Purpose This paper aims to show the impact of applied visual management (VM) on performance in logistics operations in the construction industry. Design/methodology/approach A case study was conducted at a branch of an international company located in Poland on VM implementation in the transport and storage of this firm. Active research was used to include the outlook of top management on the implementation and use of VMs. Findings This study demonstrates how VM is an effective way to improve performance in the studied logistics functions. The complex nature of the effect is revealed not only in warehouse and transport operations but also in handling operations, improving operational planning and specializing warehouse teams. Originality/value Organizational culture, work discipline and value system in the group of production and warehouse workers is of importance in implementing and efficiently using VM resources. Using a VM is complex.

Inventory control is one of the key areas of research in logistics. Using the SCOPUS database, we have processed 9,829 articles on inventory control using triangulation of statistical methods and machine learning. We have proven the usefulness of the proposed statistical method and Graph Attention Network (GAT) architecture for determining trend-setting keywords in inventory control research. We have demonstrated the changes in the research conducted between 1950 and 2021 by presenting the evolution of keywords in articles. A novelty of our research is the applied approach to bibliometric analysis using unsupervised deep learning. It allows to identify the keywords that determined the high citation rate of the article. The theoretical framework for the intellectual structure of research proposed in the studies on inventory control is general and can be applied to any area of knowledge.

Sustainable development counteracts climate change and strives for a good quality of life. It is a development based on economic, social and environmental goals which should be evaluated. Environmental taxes have to ensure enterprises’ development follows sustainability principles. The basis of environmental taxes is a physical unit of harmful substance emissions with a proven negative impact on the environment. The article’s main objective is to assess the impact of environmental taxes (Envtax) on the sustainable development of the transportation and storage enterprises (Susd) (NACE Rev. 2: H) from 2008 to 2018. We created integrated indicators of sustainable development and its components, single-equation and multi-equation models (the OLS estimation) and Model Autoregressive Moving Average with eXogenous (ARMAX) to verify the research hypothesis. The research results indicate that energy (Entax t), transport (Trtax) and pollution taxes (Poltax) from current and previous period significantly affect the development of transportation and storage enterprises within sustainability principles (economic: Ed, social: Sd, and environmental: Envd). There is a strong variation in the strength and direction of the impact of environmental taxes on the development of the transportation and storage enterprises following sustainability principles in Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, and Slovenia from 2008 to 2018. The results indicate that taxes are not effectively used and that implementing reforms in the European Union in this area is the right direction.

Since January 2016, nurses and midwives in Poland have had the right, with some restrictions, to prescribe medicines. Consequently, Polish patients received the same opportunity as in other countries worldwide: easier access to certain health services, i.e., medical prescribing. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of structural changes which increased the nurses’ competences on the accessibility to prescription visits for patients receiving primary healthcare on the example of Medical and Diagnostic Centre (MDC), and to discuss the general trend of legal changes in nursing profession regulations. We performed a detailed analysis of the data on the MDC patient population in Siedlce who received at least one prescription written by a general practitioner and/or a nurse/midwife in the years 2017–2019.The largest number of prescription visits made by nurses concerned patients aged 50–70 years, as this age range includes the largest number of patients with chronic diseases who need continued pharmacological treatment originally administered by doctors. An increasing tendency for prescription visits made by nurses was recorded, with a simultaneous downward trend in the same type of visits undertaken by doctors at MDC. Nurses’ involvement in prescribing medications as a continued pharmacotherapy during holiday seasons results in patients having continuous access to medication. An upward trend was also observed in the number of medications prescribed by nurses per patient. Structural changes in the legal regulations of the nursing profession improve patients’ access to prescription visits under primary healthcare. Further research is recommended to evaluate the dynamics of these trends and the impact of newly introduced nursing competences on the accessibility of prescription visits for patients.

The Covid-19 pandemic that began in the city of Wuhan in China has caused a huge number of deaths worldwide. Countries have introduced spatial restrictions on movement and social distancing in response to the rapid rate of SARS-Cov-2 transmission among its populations. Research originality lies in the taken global perspective revealing indication of significant relationships between changes in mobility and the number of Covid-19 cases. The study uncovers a time offset between the two applied databases, Google Mobility and John Hopkins University, influencing correlations between mobility and pandemic development. Analyses reveals a link between the introduction of lockdown and the number of new Covid-19 cases. Types of mobility with the most significant impact on the development of the pandemic are "retail and recreation areas", "transit stations", "workplaces" "groceries and pharmacies". The difference in the correlation between the lockdown introduced and the number of SARS-COV-2 cases is 81%, when using a 14-day weighted average compared to the 7-day average. Moreover, the study reveals a strong geographical diversity in human mobility and its impact on the number of new Covid-19 cases.

