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This paper proposes a service-oriented manufacturing strategy in a two-echelon supply chain with random demand. When there is no inventory for the retailer to meet demand, customers can choose to order products through the retailer and products will be delivered to them by the manufacturer directly in the promised time, and we call this delivery service in service-oriented manufacturing. We employ a Stackelberg game-theoretic model to analyse the procurement quantity and delivery time decisions by the manufacturer as the leader and the retailer as the follower. Using the performance of the pure-manufacturing strategy as a benchmark, our main results follow. First, the equilibrium strategies of the two players are obtained. Clear decision rules are also given. Second, delivery service in service-oriented manufacturing can be an effective way to reduce the holding cost of the retailer. Third, we describe the customer loss caused by waiting and find how the manufacturer influences procurement quantity of the retailer through the decision of delivery time. Finally, delivery service in service-oriented manufacturing cannot always improve the profit of the manufacturer and the retailer. We give guidance for managers to provide it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of information technology, big data analysis has been highlighted in operations and management. From this viewpoint, this paper studies a buyer's optimal purchasing decisions in combined procurement. For combined procurement, a buyer first signs a long-term contract with a supplier to guarantee a certain level of commodity supply, and can then replenish the commodities from the spot market if necessary. The optimal purchasing quantity in the long-term contract is examined to maximise the buyer's expected profit from combined procurement. In view of the imperfectness in the spot market, the spot trading liquidity is considered in the buyer's optimal purchasing decision. The properties of the two optimal purchasing quantities are examined and several interesting results are obtained. For example, it is illustrated that a buyer's expected profit may decrease in the spot capacity, a result that has never appeared in the existing literature, which reveals the importance of a buyer's optimal order decision in the presence of spot replenishment. Numerical results and sensitivity analysis are performed to verify the results. Management insights are suggested for a buyer's optimal purchasing decisions in combined procurement with a long-term contract and spot replenishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the shifting lines between ethics and law in the policing and punishment of prostitution in nineteenth-century Tehran. It begins by exploring Tehran's urban policing and legal institutions before examining how illicit sexual acts were defined alternatively as sins or crimes, depending on the relative publicness of the act, in prescriptive and legal texts. It then turns to how this played out in practice by analyzing a first-hand account of a private party and a rare testimonial document signed by neighborhood residents complaining about a pimping and procurement ring in their midst. Prostitutes and pimps regularly evaded penal sanction through close contacts with the police, which prompted an array of government strategies to address prostitution. Finally, the article ends by discussing known cases of punishment for prostitution and pimping in Tehran, including two Tehrani prostitutes whose crimes drew the attention of Nāṣir al-Dīn Shāh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies how a federal procurement regulation, known as the Truth in Negotiations Act (TINA), affects the competitiveness and execution of government contracts. TINA stipulates how contracting officials (COs) can ensure reasonable prices. Following TINA, for contracts above a certain size threshold, COs can no longer rely solely on their own judgment that a price is reasonable. Instead, they must either require suppliers to provide accounting data supporting their proposed prices or expect multiple bids. Using a regression discontinuity design, I find that above‐threshold contracts experience greater competition (i.e., more bids), improved performance (i.e., less frequent renegotiations and cost overruns), and reduced use of the harder‐to‐monitor cost‐plus pricing, compared to below‐threshold contracts. These findings suggest that TINA's requirements enhance competition and oversight for above‐threshold contracts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: To facilitate the implementation of controlled donation after circulatory death (cDCD) programs even in hospitals not equipped with a local extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) team, some countries have launched a local cDCD network with an ECMO mobile team for normothermic regional perfusion (NRP). In the Tuscany region, in 2021, the Regional Transplant Authority launched a cDCD program to make the cDCD pathway feasible even in peripheral hospitals with NRP mobile teams, which were "converted" existing ECMO mobile teams, composed of highly skilled and experienced personnel. Methods: We describe the Tuscany cDCD program, (2021–2023), for cDCD from peripheral hospitals with NRP mobile teams. Results: Twenty‐six cDCDs (26/40, 65%) came from peripheral hospitals. Following the launch of the cDCD program, cDCDs from peripheral hospitals increased, from 33% (2021) to 75% (2022 and 2023) of the overall cDCDs. The mean age was 63 years, with older donors (>75 years) in half the cases. The median warm ischemia time was 45 min (20 min are required by the Italian law for death certification), ranging from 35 to 59 min. Among the 20 livers retrieved and 18 kidneys retrieved, 16 livers, and 11 kidneys (single kidney transplantation) were transplanted, after ex vivo reperfusion, respectively. Conclusions: The use of NRP mobile teams proved to be feasible and safe in the management of cDCD in peripheral hospitals. No complications were reported with NRP despite the advanced age of most cDCDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South African preferential procurement policy emerged from the demand for transparency, fair competition, value-for-money, standardised and benchmark pricing, and regulation of public procurement arrangements in the construction industry. The policy aims to address historical inequalities, support economic