The order-picking procedure

40. The order-picking procedure where a number of people simultaneously pick for a specific order is

called

a. Discrete order picking

b. Batch picking

c. Phased picking

d. Wave picking

41. All of the following are good reasons for scheduling the warehouse except

a. Reducing or eliminating overtime costs

b. Increasing direct labor requirements

c. Increasing levels of customer service

d. Increasing visibility to future requirements

42. Warehousing exists in the distribution environment primarily because of

a. Discontinuity of demand

b. Transportation effectiveness

c. Competitive pressures

d. Customer service

43. You are the warehouse manager for a company that has decided to offer a promotion that is

expected to last for six months. What type of warehousing would you use to ensure that stock is

available?

a. Private

b. Public

c. Contract

d. In transit

44. In developing a warehouse network, perhaps the most critical factor is

a. Cost of inventory

b. Distance from the customer

c. Distance from supply warehouse or manufacturing plant

d. Cost of transportation

45. The type of work done in a warehouse is changing to include:

a. pricing of individual products for specific customers

b. product mixing on pallets for shipment to customers

c. labelling of products for customers

d. all of the above

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46. Poor performance in the receiving area can lead to all of the following except:

a. lost material

b. unhappy customers

c. inaccurate inventory records

d. improved supplier relations

e. difficulty in tracking errors

47. Which of the following is NOT typically a valid reason for keeping inventory?

a. improve customer service levels

b. reduce annual costs of ordering inventory

c. to buffer against erratic supply of goods

d. to improve cash flow by reducing inventory carrying costs

48. Which of the following would not be considered an advantage of having a safe workplace?

a) Managing blanket orders

b) Process order changes

c) Deal with out-of-stock situations

d) Staging orders prior to shipment

49. The order-picking procedure where a number of people simultaneously pick for a specific order is called:

a. Batch picking

b. Discrete order picking

c. Wave picking

d. Zone picking

50. Control systems such as bar coding are of most benefit to:

a. Getting more information faster, to data processing

b. Reducing writing and recording

c. Reducing operator errors

d. all of the above

51. Which of the following would be a result of order processing errors?

a. Wrong product

b. Missing product

c. Incorrect quantity

d. All of the above could be a result of order processing errors

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52. The order-picking procedure where one order picker fills each line on an individual order

is called:

a. Batch picking

b. Discrete order picking

c. Wave

d. Zone picking

53. Which type of warehousing is defined as “the property, facility, and accompanying storage and

material handling equipment are normally owned and operated by the firm”?

a. Private

b. Public

c. Contract

d. Storage-in-transit

54. Which type of Third Party Logistics (3PL) offers services related to: financial settlement, global

trade, consulting, logistics management, warehouse location, and supplier management?

a. Warehousing

b. Logistics

c. Transportation

d. Special services

55. What warehouse performance measure, is used to measure the “volume of product storage and

retrieval transactions completed in a given unit of time”?

a. Order picking accuracy

b. Shipping accuracy

c. Storage utilization

d. Throughput.

56. In the order shipping flow process, what step follows the order picking activity

a. Order posting

b. Order staging

c. Packaging

d. Order loading.

57. Which activity is not included in the warehouse stocking function?

a. Receiving put-away

b. Product movement between locations

c. Product balance count verification

d. Product delivery and unloading.

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58. If you are making up a production schedule using the lot-for-lot replenishment method, which of

the following equations would you use to determine the planned order receipt (assuming you

know the gross amount required and the amount of inventory on hand)?

a. Gross requirement alone

b. Gross requirement minus scheduled receipts

c. Gross requirement minus projected amounts on hand and scheduled receipts

d. Gross requirement plus projected amounts on hand and scheduled receipts

59. Which of the following constitutes a major, direct output of material requirements planning?

a. Rough-cut capacity planning

b. Master production schedule

c. Marketing plan

d. Planned production/purchase orders

60. Which of the following is an input to the material requirements plan (MRP)?

a. Gross to net calculations

b. Rough-cut capacity planning

c. Master production schedule

d. Resource planning

61. Which of the following production strategies allows for mass customization without long lead

times?

a. Assemble-to-order

b. Make-to-stock

c. Make-to-order

d. Lean production

62. Which of the following is the primary focus of master scheduling (MS)?

a. Production amounts for individual products

b. Aggregate production amounts for product components or ingredients

c. Aggregate production amounts for product families

d. Production amounts for individual product components or ingredients

63. How often, under normal circumstances, does a pre-S&OP meeting take place?

a. Weekly

b. Monthly

c. Quarterly

d. Annually

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64. The S&OP planning team might decide to adopt a chase production strategy because it offers

which of the following benefits?

a. Reduction of resource costs during demand periods

b. Protection against a sudden need to hire temp workers in production

c. More predictable production scheduling

d. Reduced inventory holding costs

65. When a restaurant pursues a chase production strategy, at the points of highest and lowest load,

capacity key performance indicators for hourly labor and perishable inventory should show that

there is

a. too little capacity at the highest load and just the right amount of capacity at lowest load.

b. just the right amount of capacity at both highest and lowest load.

c. the right amount of capacity at highest load and too much capacity at lowest load.

d. too much capacity at the highest and lowest load.

66. Which of the following features was a drawback in the early versions of MRP software?

a. Failed to include component lead times

b. Assumed infinite capacity

c. Lacked an automated bill of materials

d. Made extra work for the scheduler

67. Which one of the following conditions is a potential drawback of lot-for-lot replenishment when

items must be ordered frequently?

a. High inventory costs

b. Inventory build-up

c. High setup costs

d. Incompatibility with JIT

68. Which of the following is a process in which marketing must stay most involved in to prevent the

issue from transforming the organization’s product from an order qualifier or winner into an order

loser?

a. Increasing raw material quality

b. Increasing distribution centers

c. Reducing capacity to match load

d. Reducing manufacturing cycle times

69. The major purpose of the sales and operations plan (S&OP) is to

a. develop a single set of supply/demand numbers for all stakeholders.

b. balance sales and output of end items.

c. provide a binding contract between sales and operations.

d. obtain startup financing from bankers and investors.

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70. What is the rated capacity for a work site that has 80 hours of available time, has a utilization

rate of 90 percent, an efficiency rating of 80 percent, and a demonstrated capacity of 63.4 hours?

a. 57.6 standard hours

b. 62.9 standard hours

c. 64.0 standard hours

d. 72.0 standard hours

71. Which one of the following would appear in the routing file?

a. Work center efficiency

b. Work center ID

c. Work center capacity

d. Work center utilization

72. In distribution requirements planning (DRP), the key difference between a push system and a pull

system is whether

a. area warehouses are authorized to order inventory replenishment.

b. production orders are scheduled or triggered by demand.

c. distribution centers can order from each other or only from the plant.

d. materials are issued by job order or await a signal from an operator.

73. Which one of the following is an objective of production activity control (PAC)?

a. Minimize work in process

b. Develop the monthly production schedule

c. Provide input to rough-cut capacity plan

d. Execute S&OP

74. Which of the following would be a typical time horizon for sales and operations planning?

a. One week to one month

b. One month to one quarter

c. 12 to 18 months

d. 18 months to three years

75. Pegging refers to the ability to make a connection between the required numbers of a specific

component and which of the following?

a. Demand for the parent according to the MRP

b. Demand forecast according to the MPS

c. Specific work center according to the routing file

d. Capacity plan according to the MPS

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76. If you know the actual hours worked at a work center and want to calculate its efficiency, you

also need to know which of the following?

a. Available time

b. Standard hours of output

c. Number of workers or machines

d. Utilization

77. Which of the following would be included in a list of dependent demand items?

a. Computer hard drives delivered to the computer manufacturer for installation depending on

customer request

b. Computer audio subsystems delivered to a computer superstore for sale as upgrade items

c. Car mirrors delivered to an automotive dealership as repair parts

d. Shirts delivered to a retailer for stocking on shelves

78. A metal stamping company produces multiple items in their thin steel processing area. At a recent

S&OP meeting, a need for an additional stamping press was identified though resource planning.

