowledge, expertise and local relations of power. A broad range of materials for analysis have been generated through interviews, participant observations and documents. The production of policy knowledge is an overarching political rationality of contemporary forms of regional governance, translated into technologies such as benchmarking, regional comparisons, competitions, evaluations and best-practice. Based on the empirical analyses it is argued that the lack of power critique and a hyper-rational representation of knowledge produce an international market for legitimacy. It is further argued that five characteristics of the policy regime (’the regional cluster orchestra’) contributes to the reproduction of the policy regime, and relations of domination.
Baksidestext Avhandlingen tar sin utgångspunkt i vad som har beskrivits som en marknad för globala policymodeller. I Sverige har klusterbegreppet, med ursprung i ekonomisk och geografisk teoribildning, fått stort genomslag i regionalpolitiken. I den samtida regionalpolitiken har också produktionen av olika former av policykunskap utvecklats till centrala styrningsteknologier: benchmarking, best practice, utvärderingar, uppföljningar, mätningar och konkurrensutsatta tävlingar om regionala utvecklingsmedel. Genom kunskap och ständigt lärande ska Sveriges regioner frälsas. I avhandlingen studeras den scen där ett regionalt förankrat policynätverk agerar och den kunskap som produceras. Regionalpolitikens rationalitet innebär att det blir centralt för regionerna att agera som enhetliga aktörer och visa upp en lyckad och framgångsrik fasad. Det argumenteras för att bristen på maktanalys, och en hyperrationell syn på kunskap i regionalpolitiken innebär att regionalpolitikens styrningsteknologier producerar en internationell marknad för legitimitet som i sin tur reproducerar ordningen och döljer dominansrelationer.

This thesis investigates the influence of business on the public policymaking process in the United States. A framework is proposed for categorizing policymaking contexts and mechanisms of influence, synthesized from previous literature on structural versus institutional power, automatic versus instrumental influence, arenas of power, and on the opportunity structures pertaining to distinct varieties of capitalism. Much of the literature on business' influence on policy performs analyses at the corporation level, resulting in the limited consideration of firms as formal-legal entities, as rational "black-box" actors, or as ensembles of resources. This thesis proposes an assemblage-theoretic approach to conceptualizing the firm and its position within political institutions and political-economic structures. It is argued that firms' preferences and capacities for influence are properties emergent from the extrinsic relations among actors and resources within the firm, as well as from firms' extrinsic relations with other actors in broader structural and institutional networks. This framework is demonstrated through an analysis of the Department of Energy's Loan Guarantee Program (LGP), including an institutional and structural history of the program, a quantitative analysis of the program's portfolio, and a qualitative analysis of two high-profile cases: Tesla and Solyndra. The qualitative analysis illustrates the instrumentalization of automatic pathways of influence, the transformation of transactional mechanisms into relational pathways, and the interaction of formal and informal pathways. The multivariate regression analyses show a significant positive relationship between lobbying and loan size, reinforcing the notion that relational pathways are instrumentalized effectively by firms at the stage of distribution. Political contributions were not found to be statistically significant, but were negatively associated with loan size, suggesting that the impact of contributions may be indirect through their transformation into relational pathways over time. It is proposed that additional emergent properties captured by the mapping of firm assemblages, such as mediated relational pathways, may be modeled using the framework developed and quantified using network analysis. It is argued that the conception of firms as assemblages comprising larger institutional and structural networks is a promising inroad to future study of business' influence on policymaking, with broader implications for policy studies and political economy.

Currently in Western Australia there are no mandated standards for assessing rehabilitation success for the mining industry. A decade ago the focus of most mine site rehabilitation programs was to establish good density and cover of vegetation across the disturbed area. While this resulted in rehabilitated sites that were essentially stable and may have looked aesthetically pleasing, it did not necessarily mean that the rehabilitated sites were moving towards the establishment of functional ecosystems. The goal for rehabilitated mined land should be to restore the structure, diversity, function and dynamics, of the undisturbed ecosystem. In many circumstances this will mean the creation of a self-sustaining, functional ecosystem similar to that in the adjacent undisturbed area from which the rehabilitated area will recruit most of its fauna. The need for 'high-quality' rehabilitation has become necessary with the phasing in of performance standards for assessing the development of rehabilitated mine sites. Mine site rehabilitation should be viewed as managing succession processes towards the creation of ecosystems that are functionally compatible with that which existed before the disturbance or in the adjacent undisturbed areas.

