Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Mining supply chain'

This thesis discusses supply chain optimization and analytics trends in the mining industry. A case study is presented from one of the world’s biggest companies, explaining how an integrated system could dramatically increase communication, support decision-making process and eventually improve the overall profitability of the firm.

The aim of this thesis is to contribute to knowledge in the form of a new theory for supply chain strategy formulation. The objective is to design evaluation criteria, specific to the context of greenfield project architecture and integration design. This study addressed the aim and objective by synthesising existing methods and techniques which are outlined into a research framework of supply chain strategy problems. The study applied the case study and action research methods to pursue conceptual validity from the process of investigating the supply chain strategy formulation in a specific situation and presented the data collection and analysis process. The thesis derived a conceptual framework for investigating and identifying the relationship between multiple elements, dimensions, forces and factors that influence and affect supply chain strategy formulation in a greenfield project context, specific to the mining industry. The contribution to knowledge emerged from building upon the architecture of the conceptual framework, through synthesising existing techniques and adapting these techniques, to extend and redefine the existing knowledge on the practice of supply chain strategy formulation. Through critical analysis, a number of critical problems emerged and the process of addressing these problems, resulted with a new framework for evaluating the relationship between business and supply chain strategy, specific to greenfield project and integration context. The contribution to knowledge also derived from addressing the emerging obstacles in the process of identifying, defining and formulating, the visions and goals of individual supply chain participants from implicit into an explicit form. The process synthesised the knowledge for conceptualising the idea, through developing and evaluating information and issues, to derive insights into the complex and abstract concept, of greenfield project business and supply chain strategy formulation. The conceptual framework and evaluation framework advanced into designing greenfield project supply chain integration strategy. The process involved categorising individual supply chain strategic interests, decisions and problems into formulation areas, and was aimed at defining the process of greenfield project integration strategy as a system of concepts containing formulation areas, formulation principles, segregated into subcategories of formulation imperatives and formulation concepts. The thesis contributed to knowledge with advancement of the design engineering method, which enables visualisation of the supply chain strategy evaluation process. The design is not personalised for individual company business strategy or supply chain strategy formulation. The method was personalised to evaluate the integration of individual goals, and concepts in a supply chain strategy formulation. The novelty that emerged from the thesis was a conceptual framework for greenfield project architecture and integration design. The greenfield project architecture and design derived in the thesis a proposed conceptual system for applying the conceptual framework and the evaluation criteria.

Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) has become an integral part of the software supply chain in the past decade. Various entities (automated tools and humans) are involved at different stages of the software supply chain. Some actions that occur in the chain may result in vulnerabilities or malicious code injected in a published artifact distributed in a package repository. At the end of the software supply chain, developers or end-users may consume the resulting artifacts altered in transit, including benign and malicious injection. This dissertation starts from the first link in the software supply chain, ‘developers’. Since many developers do not update their vulnerable software libraries, thus exposing the user of their code to security risks. To understand how they choose, manage and update the libraries, packages, and other Open-Source Software (OSS) that become the building blocks of companies’ completed products consumed by end-users, twenty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted with developers of both large and small-medium enterprises in nine countries. All interviews were transcribed, coded, and analyzed according to applied thematic analysis. Although there are many observations about developers’ attitudes on selecting dependencies for their projects, additional quantitative work is needed to validate whether behavior matches or whether there is a gap. Therefore, we provide an extensive empirical analysis of twelve quality and popularity factors that should explain the corresponding popularity (adoption) of PyPI packages was conducted using our tool called py2src. At the end of the software supply chain, software libraries (or packages) are usually downloaded directly from the package registries via package dependency management systems under the comfortable assumption that no discrepancies are introduced in the last mile between the source code and their respective packages. However, such discrepancies might be introduced by manual or automated build tools (e.g., metadata, Python bytecode files) or for evil purposes (malicious code injects). To identify differences between the published Python packages in PyPI and the source code stored on Github, we developed a new approach called LastPyMile . Our approach has been shown to be promising to integrate within the current package dependency management systems or company workflow for vetting packages at a minimal cost. With the ever-increasing numbers of software bugs and security vulnerabilities, the burden of secure software supply chain management on developers and project owners increases. Although automated program repair approaches promise to reduce the burden of bug-fixing tasks by suggesting likely correct patches for software bugs, little is known about the practical aspects of using APR tools, such as how long one should wait for a tool to generate a bug fix. To provide a realistic evaluation of five state-of-the-art APR tools, 221 bugs from 44 open-source Java projects were run within a reasonable developers’ time and effort.