Which of the following was an input to verify the need?

a. Bill of materials

b. Kanban

c. Action plan

d. Resource profile

79. Which of the following would provide a sound method for grouping products into product families

for the operations plan?

a. Appeal to a particular age group

b. Similar seasonality

c. Similarity of manufacturing processes

d. National market destination

80. Which of the following would not be an acceptable measurement of output for an operations plan

for use by operations managers?

a. Numbers

b. Tons

c. Euros

d. Liters

81. Which of the following would contain information such as machine setup and run time?

a. Order release form

b. Master production schedule

c. Component bill of materials

d. Route sheet.

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82. Which of the following meetings is typically used to arrive at a consensus between plant managers, logistics managers, schedulers, customer service managers, and other supply chain managers prior to involving executives in sales and operations planning (S&OP)?

a. S&OP meeting

b. Supply planning meeting

c. Demand planning meeting

d. Pre-S&OP meeting.

83. The sales and operations plan would include which of the following?

a. Monthly production figures by product family

b. Weekly production figures by individual SKU

c. Monthly production figures by individual manufacturing center

d. Monthly production figures for individual SKUs

84. If a make-to-stock organization with stable demand is expanding plant capacity using an overlapping demand stepwise expansion strategy, when it has capacity in excess of demand, it should produce goods at

a. minimum capacity.

b. the average level of expected demand.

c. the current level of actual demand.

d. maximum capacity.

85. Which of the following provides a point of reference for formulating sales and operations planning?

a. Production forecast

b. Business plan

c. Marketing plan

d. Financial plan

86. Item A is constructed over one week using Parts B and C. Part B has a lead time of two weeks and Part C has a lead time of four weeks. A week after Part C was ordered, the scheduler discovers Part B will have an additional week of lead time. Which of the following should the scheduler do?

a. Order Part B in one week since offsetting has sufficient slack to meet the schedule.

b. Regenerate the entire plan since this will affect offsetting of the final deadline.

c. Order Part B as per the original schedule but issue a net change to delay the last task.

d. Immediately order Part B and issue a net change so no other rescheduling is needed.

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87. In distribution requirements planning, what is the net requirement for the central factory for a given week if its two distribution centers have planned order releases of 100 and 200 units respectively and the central factory has a projected available balance of 100 units, scheduled receipts of 200 units, and keeps 100 units of safety stock?

a. 0 units

b. 100 units

c. 200 units

d. 700 units

88. An organization’s business plan calls for directly competing in developing markets rather than working through intermediaries as before. Which of the following would identify this deficiency in capacity?

a. Capacity control

b. Capacity requirements planning

c. Cross-functional planning

d. Resource planning.

89. Which of the following could be subject to alteration as the result of decisions made in an executive S&OP meeting?

a. Debt versus equity levels

b. Weekly production schedules

c. Marketing plans

d. Product features

90. During rough-cut capacity planning (RCCP), a bottleneck resource has unused capacity during a planning week and too much load in the next week. Which of the following should the master scheduler do?

a. Reconcile the unused capacity by increasing production to stock

b. Send the plans forward to the MRP scheduler

c. Revise the schedule

d. Send the plans laterally to demand management

91. Which of the following production strategies sometimes meets resistance from distribution centers because of the increased demands for skill training and capacity expansion?

a. Make-to-stock

b. Assemble-to-order

c. JIT

d. Make-to-order

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92. For make-to-stock production, the master production schedule includes production dates for which of the following?

a. Components

b. Customer options

c. End items

d. Product families

93. Which of the following actions would be the best choice if the load scheduled for a work site exceeds its rated capacity?

a. Reduce the load by cancelling orders.

b. Require workers to work overtime.

c. Shift work to another work center with available capacity.

d. Order more safety stock.

94. DRP helps prevent shortages at supplying sites and overstocking at ordering sites by originating orders ___, evaluating them at ___ locations before being ___ to determine the actual need at the ordering location and availability of goods at receiving sites.

a. upstream; ordering; planned

b. upstream; supplying; released

c. downstream; ordering; planned

d. downstream; supplying; released

95. Which of the following internal operation financial measures can show when normal manufacturing processes are taking longer than usual?

a. Raw material inventory costs vs. standard

b. WIP value, labor, and overhead cost vs. standard

c. Financial results of modifying capacity related to labor or overhead variations

d. Maintenance costs per period or equipment downtime and cost of downtime

96. If a salesperson needs to expedite an order but the order would need to be filled by altering production of items inside a planning time fence, with whom would the salesperson negotiate this change?

a. Supply chain manager

b. Senior management

c. The salesperson can make this change without needing approval

d. Master scheduler.

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97. In a master scheduling grid, the planning horizon relates to the cumulative lead time in which of the following ways?

a. Planning horizon is always less than the cumulative lead time

b. Planning horizon is always equal to the cumulative lead time

c. Planning horizon is equal or greater than the cumulative lead time

d. Planning horizon is less than or equal to the cumulative lead time

98. A salesperson makes a delivery promise that is prior to the customer’s delivery request date because this customer is in the most valuable customer segment. If the order arrives instead at the delivery request date, the customer will most likely be

a. satisfied due to the perfect fill rate.

b. dissatisfied due to unacceptable speed of performance.

c. satisfied due to perfect order fulfillment.

d. dissatisfied due to heightened customer expectations.

99. The master schedule shows inventory on hand of 150 items, scheduled production of 500 items, and booked orders of 400 items. Which of the following is the correct number of available-to-promise items?

a. 150

b. 250

c. 500

d. 650

100. The prior period’s projected available balance (PAB) is 40 units. The master production schedule for the period plans 30 units. Customer orders are 20 units. The forecast is 30 units. What is the PAB if this period is within the slushy zone?