This dissertation analyses the formation of Swedish cultural policy in the twentieth century and the emergence of a modern concept of cultural policy. The aim is to historicise this concept by opening up the process through which it was established. The dissertation explores different aspects of this process: the use of the word cultural policy (kulturpolitik), the ambitions in the 1960s to establish a form of knowledge production relevant in cultural policy making and the attempts made by various official authorities in the 1960s and early 1970s to identify and manage the field of concerns defined as belonging to cultural policy, thus demarcating culture as a formal area of policy making. I view these as examples of practices where the category of cultural policy was elaborated and established in a form widely recognized today. Accompanying my attempts to historicise the modern concept of cultural policy is an interest in how the history of cultural policy has generally been conceived. In previous research devoted to the history of cultural policy an analytical sense of cultural policy has tended to overrule the understanding(s) of cultural policy found in the historical sources. As a consequence, the histories of cultural policy have left out what historically was identified as cultural policy, thus leaving the historical grounds for the modern concept of cultural policy partly hidden. In the first empirical chapter I examine the uses of the word cultural policy when it was introduced in the Swedish language in the late nineteenth century until the 1950s. From a multitude of usages, I suggest that it was in the mid-twentieth century that a more consistent vocabulary developed, with “cultural policy” referring to political endeavors aiming at a nation’s domestic cultural life. In the second empirical chapter I investigate how scientific conceptualisations and operationalisations rendered culture available for scientific, political and administrative undertakings, and in the third chapter I study how culture was demarcated as a formal area of policy making. The chapters reveal different aspects of the historical process through which the category of cultural policy was established in its present shape.

International actors from International Organizations, Western States, Think tanks, risk management consultancies, NGOs, and private security companies understand borderless threats like clandestine migration, drug trafficking, and international terrorism to emanate from ‘ungoverned spaces’ in the Global South. The Sahelian sub-region of West Africa has taken a prominent place in global discourses of insecurity and borderless threats. These non-traditional security concerns have been translated into an expanding array of transnational governance initiatives that bring together the activities and practices of a wide range of state and non-state, global and local, and public and private actors in efforts to deal with the challenges that borderless threats are assumed to present. This dissertation argues that attempts to govern drug trafficking in the Sahel are producing global assemblages of security intervention: shifting, multi-scalar, institutional orders that reorient and reconfigure the security practices, knowledges, mentalities, technologies, and priorities of multiple sets of governance actors across disparate jurisdictional spaces. The effects of the transnationalized security governance and capacity-building initiatives that unfold in simultaneous, connected spaces of intervention amplify and alter positions of social power and prominence in local fields of conflict. Through the practices and projects of global security experts and capacity-builders in the Sahel, new forms of international capital are introduced and become realized in local settings that intensify rivalries between local, national, and regional security institutions over the question of the recognition of their authority over security matters. In their relationships with international capacity-builders and other global actors, sets of local recipients of security governance interventions practice forms of extraversion whereby their structural positions of dependence and differentials of power and resources are leveraged to accumulate forms of international capital that they then use to dominate the fields of power in which they are embedded. The dissertation examines three components of the assemblages of security intervention in West Africa: the effects of the transnational field of capacity- building in the Sahelian interior; the establishment and operation of the UNODC Airport Communications drug interdiction project (AIRCOP) at Dakar’s International Airport, and the joint UNODC/World Customs Organization Container Control Programme operating at the port of Dakar. It advances new empirical material from these case studies, and makes contributions to debates in three sub-fields of International Relations: critical security studies, global governance, and international statebuilding.