As Supply Chain Management has continuously evolved, it has during recent times been exposed to the opportunities and threats that follow globalization. Firms have the possibility of getting their products/services to customers worldwide by outsourcing processes. This possibility has even turned mandatory for numerous firms in order to be competitive. However, such decisions can expose the Supply Chain to various risks. Because of lack of data and Supply Chain Structures, decision-makers need to distinguish advantages vs. disadvantages between centralized, decentralized or even outsourced structures. The purpose of this study has been, based on gathered data from a case company, to determine what Supply Chain structure to opt for when it comes to purchasing. This master thesis has performed a literature review on the science of Data Mining to enrich the quality of a quantitative part based on databases of the case company. The study also reviews Supply Chain Management strategies and how to select an appropriate distribution channel design - allowing for a framework about selecting an appropriate network design and another framework summarizing current literature’s contribution on the question of centralization versus decentralization based on Finance, Performance or Information. These three pillars are the aspects used as reference of analysis in various literature and could therefore be compared with empirics. The selection framework was filled in by key individuals at the case company and was associated with qualitative contributions from interviews about strengths and weaknesses of three scenarios involving centralization, decentralization or outsourcing. With obtained data, it was possible to identify all strengths and weaknesses of each scenario and discuss differences to select the best possible option. The findings were summarized into a framework where one can clearly see pros and cons of each scenario, thus providing a concise summary of implications following centralization, decentralization and outsourcing respectively. The results of the distribution network pointed towards a decentralization of the purchasing function as a more cost-efficient strategy, but these results must be questioned because of the current setting-bias with the spreading of the COVID-19 virus and its economic consequences. However, when all arguments were grouped into the final summarizing figure, it was concluded that the outsourcing strategy is the most advantageous. This thesis has thus permitted the extension of a framework that identifies the best distribution network design and summarized the implications of centralizing, decentralizing or outsourcing purchasing.
Supply Chain Management har kontinuerligt utvecklats med bl.a. namnbyten eller nya populära strategier. Den har under modern tid varit utsatt för både möjligheter såsom hot vilka har varit följder av globalisering. Företag har erhållit möjligheterna att leverera sina produkter till kunder över hela världen men även att outsourca processer för att förenkla denna leverans. Oursourcingmöjligheten har även översatts till obligatoriska beslut för flera företag för att ens kunna erbjuda produkter till konkurrenskraftiga priser. Dessa beslut kan dock exponera en Supply Chain till olika risker, en brytning i logistikkedjan till exempel. På grund av dessa konsekvenser måste företag värdera vilken strategi som måste tillämpas för varje process i kedjan. Ska de centraliseras, decentraliseras eller outsourcas? Ändamålet med denna studie är att, baserat på insamlad data från ett case företag, kunna bestämma vilken strategi ska tillämpas när det kommer till inköp från externa leverantörer. Detta examensarbete har utfört en litteraturgenomgång på bl.a. studier om Data Mining för att berika kvalitén på den kvantitativa delen baserad på databaser från caseföretaget. Utvald litteratur förklarar olika aspekter från Supply Chain Management med involverade strategier och hur en lämplig nätverksdesign väljs ut. Målet är att utveckla ett ramverk för urval av lämplig nätverksdesign för caseföretaget samt ett ramverk för att summera litteraturens budskap till implikationer av centralisering eller decentralisering med fokus på Finans, Prestanda och Information. Urvalsramverket har därefter fyllts i av nyckelpersoner från caseföretaget för att jämföras med kvalitativa bidrag från intervjuer om styrkor och svagheter på tre utvecklade scenarios om centralisering, decentralisering eller outsourcing. Med erhållen data möjliggjordes en diskussion för att tydliggöra styrkor och svagheter för varje scenario för att kunna noggrant jämföras och skapa argument för vilket skulle väljas. Resultat och argument har generaliserats och sammanfattats i en figur där en kan tydligt se för- och nackdelar med varje scenario. På så sätt disponeras en koncis slutsats av implikationer med att centralisera, decentralisera eller att outsourca. Resultaten från urvalsramverket pekar på att decentraliseringsstrategin är den optimala för caseföretaget, detta måste dock ifrågasättas på grund av kontexten med den nuvarande spridningen av COVID-19 viruset och dess inverkan på ekonomin. Med detta i åtanke och ihopsamlade argument, drogs slutsatsen att outsourcingstrategin är den mest lämpliga för caseföretaget. Detta masterexamensarbete har således lett till förlängningen av ett urvalsramverk av distributionsnätverksdesign samt diskuterat fram och sammanfattat implikationerna av centralisering, decentralisering och outsourcing.

The focus of this study is to explore the sustainability practices of SME suppliers as influenced by the stakeholders in the mining SC in Zambia. The study aims to provide the policymakers and senior managers of focal firms by developing a detailed framework that helps in examining the SME environment with regard to sustainability practices and formulate measures to increase their sustainability performance to decision making. This qualitative research used 50 semi-structured interviews in addressing the research objective. Interviews undertaking with cross section of stakeholders and using content analysis, the findings revealed that SMEs engage in sustainable practices when working with mining firms but disengage when working with non-mining firms. The findings further revealed the mechanisms employed by SC members in extending sustainability practices to direct and indirect suppliers (mainly informal SMEs) from focal firms. In so doing, the findings highlighted the role of first-tier suppliers as a bridge between the focal firms and sub-suppliers in disseminating sustainability practices. Besides revealing the drivers and barriers to sustainability, the research revealed the mechanisms for mitigating the barriers in order to increase the volume of SME suppliers adopting sustainable practices. This research has several contributions to both academia and practice. The main contribution to academia is a stakeholder framework, which provides a systematic mechanism of examining the sustainability phenomenon. Thus, presenting a theoretical approach for analysing and understanding sustainability practices of SMEs in a developing country context. The main contribution to practice is the production of tools that support practitioners to analyse and better comprehend the relationships in the SMEs sector and by identifying the key stakeholders that support the SMEs.
Copperbelt University

Each year, organizations in Australian mining industry (asset intensive industry) spend substantial amount of capital (A$86 billion in 2009-10) (Statistics, 2011) in acquiring engineering assets. Engineering assets are put to use in operations to generate value. Different functions (departments) of an organization have different expectations and requirements from each of the engineering asset e.g. return on investment, reliability, efficiency, maintainability, low cost of running the asset, low or nil environmental impact and easy of disposal, potential salvage value etc. Assets are acquired from suppliers or built by service providers and or internally. The process of acquiring assets is supported by procurement function. One of the most costly mistakes that organizations can make is acquiring the inappropriate or non-conforming assets that do not fit the purpose. The root cause of acquiring non confirming assets belongs to incorrect acquisition decision and the process of making decisions. It is very important that an asset acquisition decision is based on inputs and multi-criteria of each function within the organization which has direct or indirect impact on the acquisition, utilization, maintenance and disposal of the asset. Literature review shows that currently there is no comprehensive process framework and tool available to evaluate the inclusiveness and breadth of asset acquisition decisions that are taken in the Mining Organizations. This thesis discusses various such criteria and inputs that need to be considered and evaluated from various functions within the organization while making the asset acquisition decision. Criteria from functions such as finance, production, maintenance, logistics, procurement, asset management, environment health and safety, material management, training and development etc. need to be considered to make an effective and coherent asset acquisition decision. The thesis also discusses a tool that is developed to be used in the multi-criteria and cross functional acquisition decision making. The development of multi-criteria and cross functional inputs based decision framework and tool which utilizes that framework to formulate cross functional and integrated asset acquisition decisions are the contribution of this research.

