Pilar L. González-Torre

Environmental and reverse logistics policies in European bottling and packaging firms

Abstract Concern for the environment has led many firms to define policies that protect the environment within which they operate. This concern is reflected in all the activities of the product life cycle, both in those of direct logistics as well as reverse logistics. In order to set up environmentally friendly practices, bottling/packaging firms must maintain collaborative relations both upstream and downstream in the glass container value chain. This paper analyses the differences existing in the relations between bottling/packaging firms belonging to the food and drinks sector and their suppliers (fundamentally bottle/jar manufacturers) and their customers (end consumers of the packaged or bottled products) in two European countries with different characteristics: Spain and Belgium. The joint implantation of environmental practices was also studied, and more specifically those corresponding to the activities of reverse logistics.

Barriers to the Implementation of Environmentally Oriented Reverse Logistics: Evidence from the Automotive Industry Sector

Even though reverse logistics has existed as long as forward logistics, growing social concern for the environment has caused reverse logistics activities to become a critical function for many organizations. Yet, barriers to implementation of environmentally oriented aspects of reverse logistics still exist. The aim of the present study is to identify the barriers that impede or hinder the implementation of environmentally oriented reverse logistics practices, with a focus on the automotive industry. Empirical evidence and robust statistical analysis provide insights into the practices of environmentally oriented reverse logistics and barriers encountered in the Spanish automotive sector. Using structural equation modelling we are able identify two types of barriers, external and internal, and to study whether these barriers, previously identified in the literature, hinder environmentally oriented reverse logistics practices. The model also allows for identification of the most relevant barriers for the automotive sector.

A capacity management model in service industries

The problem of capacity management is one of the most difficult to tackle in business management; a situation which is aggravated in the majority of services, due to uncertain demand and personalized requirements, which make it difficult to plan and assign productive capacity. While overstaffing implies extra costs, insufficient capacity implies a lower level of attention to customer needs and therefore a lack of perceived quality. The present article tackles this problem, presenting a model that enables minimum staffing to be easily determined. By taking into account historical staffing data associated with quality data, minimum recommended workload is calculated as a function of the theoretical staff needed according to standard time. The model has been applied in two real cases.

Some comparative factors regarding recycling collection systems in regions of the USA and Europe

This paper analyses whether differences in selective waste collection systems used commonly in Europe and America influence peoples recycling habits and their opinions about the service they are offered. We study certain characteristics of the collection systems used in two specific areas-the Principality of Asturias (Northern Spain) and El Paso county (USA)-with very different practices. It likewise considers the extent to which such differences influence the recycling habits of the public at large, as well as their perceptions of the waste collection services. In order to carry out the research and to compare the influence of the above-mentioned factors in each case, personal interviews were held in the street in the two areas under study (1066 and 1068 interviews, respectively). Asturians needed less time to dispose of waste and separate items, being one of the reasons why this group has developed the habit of selective separation to a greater degree than El Pasoans.

A competing risks approach for time estimation of household WEEE disposal.

The recent growth in the number of electrical and electronic devices is viewed as one the priority waste streams in European Union waste management policy. This paper presents the findings of a survey to study domestic habits with respect to Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in Spain. A specific problem when performing this estimation arises from the fact that consumers quite often store old appliances at home when they are no longer used. Focusing on four different types of appliance, survival analysis (SA) is used to study both the usage span and the reasons for no longer using each device. The time that the discarded products were kept at home before being disposed of was studied using competing risks (CR) analysis. The results of the analysis provide information on the distribution of the studied variables for the different outcomes as well as the influence exerted by the socio-demographic variables considered. Relations between these characteristics and the storage time of the appliances before disposal emerge based on survey data. For instance, the CR model finds that the storage time of the some appliances (i.e. refrigerator) is related to these social-demographics factors. However, other appliances (i.e. microwave oven) are less influenced by these factors. The attitude and motivation of the respondents to the survey as regards the End-of-Life of appliances were also analysed. A majority of respondents do not store discarded appliances at home. The first reason for storing appliances at home is the possibility of it being useful in the future and the second that the respondents did not know what to do with them.

Lifetime of household appliances: empirical evidence of users behaviour

The household appliance industry is one of the most important sectors from both the economic and environmental point of view. A greater understanding of the way in which consumers of these items behave would help to better plan the recycling needs as a function of previous purchase figures. This paper presents the findings of a field survey of Spanish consumer habits with respect to different common household appliances as regards replacement time and the reasons for replacing these appliances. The methodology used is based on survival analysis; specifically, a competing risks model. A Cox proportional hazards model is also used for the sake of comparison. Our results show that as the number of people and/or persons under 18 years in the household increases, the lifetimes of some types of appliance decrease significantly. Competing risk model shows that the probability of replacing the refrigerator due to malfunction and technological obsolescence increases with the increase of family members with a higher education. We also provide the cumulative incidence function for different appliances, which can be used to forecast future demands and electrical and electronic waste generation.

Efficiency assessment of container operations of shipping agents in Spanish ports

In this paper a two-stage Data Envelopment Approach is used to assess the relative efficiency of container shipping agents operating at Spanish ports, and studying the factors influencing it. In the first stage, an input-oriented, Variable Returns to Scale (VRS) model is used to compute efficiency scores of the different shipping agents. The model considers labor as input, and numbers of loaded and unloaded containers handled as outputs. Scale efficiency, returns to scale and average efficiency of shipping agents at each port are reported. In the second stage, different regression approaches are applied to relate the efficiency scores obtained to a number of exogenous variables. The results identify as significant some of these variables such as the number of container lines with which it operates. Belonging to each of four clusters identified from the dataset seems also to have a significant influence on the efficiency of the studied agents.

Minimizing deviation from scheduled times in a single mixed-operation runway

The dynamic nature of airports demands the development of scheduling algorithms that are computationally efficient and therefore amenable to replanning when new traffic events occur. The main objective of this research is to design an algorithm with very low computational times able to minimize delays in the scheduled times of arrival and departure flights in an airport with a mixed-operation runway, under wake vortex separation and Constrained Position Shifting restrictions. The simulated annealing algorithm obtains a 95% improvement on time delays in less than one second of computation for the test instances generated, which means that it can be used online for high-demand scenarios to reduce delays. It has also been tested in a public testbed as well as in a real environment, showing an improvement of 30% in the time delays of real operations at London Gatwick airport. New quick algorithm is presented to decide online scheduling of landingsExtensive experiments were conducted with generated and published dataThe algorithm produces very competitive solutions in less than one secondUsing data from Gatwick airport showed significant improvements vs. current operation

Cultural practices in the Spanish subsidiaries of Japanese companies

The number of Japanese corporations established in Spain increased remarkably during the 1980s, as a result of the political stability that Spain had reached, low salaries, the growing markets, the standard of living, and Spain’s joining of the EEC. In this work, we study the degree of implementation of typical Japanese organisational methods in the Spanish subsidiaries, based on the opinions of 57 Japanese presidents and directors in these Spanish branches. We discuss not only the level of assimilation of Japanese business culture, but also the opinion of these executives concerning economic and business activity in Spain.

Technological innovation and environmental practices in the auxiliary automotive industry

A driving force for product innovation is the need to manufacture and design products according to environmental practices such as environmental awareness, and legislation to recycle, remanufacture, reuse, disassemble and dispose of goods. Environmental practices are not clearly identified in the literature, so, a first step is to categorise them. Then within the environmental context, the central research question in this paper will be to analyse the effects of technological progress on environmental practices. The research is aimed at Spanish firms in the auxiliary automotive industry, which is a pioneer industrial sector in technological innovation and environmental awareness.