In this examination of citizen surveillance, I engage with Foucaultian and Deleuzian conceptualizations of surveillance, power, resistance, control, and desire, to explore the motivation(s) of community members who film and disseminate footage of the police. Methodologically, I conducted semi-structured interviews with community stakeholders to study the latent thematic ideas embedded in their responses. These themes represent the underlying motivational factors a citizen surveiller may have when filming the police. In my analysis of these themes, I explore: citizen surveillers’ logic for resisting power; citizen surveillers’ understandings of power; and, citizen surveillers’ reported approaches to both passive and active forms of resistance. Subsequently, there appears to be an underlying desire for power and a resistance to power when filming the police. However, given the exploratory nature of this study, there is a need to continue investigating the theoretical and under substantiated claims about citizen surveillance and its association with race, gender and socio-economic status.

This thesis examines two complex, dynamic problems by employing the theory of Markov Decision Processes (MDPs). Chapters 2 and 3 consider assemble-to-order (ATO) inventory systems. An ATO system consists of several components and several products, and assembles products as demand is realized; it is becoming increasingly popular since it provides greater flexibility in manufacturing at a reasonable cost. This work contributes to the ATO research stream by characterizing optimal inventory replenishment and allocation policies. Chapter 4 examines the new product development (NPD) process with scarce resources and many projects in parallel, each lasting several periods, in the face of uncertainty. This study advances the NPD literature by revealing that optimal project selection and resource allocation decisions are congestion-dependent. Below, I elaborate on the novel optimal policies and structural results I obtain using MDP formulations, which is the overarching theme of the thesis. In Chapter 2, I consider generalized ATO “M-systems" with multiple components and multiple products. These systems involve a single “master" product which uses multiple units from each component, and multiple individual products each of which consumes multiple units from a different component. Such systems are common for manufacturers selling an assembled product as well as individual spare parts. I model these systems as infinite-horizon MDPs under the discounted cost criterion. Each component is produced in batches of fixe size in a make-to stock fashion; batch sizes are determined by individual product sizes. Production times are independent and exponentially distributed. Demand for each product arrives as an independent Poisson process. If not satisfied immediately upon arrival, these demands are lost. Therefore the state of the system can be described by component inventory levels. A control policy specifies when a batch of components should be produced (i.e., inventory replenishment), and whether an arriving demand for each product should be satisfied (i.e.,inventory allocation). The convexity property that has been largely used to characterize optimal policies in the MDP literature may fail to hold in our case. Therefore I introduce new functional characterizations for submodularity and supermodularity restricted to certain lattices of the state space. The optimal cost function satisfies these new characterizations: The state space of the problem can be partitioned into disjoint lattices such that, on each lattice, (a) it is optimal to produce a batch of a particular component if and only if the state vectors less than a certain threshold associated with that component, and (b) it is optimal to fulfill a demand of a particular product if and only if the state vector is greater than or equal to a certain threshold associated with that product. I refer to this policy as a lattice-dependent base-stock and lattice-dependent rationing (LBLR) policy. I also show that if the optimization criterion is modified to the average cost rate, LBLR remains optimal. Chapter 2 makes three important contributions. First, this is the first study that establishes the optimal inventory replenishment and allocation policies for M-systems. Second, this study is the first to characterize the optimal policies for any ATO problem when different products may use the same component in different quantities. Third, I introduce new functional characterizations restricted to certain lattices of the state space, giving rise to an LBLR policy. In Chapter 3, I evaluate the use of an LBLR policy for general ATO systems as a heuristic. I numerically compare the globally optimal policy to LBLR and two other heuristics from the literature: a state-dependent base-stock and state-dependent rationing (SBSR) policy, and a fixed base-stock and fixed rationing (FBFR) policy. Taking the average cost rate as the performance criterion, I develop a linear program to find the globally optimal cost, and Mixed Integer Programming formulations to find the optimal cost within each heuristic class. I generate more than 1800 instances for the general ATO problem, not restricted to the assumptions of Chapter 2, such as the M-system product structure. Interestingly, LBLR yields the globally optimal cost in all instances, while SBSR and FBFR provide solutions within 2.7% and 4.8% of the globally optimal cost, respectively. These numerical results also provide several insights into the performance of LBLR relative to other heuristics: LBLR and SBSR perform significantly better than FBFR when replenishment batch sizes imperfectly match the component requirements of the most valuable or most highly demanded product. In addition, LBLR substantially outperforms SBSR if it is crucial to hold a significant amount of inventory that must be rationed. Based on the numerical findings in Chapter 3, future research could investigate the optimality of LBLR for ATO systems with general product structures. However, as I construct counter-examples showing that submodularity and supermodularity { which are used to prove the optimality of LBLR in Chapter 2 { need not hold for general ATO systems, showing the optimality of LBLR for general ATO systems will likely require alternate proof techniques. In Chapter 4, I study the problem of project selection and resource allocation in a multistage new product development (NPD) process with stage-dependent resource constraints. As in Chapters 2 and 3, I model the problem as an infinite-horizon MDP, specifically under the discounted cost criterion. Each NPD project undergoes a different experiment at each stage of the NPD process; these experiments generate signals about the true nature of the project. Experimentation times are independent and exponentially distributed. Beliefs about the ultimate outcome of each project are updated after each experiment according to a Bayesian rule. Projects thus become differentiated through their signals, and all available signals for a project determine its category. The state of the system is described by the numbers of projects in each category. A control policy specifies, given the system state, how to utilize the resources at each stage, i.e., the projects (i) to experiment at each stage, and (ii) to terminate. I characterize the optimal control policy as following a new type of strategy, state-dependent on-congestive promotion (SDNCP), for two different special cases of the general problem: (a)when there is a single informative experiment and projects are not terminated, or (b) when there are multiple uninformative experiments. An SDNCP policy implies that, at each stage, it is optimal to advance a project with the highest expected reward to the next stage if and only if the number of projects in each successor category is less than a state-dependent threshold. In addition, I show that threshold values decrease in a non-strict sense as a later stage becomes more congested or as an earlier stage becomes less congested. (A stage becomes “more congested" with an increase in the number of projects at this stage or with an increase in the expected reward of any project at this stage.) An SDNCP policy can be used as a heuristic for the general problem. I support the outstanding performance of an SDNCP policy in the general case through a numerical study. These findings highlight the importance of taking into account congestion in optimal portfolio strategies.

