• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.1209-1215
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• 2015

Since lamb is a commodity, producers cannot control the price of the product they sell. Therefore, managing production costs is a necessity. We explored the study of elasticities as a tool for basing decision-making in sheep production, and aimed at investigating the composition and elasticities of lamb production costs, and their influence on the performance of the activity. A representative sheep production farm, designed in a panel meeting, was the base for calculation of lamb production cost. We then performed studies of: i) costs composition, and ii) cost elasticities for prices of inputs and for zootechnical indicators. Variable costs represented 64.15% of total cost, while 21.66% were represented by operational fixed costs, and 14.19% by the income of the factors. As for elasticities to input prices, the opportunity cost of land was the item to which production cost was more sensitive: a 1% increase in its price would cause a 0.2666% increase in lamb cost. Meanwhile, the impact of increasing any technical indicator was significantly higher than the impact of rising input prices. A 1% increase in weight at slaughter, for example, would reduce total cost in 0.91%. The greatest obstacle to economic viability of sheep production under the observed conditions is low technical efficiency. Increased production costs are more related to deficient zootechnical indexes than to high expenses.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.165-172
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• 2017

Machines are physically or chemically degenerated by continuous usage. One of the results of this degeneration is the process mean shift. Under the process mean shift, production cost, failure cost and quality loss function cost are increasing continuously. Therefore a periodic preventive resetting the process is necessary. We suppose that the wear level is observable. In this case, process mean shift problem has similar characteristics to the maintenance policy model. In the previous studies, process mean shift problem has been studied in several fields such as 'Tool wear limit', 'Canning Process' and 'Quality Loss Function' separately or partially integrated form. This paper proposes an integrated cost model which involves production cost by the material, failure cost by the nonconforming items, quality loss function cost by the deviation between the quality characteristics from the target value and resetting the process cost. We expand this process mean shift problem a little more by dealing the process variance as a function, not a constant value. We suggested a multiplier function model to the process variance according to the analysis result with practical data. We adopted two-side specification to our model. The initial process mean is generally set somewhat above the lower specification. The objective function is total integrated costs per unit wear and independent variables are wear limit and initial setting process mean. The optimum is derived from numerical analysis because the integral form of the objective function is not possible. A numerical example is presented.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.589-596
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• 2013

Background The treatment of pressure ulcers is complicated, given the various wound dressing products available. The cost of different treatments varies and the cost-effectiveness of each product has not been thoroughly evaluated. We compare two wound dressing protocols-alginate silver dressing (AlSD) and silver zinc sulfadiazine cream (AgZnSD) with regard to wound healing and cost-effectiveness Methods Patients with grade III or IV sacral or trochanteric pressure ulcers were eligible for this prospective, randomized controlled trial. The patients were randomized to receive one of the two dressings for an eight-week period. The criteria of efficacy were based on the Pressure Ulcer Scale for Healing (PUSH) scoring tool. The cost of treatment was also assessed. Results Twenty patients (12 women and 8 men) were randomly assigned to receive either AlSD (n=10) or AgZnSD cream (n=10). The demographic data and wound characteristics were comparable in the two groups. The two groups showed no significant difference in the reduction of PUSH score, wound size, or volume of exudate. The tissue type score was significantly lower in the AlSD group ($3.15{\pm}0.68-1.85{\pm}0.68$ vs. $2.73{\pm}0.79-2.2{\pm}0.41$; P=0.015). The cost of treatment was significantly lower in the AlSD group (377.17 vs. 467.74 USD, respectively; P<0.0001). Conclusions Alginate silver dressing could be effectively used in the treatment of grade III and IV pressure ulcers. It can improve wound tissue characteristics and is cost-effective.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.1 s.173
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• pp.1-6
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• 2000

As dies and molds have become more and more complicated in the recent years, the demand for lower cost and shorter production time is also growing stronger. Rapid prototyping and Tooling technologies are expected to be used for more rapid and lower cost tool fabrication. However the rapid tooling methods have not yet reached the level of application to the manufacturing of metallic dies and molds which require high dimensional accuracy. As the rapid tooling technology, there are the slurry casting, the powder casting, the direct laser sintering, and so on. Generally, in the slurry casting, the alumina powder and the water soluble phenol were mainly used. However, the mechanical properties of the phenol were not good enough to apply to molds directly. In this study, pure epoxy and two types of aluminium powder reinforced resin are applied to the slurry casting. The mechanical and thermal properties are better than phenol because the epoxy is the thermosetting resin. And mechanical characteristics such as shrinkage rate, hardness, surface roughness are measured for the sake of comparison. Metal powder reinforced resin molds are better than the resin tool form the viewpoint of shrinkage rate and hardness. Finally, it has been shown that the application possibility of this process is high, because the manufacturing time and cost savings are significant.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.1 no.2 s.2
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• pp.89-97
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• 2000