a. 40 units

b. 50 units

c. 60 units

d. 90 units

 
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SSA Expenditure approach

All expenditure incurred by individuals during 1 year . “In economics, most things produced are produced for sale and then sold. Therefore, measuring the total expenditure of money used to buy things is a way of measuring production. This is known as the expenditure method of calculating GDP. Note that if you knit yourself a sweater, it is production but does not get counted as GDP because it is never sold. Sweater-knitting is a small part of the economy, but if one counts some major activities such as child-rearing (generally unpaid) as production, GDP ceases to be an accurate indicator of production. Similarly, if there is a long term shift from non-market provision of services (for example cooking, cleaning, child rearing, do-it yourself repairs) to market provision of services, then this trend toward increased market provision of services may mask a dramatic decrease in actual domestic production, resulting in overly optimistic and inflated reported GDP. This is particularly a problem for economies which have shifted from production economies to service economies.Components of GDP by expenditure[edit]Components of U.S. GDPGDP (Y) is a sum of Consumption (C), Investment (I), Government Spending (G) and Net Exports (X – M).Y = C + I + G + (X − M)Here is a description of each GDP component:C (consumption) is normally the largest GDP component in the economy, consisting of private (household final consumption expenditure) in the economy. These personal expenditures fall under one of the following categories: durable goods, non-durable goods, and services. Examples include food, rent, jewelry, gasoline, and medical expenses but does not include the purchase of new housing.I (investment) includes, for instance, business investment in equipment, but does not include exchanges of existing assets. Examples include construction of a new mine, purchase of software, or purchase of machinery and equipment for a factory. Spending by households (not government) on new houses is also included in Investment. In contrast to its colloquial meaning, ‘Investment’ in GDP does not mean purchases of financial products. Buying financial products is classed as ‘saving’, as opposed to investment. This avoids double-counting: if one buys shares in a company, and the company uses the money received to buy plant, equipment, etc., the amount will be counted toward GDP when the company spends the money on those things; to also count it when one gives it to the company would be to count two times an amount that only corresponds to one group of products. Buying bonds or stocks is a swapping of deeds, a transfer of claims on future production, not directly an expenditure on products.G (government spending) is the sum of government expenditures on final goods and services. It includes salaries of public servants, purchase of weapons for the military and any investment expenditure by a government. It does not include any transfer payments, such as social security or unemployment benefits.X (exports) represents gross exports. GDP captures the amount a country produces, including goods and services produced for other nations’ consumption, therefore exports are added.M (imports) represents gross imports. Imports are subtracted since imported goods will be included in the terms G, I, or C, and must be deducted to avoid counting foreign supply as domestic.A fully equivalent definition is that GDP (Y) is the sum of final consumption expenditure (FCE), gross capital formation (GCF), and net exports (X – M).Y = FCE + GCF+ (X − M)FCE can then be further broken down by three sectors (households, governments and non-profit institutions serving households) and GCF by five sectors (non-financial corporations, financial corporations, households, governments and non-profit institutions serving households). The advantage of this second definition is that expenditure is systematically broken down, firstly, by type of final use (final consumption or capital formation) and, secondly, by sectors making the expenditure, whereas the first definition partly follows a mixed delimitation concept by type of final use and sector.Note that C, G, and I are expenditures on final goods and services; expenditures on intermediate goods and services do not count. (Intermediate goods and services are those used by businesses to produce other goods and services within the accounting year.[9] )According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, which is responsible for calculating the national accounts in the United States, “In general, the source data for the expenditures components are considered more reliable than those for the income components [see income method, below].”[10]Examples of GDP component variables[edit]C, I, G, and NX(net exports): If a person spends money to renovate a hotel to increase occupancy rates, the spending represents private investment, but if he buys shares in a consortium to execute the renovation, it is saving. The former is included when measuring GDP (in I), the latter is not. However, when the consortium conducted its own expenditure on renovation, that expenditure would be included in GDP.If a hotel is a private home, spending for renovation would be measured as consumption, but if a government agency converts the hotel into an office for civil servants, the spending would be included in the public sector spending, or G.If the renovation involves the purchase of a chandelier from abroad, that spending would be counted as C, G, or I (depending on whether a private individual, the government, or a business is doing the renovation), but then counted again as an import and subtracted from the GDP so that GDP counts only goods produced within the country.If a domestic producer is paid to make the chandelier for a foreign hotel, the payment would not be counted as C, G, or I, but would be counted as an export.GDP real growth rates for 2010.A “production boundary” delimits what will be counted as GDP.”One of the fundamental questions that must be addressed in preparing the national economic accounts is how to define the production boundary–that is, what parts of the myriad human activities are to be included in or excluded from the measure of the economic production.”[11]All output for market is at least in theory included within the boundary. Market output is defined as that which is sold for “economically significant” prices; economically significant prices are “prices which have a significant influence on the amounts producers are willing to supply and purchasers wish to buy.”[12] An exception is that illegal goods and services are often excluded even if they are sold at economically significant prices (Australia and the United States exclude them).This leaves non-market output. It is partly excluded and partly included. First, “natural processes without human involvement or direction” are excluded.[13] Also, there must be a person or institution that owns or is entitled to compensation for the product. An example of what is included and excluded by these criteria is given by the United States’ national accounts agency: “the growth of trees in an uncultivated forest is not included in production, but the harvesting of the trees from that forest is included.”[14]Within the limits so far described, the boundary is further constricted by “functional considerations.”[15] The Australian Bureau for Statistics explains this: “The national accounts are primarily constructed to assist governments and others to make market-based macroeconomic policy decisions, including analysis of markets and factors affecting market performance, such as inflation and unemployment.” Consequently, production that is, according to them, “relatively independent and isolated from markets,” or “difficult to value in an economically meaningful way” [i.e., difficult to put a price on] is excluded.[16] Thus excluded are services provided by people to members of their own families free of charge, such as child rearing, meal preparation, cleaning, transportation, entertainment of family members, emotional support, care of the elderly.[17] Most other production for own (or one’s family’s) use is also excluded, with two notable exceptions which are given in the list later in this section.Non-market outputs that are included within the boundary are listed below. Since, by definition, they do not have a market price, the compilers of GDP must impute a value to them, usually either the cost of the goods and services used to produce them, or the value of a similar item that is sold on the market.Goods and services provided by governments and non-profit organizations free of charge or for economically insignificant prices are included. The value of these goods and services is estimated as equal to their cost of production. This ignores the consumer surplus generated by an efficient and effective government supplied infrastructure. For example, government-provided clean water confers substantial benefits above its cost. Ironically, lack of such infrastructure which would result in higher water prices (and probably higher hospital and medication expenditures) would be reflected as a higher GDP. This may also cause a bias that mistakenly favors inefficient privatizations since some of the consumer surplus from privatized entities’ sale of goods and services are indeed reflected in GDP.[18] xGoods and services produced for own-use by businesses are attempted to be included. An example of this kind of production would be a machine constructed by an engineering firm for use in its own plant.Renovations and upkeep by an individual to a home that she owns and occupies are included. The value of the upkeep is estimated as the rent that she could charge for the home if she did not occupy it herself. This is the largest item of production for own use by an individual (as opposed to a business) that the compilers include in GDP.[18] If the measure uses historical or book prices for real estate, this will grossly underestimate the value of the rent in real estate markets which have experienced significant price increases (or economies with general inflation). Furthermore, depreciation schedules for houses often accelerate the accounted depreciation relative to actual depreciation (a well built house can be lived in for several hundred years – a very long time after it has been fully depreciated). In summary, this is likely to grossly underestimate the value of existing housing stock on consumers’ actual consumption or income.Agricultural production for consumption by oneself or one’s household is included.Services (such as chequeing-account maintenance and services to borrowers) provided by banks and other financial institutions without charge or for a fee that does not reflect their full value have a value imputed to them by the compilers and are included. The financial institutions provide these services by giving the customer a less advantageous interest rate than they would if the services were absent; the value imputed to these services by the compilers is the difference between the interest rate of the account with the services and the interest rate of a similar account that does not have the services. According to the United States Bureau for Economic Analysis, this is one of the largest imputed items in the GDP.[19]GDP vs GNI[edit]GDP can be contrasted with gross national product (GNP) or, as it is now known, gross national income (GNI). The difference is that GDP defines its scope according to location, while GNI defines its scope according to ownership. In a global context, world GDP and world GNI are, therefore, equivalent terms.GDP is product produced within a country’s borders; GNI is product produced by enterprises owned by a country’s citizens. The two would be the same if all of the productive enterprises in a country were owned by its own citizens, and those citizens did not own productive enterprises in any other countries. In practice, however, foreign ownership makes GDP and GNI non-identical. Production within a country’s borders, but by an enterprise owned by somebody outside the country, counts as part of its GDP but not its GNI; on the other hand, production by an enterprise located outside the country, but owned by one of its citizens, counts as part of its GNP but not its GDP.To take the United States as an example, the U.S.’s GNI is the value of output produced by American-owned firms, regardless of where the firms are located. Similarly, if a country becomes increasingly in debt, and spends large amounts of income servicing this debt this will be reflected in a decreased GNI but not a decreased GDP. Similarly, if a country sells off its resources to entities outside their country this will also be reflected over time in decreased GNI, but not decreased GDP. This would make the use of GDP more attractive for politicians in countries with increasing national debt and decreasing assets.Gross national income (GNI) equals GDP plus income receipts from the rest of the world minus income payments to the rest of the world.