Surveys vendors

Survey vendor facilities to determine their qualifications. Capabilities... 

The AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture are now used locally, nationally, and internationally. Most users are healthcare organisations and systems, survey vendors that service healthcare organisations, or healthcare researchers. The surveys are used to ... 

Once the need for a LIMS has been justified, specifications have been written, and available vendors surveyed, the LIMS selection process begins. Each vendor s product must be evaluated for conformance to the specification and flexibiUty for future modifications. If an adequate solution is not available commercially, consideration must be given to constmcting a custom LIMS solution. This could be done in-house or by contractors. If the custom option is preferred, resources needed for future modifications and maintenance should be factored into the cost. 

There is a good chance that you have had some contact with geographic information systems (GIS). A GIS is a computer representation of a system that uses all pertinent survey and database information to generate intelligent maps and queries. Much has been published on the subject. In addition there are many vendors of the technology and many seminars. GIS is a complicated subject. Several early GIS projects were not successful. Often GIS projects are very expensive. 

This kind of simulation requires massive computer power, and much of it is done on so-called supercomputers . This is a reason why much recent research of this kind has been done at Los Alamos. In a survey of research in the American national laboratories, the then director of the Los Alamos laboratory, Siegfried Hecker (1990) explains that the laboratory has worked closely with all supercomputer vendors over the years, typically receiving the serial No. I machine for each successive model . He goes on to exemplify the kinds of problems in materials science that these extremely powerful machines can handle. 

Many LP software vendors advertise in the monthly journal OR/MS Today, published by INFORMS. For a survey of LP software, see Fourer (1997, 1999) in that journal. All vendors now have Websites, and the following table provides a list of LP software packages along with their Web addresses. 

Although the devices outlined above are the most commonly used for evaluating total alpha, beta, and gamma radiation, other methods and other devices can be used. In addition, local conditions (i.e., temperature, humidity) or the properties of the specific radionuclides emitting the radiation may make other types of devices or other methods more optimal to achieve the goals of the survey than the devices noted above. There, experts or individual vendors should be consulted to determine the appropriate measurement device for any specific application. 

Customer loyalty, in turn, is driven by customer satisfaction. This relationship has similar intuitive appeal if customers are satisfied with a vendor s products and services, then it is only natural that loyalty should follow. Anecdotal support abounds, such as Xerox s finding that top-box customers in a satisfaction survey are six times more likely to repurchase than those responding with four out of five (Heskett, et ah, 1994). 

The sponsoring firm was not identified. The survey comprised three sections. The first recorded the identity of and purchasing data for the respondent s top two metal products vendors. The second section collected vendor performance ratings at the level of each performance attribute and overall vendor performance. The third section collected demographic information on the respondent firms. 

This section describes characteristics and selection of commercially available spectral and photometric LIE process instruments. While a comprehensive assessment was the objective, the author acknowledges that some vendors and instruments may have been inadvertently omitted. Nevertheless, the following survey of LIE instruments suitable for process and field enviromnents was based on instruments defined within scientific literature and those actively marketed by common process analytical instrument vendors. Thus, emerging in-line LIE instruments is perhaps a potential gap within the following discussion. 

Formal needs analysis approaches often use sophisticated survey and data flow anal5d ical tools to produce a detailed request for proposal from vendors or a comparison model for purchase evaluation. Even the least formal needs analysis must provide three kinds of critical information. 

The Department is proposing treatment standards for non-RCRA metal-containing aqueous waste. Information on the availability and effectiveness of amenable treatment technologies was collected from the technical literature, surveys of technology vendors and affected industry, EPA studies, and field visits. 

The Department evaluated Information on treatment technologies collected from the literature, a survey of treatment technology vendors, site visits to selected treatment facilities in California, and an industry survey. There are two major groups of demonstrated technologies for aqueous wastes with metals chemical precipitation, and chemical or electrochemical reduction. 

If buyers participate in a plant survey, they can then observe the method of working, consider the types of questions asked and comments made, and also review the quality of services and expertise available before actually using the vendor s products and services. Participation by the buyer often provides sufficient confidence to warrant using a cooling water program for a limited trial period. 