growth, and foster sustainable development. The effectiveness of the preferential procurement policy in South Africa is affected by the inhibiting factors of its implementation system. Given this, this study assesses the factors inhibiting preferential procurement policy implementation in the South African construction industry. This study reviewed the extant literature from online databases as a secondary data source to identify and understand the factors inhibiting procurement policy implementation. A quantitative research design using a closed-ended survey questionnaire surveyed 31 identified inhibiting factors affecting procurement policy implementation from the literature review. One hundred sixty-seven (167) questionnaires were retrieved from two hundred (200) distributed, representing an 83.5 per cent response rate, distributed through Google Forms to the respondents in Northwest Province, South Africa. The reliability of the data collection instrument was determined using Bartlett's sphericity, Cronbach's alpha, and Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin tests. The exploratory factor analysis findings established eight components from the 31 identified inhibiting factors affecting procurement policy implementation, which are the absence of due diligence in procurement screening, corruption and political interference in procurement systems, an ineffective regulatory framework supporting public procurement policy, discrepancies in award of contracts and the absence of dispute resolution, ambiguity in procurement selection criteria, poor enforcement mechanisms, cost discrepancies in advance payment, and excessive bureaucracy in procurement documentation. This study's practical implications provide an understanding of establishing and prioritising procurement selection criteria, such as project requalification requirements, cost performance requirements, technology integration in the prequalification process, and contract change order requirements, which would improve procurement systems in the South African construction industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Increased costs in the health sector have put considerable strain on the public budgets allocated to pharmaceutical purchases. Faced with such pressures amplified by financial crises and pandemics, national purchasing authorities are presented with a puzzle: how to procure pharmaceuticals of the highest quality for the lowest price. The literature explored a range of impactful factors using data on producer and reference prices, but largely foregone the use of data on individual purchases by diverse public buyers. Methods: Leveraging the availability of open data in public procurement from official government portals, the article examines the relationship between unit prices and a host of predictors that account for policies that can be amended nationally or locally. The study uses traditional linear regression (OLS) and a machine learning model, random forest, to identify the best models for predicting pharmaceutical unit prices. To explore the association between a wide variety of predictors and unit prices, the study relies on more than 200,000 purchases in more than 800 standardized pharmaceutical product categories from 10 countries and territories. Results: The results show significant price variation of standardized products between and within countries. Although both models present substantial potential for predicting unit prices, the random forest model, which can incorporate non-linear relationships, leads to higher explained variance (R2 = 0.85) and lower prediction error (RMSE = 0.81). Conclusions: The results demonstrate the potential of i) tapping into large quantities of purchase-level data in the health care sector and ii) using machine learning models for explaining and predicting pharmaceutical prices. The explanatory models identify data-driven policy interventions for decision-makers seeking to improve value for money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses the multi-item, multi-sourcing supplier-selection and order-allocation problem. We propose an iterative procurement combinatorial auction mechanism that aims to reveal the suppliers' minimum acceptable selling prices and assign orders optimally. Suppliers use a flexible bidding language to submit procurement bids. The buyer solves a Mixed Integer Non-linear Programming (MINLP) model to determine the winning bids for the current auction iteration. We introduce a buyer's profit-improvement factor that constrains the suppliers to reduce their selling prices in subsequent bids. Moreover, this factor enables the buyer to strike a balance between computational effort and optimality gap. We develop a separate MINLP model for updating the suppliers' bids while satisfying the buyer's profit-improvement constraint. If none of the suppliers can find a feasible solution, the buyer reduces the profit-improvement factor until a pre-determined threshold is reached. A randomly generated numerical example is used to illustrate the proposed mechanism. In this example, the buyer's profit improved by as much as 118% compared to a single-round auction. The experimental results show that the proposed mechanism is most effective in competitive environments with several suppliers and comparable costs. These results reinforce the importance of fostering competition and diversification in a supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of green buildings or green buildings is highly needed in the present era, considering the drastic decline in global climate conditions. However, its development is greatly hindered because the implementation of green building concepts is primarily focused on new constructions, while almost two-thirds of the world's buildings are already built. Therefore, the objective of this research is to enhance the Performance of Green Retrofitting Implementation Time, which is expected to accelerate the growth of existing green buildings in Indonesia by identifying the Procurement and Permitting Processes of Green Retrofitting in High-Rise Office Buildings in Jakarta based on PERMEN PU NO 21 TAHUN 2021 (Regulation of the Minister of Public Works and Housing Number 21 of 2021) and Green Building Council Indonesia (GBCI) through work breakdown structure (WBS) along with their high-risk activities and improvement strategies using a preventive approach that Influences the Performance of Green Retrofitting implementation time. This