Cette étude est structurée autour du constat d’un hiatus entre la poursuite d’unprojet politique de nature fédérale, la monnaie unique, et une mise en oeuvre reposant surdes outils appartenant à un état centralisé, le contrôle budgétaire à priori. Cette situation,résulte d’abord du manque de confiance entre les Etats mais l’utilisation d’outils inadaptés aubut poursuivi génère de nombreux dysfonctionnements. Le fait de confier par trois ensemblede textes [le « six pack », le « Two pack » et le Traité sur la stabilité, la coordination et lagouvernance au sein de l'Union économique et monétaire (TSCG)] à l'union européenne unecoordination économique qui ne soit plus uniquement indicative et la possibilité, donnée àcette dernière, d'indiquer aux Etats les réformes structurelles que ces derniers doivententreprendre, dans des domaines qui n'appartiennent pas au champ de compétences del'Union européenne, soulève pour le juriste de nombreuses questions à la fois sur lesfondements doctrinaux de l'Union européenne et sur les mécanismes institutionnels mis enoeuvre
This study is structured around the observation of a gap between the pursuit of apolitical project of a federal nature, the single currency, and implementation tools based onbelonging to a centralized state, the ante budgetary control. This situation results first of lackof trust between them, but the use of tools unsuitable for purpose generates numerousmalfunctions and feeling, for lack of a sufficiently strong association of national parliaments ofa "power of Brussels" seeking to assert itself against the will of the states and their peoples.three texts were introduced [the "six pack", the "Two pack" and the Treaty on Stability,Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union (TSCG)] in EuropeanUnion economic coordination that are no longer only indicative and the possibility for the EUto indicate to the structural reforms that these countries must undertake in areas that do notbelong to the field of competence of the European Union raised for the jurist many questionson both the doctrinal foundations of the European Union and on the institutional mechanismsimplemented

