Find an article about the use of network analysis
Find an article about the use of network analysis in a business area of your interest. Share the link to the article and provide key points from the article as well as why you chose this article.
Please respond to the discussion question with one original post and at least two substantial replies to other students. A substantial reply is considered a post which moves our discussion forward and deepens our understanding of the material. You may wish to post a probing question (i.e. How would your model apply in ____ context? What would happen if we changed ______?) or by adding new information (i.e. This is similar to _____ because ______). Posts which simply state "Way to go Bob!" or "I thought the same thing." do not deepen our understanding and will not earn full credit.
Journal Entry
Please answer the following questions in your journal:
- What strengths did you demonstrate in your work for this module?
- In what areas do you still need improvement?
- What insight(s) did you gain from your work through this module?
Discussion post by student number 1
There are many uses for networking analysis. One industry that interests me is the sales industry. According to the article, social networking is a key aspect to help increase sales and revenue. There are four stages of the sales process: identifying prospects, gaining buy-in from potential customers, creating solutions, and closing the deal. To complete all aspects of the sales process a salesperson must have a continuous line of communication with customers. There are also four different forms of social networks which include: prospect, customer, marketplace and intra-organizational networks. Sales people and sales managers have to choose which form of social networking that would best suit their needs. Based on the article, the best form of social networking is marketplace networking. A salesperson should create marketplace networks to find new opportunities. This will then lead to a more diverse spread of contacts which will lead to an increase in sales.
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Discussion Post number 2
There was an article cited in the textbook regarding UPS’ optimization of its air network, that I found interesting. The original article discussed how UPS and MIT developed and used something called VOLCANO: volume, location, and aircraft network optimizer – which saved the company an estimated $87 million in operating costs over the course of two years. The network model for air transport included data on carrying packages from ground centers to airports, then to an air hub, package unloading and reloading, then delivery by the aircraft which also included ground transportation to other ground centers and then delivery to their final destination. The optimal routes required lengthy manual planning prior to implementing VOLCANO. VOLCANO was used to “determine the minimum-cost set of routes, fleet assignment, and package flows that satisfy constraints on various operating issues, including limits on the number of aircraft of each fleet type; landing restrictions at airports; aircraft operating characteristics, such as range, speed, and load capacity; continuous aircraft flow requirements…; time windows for pickup and deliver; and sorting capacities and hours of operation for each hub” (Armacost et al p17).
I chose this article because I think the concept of shipping logistics is interesting, and a great example how using network modeling can improve a service that many of use all the time. Effectively using network modeling could also make the changes and on-the-fly decision making that have been required due to the ongoing pandemic – as it relates to shipping and supply issues – a less lengthy process.
Armacost, Andrew P., et al. “UPS Optimizes Its Air Network.” Interfaces, vol. 34, no. 1, INFORMS, 2004, pp. 15–25, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25062865.
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