Identification of managerial shaping factors in a petrochemical plant by resilience engineering and data envelopment analysis

Resilience engineering (RE) is a novel approach that is capable of controlling and limiting incidents and accidents. This study identifies managerial shaping factors in a petrochemical plant by RE and data envelopment analysis (DEA). To do this, a standard questionnaire containing resilient factors is completed by managers of a petrochemical plant. Then, the best DEA model is selected based on average efficiency and statistical test. In addition, sensitivity analysis are performed to identify the most important shaping factors. Reporting culture, management commitment, and preparedness are identified as the most important factors in this paper, respectively. Finally, the proposed model is validated and verified through statistical experiment. The proposed approach would help managers to have a comprehensive understanding of the plant with respect to the RE. To the best of our knowledge this is the first paper that examines resilient shaping factors in a petrochemical plant with respect to management and organization by DEA.     

Assessing the efficiency of Chilean water and sewerage companies accounting for uncertainty

Efficiency assessment of water and sewerage companies (WaSCs) has attracted considerable attention both for water company managers and water regulators. Within the methodological approaches that can be applied to estimate efficiency scores, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is the most widely applied technique. In spite of the positive features of DEA, it presents a major drawback which is its deterministic nature. In other words, conventional DEA models do not account for uncertainty in the data. To overcome this limitation, we assess, for the first time, the efficiency of a sample of Chilean WaSCs by using a DEA model with statistical tolerance in the data. Hence, 81 efficiency scores are estimated for each WaSC rather than a single score as with conventional DEA models. The results illustrate that outputs exhibit larger uncertainty than inputs. Moreover, WaSCs efficiency scores change significantly under the best-case and worst-case scenarios. The ranking of the WaSCs allows for the identification of which of them has the highest performance based on their efficiency scores. This information is essential to enhance efficiency and innovation in the water industry. Moreover, the introduction of uncertainty in the efficiency assessment allows for the prediction and ranking of future performance of WaSCs.     

农地整理项目治理绩效及影响因素研究——以浙江省48个国投项目为例

从农村土地整理的内涵及现实情境出发构建投入产出绩效评价指标体系,运用DEA方法对浙江省已竣工验收的48个国家投资土地整理项目效率水平进行测度,借此深入分析农村土地整理项目的治理绩效以及影响因素,旨在为改善我国农村土地整理项目治理绩效研究提供新的理论与方法。研究结果显示:(1)浙江省48个国家投资项目的综合效率均值为0.851、技术效率均值为0.903、规模效率均值为0.936,说明项目总体治理绩效较好,但项目之间的差异比较明显;(2)超效率分析发现,杭州北部、宁波南部和温州东南部等自然和社会条件较好地区的项目绩效水平较高,衢州西部和奉化西南等丘陵地区绩效水平较低;(3)影响因素分析发现,生态防护林种植数量、灌溉渠系长度、土地平整土方量、田间道路长度等工程投入过量,作物总产值增加量、单位面积涉及人口数、植被覆盖率等产出不足是导致绩效不高的主要原因;(4)DEA分析法是一种有效的治理绩效分析法,有助于从技术改进和规模调整角度来理解农村土地整理项目治理绩效内涵。根据结论,提出应该从生产技术上增强项目投入产出的转化能力,以改善绩效水平。     

长三角地区石油和化工行业上市公司绿色竞争力的实证研究

企业绿色竞争力是企业在“绿色化”的前提下，与对手相比的一种竞争优势。石油和化工行业是能源和资源的生产和消耗大户．也是众所周知的重污染行业．对石油和化工企业的绿色竞争力进行实证研究具有重要意义。本文以长三角地区的石油和化工行业上市公司为案例。构建基于DEA法的绿色竞争力评价模型．评估了它们的绿色竞争力。实证结果显示：长三角地区石油和化工企业的绿色竞争力还有待加强．在此基础上提出了石油和化工企业提高绿色竞争力的一些具体措施。     

中国城市污水处理厂资源配置效率的比较

采用平均生产函数模型、边界生产函数以及数据包络分析(DEA)模型3种方法,对中国81个污水处理厂的样本观测数据,从不同角度进行了比较研究,分别得出上述3种模型对产出弹性、技术效率和规模经济性等主要指标的模拟结果.研究发现,资本对我国城市污水处理厂的产出弹性最大(0.507),其次是运营电耗(0.415),再次为劳动力;我国污水厂普遍处于规模报酬率递增阶段,样本总体的规模报酬率为1.11;根据DEA的分析结果,列出了81个样本污水厂的效率排序清单,这将有助于制定行业绩效标准.     