Os processos extrativos tradicionais apresentam estágios que precisam de modernização e melhorias para permitir que as empresas mineradoras provisionem de maneira eficaz a qualidade e a quantidade de seus produtos. Tal garantia de provisão, tão difícil de sustentar devido à natureza intrínseca da incerteza geológica, pode somente ser conseguida com um aumento de eficiência nas cadeias logísticas minerais. Este trabalho demonstra os benefícios de se criar modelos de cadeias logísticas minerais existentes para identificar e compreender os pontos de criação de valor para possíveis intervenções visando melhorias. O trabalho também fornece um guia de modelagem, através de uma planilha eletrônica, permitindo aos usuários modelar quaisquer tipos de cadeias logísticas. O conhecimento do trajeto dos processos desde a extração ao consumidor final fornece uma oportunidade única para que os gerentes melhorem suas cadeias logísticas. Depois que o modelo foi criado, ele pode e deve ser melhorado. Um número técnicas e boas práticas já em uso por outros setores, mas ainda não aplicado setor mineiro são identificadas e estruturadas. Uma metodologia para a aplicação estratégica destas técnicas é então fornecida. O setor mineiro em todo mundo está sob pressão para procurar métodos para melhorar sua eficiência. Este trabalho introduz, de uma maneira inovadora, uma estratégia administrativa na mineração que se provou extremamente competitiva em outras indústrias. A questão básica abordada neste trabalho é como desenvolver uma metodologia robusta e controlada para que o setor mineiro tire proveito da filosofia enxuta, introduzindo o conceito de Lean Mining.
Traditional extractive processes present stages that need modernization and optimization for enabling mining companies to warrant the effective achievement of both product quality and quantity. Such warranty, which is difficult to sustain due to the intrinsic nature of geological uncertainty, can only be achieved through an increased efficiency in the mineral supply chain. This work demonstrates the benefits of creating models of existing mineral supply chains to identify and understand the points of value creation and places for possible improvement interventions. It also gives a modeling guide, through an electronic chart, enabling users to model any kind of supply chain. The knowledge of the process path from extraction to final consumer provides a unique opportunity for managers to improve the mineral supply chain. After the model has been created, it should and must be improved. A number of techniques and good practices already in use by other sectors but not yet applied to the mining industry are identified and structured. A methodology to strategical application of these techniques in provided. The mining industry all over the world is under pressure to look for methods to improve its efficiency. This work leads the way to an innovative managerial strategy in mining that has proved itself extremely competitive in other industries. The key issue addressed in this work is how to identify a robust and risk-controlled path for the mining industry to benefit from the lean thinking approach, introducing the concept of Lean Mining.

This paper presents an expert system to monitor social sustainability compliance in supply chains. The system allows to continuously rank suppliers based on their risk of breaching sustainability standards on child labor. It uses a Bayesian network to determine the breach likelihood for each supplier location based on the integration of statistical data, audit results and public reports of child labor incidents. Publicly available statistics on the frequency of child labor in different regions and industries are used as contextual prior. The impact of audit results on the breach likelihood is calibrated based on expert input. Child labor incident observations are included automatically from publicly available news sources using text mining algorithms. The impact of an observation on the breach likelihood is determined by its relevance, credibility and frequency. Extensive tests reveal that the expert system correctly replicates the decisions of domain experts in the fields supply chain management, sustainability management, and risk management.

La expansión de la minería de carbón en la región Caribe de Colombia no sólo crea problemas ambientales y de salud a nivel local, sino que también es una cuestión de preocupación global. Colombia, con casi 85 millones de toneladas exportadas, contribuye considerablemente a las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero cuando se quema el carbón exportado en las centrales eléctricas de carbón (CEC) en los países importadores, como los Países Bajos y Turquía. Esto es cada vez más relevante ya que los compromisos de la COP21en París implican que cuatro-quintas partes de los recursos de carbono (provenientes del carbón, petróleo y gas) deben permanecer en el suelo. Esta tesis utiliza los enfoques de economía ecológica y ecología política para analizar la cadena de suministro de carbón desde su extracción en las minas de carbón a cielo abierto en Cesar y La Guajira hasta el consumo final en CEC en Holanda y Turquía. También emplea el enfoque de pasivos socio-ambientales como una mejora con respecto al marco conceptual estándar de externalidades, ya que permite una incorporación explícita de responsabilidades por daños no compensados a lo largo de la cadena del carbón. La cadena de carbón se analiza en profundidad a través de diferentes capas (mercado, proceso físico, pasivos socio-ambientales, actores sociales y su pluralidad de lenguajes de valoración) y diferentes escalas (local, nacional y global). Con el fin de identificar los pasivos socio-ambientales de la cadena del carbón y los conflictos ecológicos distributivos, se realizaron 84 entrevistas en Colombia, Holanda y Turquía. Se utilizaron diferentes métodos de valoración económica para estimar el valor de los pasivos socio-ambientales y se utilizaron metodologías de análisis de discurso para analizar la pluralidad de los lenguajes de valoración empleados a lo largo de la cadena de carbón. Los resultados muestran que los pasivos socio-ambientales de extracción de carbón y su transporte a los puertos para su exportación superan el precio de mercado del carbón. El análisis de los conflictos ecológicos distributivos revela que las geografías del carbón están ancladas en injusticias ambientales y déficits democráticos asociados tanto a la minería del carbón como a las CEC, y tensiones irreconciliables entre la salud pública, las ganancias económicas y el poder político en estos tres países. El análisis de los lenguajes de valoración muestra que en los Países Bajos hay dos puntos de vista principales sobre las importaciones de carbón de Colombia, las posiciones de "Carbón ensangrentado" y "El mejor Carbón". El primero está preocupado por las violaciones de los derechos humanos y el segundo enmarca la cuestión en el contexto de la modernización ecológica. En Turquía, el principal debate es entre el uso de lignito doméstico altamente contaminante o la importación de carbón de mejor calidad (antracita de Colombia). Tanto en los Países Bajos como en Turquía hay diferentes grados de preocupación por el cambio climático y los "combustibles no quemables" que parecen estar ausentes en Colombia, donde el debate se centra en los pasivos socio-ambientales locales y nacionales. Esta tesis concluye que el éxito de las acciones de justicia ambiental a lo largo de la cadena del carbón depende del poder político de los actores sociales y de su disposición a renunciar, negociar o imponer sus propios lenguajes de valoración.
The expansion of coal mining in the Caribbean region of Colombia not only creates environmental and health problems locally but is also a matter of global concern. Colombia, with almost 85 million tons exported, makes a large contribution to greenhouse gas emissions when the exported coal is burnt in coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) in importing countries, such as The Netherlands and Turkey. This is ever more relevant as the commitments from COP21 in Paris imply that four-fifths of carbon resources (from coal, oil, and gas) must remain under the ground. This thesis uses ecological economics and political ecology approaches to analyze the coal supply chain from its extraction in the open-pit coal mines in Cesar and La Guajira (Colombia) to the final consumption in CFPPs in The Netherlands and Turkey. It also employs the socio-environmental liability approach as an improvement over the standard externalities framework, since it allows for an explicit incorporation of responsibilities for uncompensated damages along the coal chain. The coal chain is analyzed in depth through different layers (market, physical, socio-environmental liabilities, social actors and the plurality of valuation languages) and different scales (local, national and global). In order to identify the coal chain socio-environmental liabilities and ecological distribution conflicts, 84 interviews were conducted in Colombia, The Netherlands and Turkey. Different economic valuation methods were used to estimate the value of the socio-environmental liabilities, and discourse analysis methodologies were used to analyze the plurality of valuation languages deployed along the coal chain. Results show that the socio-environmental liabilities of the coal extraction and its transport to export ports exceeds the market price of coal. The analysis of the ecological distribution conflicts reveals that the geographies of coal are anchored in environmental injustices and democratic deficits associated with both coal mining and CFPPs, and irreconcilable tensions between public health, economic gain and the political power in these three countries. The analysis of the valuation languages shows that in The Netherlands there are two main views regarding coal imports from Colombia, respectively the “Blood coal” and “Better coal” positions. The first one is concerned about human rights violations and the second one frames the question in the context of ecological modernization. In Turkey, the main debate is between the use of highly polluting domestic lignite or the import of better quality coal (anthracite from Colombia). Both in The Netherlands and in Turkey there are different degrees of concern about climate change and “unburnable fuels” which appear still to be absent in Colombia where the debate is focused on the local and national socio-environmental liabilities. This thesis concludes that the success of environmental justice actions taken along the coal chain depends on the political power of social actors and their willingness to give up, negotiate or impose their own valuation languages.

