Performance Indicator

It is obvious that real water saving measures are only possible if the current water resources are clearly understood. For a basin in western Turkey, simulation modeling at three different scales, field, irrigation scheme and basin level was performed to obtain all terms of the water balance. These water balance numbers were used to calculate the Productivity of Water (PW) at the three levels. The four performance indicators considered were: PWirrigated (yield / irrigation), PWinflow (yield / net inflow), PWdepleted (productivity / depletion), and PWprocess (productivity / process depletion), all expressed in kg yield per m3 water. For the two cotton fields considered at the field scale level, the more upstream field performed better than the field at the tail-end. This was partly a result of the difference in climatic condition, but was mainly due to the location of the two fields: upstream vs. downstream. At the irrigation scheme level PWirrigated was higher than at the individual cotton field, since non-irrigated crops were also included. Other PW values were lower as crops more sensitive to drought were also found in the irrigated areas. Basin scale PWs are lower than those at the irrigation scheme, as large areas of the basin were covered with less productive land covers. It is concluded that performance indicators are useful ways of representing water dynamics with clearly understandable numbers, and that it is important to consider all the spatial scales at the appropriate level of detail.

This study examines differences between independent ventures (IVs), which are established by individual entrepreneurs, and corporate ventures (CVs), which are controlled by larger companies. It focuses on differences between these ventures related to the resources, strategies, and performance of firms in the computer and communications equipment manufacturing industries. Thus, the findings increase the understanding of the different challenges faced by each venture type and provide insight into how each venture type should be managed.The study finds that managers of CVs and IVs emphasized different resources and strategies. Specifically, CVs emphasized the following resources: internal capital sources, proprietary knowledge, and marketing expertise. IVs emphasized external capital sources, technical expertise, and development of brand identification. They also differed in their strategies; IVs pursued greater strategic breadth, more customer service, and focused more on specialty products. The findings that CVs had less strategic breadth was surprising in that CVs emphasized resources, such as internal capital sources, which could make pursuing broad strategies more feasible for CVs. It is possible that some CVs do not pursue broad strategies because they may be “infringing upon someone else's turf” within the corporation and thus may be discouraged.In spite of finding significant strategy and resource differences, the study found that IVs and CVs did not differ in performance and that resources were not directly related to performance. Based on the concept of equifinality, it follows that both venture types can be equally successful, even if they follow different roads to success. Success may be less a function of the different resources IVs and CVs have and more a function of what strategies the firms choose based upon their resources.Strategy variables did relate to performance: a low cost strategy lowered performance regardless of venture type and the influence of an aggressive strategy (i.e., wide strategic breadth) on performance depended upon venture origin. Managers pursuing a low cost strategy may have had lower performance if they became penny wise and pound foolish, missing opportunities in their efforts to lower costs. This suggests that regardless of venture type, managers of new ventures in these industries and perhaps in other volatile industries may need to be opportunistic.This study indicates that pursuing broad strategies increased the performance of IVs and decreased the performance of CVs. This finding was surprising in that CVs had greater resources, which one might think would lead to successful implementation of aggressive strategies. In securing enough resources to pursue aggressive strategies from their parents, CVs may lose the freedom of action they need to cope with the dynamism of high technology industries. This suggests that managers of CVs within the computer and communications equipment manufacturing industries should either not pursue broad strategies, or if pursuing broad strategy, they should maintain their flexibility. In contrast, IVs that pursued broad strategies achieved higher performance, indicating that perhaps IVs, unencumbered by the bureaucracy that characterizes CVs, may be able to pursue aggressive strategies while simultaneously maintaining flexibility.Thus, this study offers IV and CV managers several valuable insights. First, it argues that managers of each type of venture may need to pursue different strategies to increase venture performance and make optimal use of their unique resources. Furthermore, it suggests that CV managers encounter difficulties in applying resources to strategies and not in accessing resources. Whereas political obstacles may occur, CV managers may primarily encounter these difficulties when trying to implement strategies rather than when accumulating resources from the parent, suggesting a pitfall that managers of CVs and their parents need to avoid. Although this study has indicated that both venture types can be equally successful, it suggests that they may face different obstacles and follow different roads to success.