The complex and networked nature of sustainable procurement is evoked through confronting two conceptual models, the triple bottom line-inspired parallel-type "interlocking circles model" with the more systems-oriented series-type "concentric circles model". This endeavor is integrated with a developed application of contingency theory rooted in network thinking. Two subcase narratives from Ghana, one in the upstream portion of the supply chain associated with exploration and platform-based production, and the other an oil refinery in the downstream part are provided. Interaction, interdependency, and integration, all associated with value, conceptually ground the analyses. A developed empirically grounded conceptual model depicts sustainability as systemically intertwined with value and networked in an immediate business, network, and wider noncontextual natural and social environment. Sustainable procurement is networked, a value creating managerial process rather than, as the triple bottom line posits, a norm "out there" directing managerial action. Sustainability is inherently complex. Rather than guiding action through deterministic ethical norms, it emerges as emergent practices primarily through purposeful interaction within the supply network that instead may be interpreted and developed in a long-term sense through using the two discussed conceptual models on sustainable production.

This paper develops an analytical framework using process thinking to achieve sustainable healthcare services. Healthcare is characterised by low economic efficiency. At the same time, it is embedded in ethical concerns related to society and nature. Healthcare is thus conceptualised as functionality in an ecosystem. The patient is woven into both nature and society. Given the complex nature of healthcare services, we seek an alternative way to understand healthcare services, focusing on the exchange aspect of the economy. We offer a conceptual model that helps build an analytical framework focusing on how practitioners and leaders in healthcare frame their activities. This framing provides guidance in healthcare practice. Furthermore, framing is associated with both healthcare service providers as well as patients and next of kin—the recipients. This framework aims to guide practical research and development activities in healthcare.

PurposeIn a volatile marketplace, warehouse management is fundamentally contingent of changes in its supply network environment. Flexibility is therefore a key logistics issue in distribution centre management. This study probes into the nature of warehouse flexibility in a supply network through simulation.Design/methodology/approachBy using the FlexSim simulation tool the dynamic behaviour of the warehouse system are conceptualised, documented, simulated, analysed and evaluated.FindingsSimulation revealed that external changes affect daily processes and the reorganisation of warehouse processes. Given the extensity of resource use, simulation also revealed that process reorganisation should not be a daily undertaking. This is because warehouse processes react in unpredictable and different manners to even the smallest disturbance from the environment. This reaction is not necessarily negative impending more long-term change of warehouse processes.Originality/valueThe warehouse is a complex system that self-adapts with limited need to calculate new optimised warehouse processes to counter changes in its environment. Rather than following deterministic optimisation procedures, the development of flexible resources is a key issue in warehouse management. The applied simulation model is generic and therefore applicable in other distribution centres pointing to how to monitor warehouse processes to in a pre-emptively develop warehouse flexibility through change of process context.

This article presents an overview of contemporary risk assessment systems used in patients with myocardial infarction. The full range of risk scales, both recommended by the European Society of Cardiology and others published in recent years, is presented. Scales for assessing the risk of ischemia/death as well as for assessing the risk of bleeding are presented. A separate section is devoted to systems assessing the integrated risk associated with both ischemia and bleeding. In the first part of the work, each of the risk scales is described in detail, including the clinical trials/registers on the basis of which they were created, the statistical methods used to develop them, as well as the specification of their individual parameters. The next chapter presents the practical application of a given scale in the patient risk assessment process, the timing of its application on the timeline of myocardial infarction, as well as a critical assessment of its potential advantages and limitations. The last part of the work is devoted to the presentation of potential directions for the development of risk assessment systems in the future.

This study grounds empirically the purchasing and further integration of an implemented information system set in the frenzied context of a corporate merger. A single longitudinal case study from the Norwegian pelagic seafood industry provides a detailed long-term account of developing the information system prior to, during and after a merger in the seafood industry that relies on wild catch. It is characterised by high dependence on features of nature and society to secure sustainable production. Contingency theory together with a process view of production reveals how interactions unfold over time to develop the new unified information system. Features of integration, interaction and interdependency represent different facets of information system purchase and development. The merger process represents an abnormality for the organisation as a continuous entity. Information system development in the case, therefore, takes place in a weakly integrated network of merging firms with severe time constraints. Given high uncertainty, solutions emerge through interaction. Deterministic optimisation is, in this context, a fluffy managerial dream. Normally, information system purchase and information system development involve reciprocal interdependencies involving mutual adjustments through intensive technologies and tight interaction among all parties involved. The coercive behaviour of management seeking efficiencies overrules these planning ideals. This indicates that purchasing, in a corporate merger context, is complex and approached as a complex system in a network. Solutions used in this approach originate because of emergent-networked interaction.