Purpose: This thesis explores the bi-directional flows of material perceived by manufacturing firms in the supply chain and accordingly derive suggestions to properly manage these flows to increase customer satisfaction and reduce cost. Methods: A literature review was summarized in a conceptual framework. This framework was then illustrated in a case. In this case, 11 semi-structured interviews, 3 participant observations and 3 types of archival records were collected. Analysis and discussion of the preliminary conceptual framework compared to the case was the basis for the modified conceptual framework that was designed. Main findings: In general material flows downstream the supply chain, but because of quality issues, recycling or returns material need to flow upstream the supply chain. This thesis provides a holistic view of how to manage these flows with a modified conceptual framework. Academic contributions: Previously, almost no academic research has been conducted on decision variables when it comes to managing material flows upstream the supply chain. This thesis contributes to closing this gap by suggesting different actions to properly manage the bi-directional flow of material. Furthermore, previous research addressing how to manage material flows has been re-accessed and expanded. Managerial implications: By using the framework, practitioners can determine helpful activities to increase customer satisfaction and reduce cost. This means management gets directions of where to allocate their resources. Limitations: The perspective and evidence in this research are only collected from the manufacturer’s point of view, valuable insight from suppliers and customers may have been overlooked. The suggestions of how to manage the bi-directional flow of materials have not been tested and the outcome of these recommendations has not been compared to KPIs or other measurements.

In today's global market environment, enterprises are increasingly turning towards collaboration in projects to leverage their resources, skills and expertise, and simultaneously address the challenges posed in diverse and competitive markets. Moderators, which are knowledge based systems have successfully been used to support collaborative teams by raising awareness of problems or conflicts. However, the functioning of a moderator is limited to the knowledge it has about the team members. Knowledge acquisition, learning and updating of knowledge are the major challenges for a Moderator's implementation. To address these challenges a Knowledge discOvery And daTa minINg inteGrated (KOATING) framework is presented for Moderators to enable them to continuously learn from the operational databases of the company and semi-automatically update the corresponding expert module. The architecture for the Universal Knowledge Moderator (UKM) shows how the existing moderators can be extended to support global manufacturing. A method for designing and developing the knowledge acquisition module of the Moderator for manual and semi-automatic update of knowledge is documented using the Unified Modelling Language (UML). UML has been used to explore the static structure and dynamic behaviour, and describe the system analysis, system design and system development aspects of the proposed KOATING framework. The proof of design has been presented using a case study for a collaborative project in the form of construction project supply chain. It has been shown that Moderators can "learn" by extracting various kinds of knowledge from Post Project Reports (PPRs) using different types of text mining techniques. Furthermore, it also proposed that the knowledge discovery integrated moderators can be used to support and enhance collaboration by identifying appropriate business opportunities and identifying corresponding partners for creation of a virtual organization. A case study is presented in the context of a UK based SME. Finally, this thesis concludes by summarizing the thesis, outlining its novelties and contributions, and recommending future research.

Le secteur minier occupe une place centrale dans les économies de nombreux pays riches en ressources minérales, d’autant plus dans une période d’explosion démographique. Les conséquences économiques, sociétales et environnementales des activités extractives posent plusieurs problèmes majeurs, liés à l’incertitude géologique, la volatilité des prix, les déchets polluants, l’épuisement futur des gisements, la situation socioéconomique et la santé des populations locales. Ainsi, l’exploitation du phosphate, élément vital dans la croissance des plantes, fait face à d’importants défis incitant les entreprises minières à mieux maîtriser leur processus industriel sur l’ensemble de leur chaîne logistique. Les travaux de recherche présentés dans cette thèse entrent dans le cadre d’une recherche intervention conduite au sein d’une chaîne de valeur du Groupe OCP, leader mondial des phosphates. L’objectif est double : 1) proposer des outils et méthodes innovants pour l’amélioration du processus décisionnel opérationnel et tactique ; 2) accompagner l’entreprise dans l’adoption des approches proposées. La chaîne logistique étudiée, l’Axe Nord, se compose de plusieurs sites miniers, d’unités de traitement, d’usines chimiques et de ports pour l’expédition des produits. Un premier travail d’état des lieux au sein de cette chaîne a conduit à mieux comprendre son organisation et à identifier les principales causes impactant la qualité des produits : le pilotage par un seul composant et l’alimentation continue en produit interne. Pour étudier la problématique de blending identifiée, l’intervention proposée consiste en une approche développée en deux temps. Tout d’abord, la formulation classique du problème de blending été fortement adaptée dans un modèle tenant compte de l’aspect continu des flux transportés par pipeline, de gammes alternatives, de l’organisation des usines de traitement, mais aussi de temps de traitement. Ce modèle, dit de « blending dynamique », se base dans un premier temps, sur un ordonnancement déjà établi de l’expédition des produits par pipeline (donnée exogène) pour trouver un plan de production des usines de traitement. Dans un second temps, un modèle d’ordonnancement de ces expéditions est couplé au précédent modèle dans une vision d’aide à la décision. Les premiers tests avec des instances réelles ont fourni des résultats prometteurs, l’approche du blending dynamique étant actuellement opérationnelle sur d’autres sites miniers de l’industriel
The mining sector occupies a central place in the economies of many mineral resource-rich countries, even more so in a period of demographic explosion. The economic, societal and environmental consequences of extractive activities raise several major problems, related to geological uncertainty, price volatility, polluting waste, future depletion of deposits, the socioeconomic situation and the health of local populations. Thus, the exploitation of phosphate, a vital element in plant growth, is facing important challenges that encourage mining companies to better control their industrial process throughout their supply chain. The research work presented in this thesis is part of an intervention-research conducted within a value chain of the OCP Group, world leader in phosphates. The objective is twofold: 1) to propose innovative tools and methods for the improvement of the operational and tactical decision-making process; 2) to accompany the company in the adoption of the proposed approaches. The logistic chain studied, the Northern Axis, is composed of several mining sites, processing units, chemical plants and ports for product shipment. An initial inventory of this chain led to a better understanding of its organization and to identify the main causes impacting the quality of the products: the steering by a single component and the continuous supply of internal product. To study the blending problem identified, the proposed intervention consists of an approach developed in two stages. First, the classical formulation of the blending problem was strongly adapted in a model taking into account the continuous aspect of the flows transported by pipeline, alternative ranges, the organization of the processing plants, but also the processing time. This model, called "dynamic blending", is based in a first step, on an already established scheduling of the shipment of products by pipeline (exogenous data) to find a production plan of the processing plants. In a second step, a scheduling model of these shipments is coupled to the previous model in a decision support vision. The first tests with real instances provided promising results, the dynamic blending approach being currently operational on other mining sites of the industrialist

