The article proposes the development of an application methodology, named MARLIN, for logistics and transportation (L%T) scenarios analysis and comparison within the fresh food supply chain (FFSC). The MARLIN application methodology consists of the development of a dedicated simulation-based...

Lean management has proved to be the preferred way of managers who strive for achieving performances comparable to that of the Toyota Company that firstly applied the “no wastes” philosophy. In healthcare, managers look at reducing the patients' waiting times and management costs, increasing...

In many European countries, since the World War II, there has been a trend towards decentralization of health policy to lower levels of governments, while more recently there have been re-centralization processes. Whether re-centralization will be the new paradigm of European health policy or...

A key problem of a container terminal is the design and integration of the security procedures, such as the containers inspection, in the normal container terminal operations. The main goal of this paper is to advance a research approach for designing effective operational policies and practices...

This paper deals with the empirical research of cost efficiency and technological characteristics of the Health Service in Puglia over the period from 2004 to 2007. A review on the stochastic frontier model and the most recent analyses of the efficiency in the Italian regional health services is...

Italy's health service—the Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (SSN)—has developed Europe's second largest market for healthcare public--private partnerships. This article describes the origins of private finance for SSN infrastructure, examines the programme's scale and key characteristics, and...