research analysis involves 15 respondents' data on risks in the procurement and permitting processes, which will be processed using a qualitative risk approach. Based on the results of literature studies, expert validation, and respondent questionnaires, a total of 83 activities in the procurement and permitting processes of green retrofitting were identified, 214 risk indicators that affect the performance of green retrofitting schedule, along with 56 prevention strategies for the high-risk situation, aiming to accelerate the growth of existing green buildings in Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated factors that influence timely delivery of natural gas pipeline projects in Niger Delta zone of Nigeria. The objectives are to: determine if there is any variation in the time objectives of gas pipeline projects executed by Oilserv Nigeria limited; examine the individual effect of the identified factors on timely delivery of the natural gas pipeline projects in the Niger Delta Zone of Nigeria; ascertain whether the collective effect of identified factors on timely delivery of the natural gas pipeline projects in the Niger Delta zone of Nigeria is significant or not. The literature study reveals that the main factors influencing the timely delivery of natural gas pipeline projects include construction issues, administration and management issues, contract award, financial and economic issues, and design-related issues. The survey was conducted via administering questionnaires. Multiple regression analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyze collected data. Results show that most of the projects suffered time overruns. The timely delivery of natural gas pipeline projects in the zone was influenced by the factors both individually and jointly. Hence, the study recommends that project teams should enhance their organizational knowledge, planning and scheduling skills, supervise subcontractors on site properly, provide sufficient funding, strictly adhere to existing laws and regulations, and accurately design construction projects while taking the unique characteristics of the project locations into account. Ultimately, it is imperative that project managers, team members, and other key stakeholders have sufficient training in managing conflicts that frequently develop throughout project operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: There is a growing body of conceptual work considering the potential of AI in supply chain and procurement, and there is great interest in AI among managers. But, according to a recent study, digital strategies for procurement are often missing or not satisfactory. Literature offers conflicting guidance on possible adoption areas for AI in core procurement processes. Given the need for better digital strategies for procurement and the need to further develop the understanding of adoption potential, the purpose of this paper is to explore actual adoption levels, experienced benefits, readiness levels and barriers to implementation in industry. This informs nuanced, not hyped, managerial consideration and identifies further research opportunities. Design/methodology/approach: Leveraging items used in literature to study adoption of other technologies, the authors conduct the first empirical exploration of actual adoption levels of AI in procurement. The authors do so by collecting survey responses in three manager workshops, and the authors use the workshops to seek manager input in the interpretation of findings and the identification of implications for managers and researchers. Findings: There appears to be less consideration given to AI in procurement than interest in the topic might imply. Adoption levels are generally low, implying that there is a lot of room for the development of consideration, use cases and possible pilots by managers and researchers. The authors find procurement benefits of AI adoption to be broader than costs and productivity alone, including visibility and innovation. But, readiness appears to be at relatively low levels with factors commonly considered in literature, such as executive support and willingness to invest, less relevant than less widely considered elements such as human sense making and supplier readiness. Originality/value: This first empirical exploration moves past conceptualization and the study of potential adoption into the study of actual adoption levels in different procurement core processes. The authors expand the consideration of readiness by including additional items of human sense making as called for in literature. The authors also include and develop supplier readiness consideration, which is often missing from research. With the help of participating managers, the authors are able to develop a more comprehensive framework for the consideration of AI adoption. This can help bring nuance, not hype, to consideration and provides a rich portfolio of research items and constructs to further explore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the construction industry, much of the construction process is controlled by materials, and material management has a direct impact on many performance criteria such as cost, time, quality, and efficiency. This study examined the impact on project performance of activities that make up the material management process: planning, supply, logistics, transport, stock, and waste control of building materials. Material management practices were measured using 15 criteria under five different headings, and project performance was measured using 13 criteria under three different headings, through surveys of industry personnel at various construction sites. Multiple regression analyses were performed on the data obtained. The impacts of material management practices on project time, project cost, project efficiency, and waste performance, as well as overall project performance were examined using multiple regression analyses. The analysis showed that material supply, material handling, and stock and waste control had positive impacts on overall project performance, while material planning and material logistics did not have statistically significant impacts. It is concluded that the results of the study will help to better understand the relationship between material management and project performance and will help stakeholders to improve their material management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction sector of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), valued