The impact of job security,satisfaction and stress on performance assessment and optimization of generation companies

In this study, performances of Iranian thermal power plants have been assessed with respect to human factors such as job stress, satisfaction and security through data envelopment analysis (DEA). In the first step performance of power plants (DMUs) have been evaluated considering traditional production factors including installed capacity, internal consumption and fuel consumption as inputs and gross production as output (model 1). In the next step, model 1 is expanded to include three above mentioned human factors (model 2). Power plants have been ranked based on their relative efficiency scores in both models. Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients between relative efficiency scores and rankings of power plants in two models have been calculated. The results show that efficiency scores and rankings of power plants in two models are quite different indicating that mentioned human factors have direct impact on overall performance of generation companies and that if we were to use just traditional factors it would not reflect the optimum efficiency of the DMUs. Finally, job security has been found as the most effective human factor in Iranian power plants. This is the first study that presents an integrated approach for assessment of electric power plants considering job stress, security and satisfaction. And it is shown that these human factors play important role in overall performance of generation companies.     

哈萨克斯坦粮食生产效率动态演进及区域差异

曾为苏联粮仓的哈萨克斯坦是粮食生产大国,对于粮食生产效率问题的研究可以评价其未来粮食生产潜力和粮食生产水平,为推进中哈粮食合作提供参考。基于2005—2017年哈萨克斯坦州际数据,采用三阶段DEA-Windows方法,在控制环境因素基础上测算了该国的粮食生产效率,分析了其动态演变和区域差异。结果发现：剔除外生环境因素后,除北部地区,哈萨克斯坦其他地区粮食生产效率大幅度下降,全国效率均值从0.755下降到0.286;哈萨克斯坦粮食生产效率地区分异显著,北部为0.857,西部仅有0.112,粮食生产效率提升空间很大;调整后全国和各地区的粮食生产效率都呈上升趋势,但与北部的效率差距不断增大,地区内各州粮食效率变化趋于一致。     

Cost-efficiency in packaging waste management: The case of Belgium

In order to exploit economies of scale Belgian municipalities regularly cooperate in the provision of waste related services. In particular for the collection and separation of household packaging waste, municipalities appear to seek technical and cost efficiency gains by cooperating via municipal waste joint ventures. Although most Belgian municipal waste joint ventures can present excellent recycling and recovery rates for household packaging waste, their performance in terms of cost-efficiency has never been assessed. Using a unique dataset comprising of the costs for all 35 Belgian municipal waste joint ventures in 2010, this paper present the first assessment of the cost efficiency of household packaging waste collection in Belgium. As we are not sure on the relative importance of the separate cost efficiency scores for the three selectively collected household packaging waste fractions when determining the overall cost efficiency, this paper draws on the Benefit-of-the-Doubt approach. Our results indicate that, despite the substantial cooperation between municipalities, still considerable differences in cost efficiency for household packaging waste collection exist.     

Effectiveness of the policy of circular economy in China: A DEA-based analysis for the period of 11th five-year-plan

As a policy instrument for sustainable development, nationwide circular economy (CE) mode has been implemented for 7 years by the Chinese government, to overcome the dilemma among economic depression, energy shortage and environmental pollution. Unfortunately, few literatures contribute to checking the efficiency of regional CE and exploring the potential reasons in China, which will be practically helpful in guiding China's future development and providing reference for other developing countries that will adopt CE mode. Therefore, this paper puts forward the method of super-efficiency DEA window analysis to dynamically evaluate CE efficiency of 30 regions in China covering the period of 2005–2010. In line with the features of CE, the specific efficiency of three sub-systems, namely resource saving and pollutant reducing (RSPR) sub-system, waste reusing and resource recycling (WRRR) sub-system and pollution controlling and waste disposing (PCWD) sub-system, was assessed and compared regarding time series trend and spatial distribution, based on which, the comprehensive CE efficiency was totally ranked. The results show that, on the one hand, during the period of 2005–2010, Chinese CE efficiency slightly increased, implying a significant policy effect of CE; on the other hand, the efficiency of different sub-systems varies, with RSPR sub-system the lowest, and WRRR and PCWD sub-systems relatively higher. In terms of regional distribution, the efficiency of RSPR sub-system in the east area dominates during the whole period. However, for the other two sub-systems, from 2005 to 2007, the efficiency scores of the east fluctuate, then after 2007, the east area became more efficient than the central and the west areas. Throughout the study period, the RSPR sub-system in the central area stably maintains low efficiency, and so does the WRRR sub-system in the west area. The difference in regional efficiency of three sub-systems reflects the difficulty of carrying out CE policy in China comprehensively, which means that, promoting the adaptability of regional policy for local government and enhancing the coordination among various policies for China's central government are the key concerns for realizing sustainable development.     

基于DEA方法的浙江省市级环境效率评估研究

采用数据包络分析(DEA)方法对浙江省11个地市2005年-2011年的环境效率进行实证分析,同时使用tobit模型进行了环境效率与各类影响因子的回归分析.结果表明,2005年-2011年浙江省11个地市的环境效率在0.3~1范围内波动,波动幅度较大,环境效率优良的地市数量较少,且呈现总体数量下降趋势.浙中、浙南环境效率明显好于浙东北、浙西.随着环保投入产出效益的增加,浙东北、浙西环境效率一定程度提高.