In this paper, we propose a new approach for evaluating research projects and programs. According our approach, the improvement might be achieved by adopting a results-based and a project portfolio approach, and assuring a research and technology development (RTD) indicators documentation through a standard and comprehensive indicator description, named indicator template. The results-based approach will assure a consistent indicators structure, according to the results chains and a strong connection between ex ante and ex post impact evaluation. The project portfolio approach will assure a tight integration of the research performance indicators, especially between policies goals and program results. And, finally defining a comprehensive indicator template it will be possible to understand better the indicators, develop a detailed analysis, based on the business intelligence techniques, such as OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing), data mining and text mining. According our knowled...

Designing and implementing a Knowledge Management System (KMS) in a Virtual Enterprise is a labour intensive and risky task. Solution prototypes (Pilots) are usually built to verify system effectiveness prior to final implementation. The paper proposes a methodology to guide this Pilot specifications definition process. These guidelines support engineers and knowledge experts in collaboratively defining functionalities, services, software components and performance indicators of the prototype. The methodology has been conceived and ...

A baseline survey of small and medium scale poultry enterprises were carried out in Enugu and Lagos States of Nigeria. The primary purpose of the study is to determine the prospects for the commercialization of the poultry industry in Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling method was employed in the selection of representative small and medium scale poultry farms and farmers from the two target states. Characteristics of both small and medium-scale poultry farms, baseline performance indicators as well as needs assessment of poultry farmers, among other information, were elicited and documented. It was established that the identified constraints, notwithstanding, small and medium scale poultry production holds great potential for commercialistion. It was recommended that there is the need for provision of gender-sensitive technologies (eg hatcheries, feed mills, processing equipment etc), formation of cooperatives by poultry farmers, public-private partnership, capacity building of poultry f...

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to determine the underlying dimensions of supply chain management (SCM) practices and to empirically test a framework identifying the relationships among SCM practices, operational performance and SCM‐related organizational performance with special emphasis on small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in Turkey.Design/methodology/approachData for the study were collected from a sample of 203 manufacturing SMEs operating in the manufacture of fabricated metal products and general purpose machinery (NACE codes 28 and 29) within the city of Istanbul in Turkey. The research framework was tested using partial least squares method, which is a variance‐based structural equation modeling approach.FindingsBased on exploratory factor analysis (EFA), SCM practices were grouped in two factors: outsourcing and multi‐suppliers (OMS), and strategic collaboration and lean practices (SCLP). The results indicate that both factors of SCLP and OMS have direct positive...

The purpose of this paper is to identify best practices in order to improve the quality of services in Portuguese academic libraries. This article describes an ongoing project to assess the performance of library services, resulting from a partnership of six Portuguese higher education libraries. The study has three main steps:(1) selection of criteria to be evaluated and selection of their corresponding performance indicators;(2) data collection and analysis;(3) identification of best practices. The selection of the criteria to be ...

In this paper two methods for energy analysis and environmental accounting (Gross Energy Requirement and Emergy Synthesis) are critically discussed in order to explore their ability to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the performance and environmental sustainability of human-dominated production processes. In order to allow a quantitative comparison, two cropping systems, namely 1 ha of corn production in Italy, and 1 ha of willow production in Sweden, are investigated by means of the parallel application of both methods. The case studies are carried out by performing a quantitative inventory of both natural and economic input flows to the investigated cropping systems. Such input flows are then converted into embodied energy (MJ) as well as emergy (seJ) units. Finally, performance indicators representative for each method are calculated. Results provided by the two methods and their respective theoretical features are compared and discussed in order to point out limits and potentialities of both approaches. The study shows that the two methods account for different – although complementary – categories of input flows, use different conversion factors, and answer to different questions and concerns. Gross Energy Requirement focuses on fossil fuel use and is capable to support the development of more efficient use of commercial energy. Emergy Synthesis uses broader spatial and time frames and accounts for both natural and economic resources. In so doing, it takes into consideration different forms of energy, materials, human labor and economic services on a common basis, offering larger potentiality to explore the sustainable interplay of environment and economy.