Le but de cette thèse est de proposer des méthodes de gestion des approvisionnements adaptées à des contextes particuliers afin de minimiser les coûts logistiques engendrés dans un réseau logistique multi produits, multi niveaux confronté à une demande probabiliste. Au cours de cette thèse, nous nous sommes attachés à : - Proposer des méthodes de gestion des stocks et du transport pour des familles de produits dans différents contextes : o Une première politique de réapprovisionnement est proposée pour une famille de produits caractérisée par une demande aléatoire et répétitive. Cette politique est définie par un niveau de commande et par un niveau de ré-complètement de stock pour chaque produit et une période de réapprovisionnement. Dès qu'un produit atteint le niveau de commande, un réapprovisionnement de tous les produits de la famille est déclenché. o Une deuxième politique de réapprovisionnement est proposée pour une famille de produits caractérisée par une demande très aléatoire et ponctuelle. Cette politique est basée sur les ruptures de stock. A chaque rupture d'un produit présent dans le stock il y a déclenchement d'un réapprovisionnement de tous les produits de la famille. - Proposer une méthode de classification multicritères afin de constituer des groupes de produits relevant d'une politique donnée, chaque classe ou famille regroupant des produits réagissant identiquement. Cette classification des produits en familles homogènes permet d'identifier les caractéristiques déterminantes dans le choix des méthodes de gestion de stock et de transport. - Analyser et comparer les performances de ces deux politiques d'approvisionnement par rapport à des politiques de référence, ainsi que leur sensibilité au regard de quelques paramètres discriminants : variabilité de la demande ; coût des produits ; coût des commandes urgentes...

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A mineração de metais é uma atividade com elevado potencial de impacto socioambiental. Com a ocorrência de incidentes com grandes repercussões, como o que aconteceu em Mariana (MG), em novembro de 2015, com o rompimento da barragem de rejeitos de Fundão, as notícias sobre as mineradoras e seus impactos passaram a ser ainda mais visíveis ao público em geral, pela ampla cobertura dos meios de comunicação e pelas sérias repercussões em um grande número de comunidades, em pelo menos dois estados da federação. Dentro desse cenário, este estudo busca analisar a cadeia de suprimentos da mineração sob a perspectiva de uma empresa fornecedora de insumos químicos, buscando identificar como as inovações socioambientais são incorporadas por esta cadeia, fazendo-se uso da metodologia de pesquisa-ação, que possibilita ao pesquisador trabalhar como agente e observador, já que é funcionário de empresa fornecedora de insumos químicos para esse mercado, e realizar intervenção em caso específico. O ambiente de diálogo da intervenção permitiu a criação conjunta de conhecimento, aprofundou o entendimento sobre a cadeia de suprimentos de mineração e sobre as potencialidades do método de pesquisa-ação. Ao longo deste trabalho de pesquisa foi possível fazer observações sobre os mecanismos de incorporação de inovações socioambientais ao mesmo tempo em que foram buscadas formas de aprimoramento da competitividade da empresa fornecedora com produtos e um racional comerciais aprimorados conforme os achados do estudo. A pesquisa mostrou que o mercado de mineração industrial de metais mostra receptividade às inovações socioambientais, tenham sido elas demandadas pelas indústrias mineradoras, propostas pelos fornecedores ou ainda desenvolvidas de forma colaborativa entre elas. A intervenção na empresa (ação) proporcionou à fornecedora ferramentas corporativas para melhora do repertório de atributos socioambientais, utilizado pelas equipes comerciais, e suas formas de utilização quando das negociações com clientes. Um exemplo de aplicação da intervenção serviu para demonstrar que a valoração econômico-financeira dos atributos socioambientais é fator importante de sucesso na melhoria de competitividade da fornecedora.
The mining of metals is an activity with high potential of social and environmental impact. Mining of metals sector suffered from the occurrence of incidents with major repercussions, such as what happened in Mariana (MG) in November 2015, with the rupture of the Fundão tailings dam. The news about the mining companies and their impacts became even more visible to the public in general, by the wide coverage of the media and the serious repercussions in a large number of communities in at least two states of the federation. Within this scenario, this study seeks to analyze the mining supply chain from the perspective of a supplier of chemical inputs, seeking to identify how this chain incorporates social-environmental innovations. The present study makes use of the methodology of action research, which enables to the researcher to work as an agent and observer, since he is an employee of a company that supplies chemical inputs for this market, and to intervene in a specific case. The atmosphere of dialogue of the intervention allowed the joint creation of knowledge deepening the understanding about the supply chain of mining and about the potentialities of the method of action research. Throughout this research work, it was possible to make observations on the mechanisms of incorporation of socio-environmental innovations while seeking ways to improve the competitiveness of the supplier company with improved products and rationales as the study finds. The research showed that the market of industrial metal mining shows receptivity to socio-environmental innovations, whether they were demanded by the mining industries, proposed by suppliers or even developed in a collaborative way among them. The intervention in the company (action) provided the supplier with corporate tools to improve the repertoire of socio-environmental attributes used by commercial teams and their use when negotiating with customers. An example of application of the intervention served to demonstrate that the economic-financial valuation of socio-environmental attributes is an important factor of success in improving the supplier's competitiveness.

碩士
國立中正大學
資訊管理學系
92
As the evolution of industry competition, Supply Chain Management (SCM) has become a popular issue for the current business environment, which emphasizes cooperation among all involved partners for achieving competitive advantage and customer satisfaction. With such condition, partners in the supply chain will require to deploy some decision support tools, such as data warehouse and data mining tools, to provide information for the business decision among the partners. However, the information in the supply chain environment is dispersive; those tools are unable to maximize effectiveness. In this study, a distributed data mining mechanism is proposed using a relationship metadata to integrate data sources derived from partners of the supply chain, thus solving the problem of excessive and various data volume in the current supply chain. Since data provided by partners is not extremely complete for traditional data mining, we can utilize peculiarity oriented data mining process to generate rules across the organizations in order for decision support and competitive advantage. Using prior relevance detection function, our mining mechanism will can discover useful rules which do not find in another mining mechanism for distributed databases. To evaluate the mechanism, a prototype system is developed to show the correctness of the mechanism. A case study with real database is applied to evaluate the performance of the study. The result has shown the usefulness of our discovered rules and difference between our mining mechanism and others.