This research has been Initiated to provide an effective management tool for budget control of the public projects using EVMS. Barriers to implementing the tool for the domestic public projects are identified : no PMB (Performance Measurement Baseline) for budget control, management by BOQ(bill of quantity), no systematic planning and control. To eliminate these barriers, an integrated cost and schedule management process model using EVMS is proposed. This model is composed of six sub processes : organizing, scheduling, budget allocating, establishing PMB, managerial analysis, change incorporation.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.154-164
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• 2001

This research is aiming to specify the requirement of the investment such as intial cost, running cost earning rate to make effective investment considering the purpose of remodeling and economical value of store building enough to meet the initial purpose of remodeling. The review of earning for economical evaluation was performed by the on-site auditing on the structure and function of the building and applying the assessment simulation program, which is to find the possible business model to identify the requirement of building owner through case study. After the research, the following results are obtained. First, it is important that many aspects should be carefully analysis and the best method should be selected as characteristics of remodeling can be defer each other in their implementations. Second, though the remodeling of exist building to promote the functions has been applied, no suitable assessment tool has bee developed for deciding the level of remodeling in the view of economical efficiency so far. Third, the economical benefit was evaluated by analysing annual earning rate which is applied by investment items and recovery period for the investment. More specific date base should be established to apply the suggested economic acessments in business enough ti forecast the future circumstances. More researches should be promoted on the area continuously as well as the integrated economic evaluation of remodeling on existing building.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.103-109
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• 2002

This research is aiming to specify the requirement of the investment such as initial cost, running cost earning rate to make effective investment considering the purpose of remodeling and economical value of store building enough to meet the initial purpose of remodeling. The review of earning rate for economical evaluation was performed by the on-site auditing on the structure and function of the building and applying the assessment simulation program, which is to find the possible business model to identify the requirement of building owner through case study. After the research, the following results are obtained. First, it is important that many aspects should be carefully analysis and the best method should be selected as characteristics of remodeling can be defer each other in their implementations. Second, though the remodeling of exist buildings to promote the functions has been applied. no suitable assessment tool has bee developed for deciding the level of remodeling in the view of economical efficiency so far. Third, the economical benefit was evaluated by analysing annual earning rate which is applied by investment items and recovery period for the investment. More specific data bate should be established to apply the suggested economic accession in business enough to forecast the future circumstances. More researches should be promoted on this area continuously as well as the integrated economic evaluation of remodeling on existing building.

• Journal of the military operations research society of Korea
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.107-124
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• 2010

In order to estimate the life cycle expense of the weapon system acquisition from the first demand planning phase until the last disuse phase, we apply the reliable expense analysis method to the current situation in Korea by using the sensitivity analysis. We estimate the total cost of the weapon system acquisition by focusing on the most important variables such as exchange rate, and hence by strengthening the function of the existing expense analysis method, which is used to be simply recognized as a tool of cost reduction. Therefore, this study could make a contribution to the literature in this area, in terms of deriving the most cost-efficient method of acquisition by comparing the various estimated costs that result from the different alternatives of the weapon system acquisition.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.23-31
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• 2003

This paper introduces a constraint operator for the kinematic calibration of a parallel mechanism. By adopting the concept of a constraint operator, the movement between two poses is constrained. When the constrained movements are satisfied, the active joint displacements are taken and inputted into the kinematic model to compute the theoretical movements. A cost function is derived by the errors between the theoretical movement and the actual movement. The parameters that minimize the cost function are estimated and substituted into the kinematic model for a kinematic calibration. A single constraint plane is employed as a mechanical fixture to constrain the movement, and three digital indicators are used as the sensing devices to determine whether the constrained movement is satisfied. This calibration system represents an effective, low cost and feasible technique for a parallel mechanism. A calibration algorithm is developed with a constraint operator and implemented on a parallel manipulator constructed for a machining center tool.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.291-301
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• 2012

A scalar metric for the assessment of hull surface producibility was known to be useful in estimating the complexity of a hull form of ships or large offshore structures by looking at their shape. However, it could not serve as a comprehensive measuring tool due to its lack of important components of the hull form such as longitudinals, stiffeners, and web frames attached to the hull surface. To have a complete metric for cost estimation, these structural members must be included. In this paper, major inner structural members are considered by measuring the complexity of their geometric shape. The final scalar metric thus consists of the classes containing inner members with various curvature magnitudes as well as the classes containing curved plates with single and double curvature distribution. Those two distinct metrics are merged into a complete scalar metric that accounts for the total cost estimation of complex structural bodies.