This thesis examines how employability and the employable as a discursive subject was constructed through a Swedish labor market policy measure called “datortek”. The datortek was a form of combined computer lab and activity center that was set up in collaboration between local governance and the National market labour board. People who were registered as unemployed could be sent to the local datortek to learn how to use a computer. In this way, they would be made employable in the new, knowledge based society and Sweden would be well on its way to become a leading nation in the field of IT-technology and expertise. At least, that was the idea. In the 1990’s there was a shift in Swedish, as well as european, labour policy discourse. The politically defined problem of “unemployment” changed towards being an issue of the individual’s ability to make oneself “employable”. On a large extent, employability depends on certain individual properties, such as “flexibility”, “entrepreneurship” and being “active”. Earlier research have mainly focused on employability as a policy concept. In this view, employability is seen as something that is enforced through public policy onto the workers. This study is taking a somewhat different approach. Here, employability will be seen as a concept that takes form in a process of negotiation and articulation. A process that takes place in the interpersonal meeting, in the intercept between man and machine, in formal documents as well as through the design of the datortek itself. Thus, the datortek can serve as a study object that allow us to investigate how employability was articulated. It is this articulation, the process of becoming-employable through the datortek, which is at the heart of this study. The thesis shows that the datortek functioned as a simulated work place where the participants were made to stage and perform “teamwork” and learn “social competence”. The computer was given the role of an instrument for bringing out certain feelings amongst the participants. This emotive discipline can be understood as a way to achieve “emotional competence”. The thesis also shows a different way on how a concept such as employability can be studied. By looking into the very practical aspects of the datortek, the abstract idea of employability is made comprehensible. This gives us, not only deepened knowledge of the notion of modern labor, but also a better understanding of how ideology is (re)produced.

In the United States, marine aquaculture is increasingly viewed as way to offset stagnating wild fisheries production, help faltering coastal community economies, and address a growing national seafood trade deficit. The national government has outwardly supported the development of the sector through policies, plans, and other statements. However, many social and environmental questions surround prospective expansion, and actual policy development and implementation has been slow. This dissertation builds on recent work in human geography and policy studies to explore US national marine aquaculture policy processes, conceptualizing policy as a dynamic assemblage of actors, spaces, practices, and relations. It contributes to our understanding of oceans geography and policy processes by addressing three questions: (1) How do actors interact within the assemblage negotiate, construct, and develop national policies? (2) What practices are actors employing to shape aquaculture policymaking, and what views underlie them? (3) What are the practical, and often local, implications of these processes, and how do actors interact with and within policy development (or not)?

These questions are approached empirically by tracing the US national marine aquaculture policy assemblage across time, space, and scale. The dissertation draws on research conducted within and outside the US government, focusing on the internal practices of the state and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as well as a case of local and regional policy implementation and development in New England. It also focuses on offshore aquaculture policy, as well as marine aquaculture more generally. The dissertation uses discourse analysis, ethnography, and other approaches to conduct a geographic policy analysis that explores the processes and relationships producing national marine aquaculture policy in the United States.

Overall, this research shows that broad or monolithic conceptualization of the state, its motivations, its practices, and their implications are oversimplified. The federal government features a diversity of actors, discourses, and ideas about marine aquaculture and its policy development, which manifest in different paths to reform and conflicting efforts within the state itself. Further, national policy processes are not contained within the national government, but are co-produced by mobile and dynamic actors and policies across contexts. Actors deploy particular discourses about marine aquaculture’s risks and opportunities, government agencies and offices claim and reclaim authority over the sector, bureaucrats engage in diverse everyday policy practices and interactions, and policy ideas and policies themselves change as they are translated and deployed in new spaces and by different actors. Together, these processes suggest that rather than expecting a totalizing form of marine aquaculture development in the United State, it is important to consider the ruptures and opportunities within the assemblage that might allow for alternative forms of policy, coordination, and implementation at all scales.