Unfortunately, not enough buyers or users undertake to be properly involved in a detailed water treatment survey of their own plant. Obviously, they cannot go around the site every week with a different service company representative, but once or twice per year can be quite instructive. It is also a fact of life that while most users of water treatment keep proper engineering and operational details on file, together with a history of water treatment programs supplied to site, some firms regularly fail to maintain adequate information. They may not know the answers to some of the questions raised or simply not consider water treatment to be that important. Consequently, buyers in such companies have little way of validating much of the survey data collected, which ultimately form the basis of a vendor s technical and commercial proposal. 

Photographs taken of distribution decks, tower packing, nozzles, waterfall patterns, sumps, etc. can be useful but are almost never taken, either during an initial survey or during the implementation of any subsequent water treatment contract. Both vendors and operators tend to rely on memories, which are notoriously selective and not quantifiable. 

What factors and opportunities, resulting from the survey, are evident for demonstrating the technical quality of the vendor company ... 

Nobody can ever rightfully claim to hold the absolute truth on survey data interpretation, or to possess the only path for future operational objectives and strategies. Nevertheless, the more experienced water treatment representative will tend to provide a more practical and cost-effective proposal than the new recruit, fresh from the vendor s training school. 

Thus, surveys on large complicated cooling systems are often best carried out by a team of two or three chemists/engineers from the vendor. The sum of their individual interpretations can collectively provide an excellent focus for a proposal presentation to the prospective customer. 

Although site surveys, problem assessment, treatment product identification, and program selling services are vital components of the field representative s job, it is the water systems management and the plant site technical support function that are probably considered to be the key areas, from the customer s viewpoint. And it is at the time of a plant upset or a production line malfunction, when the customer is able to confirm (or not, as the case may be) that the expertise and technical service skills made available by the vendor was worth the price paid ... 

Kowalski (7), commenting on the early period of work in this area, stated as follows At Exxon Chemical we measured the level worldwide interest in reactive extrusion via a patent and literature survey for the period 1966-1983. We found a total of more than 600 different patents granted to 150 companies—many Japanese. In comparison only 57 papers were found in the open literature, mostly by extruder vendors... only three papers were from the above 150 companies ... 

The basic requirements of a crystallization system are (1) a vessel to provide sufficient residence time for crystals to grow to a desired size, (2) mixing to provide a uniform environment for crystal growth, and (3) a means of generating supersaturation. Crystallization equipment is manufactured and sold by several vendors, but some chemical companies design their own crystallizers based on expertise developed within their organizations. Rather than attempt to describe the variety of special crystallizers that can be found in the marketplace, this section will provide a brief general survey of types of crystallizers that utilize the modes outlined above. 

METHOD A DETAILED-ITEM ESTIMATE. A detailed-item estimate requires careful determination of each individual item shown in Table 1. Equipment and material needs are determined from completed drawings and specifications and are priced either from current cost data or preferably from firm delivered quotations. Estimates of installation costs are determined from accurate labor rates, efficiencies, and employee-hour calculations. Accurate estimates of engineering, drafting, field supervision employee-hours, and field-expenses must be detailed in the same manner. Complete site surveys and soil data must be available to minimize errors in site development and construction cost estimates. In fact, in this type of estimate, an attempt is made to firm up as much of the estimate as possible by obtaining quotations from vendors and suppliers. Because of the extensive data necessary and the large amounts of engineering... 

Complete successfully the post-construction noise survey. Complete "as-built" drawings and submit them to the Owner. Submit to the Owner copies of all engineering calculations and vendors information. 

Surveys on cardiac troponin use have been conducted but the data in the peer-reviewed literature are negligible. The distribution of cardiac troponin assays used as reported over the past several years by the College of American Pathologists surveys is listed in Table 44-2 cTnl assay usage accounts for 89% (number of vendors) and cTnT (1 vendor) for 11%. POCT assays account for approximately 10% of aU testing. 

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