[20]In 1991, the United States switched from using GNP to using GDP as its primary measure of production.[21] The relationship between United States GDP and GNP is shown in table 1.7.5 of the National Income and Product Accounts.[22]International standards[edit]The international standard for measuring GDP is contained in the book System of National Accounts (1993), which was prepared by representatives of the International Monetary Fund, European Union, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations and World Bank. The publication is normally referred to as SNA93 to distinguish it from the previous edition published in 1968 (called SNA68) [23]SNA93 provides a set of rules and procedures for the measurement of national accounts. The standards are designed to be flexible, to allow for differences in local statistical needs and conditions.[icon]This section requires expansion. (August 2009)National measurement[edit]Within each country GDP is normally measured by a national government statistical agency, as private sector organizations normally do not have access to the information required (especially information on expenditure and production by governments).Main article: National agencies responsible for GDP measurementInterest rates[edit]Net interest expense is a transfer payment in all sectors except the financial sector. Net interest expenses in the financial sector are seen as production and value added and are added to GDP.Nominal GDP and adjustments to GDP[edit]The raw GDP figure as given by the equations above is called the nominal, historical, or current, GDP. When one compares GDP figures from one year to another, it is desirable to compensate for changes in the value of money – i.e., for the effects of inflation or deflation. To make it more meaningful for year-to-year comparisons, it may be multiplied by the ratio between the value of money in the year the GDP was measured and the value of money in a base year.For example, suppose a country’s GDP in 1990 was $100 million and its GDP in 2000 was $300 million. Suppose also that inflation had halved the value of its currency over that period. To meaningfully compare its GDP in 2000 to its GDP in 1990, we could multiply the GDP in 2000 by one-half, to make it relative to 1990 as a base year. The result would be that the GDP in 2000 equals $300 million × one-half = $150 million, in 1990 monetary terms. We would see that the country’s GDP had realistically increased 50 percent over that period, not 200 percent, as it might appear from the raw GDP data. The GDP adjusted for changes in money value in this way is called the real, or constant, GDP.The factor used to convert GDP from current to constant values in this way is called the GDP deflator. Unlike consumer price index, which measures inflation or deflation in the price of household consumer goods, the GDP deflator measures changes in the prices of all domestically produced goods and services in an economy including investment goods and government services, as well as household consumption goods.[24]Constant-GDP figures allow us to calculate a GDP growth rate, which indicates how much a country’s production has increased (or decreased, if the growth rate is negative) compared to the previous year.Real GDP growth rate for year n = [(Real GDP in year n) − (Real GDP in year n − 1)] / (Real GDP in year n − 1)Another thing that it may be desirable to account for is population growth. If a country’s GDP doubled over a certain period, but its population tripled, the increase in GDP may not mean that the standard of living increased for the country’s residents; the average person in the country is producing less than they were before. Per-capita GDP is a measure to account for population growth.Cross-border comparison and PPP[edit]The level of GDP in different countries may be compared by converting their value in national currency according to either the current currency exchange rate, or the purchasing power parity exchange rate.Current currency exchange rate is the exchange rate in the international foreign exchange market.Purchasing power parity exchange rate is the exchange rate based on the purchasing power parity (PPP) of a currency relative to a selected standard (usually the United States dollar). This is a comparative (and theoretical) exchange rate, the only way to directly realize this rate is to sell an entire CPI basket in one country, convert the cash at the currency market rate & then rebuy that same basket of goods in the other country (with the converted cash). Going from country to country, the distribution of prices within the basket will vary; typically, non-tradable purchases will consume a greater proportion of the basket’s total cost in the higher GDP country, per the Balassa-Samuelson effect.The ranking of countries may differ significantly based on which method is used.The current exchange rate method converts the value of goods and services using global currency exchange rates. The method can offer better indications of a country’s international purchasing power and relative economic strength. For instance, if 10% of GDP is being spent on buying hi-tech foreign arms, the number of weapons purchased is entirely governed by current exchange rates, since arms are a traded product bought on the international market. There is no meaningful ‘local’ price distinct from the international price for high technology goods.The purchasing power parity method accounts for the relative effective domestic purchasing power of the average producer or consumer within an economy. The method can provide a better indicator of the living standards of less developed countries, because it compensates for the weakness of local currencies in the international markets. For example, India ranks 10th by nominal GDP, but 3rd by PPP. The PPP method of GDP conversion is more relevant to non-traded goods and services.There is a clear pattern of the purchasing power parity method decreasing the disparity in GDP between high and low income (GDP) countries, as compared to the current exchange rate method. This finding is called the Penn effect.For more information, see Measures of national income and output.Per unit GDP[edit]GDP is an aggregate figure which does not consider differing sizes of nations. Therefore, GDP can be stated as GDP per capita (per person) in which total GDP is divided by the resident population on a given date, GDP per citizen where total GDP is divided by the numbers of citizens residing in the country on a given date, and less commonly GDP per unit of a resource input, such as GDP per GJ of energy or Gross domestic product per barrel. GDP per citizen in the above case is pretty similar to GDP per capita in most nations, however, in nations with very high proportions of temporary foreign workers like in Persian Gulf nations, the two figures can be vastly different.Standard of living and GDP[edit]GDP per capita is not a measurement of the standard of living in an economy; however, it is often used as such an indicator, on the rationale that all citizens would benefit from their country’s increased economic production. Similarly, GDP per capita is not a measure of personal income. GDP may increase while real incomes for the majority decline. The major advantage of GDP per capita as an indicator of standard of living is that it is measured frequently, widely, and consistently. It is measured frequently in that most countries provide information on GDP on a quarterly basis, allowing trends to be seen quickly. It is measured widely in that some measure of GDP is available for almost every country in the world, allowing inter-country comparisons. It is measured consistently in that the technical definition of GDP is relatively consistent among countries.The major disadvantage is that it is not a measure of standard of living. GDP is intended to be a measure of total national economic activity—a separate concept.The argument for using GDP as a standard-of-living proxy is not that it is a good indicator of the absolute level of standard of living, but that living standards tend to move with per-capita GDP, so that changes in living standards are readily detected through changes in GDP.Externalities[edit]GDP is widely used by economists to gauge economic recession and recovery and an economy’s general monetary ability to address externalities. It is not meant to measure externalities. It serves as a general metric for a nominal monetary standard of living and is not adjusted for costs of living within a region. GDP is a neutral measure which merely shows an economy’s general ability to pay for externalities such as social and environmental concerns.[25] Examples of externalities include:Wealth distribution – GDP does not account for variances in incomes of various demographic groups. See income inequality metrics for discussion of a variety of inequality-based economic measures.Non-market transactions–GDP excludes activities that are not provided through the market, such as household production and volunteer or unpaid services. As a result, GDP is understated. Unpaid work conducted on Free and Open Source Software (such as GNU/Linux) contribute nothing to GDP, but it was estimated that it would have cost more than a billion US dollars for a commercial company to develop. Also, if Free and Open Source Software became identical to its proprietary software counterparts, and the nation producing the propriety software stops buying proprietary software and switches to Free and Open Source Software, then the GDP of this nation would reduce; however, there would be no reduction in economic production or standard of living. The work of New Zealand economist Marilyn Waring has highlighted that if a concerted attempt to factor in unpaid work were made, then it would in part undo the injustices of unpaid (and in some cases, slave) labour, and also provide the political transparency and accountability necessary for democracy.Underground economy–Official GDP estimates may not take into account the underground economy, in which transactions contributing to production, such as illegal trade and tax-avoiding activities, are unreported, causing GDP to be underestimated.Asset Value–GDP does take into account the value of all assets in an economy. This is akin to ignoring a company’s balance sheet, and judging it solely on the basis of its income statement.Non-monetary economy–GDP omits economies where no money comes into play at all, resulting in inaccurate or abnormally low GDP figures. For example, in countries with major business transactions occurring informally, portions of local economy are not easily registered. Bartering may be more prominent than the use of money, even extending to services (I helped you build your house ten years ago, so now you help me).GDP also ignores subsistence production.Quality improvements and inclusion of new products–By not adjusting for quality improvements and new products, GDP understates true economic growth. For instance, although computers today are less expensive and more powerful than computers from the past, GDP treats them as the same products by only accounting for the monetary value. The introduction of new products is also difficult to measure accurately and is not reflected in GDP despite the fact that it may increase the standard of living. For example, even the richest person from 1900 could not purchase standard products, such as antibiotics and cell phones, that an average consumer can buy today, since such modern conveniences did not exist back then.What is being produced–GDP counts work that produces no net change or that results from repairing harm. For example, rebuilding after a natural disaster or war may produce a considerable amount of economic activity and thus boost GDP. The economic value of health care is another classic example—it may raise GDP if many people are sick and they are receiving expensive treatment, but it is not a desirable situation. Alternative economic estimates, such as the standard of living or discretionary income per capita try to measure the human utility of economic activity. See uneconomic growth.