Dissertation

碩士
元智大學
工業工程與管理學系
96
In recent years, the impact of globalization and technical merchandises change very fast, therefore modular becomes the best method to produce. Modular means combined two modules which are Make To Stock and Make To Order, but it is complex and is limited by resources that will cause inventory management to become more and more complicated. In the two phases of the inventory system which is consists of material on first stage and products on second stage, the quantity of inventory have dependent relationship. In other words, the manufacturing of products at the second stage needs the inventoried materials at the first stage. After that, we will consider batch to order and batch order, because first one will affect inventory to be decreased and other one will increase inventory a lot. The quantity of inventory will be dramatic influence. Accordinging to quantity of order strategy(EOQ、multiple、Power-of-Two Policy)and two decision strategies (sequential strategy and coordinated strategy) are discussed when searching for the best inventory policy based on the minimum total cost of the two-echelon inventory system. Finally we can see that coordinated strategy improves total cost of inventory system in different conditions and get amount of cost between minimum the two stages.

Public sector interest in social innovation is growing rapidly around the world. The surge in activity has emerged, at least in part, in response to pressing social, environmental and economic issues and the increased recognition that many of these complex, inter-related ‘wicked’ and ‘squishy’ problems’ are unresponsive to traditional policy ‘levers’. However, it is only in recent years that substantial empirical research exploring public sector roles in enabling social innovation has emerged. This thesis contributes to this literature, taking a purposefully open and non-critical stance to allow for a broad exploration and in an attempt to think differently about possibilities. The epistemological framing of the study contributes to the Community Economies research tradition. I draw on several of its methods and tools, including using ‘reading for difference’ techniques to explore ‘weak theory’ propositions related to my three broad research questions. I develop and apply an experimental configuration of conceptual frameworks to uncover a multitude of ‘little narratives’ about public sector roles in enabling social innovation. The configuration includes the Diverse Economies Framework, which is used to inventory the agents and processes involved in what I identify through the research as ‘social innovation assemblages’. To draw out key decision-making and negotiation points between the entities involved a second framework combines three perspectives: adaptive lifecycle concepts; domains of social change activity; and a contextual specificity approach to growing and diffusing social value. These frameworks provide language tools which contribute to strengthening the efforts of those interested in enabling social innovation assemblages through public sector policymaking. Given the practical orientation and exploratory nature of the study, a case study approach was chosen as the overarching method for the study. The empirical research was undertaken iteratively, in two stages. The first stage involved the development of 21 snapshot case studies of social innovation assemblages based in Europe, the UK, Canada, and the United States. These case studies were analysed using selected language tools to reveal the different roles that the public sector can play in enabling social innovation assemblages. The findings of this stage were used as inputs to the second stage, which comprised an engaged research activity with 21 participants from two ‘user groups’. This engaged research activity was designed to build capacity around engaging with social innovation concepts, and to ‘reality test’ the language tools with participants. In the final thesis, 13 case studies that draw out each element of the two conceptual frameworks are presented. Through this analysis, and drawing on the input of the ‘user groups’, in the third stage, a specific domain of policymaking, namely social procurement, was selected for closer analysis. With reference to four in-depth case studies, I explore how social innovation assemblages are being enabled through public sector social procurement programs. In a key theoretical contribution, I combine the community economies framing of the study with the emerging literature on new public governance (NPG) frameworks. Through this unique combination of perspectives I show how tensions between participatory approaches to policymaking and the hierarchical decision-making structures and risk-averse cultures prevalent in the public sector can be navigated in ways that improve social relations whilst also improving accountability and transparency. Drawing together insights arising out of the research activities across the three stages, I identify nascent openings that point towards a new ethos in public sector policymaking. These openings include perspectives and language designed to ‘push back’ against prescriptive policymaking and offer a counter to ‘fast policy’ approaches to enabling and diffusing social innovation,. The resulting ethos positions public sector actors as more than ‘just part of the problem’. Through the study I show that public sector actors can play dynamic and unique roles in decentring the prevailing discourse of intractable ‘wicked problems’ and performing a new kind of economy.