at USD 152 billion and employing 2.54 million people by 2023, is crucial to its economy. However, it faces challenges such as delays, disputes, and cost overruns. This study aims to address these issues by implementing Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the KSA, based on an extensive literature review highlighting the role and significance of BIM in mitigating construction claims. BIM improves collaboration, communication, and data integration among stakeholders. Hence, this study proposes a comprehensive BIM Package framework comprising Revit Architecture, Microsoft Project, and Cost-X to reduce claims effectively. Validated through a KSA claims case study with a USD 1,870,000 claims value and 360-day delay, the BIM Package significantly reduced the claims value to USD 188,000 and saved 275 days. Interview sessions were conducted to validate the effectiveness of the BIM Package; 95% favored the use of BIM, 86% supported NEC4 contract adoption alongside BIM, 100% acknowledged BIM's potential in reducing design errors, 95% were confident in the case study's accuracy, and 82% were satisfied with data accuracy. This study confirms that BIM is an effective approach for minimizing construction claims in the KSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem definition: Commodity prices have exhibited significant volatility in recent times, which poses an exogenous risk factor for commodity-processing and commodity-trading firms. Accurate commodity price forecasts can help firms leverage data-driven procurement policies that incorporate the underlying price volatility for financial and operational hedging decisions. However, historical prices alone are insufficient to obtain reasonable forecasts because of the extreme volatility. Methodology/results: Building on the hypothesis that commodity prices are driven by real-world events, we propose a method that automatically extracts events from news articles and combines them with price data using a neural network-based predictive model to forecast prices. In addition to achieving a high prediction accuracy that outperforms several benchmarks (by up to 13%), our proposed model is also interpretable, which allows us to identify meaningful events driving the price fluctuations. We found that the events frequently associated with major fluctuations in the price include "natural," "hike," "policy," and "elections," all of which are known drivers of price change. We used a corpus containing about 1.6 million news articles of a major Indian newspaper spanning 15 years and daily prices of four crops (onion, potato, rice, and wheat) in India to perform this study. Our proposed approach is flexible and can be used to predict other time series data, such as disease incidence levels or macroeconomic indicators, that are also influenced by real-world events. Managerial implications: Firms can leverage price forecasts from our system to design inventory and procurement policies in the face of uncertain commodity prices. Commodity merchants can also use the forecasts to design optimal storage policies for physical trading of commodities when prices are volatile. Our findings can also significantly impact policymakers, who can leverage the information of impending price changes and associated events to mitigate the negative effects of price shocks. History: This paper has been accepted in the Manufacturing & Service Operations Management Frontiers in Operations Initiative. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2022.0641. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research aims to develop a conceptual framework for analyzing the relationship of determination between the dimensions of the organization that characterize the elements of intellectual capital and each of the stages of the organization, taking into account the importance of an appropriate allocation of resources at the level of the organization in order to acquire the knowledge that the organization needs at the time when the respective knowledge is necessary to achieve its objectives. The study of establishing relationships between the dimensions that characterize an organization's intellectual capital and the stages of the knowledge acquisition process at the level of the organization involves analysis of the variety of relationships between potential organizational factors and one of the management processes. Any organization acts on the market in order to achieve its economic objectives. In recent years, the economy has moved from a resource-based approach to organization to a knowledge-based approach.

Abstract Background Increased costs in the health sector have put considerable strain on the public budgets allocated to pharmaceutical purchases. Faced with such pressures amplified by financial crises and pandemics, national purchasing authorities are presented with a puzzle: how to procure pharmaceuticals of the highest quality for the lowest price. The literature explored a range of impactful factors using data on producer and reference prices, but largely foregone the use of data on individual purchases by diverse public buyers. Methods Leveraging the availability of open data in public procurement from official government portals, the article examines the relationship between unit prices and a host of predictors that account for policies that can be amended nationally or locally. The study uses traditional linear regression (OLS) and a machine learning model, random forest, to identify the best models for predicting pharmaceutical unit prices. To explore the association between a wide variety of predictors and unit prices, the study relies on more than 200,000 purchases in more than 800 standardized pharmaceutical product categories from 10 countries and territories. Results The results show significant price variation of standardized products between and within countries. Although both models present substantial potential for predicting unit prices, the random forest model, which can incorporate non-linear relationships, leads to higher explained variance (R2 = 0.85) and lower prediction error (RMSE = 0.81). Conclusions The results demonstrate the potential of i) tapping into large quantities of purchase-level data in the health care sector and ii) using machine learning models for explaining and predicting pharmaceutical prices. The explanatory models identify data-driven policy interventions for decision-makers seeking to improve value for money.

