Abstract: Waste reduction is a fundamental problem for sustainability. Methods for waste reduction with point-of-sales (POS) data are proposed, utilizing the knowledge of a recent econophysics study on a statistical property of POS data. Concretely, the non-stationary time series analysis method based on the Particle Filter is developed, which considers abnormal fluctuation scaling known as Taylor's law. This method is extended for handling incomplete sales data because of stock-outs by introducing maximum likelihood estimation for censored data. The way for optimal stock determination with pricing the cost of waste reduction is also proposed. This study focuses on the examination of the methods for large sales numbers where Taylor's law is obvious. Numerical analysis using aggregated POS data shows the effectiveness of the methods to reduce food waste maintaining a high profit for large sales numbers. Moreover, the way of pricing the cost of waste reduction reveals that a small profit loss realizes substantial waste reduction, especially in the case that the proportionality constant of Taylor’s law is small. Specifically, around 1% profit loss realizes half disposal at =0.12, which is the actual value of processed food items used in this research. The methods provide practical and effective solutions for waste reduction keeping a high profit, especially with large sales numbers.
Abstract: The private theme parks are gradually surpassing
public-owned scenic areas after many years of development and have
become a mainstream choice for domestic tourists. Previous studies
show that visitors from different backgrounds differ in consumer
behavior and satisfaction factors. An understanding of visitor
satisfaction is therefore of extreme importance to operators of
privately-owned theme parks. Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA)
is used to measure consumer's potential satisfaction with services and
has become a widely used management tool for strength and weakness
analysis for brands, products, services and point of sales. As IPA has
so far not been used to evaluate the visitor satisfaction with
privately-owned theme parks, in this study the IPA method is used to
analyze visitor satisfaction with Janfusun Fancyworld (one of the most
popular private theme parks in Taiwan) and to rank visitor focus and
satisfaction on/in theme park facilities and services. Results of the
analysis provide private theme park operators with an understanding
of user or consumer demands as well as an assessment of the quality of
services currently offered.