 
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PICOT/PICo and practice questions

The focus for Week 2 is on questions: PICOT/PICo and practice questions.

  • Using the area of interest from Week 1, identify the following.
  • Will you be using a quantitative or qualitative approach for your EBP project proposal?
  • Explain why this approach is the best one to provide information for your area of interest.

PICOT/PICo question using the PICOT/PICo format for quantitative and PICo for qualitative approaches.

  • Identify your practice question, being sure to include the following.
  • For a quantitative approach
  • A questioning part such as “what is,” “what are,” “is there,” or “are there”
  • Population being studied
  • Variables being studied
  • Suggestion of the relationship between variables
  • For a qualitative approach
  • Phenomenon or concept of interest
  • Group or population of interest
  • Suggestion of which qualitative research design is being used

Information given to me on this week assignment are below:

To develop an EBP PICOT/PICo question as well as a research question, numerous sources can trigger the spirit of inquiry, or to put it simply, the “I wonder . . . ?” The sources include, but are not limited to, the following.

Identification of a concern in a practice area (i.e., “I wonder how I can prevent . . . “)

Inconsistencies found in professional literature (i.e., Article A says I should do X, but Article B says that the preferred action is Y. I wonder which one is correct for my practice area.”)

Problems occurring with the practice area (i.e., “This has been a problem in the unit as long as I can remember; I wonder how I can improve the . . .  “)

Reviewing nursing theory (i.e., “I read that knowledge helps with self-care; I wonder whether it would help to foster patient compliance with . . .  )

Although the source of the EBPPICOT/PICo or research study question can vary based upon your practice area and its related events, the role of nursing theory is where this week begins.

How Do I Use a Nursing Theory With an EBP PICOT or Research Study Question?

It has been acknowledged that research studies and nursing or other theories have a reciprocal relationship that can occur in two directions. The two directions are theory-testing research and theory-generating research.

Theory-testing research

The first direction is theory-testing research, in which the researcher starts with a nursing theory. The research is then used to expand a theory as well as identify needed changes or modifications. Using a deductive thinking and reasoning approach, the researcher begins with an abstract thought or concept that comes from a theory and then moves toward more specific application. From this direction, theory stimulates and directs a specific research study that results in theory testing. In theory-testing research studies, theoretical statements or concepts are translated into research questions. The results from the study will either confirm (i.e., support) or contradict the theory. If the study confirms the theory, then the theory becomes stronger because the theory correctly reflects what is occurring in the real world. If the research study findings contradict the theory, then either additional research studies are needed to determine whether the research study was flawed or if the theory is wrong. Many times, the theory is revised or refined so that it now reflects the real world. With theory-testing research studies, the

researcher starts with a research question from a current theory and designs a research study with the intention of testing (or verifying) that the theory reflects the real world.

Evidence-based practice project coordinators evaluate the research study findings to determine if they apply to the practice question that has created the PICOT question.

Theory-generating research

The second direction is when a research study starts with an area of interest. The researcher then identifies and describes relationships about the area of interest or phenomena found from the research findings. Using an inductive thinking and reasoning approach, the researcher moves from facts to theory. Real-world observations or measurements of selected area of interest or phenomena using research study design develops theories based upon real-world research results.

Evidence-based practice project coordinators evaluate the research study findings to determine if this new theory applies to the practice question that has created the PICOT question.

Research studies create new information or facts and EBP projects utilize new information or facts and EBP projects utilize new information or facts to inform best practices through application within a specific environment or specific group or individual.

Theory can be used to define terminology or concepts used within a research study or EBP project. From the previous example, the concept of self-isolation should be defined using the definition from Beck’s theory rather than some other source.

Theory can help organize numerous research findings on the same area of interest or phenomena. For example, Beck’s theory could be used to organize all of the factors that contribute to postpartum depression. So all of the research study articles on self-isolation could be organized together.

With theory as well as other sources contributing to the spirit of inquiry, the lesson turns to developing questions from the area of interest using the PICOT/PICo format and writing research study questions. Comparing and contrasting these questions helps to clarify the differences between EBP projects and research studies.

How Do I Develop a PICOT/PICo Question?

The first step with evidence-based practice is identifying the area of interest which leads to the development of searchable, answerable EBP project question; the PICOT/PICo. Although the focus of the PICOT/PICo question will be clinical and use a quantitative approach, please know that the PICOT/PICo format is useful, but modified for a qualitative approach.

Clinical questions come from areas of interest that are often practice problems or concerns, with the goal frequently focusing on quality improvement. In other words, determine ways to improve patient healthcare outcomes (i.e., a better medication to control the pain). Clinical practice problems are often categorized into two types.

Problem focused: These often focus on quality concern, safety or risk management, or unsatisfactory patient outcomes.

Knowledge focused: These focus on learning information to change standards or guidelines or develop new philosophies or applications of care.

Clinical questions that focus on the quantitative approach are formulated in a structured, specific way.

The PICOT Parts

P: Patient, population, or problem—describe the patient, population, or problem succinctly; may be useful to include characteristics such as age, gender, and/or symptoms

Example: age, gender, ethnicity, certain disorder

I: Intervention—focus on treatment or intervention

Example: therapy, exposure to disease, prognostic factor A, risk behavior

C: Comparison with other interventions, though not all questions will have comparison group or comparison intervention

Example: alternative therapy, placebo or no intervention or therapy, prognostic factor B, absence of risk factor

O: Outcomes that are measurable—note outcome of interest; such methods to measure results

Example: outcome expected from therapy, risk of disease, accuracy of diagnosis, rate of occurrence of adverse outcome

T: Time—specify time frame for investigating influence and impact upon identified outcomes

Example: time it takes for the intervention to achieve the outcome; time over which populations are observed for the outcome to occur given a certain condition

But qualitative research questions have a different format (recall the differences between quantitative and qualitative approaches presented in Week 1). The format is as follows.

