Scale and Scope

Process Scale and Scope. Within the chemical process industry, a typical operator console will collect 2000 to 5000 measurements every time increment, typically 1 minute or less. Despite this large amount of process data being generated, relatively few events occur at any single time. The data must be used to determine which, out of a typical range of 300 to 600 possible descriptions (process labels), reflect current conditions. In addition to these final process labels, many useful, intermediate labels may also... 

In this chapter, we focus on recent and emerging technologies that either are or soon will be applied commercially. Older technologies are discussed to provide historic perspective. Brief discussions of potential future technologies are provided to indicate current development directions. The chapter substantially extends an earlier publication (Davis et al., 1996a) and is divided into seven main sections beyond the introduction Data Analysis, Input Analysis, Input-Output Analysis, Data Interpretation, Symbolic-Symbolic Interpretation, Managing Scale and Scope of Large-Scale Process Operations, and Comprehensive Examples. 

Managing Scale and Scope of Large-Scale Process Operations discusses the performance issues associated with data analysis and interpretation that occur as the scale of the problem increases (such as in complex process operations). 

VII. Managing Scale and Scope of Large-Scale Process Operations... 

Their functions, orientation and scope are well summarised in Medicines Responsible Prescribing and will not be repeated here. Rather we shall confine ourselves to considering the scale and scope of medicinal product information generated and normally provided either mandatorily or on demand by pharmaceutical companies. 

Cockburn, Iain, and Rebecca Henderson. 2001. Scale and Scope in Drug Development Unpacking the Advantages of Size in Pharmaceutical Research. Journal of Health Economics 20(6) 1033-1057. 

However, the integrated system and the single operator arguments presented in this sub-section take the basic idea of natural monopoly from a single pipeline level to the network level. Although the economics of scale may be exempt on the pipeline level, there are economics of scale and scope at the network level that make the network a natural monopoly. This simply means that the total cost is least when the network is operated as a single, integrated unit. 

Fixed cost effects are included in most production network design models but scale and scope effects related to variable costs and learning curve effects lead to concave cost functions (cf. Cohen and Moon 1990, p. 274). While these can be converted into piecewise linear cost functions, model complexity increases significantly both from a data preparation perspective (see Anderson (1995) for an approach to measure the impact on manufacturing overhead costs) and the mathematical solution process. Hence, most production network design models assume linear cost functions ignoring scale and scope effects related to variable costs. 

Extensions to incorporate effects of taxation, an explicit modeling of product-mix effects (economies of scale and scope), make or buy/vendor selection and additional elements of technical capacity such as shared resources are provided in Chapter 3.4.3 to allow for an application to value chains with characteristics that differ from those that were considered when developing the model. 

Cohen MA, Moon S (1991) An integrated plant loading model with economies of scale and scope. European Journal of Operational Research 50 266-279... 

III. Time Scale and Scope of Bacterial Response Variables 373... 

III. TIME SCALE AND SCOPE OF BACTERIAL RESPONSE VARIABLES... 

Additionally, diversified players have often been able to build advantages of scale and scope in their businesses (in particular in commodities) and use globalization as an opportunity rather than a risk, while still coping successfully with the conflicts of running fundamentally different businesses within one organization. 

To capture economies of scale and scope, some large MNCs have set up multiuser service platforms in China where functions such as legal affairs, financing, tax, and IT are used jointly by several business units. Smaller companies must at least ensure that their China back-office functions have critical mass from the outset. 

Although unprecedented in its scale and scope, the main pillars of the EU ETS were built on many years of economic research into theories of emissions trading, combined with practical experience of emission trading schemes principally in the USA. Yet the analogies are far from exact, and the emerging experience with the EU ETS is beginning to highlight the profound nature of the differences - many of which have thus far been under-appreciated in economic and policy analysis. 

---