The traditional (Q,r) inventory control model assumes that the date at which the order is entered is the same as the date at which it is requested or expected to be delivered. Hence, the penalty cost is incurred when the customer places the order if inventory is unavailable. This is a reasonable assumption for retail systems and most distribution centers (DC), but not for an assemble-to-order (ATO) environment. In this scenario, there is a delivery time which is usually pre-negotiated and in addition to considering the manufacturing process time and in some cases the outbound transportation time, it also has some safety time built-in. This safety time is defined by the manufacturer and represents information related to when the penalty is incurred. The main objective of this research is to develop a modified (Q,r) policy that incorporates the safety time, and to evaluate this policy in terms of expected inventory cost and expected penalty cost / late orders. The problem is addressed following the heuristic approach discussed by Hadley and Whitin (1963). Two main models are developed based on the following assumptions: 1) early shipments are allowed by the customer, and 2) no early shipments are allowed. The behavior of both models is analyzed mathematically and by means of numerical examples. It is shown that from a manufacturer perspective, the first model is preferred over the traditional (Q,r) model. However, it poses a threat for the long term business relationship with the customer because the service level deteriorates, and for the implications that early shipments have on the customer inventory. The behavior of the second model is strictly related to the problem being addressed. Its merits with respect to the traditional and the "early shipment" model are discussed. This discussion is centered on the coefficient of variation of the lead-time demand, the ratio (IC/pi), and the location of the supplier. A final model which is a hybrid of the previous two shipping policies is developed. The models developed in the course of this research are generalizations of the traditional (Q,r) model.

碩士
國立成功大學
工業與資訊管理學系碩博士班
98
With globalization and the improvement of information technology quick responses to customers’ requirements become main competitive advantages for corporate. Assemble-to-order is developed as a production strategy to reduce response times in which inventory plays a key role to affect lead times. In recent years, research on perishable inventory often regards an item but not a component is perishable, which ignores the possibility of fitting in an assemble-to-order environment in practice. Many products are made using both perishable and non-perishable components, and which can not be dealt with by a series of newsvendor problems. In facts, replenishment decisions for both components have to be made jointly. In this study, we focus on the inventory problem of multi-product in an assemble-to-order system where components may be perishable and non-perishable. And the non-perishable one is also a common component. We establish an inventory policy for perishable components in which the number of backorders at the beginning of a period and the availability of the nonperishable component are considered to determine the optimal ordering schedules and quantities of the perishable components, and the common component. A dynamic programming approach is used to model the multi-period problem which considers purchasing costs, holding cost, backorder cost , and lifetimes of perishable components. The proposed approach ensures that manufacturers can have a better inventory policy with profit improvement which can reduce damages from mis-match in assembly. Finally, a numerical application demonstrates that the benefits of using the proposed allocation policies are better than that for solving problem as a newsvendor independently.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
商學研究所
92
Recently, stocking policy by considering component commonality has become an important issue in supply chain management. Common component can reduce component demand variation and lower the order frequency through the effect of risk polling and order pooling, respectively. However, current researches on stocking policy related to commonality are most based on myopic assumption and base stock policy. Their models only consider component purchasing and inventory cost as well as product shortage cost but ignore component ordering cost. In practice, ordering components in every period, especially for both unique and common components, may result in huge ordering cost and, thus, increase the overall manufacturing cost. Therefore, in this research we construct a mixed integer linear programming model to find an optimal stocking policy for common components including ordering cost in objective function. As our model is extended to longer period or accommodated with more complex product structure, this mixed integer linear programming model cannot be solved optimally due to large number of 0-1 variables. Hence, in this research, we develop a Lagrangian relaxation-based heuristics to solve this model efficiently. Under the tests of different scenario design, our heuristics perform well in computational time and duality gap in all scenarios. Finally, we compare the results of our model with previous models based on myopic assumption. This comparison shows that our model produces much lower cost if the component ordering cost is significant.