The PICo Parts

P: Participants—in qualitative approach, the “subject” is referred to as a participant

Example: individuals who are receiving chemotherapy

I: Interest—the phenomenon or area of interest to the EBP project coordinator; the EBP project coordinator identified event, activity, experience, or process

Example: sense of encouragement

Co: Context—the circumstances or setting surrounding an event

Example: taking oral chemotherapy medications in the privacy of one’s own home

*Note that in all EBP projects individuals that are the focus of the project are called “participants” and in research studies the individuals that are the focus of the project are called “subjects”.

To help develop PICOT questions, different formats have been developed to accommodate clarification of different types of areas of interest. Questions templates for asking specific PICOT questions include the following.

Intervention

In _____ (P), how does _____ (I) compared to _____ (C) affect _____ (O) within _____ (T)?

Prognosis/Prediction

In _____ (P), how does _____ (I) compare to _____ (C) influence or predict _____ (O) over _____ (T)?

Diagnosis or Diagnostic Test

In _____ (P) are/is _____ (I) compared to _____ (C) more accurate in diagnosing _____ (O)?

Etiology

Are _____ (P), who have _____ (I) compared to those without _____ ( C) at risk for/of _____ (O) over _____ (T)?

Meaning

How do _____ (P) with _____ (I) perceive _____ (O) during _____ (T)?

How Can a PICOT/PICo Question Lead to a Research Question?

Most times when conducting a comprehensive literature review will produce the answer to your PICOT/PICo question. But there are times, especially when the research studies are lacking the necessary information, provides conflicting information, or fails to fit the specific situation, then a research study must be designed. (Note here that if you discover tat there is little or no research to answer the EBP PICOT question, then a research study must be developed. Master’s-prepared nurses are qualified to initiate, lead, and complete EBP projects; only individuals with doctoral degrees may be the principle investigator for research studies). Turning a spirit of inquiry resulting from an area of interest to an EBP PICOT that does not have sufficient research study support into a research study question requires consideration of the following elements.

Is it feasible?

Does the researcher have time and resources ( e.g., money, available subjects)?

Is it interesting?

Would other members of the profession be interested in your answer?

It is ethical?

Would harm to subjects be avoided?

Perhaps the strongest evaluation of any research question is, ” Does it pass the ‘so what’ test?” To answer this question, reflect on the following: Would someone or an organization be helped by determining the answer to the question?

If you can answer yes, then your question has passed the “so what” test!

For example, you, as the EBP project coordinator, are interested in presenting to the school district board that the requirement for daily 30 minutes of physical activity be extended to include disabled students. After presenting your request, the school district board asks for additional information, but you are unable to find a specific research study. You then consider that contacting a researcher to research study question that would determine the impact of physical activity with disabled students is required.

The “so what” question would be answered in the above fictitious example.

So the next step in this lesson is to develop a research study question (that would be completed by a doctorally-prepared researcher).

How Do I Research Question?

A research study question guides the research study and collected data will answer the question. The wording is a concise, interrogative question that is present tense. The specific wording varies with the type of research study.

For a quantitative research study, the purpose is frequently identified as the ability to describe, explain, or predict something. The research question has several parts.

A questioning part such as “what is,” “what are,” “is there,” or “are there”

The population being studied

The variables being studied

A suggestion of the relationship between variables

A quantitative research study question would be written as follows.

What is the correlation between social isolation and obesity in teenagers living in rural areas?

The questioning part: “What is”

Population being studied: “teenagers living in rural areas”

Variables being studied

Independent variable: social isolation

Dependent variable: obesity

Suggestion of relationship between variables: correlation

Research Variables

If you would like a review regarding the types of research study variables, click here (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..

Transcript

Research study questions for qualitative research studies are formatted differently. Qualitative researchers who use the phenomenological design are interested in meaning or the lived experience. The researcher who uses grounded theory is interested in process. Lastly, the ethnographers ask descriptive questions about cultures. The qualitative research study question generally has three components.

Phenomenon or concept of interest

Group or population of interest

Suggestion of which qualitative research design is being used

For example: What is the lived experience of individuals taking oral chemotherapy in their home setting?

Please note that the suggestion of which qualitative research study design is being used does not identify the actual name of the design (phenomenological, grounded theory, etc.), but identifies it by the wording associated with the qualitative research design.

For phenomenological designs, the suggested wording may include terms such as “meaning” or “lived experiences.”

What is the lived experience of children who integrate hearing loss into their lives?

For grounded theory designs, the suggested wording may include terms such as “process.”

What is the process of reimaging after the loss of two or more extremities?

For ethnographic designs, the wording may include terms such as “description of a culture.”

What Is a Hypothesis and Why Does a Research Study Need One?

A research study hypothesis is present in quantitative research studies because there is a prediction about the relationship between variables. Qualitative research studies do not have a hypothesis because there is too little known about the area or phenomenon of interest to predict a result. By not predicting a result, the qualitative study researcher is guided by the participant’s viewpoints and experiences.

A hypothesis is the predicted answer to the research study question. The key word is testable. The hypothesis is what the researcher expects to happen in the study and the testing occurs by analysis of collected data. Hypotheses can be either directional or nondirectional. A directional hypothesis is one that specifies the expected direction of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables.

A null or statistical hypothesis states that there is no relationship between the independent and dependent variables. It is this type of hypothesis that the results of statistical tests support or reject based upon the numbers produced from data.

How Do I Locate Information to Support my EBP Project Proposal?

In order to make accurate decisions regarding person-centered care, quality improvement, or any practice concern, a comprehensive search of the research literature is needed. The search results will tell you what is known and unknown about an area or phenomenon of interest. In addition, you will need to evaluate the level of the evidence and its quality. Remember: garbage in, garbage out. When focusing on healthcare decision making, garbage out is just not an option!

All PICOT questions require searching multiple, appropriate databases. When individuals explore only one database and no information is found, an incorrect decision can be made that no evidence is available. In addition, the level of evidence should not be overlooked. For example, although randomized controlled trails (RCTs) maybe not be available, a case study may be present. Although the case study maybe not be able to fully answer the clinically based question, it may be able to provide insight into additional interventions.

Applying What You Have Learned to Your Program Track

Once again, it is time to apply this week’s information to your program specialty track. Fortunately, the formatting of a PICOT/PICo question and research study question are the same no matter which specialty track you are enrolled in. The difference comes in the area of interest. In Week 1, you were to select the area of interest for your EBP project proposal. This week, you need to develop the PICOT and an example of a research study question. Start this process with the following.

Identify the population that you are interested in looking at and applying the information to. The use of the words adults or children may be too broad. You may want to consider a more narrow term such as middle-aged adults or school- aged children. Consider your area of interest—is it broadly stated, such as chronic illness? Is it too broadly stated?

Determine whether using a quantitative or qualitative approach would have the best opportunity of producing a quality outcome in order to answer your PICOT question. Remember, you will not be conducting the EBP project at this time; only designing it. (This EBP project proposal with some modifications can be your template for your capstone project for all except the FNP tracks).

If you select a quantitative approach, you will need to identify the independent and dependent variables. (Notice that a well written PICOT question identifies these). Consider whether there are extraneous variables that need to be controlled so that they do not adversely impact the quality of the project.

If you find that there is not enough research and you would need to recommend a research study using a quantitative study design, you will need to identify a research question as well as a hypothesis.

If you find that there is not enough research and you would need to recommend a research study using a qualitative study design, you will need to select which qualitative research design tradition you are using, because the wording of the research question suggests the type of design.

Remember This

Remember that with a quantitative research approach, the terms are generally more narrowly or precisely stated, whereas with a qualitative approach, the terms are stated in a broader manner. Below is an example.

