Recovery Planning and Management Control System in Company Crisis

The main goal of this paper is to analyze situations of financial crisis in Italian companies. The analysis has also been focused on the company＇s attitude to overcome the financial crisis. Secondly, the authors have analyzed if the recovery project has required the introduction of a new management control system or changes to the existing management control system. The methodology is composed of several steps. First of all, the authors have analyzed the existing literature. Secondly, the authors have referred to a sample of 98 Italian recovery projects formalized by Italian private companies. The analysis of the literature and the recovery projects permits to achieve some provisional results, which have been tested through surveys. The methodology approach is inspired by the grounded theory. The findings have been several： （1） The crisis is a usual event in the lifecycle of a firm, due to a deterioration of its strength and a change of the context; （2） The timing factor has played a fundamental role in managing the crisis situation, because a late identification of the symptoms or a minimization of them can generate an irreversible situation; and （3） In addition, a recovery project includes the introduction of a new management control system or changes to the existing management control system. These new or modified management control systems use ＂feed-forward＂ mechanisms, which make early predictions about the changes in the characteristics of the competitive framework.

Community Insights:Citizen Participation in Kamaishi Unosumai Decade-Long Recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake

Numerous scholars and researchers have long advocated for citizen engagement in post-disaster recovery and reconstruction initiatives,although unique opportunities and challenges in effectively implementing citizen engagement still exist.It has been 12 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake,where the government called for a citizen-centered recovery and reconstruction process,and reconstruction in most areas in the Tohoku region has almost been concluded.Using qualitative data acquired through interviews with the residents,field observations during the World Bosai Walk,and questionnaire and archival research,this study aimed to discuss the overall reconstruction of Unosumai in Iwate Prefecture,giving the residents'perspective on the benefits and challenges they faced in participating in recovery planning and reconstruction and how the community has been able to strengthen their participation in disaster reduction initiatives since the earthquake and tsunami.This discussion is crucial as it would effectively offer lessons on engaging residents in post-disaster recovery and reconstruction after mega-disasters.

A Water Line Network Failure Application of Network Design Problems

This study investigated a water supply recovery problem involving municipal water service piping. The problem consisted in recovering full service after network failure, in order to rapidly satisfy all urgent citywide demands. The optimal recovery solution was achieved through the application of so-called network design problems （NDPs）, which are a form of combinatorial optimization problem. However, a conventional NDP is not suitable for addressing urgent situations because （1） it does not utilize the non-failure arcs in the network, and （2） it is solely concerned with stable costs such as flow costs. Therefore, to adapt the technique to such urgent situations, the conventional NDP is here modified to deal with the specified water supply problem. In addition, a numerical illustration using the Sendai water network is presented.

Performance evaluation of waste electrical and electronic equipment disassembly layout configurations using simulation

Recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment （WEEE） is crucially important since it handles hazardous waste according to ever tightening laws and regulations and it adds benefits to economy and sustainable environment. Disassembly is one of the most important processes performed during the recovery of WEEE. The overall goal of disassembly is to maximize the retrieval of various metals and plastics contained in WEEE in order to reduce their negative effects on human health and environmental sustainability and to increase economic gains. This study aims to evaluate alternative layout configurations for WEEE disassembly systems （WDS）. In this context, various configurations were compared in terms of pre-defined performance criteria, such as the total number of disassembled WEEE and the total revenue from sales, using simulation models. The results of this study show that the perfomaance of a WDS was significantly affected by output transfer systems along with the specialization of operators on certain types of WEEE.

A hybrid solar-biogas system for post-COVID-19 rural energy access

Solar home systems for rural electrification are often designed with a limited energy supply,which presents a drawback for the technology.Furthermore,uncontrolled livestock faeces in rural communities constitute environmental sanitation and health risks.Livestock excrement can be used through a biogas digester to supplement solar energy to provide adequate and sustainable elec-tricity access to underserved rural communities while achieving waste management.Therefore,this study presents a hybrid solar-biogas system for a more dynamic energy supply and waste management for post-Covid recovery plans in rural communities.A parametric research approach that involves the use of the Integrated Environment Solution Virtual Environment software application and mathematical models to design the desired household load and the hybrid system sizing is used in the study.The findings show that the daily household energy consumption was 6.6 kWh,equivalent to 206.40 kWh/month.A 1.2-kWp and 1.2-m^(3)hybrid solar-biogas system was found to adequately power the house.Financially,the total initial investment cost of the system was$5777.20 with a net present value of$6566.78,net profit of$4443.6,a payback period of 14 years and 8 months,and a levelized cost of energy of$0.21/kWh;these include a 60%initial investment and maintenance costs subsidy.Energy performance contracting and energy-as-a-service were recommended to effectively run and operate the system.The study successfully revealed the design,specifications and upscaling mechanism of the proposed hybrid solar-biogas system.More research is required to unveil the efficacy of the system,the performance gap and the perception of the technology by the beneficiaries.