The current economic crisis is reflected in lower capacity expansion or even capacity contraction, closing of distant activities and reduction of lead time. However, the locations of suppliers are strongly connected with the quality of agricultural products. The transportation from distant locations can largely affect the food production business in all aspects. The article presents how the Extended Material Requirements Planning (EMRP) model enables to evaluate perturbations in lead time and temperature, and shows how distant growing areas of agricultural products, and, as a result, transportation lead times play a crucial role in the net present value calculation. In this paper, we show the impact of choosing a less distant site for growing of agricultural products, and overlapping the transportation and quarantine lead times on decreasing the perishability, hence increasing the added value in multi-level food assembly systems. Also, a case study of Spanish baby food industry is presented, using the principles of the well-developed EMRP Theory.
<p>The European Union, its member states and local authorities have been working for long time on the design of solutions for future sustainable mobility. The promotion of a sustainable and affordable urban transport contemplates the bicycle as a mean of transport. The reasons for analysing the cycling mobility in urban areas, has its origin in the confrontation with motorized vehicles, as a sustainable response to the environment. In this context of sustainable mobility, the research team has studied the use of bicycles in Mediterranean cities, specifically in coastal tourist areas. The present work shows the development of a mobility index oriented to the bicycle, transport that competes with the private vehicle. By means of a survey methodology, the research group proceeded to collect field data and the subsequent analysis of them, for the development of a mobility index adapted to bicycle mobility, and with possibilities to adapt to urban environments.</p>
Abstract:Due to the increasing number of requests for homecare services, care institutions struggle to perform in urban traffic, which eventually makes travel times longer and less predictable and, therefore, leads to a declining service quality. Homecare delivery scheduling and planning tools must lead to efficient reliable routes that allow the nursing crew to make the least efforts and use the fewest institutional resources, and that consider urban sustainability goals. For the case study, a European city was selected with 58,000 people of whom 73 patients received long-term care at homes provided by 11 homecare nurses. While maximising patient satisfaction, a homecare planning algorithm considered many means of transport and minimised travel times. The study reduced the total nurses' working hours/day by a bus and walking combination, and by comparing if nurses ride e-bikes, which respectively reduced~35-44% of the total time that nurses spent travelling. This result is applicable to an urban environment where the public transport network is sufficient and biking is allowed on a reasonable number of roads. Better homecare management can support the efficient use of resources of health care institutions, high-quality home care and aspirations towards livable communities and sustainable development.
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