A quantitative project question may state, “In hypertensive males over sixty-five years of age (P)that require medication for blood pressure control (I), compared to those not taking medication (C) have the highest risk for death (O) during the first four months after diagnosis or prescription(T)”.

Compared to a qualitative project question on the same topic: “In hypertensive males over sixty-five years of age that require either an ACE inhibitor or Beta-blocker for blood pressure control what is their lived experience during the first four months after prescription?”

 
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Toll System Description

 1. Introduction

A tolling system is a complex system which, on the one hand enables toll charging on highway sections, and on the other, provides fast and high-quality usage of the highway. It is very important for the state – the owners of highways, to have a good and reliable system which enables high-quality functioning of toll charging in all sections. The drivers – customers of highways, want the processes of toll collection to be fast and reliable, with the possibility of different payment methods. Thus, it is necessary to provide an integrated management and supervision system of toll collection. The goal of this paper is to describe the effects of applying Business Intelligence – BI in the development and exploitation of Traffic Management and Supervision System – TMSS. The paper consists of five parts. The first part describes the tolling system. The second part describes TMSS and its basic modules. The third part outlines the application of Business Intelligence in the development of TMSS while the fourth part specifies the effects of the application. The conclusion forms the fifth part of this paper.

2. Toll System Description

The toll collection process is realized at toll plazas located at one or more highway sections. Each toll plaza has one or more lanes in which the following can be carried out: physical f low of vehicles (entrance and exit of vehicles to the highway), toll collection process, recording all data on vehicles, control of peripheral equipment  46 Radivojević G. et al. Effects of Business Intelligence Application in Tolling System and communication with toll plazas. The plaza is connected with all pertaining toll lanes and it enables the following: provides communication with lanes, collects data from the lanes and generates a collection of daily performance reports. Furthermore, the toll plaza is linked with the Central Level where all information on lanes is sent. The Central Level gathers, processes and stores data, enables supervision and monitoring of toll collection (Radivojević et al., 2013). Tol l col lec t ion s y stem is a comple x infor mation system which combines hardware and software components. In view of organization, the toll collection system consists of three hierarchical levels: the toll lanes, the toll plaza and the central level (Mihajlo Pupin Institute, 2012). All three levels are in on-line or off-line communication (Fig. 1). Fig. 1. Hierarchical Layers of Toll System The Central level receives, stores and processes all toll collection data.

The main function of the Central Level is to connect the lower levels into an integral system, to communicate with external systems, manage and control the complete toll collection system. The Central level gathers data from the lower levels (toll plaza, toll lanes) and then all necessary system parameters are distributed to them. The Central Level is also connected with external systems with which it exchanges various data sets. External systems include: business information system (ERP), banks (credit and debit card processing), sales points for mediums for toll payment (On-Board Unit – OBU and Company Cards – CC), and others (Radivojević et al., 2013).

3. The Toll Management and Supervision System TMSS enables supervision and management of toll collection in real-time.

The basic goals when developing TMSS were:

• Developing a modern system which would provide on-line monitoring of toll collection process on all toll plazas and lanes on highways;

• Good work performances of the system in real-time;

• Work with large quantities of data and parallel execution of various functionalities without compromising performances, and

• Creating the possibility of expanding the system with new functionalities during exploitation. An overview of the basic functionalities was made in the initial phase of designing the system and over time broadened in conformity with the process requirements and user’s requests. The initial set of functionalities realized the following tasks:

• Connection of all elements on various hierarchical levels into an integral system; • Connection with external systems (ERP, banks, sales points, etc.);

• Acquiring data from lower levels of system in real-time (on-line); 47 International Journal for Traffic and Transport Engineering, 2015, 5(1): 45 – 53 • The possibility of importing data from lower levels in off-line mode of communication; • Distribution of system parameter sets to lower levels of the system;

• Monitoring toll collection process in real-time; • Monitoring state of equipment on all toll plazas and lanes; • Generating work reports from all system segments;

• Distribution of reports to various groups of users; etc. In order to realize such a set of tasks it was necessary to apply contemporary and modern technology which enables fast, highquality and reliable data base designing, communication protocols, web applications, reports and analytics, together with high performances of their exploitation. TMSS is implemented on Oracle Fusion Middleware technology platform which consists of Oracle WebLogic application server and Oracle BI (Business Intelligence) platform for data warehousing (Data Warehousing – DW H) and analy tical reports. Data layer is implemented as a mixed transaction (Online Transaction Processing – OLTP) and analytical (Online Analytical Processing – OLAP) model. Data are stored in Oracle 11g data base (Oracle, 2013). Access to all system data and functions is protected by defining role of direct users. TMSS is designed as a set of integrated mo d u l e s w h ic h c o r r e s p o nd t o t h e organization structure of toll collection system. Each module encompasses a group of functionalities which refer to individual segments of work. The following present the basic TMSS modules (Fig. 2):

• Internal and External integration,

• System management,

• Toll charging,

• Financial and Customer Management, and

• Analytics and Reporting.

Fig. 2. Architecture and Modules of the TMSS 48 Radivojević G. et al. Effects of Business Intelligence Application in Tolling System Internal and External integration enables information communication and data exchange among all levels within the toll collection system (Plaza, Toll and Central) as well as with external systems – ER P, banks, OBU and CC sales points, and other systems. Data exchange is carried out by way of messages by applying IMP TCP protocol and SOAP web service.

Protocol adapters support on-line and off-line data transmission. System management enables overall system supervision and physical configuration as well as monitoring state of equipment in the system. This module includes: system con f ig u rat ion m a nagement , s y stem monitoring and supervision, maintenance management, security and users, and test management. Toll charging module covers processing of all data relating to the physical process of toll collection and which are generated from the hierarchically lower levels. The basic components of the module are: managing busi ness pa ra meters, tol l col lect ion transaction processing, monitoring toll collectors and managing pre-magnetized cards. Financial and Customer Management involves data processing on OBU and CC clients, their accounts and contractual relations. This module includes: management of finance and accounts, clients and sale, management of individual OBU and CC, forming gray and black lists of medium, and similar. Analytics and Reporting includes data processing and generating report sets on the toll collection system. Analytics is based on DWH architecture and reporting is realized by applying Oracle BI technology. DWH and BI enable generating reports for large quantities of data along with high performances of system work.

4. Business Intelligence Application Business Intelligence

BI is a set of methods, processes, architectures and technologies, which transform raw data into meaningful and useful information and knowledge. BI is a contemporary technology of acquiring, storing and processing of large quantities of data. Data are acquired from various sources, stored and processed according to business system requirements, with high work performances in real-time. BI provides business information and various analyses of key business processes, making high-quality decisions on various managing levels and improving performances in the business system. BI applications include various forms of reports to enable high-quality and timely information to users on the key business processes in real and nearly real-time. BI technology is used in developing TMSS for many reasons:

• Acquiring data from various sources (Toll lanes, Toll plazas, OBU and CC sales points, banks, ERP, and others),

• Data are acquired in real-time and/or imported in off-line regime,

• Processing of large quantities of data which can refer to any historical period,

• Monitoring various business processes on lower levels (Toll plazas and lanes),

• Reporting on all business processes on various levels of detail,

• Distribution of reports to users in appropriate formats according to concrete requirements,

• Data protection in system and good work performances of all functionalities in real-time, etc.  