Thesis. (D. Tech. - Business, Faculty of Management Sciences)--Vaal University of Technology, 2010.
The study explored the South African coal mining industry and it’s role players to establish the causes of the bottlenecks/constraints experienced in the coal mining industry supply chain. A qualitative research paradigm methodology was used. Both theoretical and philosophical assumptions were utilised with inferences from and references to works by other researchers to broaden the knowledge horizons for the study. Thirteen supply chain executives and professionals from the key role players in the coal mining industry were interviewed and provided invaluable input for the study. The study determined the presence of communication barriers between the industry role players in the public and private institutions that culminated in main themes and sub-themes being established from which the industry constraints were uncovered. The study identified six main constraints affecting the various role players within the coal mining supply chain and it culminated in the model that would enable the industry to minimise such constraints. To this end, the study proposes the development of an Integrated Strategy for the Development of Coal Mining (ISDCM).The model is based on the public and private partnership arrangement that would alleviate most of the prevailing constraints when implemented. The model would furthermore have the capacity to rectify most of the existing constraints. It would be funded from the commercial sector and would operate on triple bottom lines of economic, social and environmental factors, with equal weight. This is a desirable direction for the future in order to maintain sustainable development. Emanating from the study are policy and research recommendations for the South African coal mining industry, covering the coordination of the critical areas of the proposed integrated strategy for the development of the coal mining industry. Such recommendations include further research into new coal mines and power stations as well as perceptions and expectations of potential investors in the industry, among others.

In current research literature, supply chain management (SCM) is a hot topic breaching the boundaries of many academic disciplines. SCM-related work can be found in the relevant literature for many disciplines. Supply chain management can be defined as effectively and efficiently managing the flows (information, financial and physical) in all stages of the supply chain to add value to end customers and gain profit for all firms in the chain. Supply chains involve multiple partners with the common goal to satisfy customer demand at a profit. While supply chains are not new, the way academics and practitioners view the need for and the means to manage these chains is relatively new. Very little literature can be found on designing supply chains from the ground up or what dimensions of supply chain management should be considered when designing a supply chain. Additionally, we have found that very few tools exist to help during the design phase of a supply chain. Moreover, very few tools exist that allow for comparing supply chain designs. We contribute to the current literature by determining which supply chain management dimensions should be considered during the design process. We employ text mining to create a supply chain design conceptual model and compare this model to existing supply chain models and reference frameworks. We continue to contribute to the current SCM literature by applying a creative application of concepts and results in the field of Stochastic Processes to build a custom simulator capable of comparing different supply chain designs and providing insights into how the different designs affect the supply chain’s total inventory cost. The simulator provides a mechanism for testing when real-time demand information is more beneficial than using first-come, first-serve (FCFS) order processing when the distributional form of lead-time demand is derived from the supply chain operating characteristics instead of using the assumption that lead-time demand distributions are known. We find that in many instances FCFS out-performs the use of real-time information in providing the lowest total inventory cost.

abstract: Supply chains are increasingly complex as companies branch out into newer products and markets. In many cases, multiple products with moderate differences in performance and price compete for the same unit of demand. Simultaneous occurrences of multiple scenarios (competitive, disruptive, regulatory, economic, etc.), coupled with business decisions (pricing, product introduction, etc.) can drastically change demand structures within a short period of time. Furthermore, product obsolescence and cannibalization are real concerns due to short product life cycles. Analytical tools that can handle this complexity are important to quantify the impact of business scenarios/decisions on supply chain performance. Traditional analysis methods struggle in this environment of large, complex datasets with hundreds of features becoming the norm in supply chains. We present an empirical analysis framework termed Scenario Trees that provides a novel representation for impulse and delayed scenario events and a direction for modeling multivariate constrained responses. Amongst potential learners, supervised learners and feature extraction strategies based on tree-based ensembles are employed to extract the most impactful scenarios and predict their outcome on metrics at different product hierarchies. These models are able to provide accurate predictions in modeling environments characterized by incomplete datasets due to product substitution, missing values, outliers, redundant features, mixed variables and nonlinear interaction effects. Graphical model summaries are generated to aid model understanding. Models in complex environments benefit from feature selection methods that extract non-redundant feature subsets from the data. Additional model simplification can be achieved by extracting specific levels/values that contribute to variable importance. We propose and evaluate new analytical methods to address this problem of feature value selection and study their comparative performance using simulated datasets. We show that supply chain surveillance can be structured as a feature value selection problem. For situations such as new product introduction, a bottom-up approach to scenario analysis is designed using an agent-based simulation and data mining framework. This simulation engine envelopes utility theory, discrete choice models and diffusion theory and acts as a test bed for enacting different business scenarios. We demonstrate the use of machine learning algorithms to analyze scenarios and generate graphical summaries to aid decision making.
Dissertation/Thesis
Ph.D. Industrial Engineering 2012

Project Work presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Knowledge Management and Business Intelligence
Globalization makes competition in supply chain management more intense. Pressure on improving the efficiency, guarantee that goods arrive on time and reduce the cost of shipment became higher. Shipment passes through different continents and cultures, dispersed around the world and encounter different conditions and risks. These risks are unexpected events that might disrupt the flow of materials or the planned operations. It can be due to late delivery, inaccuracy in forecasting, natural disasters like hurricane and earthquake or sociocultural events like strike. An effective use of supply chain risk management methods which includes risk identification, risk assessment, risk mitigation, and risk control is important for the organization to survive. For that reason, I was part of a team in XXX organization who has a goal to develop a predictive model to predict shipment delays for company’s customers.