As the global construction industry expands, it is imperative to prioritize economic sustainability due to the consequential effect on procurement practices. The procurement of building works, a pivotal phase in the realization of construction projects, requires a comprehensive framework to assess tenders that emphasise economic viability and align with sustainability principles. While traditional procurement processes primarily focus on cost considerations, the contemporary construction landscape necessitates a paradigm shift towards sustainable practices encompassing the economic dimension. Several studies have been conducted on public procurement and sustainability. Nevertheless, most of these studies focused on the environmental side of sustainability, leaving the social and economic dimensions unexplored. Hence, this study explores the sustainable economic criteria for assessing tenders in procuring building works. The study adopted the mixed research method; therefore, qualitative and quantitative data were employed in collecting the data for the study. The analysis deduced that the criteria for assessing the economic sustainability of tenders were categorized into management-related, technical, and commercial-related criteria, with the most significant variables being competitiveness, resource management skills, resource requirement assessment and profitability. The study's findings can potentially influence the assessment tenders of construction firms for building works. Thus, it suggested that the management practices of the bidders must be thoroughly evaluated as it is a crucial factor in ensuring economic sustainability from the onset of the project processes. This study presents a novel to ascertain the criteria for assessing the sustainable economy of tenders in procuring building works in the Ghanaian Construction Industry. The results of this study can be a source of data to guide the evaluation of tenders in the construction industry in Ghana and other developing countries within the Sub-Saharan Region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The local government is close to the people who thus, heavily rely on it for basic needs, a legislative imperative enshrined in the supreme law of the Republic of South Africa, the Constitution of 1996. Its purpose is to supply goods and services and encourage the participation of citizens in the realisation of policy objectives. This paper is one-third of a three-series composition sought through a conceptual and theoretical perspective to interrogate the ethical dimensions in which the public service exists within the interface of professionalism and compliance with municipal procurement processes and procedures. While the local sphere of government is crucial in the democratization and intensification of mass participation, there has been a rise in incidents of corruption and fraud, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, and the misuse and misdirection of funds, which gradually erode public trust. This paper employed an interpretivism paradigm and a qualitative approach, and it relied on secondary data The paper found that the erosion of public trust leads to citizens violently protesting, demanding better service delivery and that service delivery is likely to decline when funds are misappropriated since municipalities rely on the procurement of goods and services to initiate public service delivery. Furthermore, the paper found while South Africa has sound, comprehensive and clear legislative policy frameworks that regulate public procurement; implementation remains a challenge.

Commercial construction projects (CCPs) in New Zealand contribute more to the economy than other project types. However, many face cost and time increases due to inadequate planning. Procurement pathways that involve contractors during design development provide more time to plan, collaboratively. Nevertheless, most projects are procured through traditional tender where contractors are only involved after detailed design. Through two-stage early contractor involvement (2S-ECI), contractors can provide design buildability advice for complex projects, contribute value management, carry out exploratory works, and order materials. The role of subcontractors in 2S-ECI can be significant. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted with clients, consultants, main contractors, and a subcontractor involved in large complex commercial construction projects. The findings build on the emerging body of knowledge about 2S-ECI by providing insight into subcontractor early involvement. Project complexity and market conditions were the main reasons for early subcontractor involvement. Common challenges include a lack of information sharing among the parties, non-competitive selection, and a lack of standard contract documentation. Opportunities for improvement include clarifying client expectations, educating stakeholders, and providing more equitable compensation for pre-construction services. Key drivers for subcontractor involvement include project complexity, market conditions, ordering long-lead-time systems, and performance specifications. Specialist early sub-trades include electrical, mechanical, structural steel, and façades. Subcontractors should typically be engaged as early as possible, often concurrently via main contractors to share performance risk. Pre-construction services provided by subcontractors include planning and sequencing; design buildability analysis; risk mitigation; value management; budget advice; systems procurement; design solutions; and document control systems. Advantages include obtaining specialist project knowledge and improving completion certainty. Producing a pre-construction services agreement (PCSA) for subcontractors may address challenges, as has been carried out for main contractors, but there is still a gap in the contractual framework for 2S-ECI for subcontractors.