49 International Journal for Traffic and Transport Engineering, 2015, 5(1): 45 – 53 DWH and a set of BI applications have been designed within the TMSS which realize the Analytics and Reporting module. DWH is a contemporary database technology which presents the basis for development and use of BI application intended for various analytical and reporting functionalities. From the systemic aspect, DWH corresponds to an organizational scheme of a business system, from the data source level to the decision making level. From the technological aspect, DWH is a set of layers which provide reception, transformation, processing and on-line analytical data processing. DWH systems enable storage and processing of a large quantity of data from integrated heterogeneous sources in optimized multi-dimensional data schemes. DWH architecture of TMSS is shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3.

Data Warehouse Architecture Data in DWH are collected from various internal and external sources: transaction messages from Toll plazas and Toll lanes, import data from Toll plaza database for the off-line regime, data obtained from ERP system, transaction messages and off-line entry of data from OBU and CC sales points, manual data input from documents, import of data from banks, and similar. The ODS (Operational Data Storage) layer receives and operationally stores all data from internal and external sources.

The ETL layer  50 Radivojević G. et al. Effects of Business Intelligence Application in Tolling System (Extraction, Transformation and Loading) checks consistency of data in conformity with defined rules, establishes data integrity relations and fills data schemes in DWH.

The Summary level aggregates data in various levels of detail (by hour, shift, day or any other period) in conformity with analytical data processing. The Analytical layer consists of a set of data models which present the basis for generating various reports, defined in the business system. The OLAP cube (Online Analytical Processing Cube) are data models designed in conformity with the requirements of online data processing. Data mart is a logical subset of DWH defined according to specific requirements of the business process or group of users, with an aim of obtaining various business reports which support making concrete decisions.

In TMSS, Data Marts are designed according to basic system modules (Finance, Traffic, System M anagement a nd Cu customer Management). BI presentation tools enable development of BI applications which perform basic f unctiona lities of the TMSS module Analytics and reporting – reporting on all segments of toll collection in conformity with the needs of business processes. Managers and TMSS users on different managerial levels monitor the toll collection system in on-line and off-line regime and control realization of all functions of the system through a set of reports. BI provides business information and analyzes key business processes, the making of good-quality decisions on different managerial levels and improvement of performances in the business system. The role of BI applications in the process of making business decisions is shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4.

The Role of BI Systems in Decision Making More than 40 reports have been developed using Oracle BI technology which have been grouped according to segments to which they refer (Radivojević et al., 2012): Toll collection (financial and traffic reports), OBU and CC, System Management and Customer Management. All reports can be obtained in various levels of detail, depending on the given input parameters (highway, toll plaza, toll collectors, period, medium, customer, and others). BI platform enables development of different types of applications depending on data processing method, complexity, interaction with user and form of displaying information. The following types of BI applications have been developed in TMSS:

• Standard Reports – predefined reports, which use DWH system data through developed data models. They enable interaction with the users through  51 International Journal for Traffic and Transport Engineering, 2015, 5(1): 45 – 53 input of set parameters which define reporting scope (highway, toll plaza, lane, period, toll collector, customer). This type of reporting is developed for functionalities necessary in everyday work of the system users (financial and traffic reports, customer reports, etc.).

• Ad-hoc queries and reports – enable data search for users through multidimensional data models (OL A P cube). Ad hoc reports give tabular result presentation; are made as needed and represent a response to the present requirements of the users.

• Analytical applications – complex reports which combine different sets of business information separated according to certain characteristics, with one or more approaches for information analysis. These applications refer to analytics of business processes and activities (reports on black and gray OBU and CC lists, traffic images of vehicle movements, reports on payments and vehicle passing with OBU and CC, and others).

• Dashboards and Scorecards – represent the most advanced variant of BI applications because they include a large set of data that refer to different business processes and offer visualization of results in such a way that new information and knowledge is presented to the user in the fastest possible way. Dashboards are applied for supervision and management of processes and activities, providing monitoring of changes in real-time (overview of system state, overview of equipment state, and others). Balanced Scorecards enable monitoring of business performances from various aspects in real-time and warn on future changes (monitoring the work of Optical character recognition – OCR and video surveillance – VS system, communication of all system levels and monitoring data on inbound/outbound messages, and others). All developed BI applications can have various formats of outbound data (doc, pdf, ppt, html, xml, xls), which can be displayed on screen, printed, e-mailed or faxed to users or stored in a repository.

Applications can be carried out upon user’s request, automatically in given time periods, or after certain actions in the business system. For example, report applications which are carried out every day for managing customers, bills and invoices for payment of OBU and CC which are sent to customers at the beginning of each month by e-mail, analytical applications which are carried out when OBU and CC black and gray lists are distributed to toll plazas, control panels which report on equipment operation in toll lanes, and others.

BI applications define the functioning of certain business activities and processes; they can have more or less detail and accordingly are intended for different managing levels of toll collection system. Based on such defined reports, high-quality decisions on individual business processes can be brought on each level, which refer to individual business processes, groups of processes or which refer to external systems (banks, OBU and CC providers, special customers, and others). Decisions made in the business system could refer to any of the following: • Physical configuration of system (determining number and ty pe of inbound and outbound lanes, defining work shifts), • Tariff policy (toll pricelists, tariff  52 Radivojević G. et al. Effects of Business Intelligence Application in Tolling System packages for OBU and CC, exemption lists and free passages),

• Stimulation for applying OBU and CC (increasing the network of sales points, bonuses, and discounts for certain customers),

• Managing relations with customers (monitoring account state of customers and black and gray lists, introducing additional web services), and others.

5. BI Effects in TMSS

There are many advantages of applying BI technology, not only for the business system but for customers as well. According to certain research, BI enables a more precise insight into data and information, better comprehension of business changes, better planning and decision making on all levels (Russom, 2011). The effects of applying BI in development and exploitation of TMSS-a can be viewed from many aspects:

• DW H is a contemporary data base technology necessary for application of BI, which enables storing of large quantities of data gathered from various sources. A well designed DWH system provides easy access to data on different levels of aggregation and data linking from different business processes.

• B I e n a b l e s d e s i g n i n g v a r i o u s applications, from standard predefined report s, to control panel s used for monitoring performances and functioning of business processes in real-time. In the applications, it is possible to define different levels of interaction with users, the forms of visualizing information, the formats of outgoing results and time of execution.

• BI applications are carried out very quickly for large quantities of data and the most complex reports. Exploitation of TMSS so far has shown that the largest number of applications are almost immediately carried out while some complex analytical applications are carried out in less than 10 s.

• Applications for super v ision and management of equipment and toll collection processes in real-time enable linkage of various internal systems (OCR, VS, toll collection transactions) and good visualization of the process which improves supervision conditions to users and timely reacting.

• BI technology provides processing of all data in the toll collection system and their transformation into high-quality and reliable information which presents the basis for making decisions in all managing levels.

6. Conclusion

The application of BI in the Toll Management and Supervision System – TMSS is described in this paper. The effects of applying BI technology primarily include time savings in evaluating and analyzing performances of business processes, as well as a system of reporting which provides high-quality support in making decisions on all levels. Exploitation of TMSS to date has indicated to the positive effects of BI technology which could be perceived through the following:

• An improvement in the operational functioning of business processes – BI applications which provide monitoring, reporting and analytics of basic business processes; timely reactions in critical situations; making operative and tactical decisions.  53 International Journal for Traffic and Transport Engineering, 2015, 5(1): 45 – 53

• A n improvement in the managing process in the business system – strategic applications which provide reporting and analytics as support in making managerial and strategic decisions; measuring, monitoring, control and planning business performances. BI technology is a new way of analyzing and methodology of designing DWH systems, and different types of BI applications, which correspond to the organizational structure of the business system from the data source level to the level of using new information and knowledge. Acknowledgements  

 
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