The focus of this thesis is to examine the use of techniques of risk management employed by companies in Central Queensland’s mining manufacturing supply chain. This is a rapidly growing industry sector supporting one of Queensland’s major export industries. The specific objective of this research is to examine how companies in the supply chain employ techniques to identify, assess, and manage supply risks. The research methodology entailed the use of in-depth interviews of companies in Rockhampton, Mackay and Yeppoon in Central Queensland. This method has been selected because of limited empirical data relating to supply chain issues in this field. Quantitative questions have been incorporated into an interview questionnaire to gain more information in the limited time available. A total of 21 interviews were conducted, and methods of qualitative description and descriptive statistics have been used to analyse the subsequent data. The results show that Supply Unavailable, Supply Price Increase, and Unpredictable Lead Times are three main sources of supply risks perceived by respondents. For risk identification and assessment, specific techniques have been adopted widely, especially Communication with Suppliers. For risk mitigation, Alternative Suppliers when Supply Interrupted is perceived as the most important technique to reduce the impact of risk occurrence, while Close Working Relationship with Suppliers and Localised Sourcing are broadly used as the techniques to reduce the likelihood of risk occurrence. However, traditional buffer-oriented techniques, such as Multiple Sourcing, and Increased Stockpiling and Buffer Inventory, are not as popular in this industry as would be expected from published literature. -- Abstract

碩士
東吳大學
資訊管理學系
102
Under the premise that satisfying customer’s demands, the purpose of supply chain management is all aspects of integrated management, such as to minimize logistics and inventory costs from purchasing, materials management and logistics. To construct consummate supply chain management information systems can be effective management and further increasing the utilization of company resources. This research presents the RFM model, which founded membership as system model, identifying sequences of different regions of consumption by sequence mining. Therefore advance the emerging, different, unexpected, added/perished and repetition, to have the best reference of supply chain relationships management, which links the vendors of supply chain, through the analysis of sales in different regions.

碩士
長榮管理學院
經營管理研究所
90
In this thesis we propose a platform for discovering supply-chain knowledge, which mainly focuses on industrial information in digital types of document distributing on the Web. By integrating text mining with ontology techniques, we provide a way to extract and manage document information containing knowledge, allowing businesses systematically apply and manage supply-chain related knowledge. In constructing our framework, we firstly establish an ontology based on industry-specific standard dictionaries provided by RosettaNet, experts from a specific domain construct ontology which classifies lexicons as class hierarchies that simulate the supply-chain knowledge structure. Secondly by applying the Web-content mining technique, we extract concepts and knowledge from a huge semi-structured and unstructured document collections. The extracted information (i.e. metadata) contains the required knowledge for operations of industrial businesses. That is, the text mining has the ability of extracting knowledge that has highly similarity with documents and vocabularies about industrial supply-chain. Finally, in order to unify document forms and communicate between systems in the future, the original HTML documents are transformed into XML ones and stored in the XML document database based upon the ontology framework described above. Besides, the proposed text mining technique applies a neural-net learning model for maintaining, self-organizing and updating the associated supply-chain information. The proposed platform also provides a keyword-based query interface for searching concept-hierarchy, which helps users obtain the supply-chain information by processing the extracted knowledge. In particular the part of knowledge of products and customers extracted from specific industrial supply-chain information sources can be applied in developing business knowledge management and exploring the opportunities in the B2B e-commerce markets.

碩士
淡江大學
會計學系碩士班
94
The research case company is an electronic component distributor. The purpose of this research is to find the problem of logistics management and search for the relevant information with the problem, through interview and the analysis of case company’s logistics data. In order to search for the relevant information of three suppliers’ purchase return condition, we use the association rule of data mining method. The research found that the case company has three logistics problems. First, suppliers were unable to reach the goods on time. Second, there is disagreement between stock up and purchase quantity. Third, returning goods of suppliers. The three problems may influence case company’s transporting procedure, or increase logistics and stock costs. The relevant information of problems would be mined in the research, in accordance with the three suppliers’ product type and purchase employee separately. The purchase department managers could improve logistics and purchase procedures by data mining results.

The focus of this thesis is to examine the use of techniques of risk management employed by companies in Central Queensland's mining manufacturing supply chain. This is a rapidly growing industry sector supporting one of Queensland's major export industries. The specific objective of this research is to examine how companies in the supply chain employ techniques to identify, assess, and manage supply risks.

The research methodology entailed the use of in-depth interviews of companies in Rockhampton, Mackay and Yeppoon in Central Queensland. This method has been selected because of limited empirical data relating to supply chain issues in this field. Quantitative questions have been incorporated into an interview questionnaire to gain more information in the limited time available. A total of 21 interviews were conducted, and methods of qualitative description and descriptive statistics have been used to analyse the subsequent data.

The results show that Supply Unavailable, Supply Price Increase, and Unpredictable Lead Times are three main sources of supply risks perceived by respondents. For risk identification and assessment, specific techniques have been adopted widely, especially Communication with Suppliers. For risk mitigation, Alternative Suppliers when Supply Interrupted is perceived as the most important technique to reduce the impact of risk occurrence, while Close Working Relationship with Suppliers and Localised Sourcing are broadly used as the techniques to reduce the likelihood of risk occurrence. However, traditional buffer-oriented techniques, such as Multiple Sourcing, and Increased Stockpiling and Buffer Inventory, are not as popular in this industry as would be expected from published literature.

碩士
義守大學
企業管理學系
103
This study aims to analyze the willingness to engage in green supply chain management (GSCM) in Vietnam’s mining industry (VMI) as the way to improve the environmental protection. The hypothesis was proposed to find the factor effect in GSCM includes: internal environment management, external environment with two sub factor (corporate with supplier and customer) and environmental regulation. Results show that there are positive relationship between the internal environment management and green supply chain management. Results also indicate that external environmental factor can predict the green supply chain management practice and there is the correlation between environmental regulation and green supply chain management practice. ANOVA result show that statistically significant differences, i.e., p < .0.05, exist among the three enterprise sectors in the implementation of one GSCM practices, namely JVEs. There are several factors that explain why the company is leaning towards green supply chain management.

M. Tech. (Logistics, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology.
This study explored the implementation of green supply chain with regard to minimizing environmental risk in the South African manganese and phosphate mining industries. A qualitative research paradigm methodology was used. Theoretical assumptions were utilized. References by other researchers in the green supply chain and mining supply chain were also used to broaden the knowledge horizons for the study. A total number of twelve supply chain and environmental professionals from the key role players in the South African manganese and phosphate mining industries were interviewed and provided valuable input to the study. The study determined lack of information sharing between the role players in the supply chain that lead to the discovery of themes and sub–themes. The study identified seven main themes and eleven sub-themes as challenges in the implementation of green supply chain. Recommendations to address the challenges areoutlined and include the introduction of cleaner production practices by using cleaner technologies, inclusion of environmental aspects in the sourcing strategy, among others. The achievement of all these will ensure sustainable development. Originating from the study are research recommendations for the South African manganese and phosphate mining industries. The recommendations include further research to establish a green supply chain model as well as perception and expectations of policy makers in the industries.