Purpose The purpose of this research is to detect, through applying a process-based view, how to manage economisation of the maintenance and modification operations in offshore petroleum logistics operations. Design/methodology/approach A single case study of engineering services, more specifically, maintenance and modification service operations, on a Norwegian Sea oil platform reveals the dynamics of building network capabilities in a consistent network structure. Two layers of coordination are studied: the engineering process and its context, represented by its network of interconnected firms. This case study empirically grounds how engineering service involves managing reciprocally interdependent exchange processes in the network structure. Findings Pooled interdependencies are vital in understanding the nature of service provision and use, and sequential interdependencies are vital in narrating the timing of processes to reveal the nature of process emergence to coordinate strings of production events. Furthermore, the network structure, when characterised by multiple interdependent projects, is also dynamic but at a slower pace. Originality/value Through the case study, operations management is revealed to be associated with project emergence at two levels: the core process level regarding daily continuous change, including the changing interaction of multiple different and interdependent projects, and the contextual level, where features of interdependency and integration change, affecting engineering service production. This provides guidance as to the economisation of engineering services. They change not only interactions in the flow of production but also its context.

Directs attention to additive manufacturing in a supply chain context. Analysis questions the degree it currently is a disruptive innovation. A case study consisting of interviews with 15 companies, including observations of some of these companies, providing a varied set of subcases. The research describes individual companies' histories of using 3D printing tools, its current use and future prospects, as perceived by various informants. In the supply chain, additive manufacturing moves production closer to the product user, albeit currently on a small scale. Some firms are already specializing in providing additive manufacturing as a service. Networking and sourcing emerge as increasingly important issues to govern the development and use of additive manufacturing technology in the value chain of each studied company. Findings reveal how additive manufacturing at current is in its infancy and has limited impact on the networked production structure: it has not yet reached the stage of being a disruptive innovation. Investigation also reveals perceptions on how additive manufacturing in the near future may change the logistics flow structure in global supply chains, then becoming a disruptive innovation.

Increasingly exporters need to take into consideration sustainable exports. This paper is an academic exercise that seeks to develop an analytical framework to demonstrate sustainable exports as a market embedded inter-organisational function. Influences of this investigation include institutional economics and sociology. The developed framework guides investigation of three published cases of exporting behaviour. Here we re-tell the narratives following this alternative framework. New insight on each case includes considerations of sustainability as well as exporting as an emergent exchange process. This framework also gives guidance for a new research agenda on the topic of sustainable export.

Owing to increased access to the Internet and the development of electronic commerce, e-commerce has become a common method of shopping in all countries. The purpose of this study is more precisely to research e-commerce diversity in Europe at the regional level and develop the conception of “E-commerce Supply Chain Management”. Statistical data derived from the European Statistical Office were applied to analyse the spatial diversity of e-retailing. Assessments of the regional diversity of e-retailing applied geographic information systems and exploratory spatial data analysis methods such us global and local spatial autocorrelation statistics. Clusters of regions with similar household preferences related to online shopping were identified. A spatial visualisation of the e-retailing diversity phenomenon may be utilised for the reconfiguration of supply chains and to adapt them to actual household preferences related to shopping methods.

The importance of telemedicine technologies around the world has been growing for many years, and it turned out to be a particularly important issue for conducting some medical procedures during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. It is necessary to create interdisciplinary teams to design and implement improved procedures using telemedicine tools. The aim of the article is to develop original, improved posthospital patient care process after total hip arthroplasty (THA) with the use of telemedicine technologies. In the study, a literature review and empirical research were used. The conducted research resulted in the designing an original posthospital patient care process after THA that uses telematics technologies. Due to the use of analyzed telemedicine technologies, the designed patient care process brings a possibility to increase the patient′s safety by monitoring life parameters, allowing for regular, remote contact with specialists and to be supervised remotely. All this may contribute to shortening the convalescence time, reducing the risk of complications, as well as reducing treatment costs. The designed model is ready for further clinical research with the participation of medical staff, patients after THA and patient caregivers.