Venous blood collection systems (VBCSs) are combinations of in-vitro diagnostics and medical devices, usually available as integrated set. However, purchasing and using a combination of devices from different sets is considered by clinical laboratories as an option to achieve specific sampling tasks or reduce costs. This systematic review aimed to retrieve available evidence regarding safety, efficacy, and economic aspects of VBCSs, focusing on differences between integrated and combined systems. The literature review was carried out in PubMed. Cited documents and resources made available by scientific organisations were also screened. Extracted evidence was clustered according to Quality/Efficacy/Performance, Safety, and Costs/Procurement domains and discussed in the current European regulatory framework. Twenty documents published between 2010 and 2021 were included. There was no evidence to suggest equivalence between combined and integrated VBCSs in terms of safety and efficacy. Scientific society’s consensus documents and product standards report that combined VBCS can impact operators’ and patients’ safety. Analytical performances and overall efficacy of combined VBCSs are not guaranteed without whole system validation and verification. EU regulatory framework clearly allocates responsibilities for the validation and verification of an integrated VBCS, but not for combined VBCSs, lacking information about the management of product nonconformities and post-market surveillance. Laboratory validation of combined VBCS demands risk-benefit and cost-benefit analyses, a non-negligible organisational and economic burden, and investment in knowledge acquisition. Implications in terms of laboratory responsibility and legal liability should be part of a comprehensive assessment of safety, efficacy, and cost carried out during device procurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, most reforms in major arms-producing countries focus on keeping costs under control by either promoting competition between suppliers or by reducing information asymmetry through audits and controls. Indeed, cost escalation represents a challenge but, in fact, these reforms try to adjust the functioning of defence market rather than questioning the institutional features of this latter. The success of defence acquisition structures also explains their limits. The current organisation of defence market was perfectly adapted to the geostrategic context of Cold War and a technological momentum that favours symmetrical arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Even if these structures still help deliver advanced capabilities, they can be considered as not sufficient to cover all the operational needs of armed forces. The conception of capabilities needs to go beyond a long-term planning while industrial approaches open the way to more agile development and manufacturing. An alternative defence industrial policy is necessary to complement the existing one. More modular architectures for complex systems provide the opportunity to increase the reactiveness of capability deliveries and to foster both innovation and competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores what needs to be done to better address the growing and substantial inequalities in the UK and how the 'Levelling Up' policy that seeks to address them could be improved. It argues that a much longer-term vision and a sharper, cross-government focus on fewer challenges is required to make a more tangible impact. Four key findings are identified: a focus on health and education is fundamental for our social and economic prosperity; there is a need for greater devolution of power, with transparent and robust accountability; an open, nationwide knowledge base to share what works and what does not, and the lessons learned from innovative pilots, is required; and a more holistic approach is needed to support businesses and provide them with better-quality support. This paper argues that without these issues being taken into consideration, the lives and well-being of our disadvantaged citizens, our children and our economy will continue to worsen. It concludes that making economic development a statutory function, putting it at the very heart of our public services, is needed to ensure that the levelling up outcome is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A definition of the business process is proposed on the basis of approaches in process management. Methods of managing procurement activities at an industrial enterprise are analyzed, in tactical and strategic terms. Models in unified modeling language (UML) are developed for procurement management systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A critical necessity for effective competitive selection is that the procurement process must be clear and visible to all stakeholders. This transparency is crucial as it fosters confidence among potential bidders across different levels, ultimately enhancing procurement performance. This research aimed to assess how transparency impacts the procurement performance of local government institutions. The study utilized a case study design and employed purposive and simple random sampling methods to select 80 respondents from Moyo District Local Government (MDLG). Qualitative data was analyzed through content analysis, while quantitative data was assessed using descriptive statistics and a multiple regression model. Findings indicated that publication of procurement plan and budget was significant to at β=0.258, P<0.05. Access to key procurement information was significant at β=0.193, p<0.05. Open communication was also significant at β=0.169, p<0.05. The study concluded that ensuring transparency while conducting procurement processes improves performance in terms of cost optimization and purchase of quality products which are delivered on time. The study recommended MDLG to provide timely and sufficient information to the public and other stakeholders most especially about upcoming contracts and status of ongoing procurement processes through publication on public notice boards and online government procurement portals for easy accessibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]