碩士
國立高雄第一科技大學
資訊管理系碩士專班
105
The Apple Inc. announced a list of its top 200 suppliers, including component providers and others representing at least 97% of procurement expenditures for materials, manufacturing, and assembly of its products worldwide in 2016. In the list of Apple suppliers, 39 Taiwanese companies were included, and 35 out of the 39 companies were those listed companies in Taiwan stock markets, including Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation (TWSE) and Taipei Exchange (TPEx) respectively. In this study, the 35 Apple suppliers of listed companies in Taiwan stock markets were selected for further analysis for their corresponding operation performances using analytical techniques of association analysis and clustering with R. 　　The variables of operational performances, in this study, include　profitability, operational capacity, solvency, statements of cash flow, and the data are from Taiwan Economic Journal Database (TEJ). With proper analytical techniques of association analysis and clustering with R. the study is aiming at exploring and discovering the followings: 　　1.To discover the differences of operational performances with proper index 　　　for the Apple Supplies in Taiwan. 　　2.To utilize the analytical techniques of association analysis to explore 　　　the connections among the financial indicators of the Apple Supplies in 　　　Taiwan. 　　3.To employee the analytical techniques of cluster analysis to explore the 　　　similarity and dissimilarity of clusters for those selected Apply 　　　suppliers. 　　By fully utilizing the information disclosed from the annual reports of the 35 Apple suppliers of Taiwanese listed companies, further insights of the information concerning the operational performances can be obtained. Moreover, the insights from the analysis can assist investor to understand the business performance of corresponding companies in their portfolio decision making.

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial
The growth of supply chains and manufacturing networks increases the exposure to the risks of disruptions and disturbances in the companies’ operations. Companies need to develop supply chain risk management strategies, more robust and resilient operations and refine their processes to an agile response to the customers to meet deadlines. This dissertation project was carried out under the scope of the Integrated Master in Industrial Engineering and Management within the industry environment of Sonae Arauco. It aims to redesign processes to drive service excellence by developing a new decision support system that correctly evaluates the reasons for failures in the customer service level. Following the proactive data mining methodology, in specific, the exploratory data analysis, and taking advantage of the current data provided by the ERP system in use, it is studied and designed a new data-driven process to provide accurate delay reasons. This process improvement project followed the innovative Stage-Gate methodology to create understanding, cooperation, and integration in a multidisciplinary environment. The proposed solution included short-term and longterm strategies. The short-term strategy was implemented and presented promising results across the different manufacturing units. It is constituted by the new framework, refined processes and a decision support system capable of creating accountability and standardisation for all the Logistics Managers and their plants’. There was a decrease in the area of unknowing related to delay reason, around 35%; an increase in the variety of the precise delay reasons, around 50%; and the automatic process is now capable of assign almost 70% of sales order items. The long-term strategies present theoretical results based on simulations and define the path for future improvement initiatives. More than the managerial relevance of this research project, it is intended to contribute to the literature related to the Stage-Gate methodology and its usage in process improvement projects. This innovative methodology decreases the time of the project and creates a symbiotic relationship in a multidisciplinary team environment while eliminating the functional silos. It was considered a success within the company and it is now in use on other projects.
O crescimento das cadeias de abastecimento e das redes de manufatura aumenta a exposição ao risco de disrupções e distúrbios nas operações das empresas. Estas têm de desenvolver estratégias de gestão do risco da cadeia de abastecimento, operações mais robustas e resilientes e refinar os seus processos para permitirem uma resposta mais ágil para cumprirem os prazos acordados com os clientes. Esta dissertação foi desenvolvida no ãmbito do Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial, em ambiente industrial, na Sonae Arauco. O objetivo é redesenhar processos para proporcionar excelência no serviço através do desnevolvimento de um novo sistema de apoio à decisão que avalie corretamente as razões de falha no serviço ao cliente. Foi seguida a metodologia proactive data mining, em específico, a análise exploratória de dados e tirando partido de todos dados obtidos através do sistema ERP, foi estudado e desenhado um novo sistema para garantir razões de atraso mais precisas. O projeto de melhoria de processos baseou-se na metodologia Stage-Gate para criar cooperação e integração num ambiente multidisciplinar. A solução proposta foi composta por estratégias de curto-prazo e de longoprazo. A estratégia de curto-prazo foi implementada e apresentada resultados promisores nas diferentes fábricas. É constituída por um novo framework, processos refinados e um sistema dde suporte à decisão que garante mais responsabilidade e standardisação entre os diferentes gestores logísticos e respetivas fábricas. Resultou num decréscimo da área desconhecida em 35%; um aumento da variedade das razões de atraso mais precisas, em 50%; e um processo automático que é agora capaz de identificar cerca de 70% das linhas de encomenda. As razões de longo-prazo apresentam resultados teóricos baseados em simulações e definem um caminho para iniciativas futuras. Mais do que a relevância para a gestão, o objetivo foi também contribuir para a literatura através da metodologia Stage-Gate aplicada a projetos de melhoria de processos. Esta metodologia inovadora diminui o tempo do projeto e permite a criação de uma relação simbiótica numa equipa multidisciplinar, enquanto elimina silos funcionais. Foi considerada um sucesso na empresa e está agora em uso noutros projetos.

Climate change has come to be understood as a deleterious phenomenon, which threatens business, society and ecological systems, thus making it imperative to understand its impact on human, social and economic activities as well as the impact of these activities on climate change. Against this background, this research sought to determine climate change intervention strategies in the mining supply chain in general, specifically focussing on opencast mining contracting and plant hire companies’ practices. This focus on the mining industry was driven by its importance in South Africa and globally, despite its significant direct and indirect contribution to climatic changes. The mixed-methods multiple case study focused on the climate change management of the Mutual Construction Company Group of Companies (MCCGC), an open cast toll mining firm and equipment supplier. Limited to two sites, Pilanesberg Platinum Mines (PPM) and Tharisa Minerals (Tharisa) Mines, the researcher gathered data through interviews, questionnaires, observations and document review. Data was analysed through deductive content analysis. The research made three major findings: (i) the MCCGC, like its principals PPM and Tharisa, does not have an explicit climate change management strategy. Instead, climate change is managed indirectly through implicit strategies seeking to manage environment, health and safety concerns of the mines, (ii) as a contractor, the MCCGC has had to adopt PPM and Tharisa’s implicit approach to climate change management strategies to meet contractual obligations, instead of an explicit approach and, (iii) the MCCGC and its principals’ commitment to environment, health and safety management, and implicitly climate change management, is not mere rhetoric but is being put into practice. The research concluded that MCCGC’s lack of expressed climate change management intentions and practices exposed the firm to climate change risks, most notably financial risks and reputation risks. Financial risks arise from possible ex post climate change liability. In addition, MCCGC is risking its contract tenures, particularly if the two mines change ownership and the new owners insist on an explicit rather than implied climate change strategy with all its suppliers. Reputational risks arise from the possible failure to attract new clientele and investors who may perceive MCCGC as a risky partner, due to an inept climate change intervention strategy
College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences
M. Sc. (Environmental Management)