A freight terminal is a key node in a transportation network and the transit time of containers through this terminal represents one of the most relevant bottlenecks in logistic chains. The system performance reduction and the corresponding increase of transit time are often due to the increase of the freight flow without a corresponding increase of stacking and handling capacity. For this purpose it was decided to approach the problem by a discrete event simulation model, in order to reproduce the activities carried out inside an intermodal terminal, to calculate the total transit time and to identify the bottlenecks. The transit time of a cargo unit in a terminal is the summation of times required for the development of each phase of the process (waiting time + operational time). Therefore, the first step was the identification of the main activities and the analysis of waiting and operational phases, in order to quantify the times of each phase. For modelling the software Planima...

Efficient and effective response to the requirements of customers is a major performance indicator. Failure to satisfy customer requirements implies operational weaknesses in a company. These weaknesses will damage both the rights of customers and the reputation ...

The Performance Indicators for Coding Quality (PICQ) is a data quality assessment tool developed by Australia's National Centre for Classification in Health (NCCH). PICQ consists of a number of indicators covering all ICD-10-AM disease chapters, some procedure chapters from the Australian Classification of Health Intervention (ACHI) and some Australian Coding Standards (ACS). The indicators can be used to assess the coding quality of hospital morbidity data by monitoring compliance of coding conventions and ACS; this enables the identification of particular records that may be incorrectly coded, thus providing a measure of data quality. There are 31 obstetric indicators available for the ICD-10-AM Fourth Edition. Twenty of these 31 indicators were classified as Fatal, nine as Warning and two Relative. These indicators were used to examine coding quality of obstetric records in the 2004-2005 financial year Australian national hospital morbidity dataset. Records with obstetric dis...

ObjectivePatient involvement in health service planning and evaluation is considered important yet not widely practiced. This study explored stakeholder beliefs about patient participation in performance indicator selection to better understand hypothesized barriers.

In today's tight, competitive, and volatile market in semiconductor manufacturing, a successful semiconductor manufacturer has to look into multiple performance indices such as cycle time and on-time delivery. Effective dispatching mechanism is a widely used strategy to achieve these performance indices simultaneously. In the past, dispatching studies in semiconductor manufacturing have primarily focused on the level of tool dispatching. This

The paper approaches the potential of risk-adjusted performance indicators in life insurance, with special reference to a structured policy. The final issue is the computation of risk adjusted indicators as a tool to evaluate the portfolio given a policy structure. The computation of such indicator could be suitable for the appraisal of both portfolio optimization and potential profits of the structured policy. The selection tool is put into an asset and liability management decision making context, where the relationship between expected surplus and capital at risk are compared. The analysis is applied to a structured temporary annuity and is treated by means of Monte Carlo simulations.

Driving is getting more complex by the time due to distraction factors inside and outside the motor vehicle. One of the major external distraction causes is roadside advertising signs. This study aims at assessing the effects of these signs on driving performance on a simulator and drivers' opinion on the distraction caused by such signs using a questionnaire. Twelve volunteers participated in the driving simulator part of this study on two identical paths with one difference. One had roadside advertising signs and one had none. Driving simulator results revealed that two driving performance indicators, drifting from lane and recklessly crossing dangerous intersections, were significantly worse in the path with advertising signs as compared with performance on the other path. The other three performance indicators (number of tailgating times, overspeeding and turning or changing lanes without signaling) were also worse in the presence of advertising signs but the difference was not statistically significant. 160 drivers responded to the questionnaire. Half of the respondents indicated being distracted at least once by roadside advertising signs. Moreover, 22% of them indicated being put in a dangerous situation due to distraction caused by such signs.In light of the results, practical suggestions are made as to the positioning of these advertising signs and the need for more research in this area.