碩士
國立東華大學
運籌管理研究所
101
For products of some industries, such as the electronic industry, the life cycles are short. There are price erosions for components and final products, and more customers request product customization. In facing these challenges, the Assemble-To-Order (ATO) system has advantages over the traditional Make-To-Order (MTO) system. An MTO system stores final products while an ATO system stores components. In the above situation, how the contract manufacturer prestocks components with different lead times for final product assembling is an important issue. Furthermore, many contract manufacturers need to assemble different products with common components. Therefore, they also need to consider how to allocate common components to different products. We extend the multi-component, single-product ATO system in Hsu et al. (2006) to a two-component, two-product ATO system. We apply two different ordering and allocation policies for ordering and allocating the components based on the optimal procurement structure they construct. We set two problem types: one is the same-component-set problem, which the products are all assembled by the same component set. The only difference is the prices of products are different. The other is the different-component-set problem, which the products are assembled by different component sets with the same common component. We study how contract manufacturers prestock the components of various lead times under the different ordering and allocation policies. We use simulation to perform sensitive analysis. We discuss the effect of input parameters on the stock level and allocation decisions of contract manufacturers.

The diploma thesis practically and theoretically deals with the concept - privatization of security. The aim of the practical part is to compare the conception of private security companies in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The comparison focuses on the factual data (number of PSC, employees, police forces, the amount of wages, the turnover), state regulation and mutual relation of public and private security providers. The findings of the practical part are applied to the theoretical concept of Rita Abrahamsen and Michael Williams - Theory of Security Assemblages. It is based on the claim that the privatization of security is part of a broader process of partial dismantling of the state and at the same time emerging "global assembly, which brings together national and global structures. The privatization of security is enshrined in both the social and the legal environment, and therefore the state itself can participate on its own dismantling by its acting. This is the case of the Czech Republic due to the absence of PSC's regulation, control mechanisms, minimum requirements for skilled employees PSC and the non-definition of the relationship between public and private security sector. It results in weakening the role of the Czech Republic as a guarantor of security. The aforementioned inaction...

The research investigates complex dynamics in territories focusing on material and immaterial aspects of Airbnb, as an in-becoming issue for urban and regional governance. The short-term rental (STR) market is a disruptive social and urban challenge for local institutions because of its wide diffusion. Thus, it is broadly approached by different fields of study because of its effects on urban livability, and it is vastly discussed in over-tourist cities. The research hypothesizes that the materiality and immateriality of dynamics of the Airbnb’s patterns of supply and demand diffusion, the tangled interplay among local and global, private, and public actors involved and the multi-level governance of the short-term rental market are evidence of a complex system that is worth investigating in urban regions. Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic set unique conditions to highlight the Airbnb system’s complexity in transition phases. Therefore, the research proposes to frame the STR market in complexity theories linked to urban domains, in which assumptions on planning and governance rely on complex features of systems and are aimed at discussing the effectiveness of public policy models and tools, here debated in a regional dimension. Methodologically, the single case study proceeds through a data-driven approach, while the research project is built on a theory-driven approach. Ultimately, the research aims to identify the dimension and the specific attributes of a gap between the governance system and the complex features of the Airbnb system, questioning how these features may influence the current urban governance models and tools for short-term rental in Italy and specifically in Tuscany. Limited to the Airbnb material and immaterial dynamics, the research investigates the weaknesses and strengths of the current governance and planning paradigm at different levels in Italy, considering the complexity of the Airbnb system. In in-becoming contexts, the thesis claims that effective rules arise from a systemic approach to the governance of the STR market, because its main actors, such as Airbnb, involve a multiplicity of scales, powers, markets, and life systems, mainly in cities, but also in urban regions because of the morpho-genetic and flow system that constitute regions and attract tourist flows. The conclusions sketch the efficiency of approaching the STR market in Italy from a regional perspective, introducing the assemblages of actors, the ‘roughness’ of territories and the role of the history as (a part of the) drivers of unpredictable patterns of evolution/revolution. Contextually, the impossibility to foresee private plans at the local level doesn’t imply the impossibility for other normative levels to set framing rules for STR platforms and correlated dynamics to protect the weakest actors in the game. In conclusion, the analyses driven by complexity and planning studies open to the chance to further discuss the effects and not only the patterns of the Airbnb system in regions, aimed at supporting urban and regional policy, revising their models and tools under the lens of complexity theories linked to urban domains.