This paper highlights the dark side of power imbalance regarding its consequences in agri-food supplier-buyer relationships. We report on findings from two studies. The first study is based on a sample of 105 key informants, while study 2 is based on a sample of 444 key informants, all from the cocoa agri-food supply market of Ghana. While the first study focuses on the antecedents of power imbalance and its consequences, the second study explores the role of cooperatives/collective action in minimizing supplier exploitation. Data from these studies were analysed using the partial least squares technique (SmartPLS). Analysis of these findings shows switching costs' impact on power imbalance to be curvilinear, while power imbalance has a curvilinear relationship with opportunism. The negative consequences of power imbalance are further exacerbated by dependency and the lack of joint action. Furthermore, we found the negative impact of power imbalance on financial performance to be stronger for non-cooperative members than for cooperative members, while, counterintuitively, we found the positive impact of economic satisfaction on financial performance to be stronger for non-cooperative members than for cooperative members.

Telemedicine technology offers a wide range of possibilities for improving various forms of healthcare services. These technologies can support and economize healthcare service processes including medical consultations, preparation for medical treatment and in the post-operative period. The increasing number of older people in developed countries increases the importance of telemedicine as a way to economize the care of the elderly. Domestic healthcare is one such opportunity. This study focuses on the use of this technology as a networking achievement demanding integrated relationships and purposeful interaction to implement and use this technology including focus on use of domestic healthcare of elderly patients after total hip arthroplasty in Poland. This network of actors consists of importantly interaction between patients, healthcare service providers and technology providers. A combination of telematics technology, services theory and contingency theory creates a distinct network approach to understanding domestic healthcare as a particular form of service process provision implying development of the exchange economy to support the services production economy. The aim of the article is to analyze the conditions for innovative telemedicine procedures implementing after total hip arthroplasty. Due to the conducted considerations, a set of fundamental solutions in regards to network implementation and application in home healthcare of Polish elderly patients after total hip arthroplasty will be developed. Conclusions will also concern the potential market of telemedicine solutions for patients after hip arthroplasty in Poland. Attention will also be paid to restrictions on the implementation of new technologies and ways to overcome them.

Rush orders are characterised by time constraints and organisational priority. They are handled by the supplier with the aim of meeting customer requirements in as limited a timeframe as possible. Rather than focusing on rush orders as a deterministic planning problem, this paper takes an inter-organisational perspective that highlights the complex networked interactions between the supplier and the customers. In this single case study of an advanced sanitary product supplier, rush orders involve process prioritisation concerning both: (i) supplies of in-stock parts that are delivered with preset time objectives; and (ii) parts not in stock that must be quickly fabricated. This supply process is highly emergent, in that unexpected events or properties occur. This study considers the difficulties of determining and dealing with root causes, unexpected effects, and interventive solutions for rush orders. This operational level of analysis provides a foundation for advocating the application of complex systems thinking to solve or at least significantly mitigate the problem of rush orders. It also contributes to and advances further research on this subject.

Healthcare is a service commonly associated with lacking performance in relation to output and the economy of production. Contingency theory and complex systems thinking are approaches here combined to study the logistics of healthcare service flows. Contingency theory directs attention to networked interdependencies while complex systems thinking concerns process emergence and flexible resource use in supporting logistics. This hybrid form of analysis gives conceptual direction to information technology development and use to support the logistics of healthcare services. Three small examples of healthcare service as logistics processes in their as-is state are provided and analysed based on the developed analytical framework. These illustrate in detail what exemplifies complexity in this industry. Given the inherently complex nature of many types of healthcare services, this discussion concerns how to conceptually model information systems in healthcare services as a complex system. This chosen complexity-sensitive approach of service logistics constitutes a basis for information technology enabled healthcare service development sensitive to this type of service provision directing focus to the emergent features of healthcare service needs. It is also a basis for further investigation into this topic of information technology use to support the inherent logistical complexity of healthcare services.

The paper aims to empirically ground an adapted analytic framework for understanding how to develop landscaping services. This is based on revealing the nature of the network role and processes involved in landscaping services. Landscaping is often part of an overall construction project and has a project form of organisation. A case study of a landscaping firm reveals examples of challenges in planning this form of service operation. Contingency theory is applied to reveal relationship interdependency in a network setting. This provides reasoning on how to interact to produce landscaping services. As a service, landscaping mainly is carried out through pooling resources and varying degrees of intense interaction-rooted reciprocal interdependency while customer relationships entail project-related services. This involves degrees of predominantly pooled and reciprocal interdependency. Supplies to customers need to be negotiated to the degree that production is not standardised. Supplies are, however, a combination of goods and services. This entails purchasing needs to deal with different logistics of supply. A conceptual model is developed that depicts landscaping as networked service production influenced by interdependency and carried out in what is conceptually modelled as a short supply chain.