Decision Drivers

Sometimes the quantities needed are so small that it is not economical for a supplier to manufacture them or the cost to do it would be extremely high and would not be affordable for the new product. This can be very important to the initial introduction of the product. Both you and the supplier have to make money so the price of the product needs to reflect the costs required to produce it. It is very easy to get caught up in the grandiose ideas of a new product, not watch the costs, and end up in trouble. Perhaps existing equipment can be modified to get the small quantities and not require a significant capital investment. A very realistic projection of the demand for the new product has to be developed so that a cost estimate can be made to reflect the market potential for the new product. 

Especially in the new product area, the requirements easily exceed the capabilities of the supplier. If another decimal point is required in the tolerances, the supplier s equipment may not be capable of consistent meeting the tighter tolerances. This could be a result of gauge capabilities or it could be due to machine capabilities. You need a complete understanding of the product in order to determine the real requirements. Requirements need to be set as loosely as possible while maintaining product quality. This will increase the number of suppliers available for you to pick from. 

When developing new products in the laboratory the tendency is to use the highest purity of materials available and then develop the process to make the product. When it is time to scale up to plant size, no consideration has been given to the impact of using a less pure material on yield and price. This can lead to very tight supplies of raw materials and maybe even no suppfy. 

As a compaity, you desire to maintain control of the supply and also maintain control of the price of the product. This is also a w of maintaining the business so it does not get treated like a commodity, causing the price to be driven down. The prices of commodity products fluctuate in the maiket and companies bid on them on a regular basis to see who is willing to cut their price to get the business. If the suppfy of the product is controlled, the price can be maintained where it is needed to make a profit and meet the maiket needs. A product can easily become a commodity when there is overcapacity in the market for the material. 

Most profit is made when you are the first compaity to bring a product to the maiketplace. As copycats develop, the product can become a commodity where companies are bidding against each other for the business. 

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The key decision driver for firms to grapple with is characterization of the protein and comparability. It cannot be overstated that the characterization of the molecule is crucial. If the protein cannot be characterized, then the project is doomed for failure, but if characterization is successful then comparison is the next hurdle. Comparison can be made against published data, for example in a pharmacopoeia monograph, with respect to gross physico-chemical or biochemical characteristics of the molecule. However, this is not sufficient to establish all aspects pertinent to the evaluation of quahty, safety and efficacy for a biotechnology-derived drug. 

Side studies are often required for major decisions, and a good example is a study of gas versus steam turbines for LNG plants (Reference 5). Indications are that higher capital investment is associated with gas turbine drivers than with steam turbines for liquefaction train service, but that the added capital investment for gas turbines shows... 

Decision on UK exemption from 89/684/EEC on training of drivers Decision on the withdrawal of Dmoterb. 

Figure 12-10 is convenient for summarizing the main specifications to the manufacturer. Any unusual conditions must be explained, and minimum and maximum ranges must be established. Normal conditions may be the same as maximum, although this may not always be the case. Detailed driver specifications should be included unless the manufacturer is to make preliminary recommendations before final decisions are reached. Note that some of the data are to be furnished by the manufacturer, and the insistence on receipt of this information facilitates evaluation of competitive bids. 

Indeed, our discussions with residents suggested this sense of a neighborhood norm of lawn management is the most important driver lawn chemical use. Six of the eight homeowners explained their decisions about lawn chemical use in terms of something that they owed to their neighbors. Four lawn managers also... 

In fact, regulatory drivers are often seen as instrumental in spurring innovation. An assessment by a major aerospace manufacturer of what drives innovation towards safer processes for hazardous waste streams revealed that The regulatory drivers for waste reduction are familiar to most by now, and may be summarised into three categories of legislation 1) inventory reporting, 2) emission reporting, and 3) employee exposure levels. Anticipation of future restrictions was a decisive factor in this project. ... 

This decision meant that involuntary alcohol blood tests (and by extension, blood or other tests for drugs) were not unconstimtional in themselves. Roadside and other testing of suspected drunk drivers would later become routine. 

The refrigeration compressor is usually the most expensive equipment of small-scale liquefaction plants. Smaller units may employ screw or reciprocating compressors, whereas centrifugal compressors always are used in larger units. Driver selection is a key decision point in project development, and can be either turbine, gas engine or electric motor. 

Companies are in the driver s seat. Why shouldn t they initiate the process One thought is for a company to package its needs and then do a little shopping among universities, that is, compete individual universities. This is possible if a company has a well-defined vision of its technology needs and knows what problems need to be solved to achieve that vision. The entire search process can be much better defined and a long-range relationship decision made based on the quality of the professors, the professors desire to work with you, how easy it is to work with that university, and so on. 

The objective of using a mathematical optimization model is to identify network design alternatives that best exploit structural cost differences between various locations and resolve trade-offs between different cost elements such as production cost advantages and additional transporta-tion/tariff costs. Therefore, relationships expressing the costs that will be incurred as a function of cost drivers (decision variables of the model) have to be established. A proper creation of these cost functions is a critical success factor of the overall analysis (cf. Shapiro 2001, p. 234 Vidal and Goetschalckx 1996, p. 13). 

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