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Wilson, Mark M. J. "Supply chains behaving badly : a dynamic model of inter-organisational supply chain exchange behaviour under rational, relational and chaotic paradigms." Phd thesis, Lincoln University. Commerce Division, 2006. http://theses.lincoln.ac.nz/public/adt-NZLIU20080229.095848/.
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Supply chain exchange relationships are complex and sometimes chaotic sociological and organisational phenomena. This complexity is compounded by the boundary spanning necessity of forming supply chain partnerships that are further exacerbated by goal divergence and asymmetric information. One of the main questions for consideration is how these dyadic exchange relationships are maintained and develop over time in response to the various channel behaviours of the actors (the buyer and seller)? In particular, exchange relationships are theorised to be sensitive in some degree to attempts at economic appropriation, and conversely coordinative efforts. Such efforts manifest themselves into the mutually opposing forces broadly labelled as opportunistic and collaborative behavioural paradigms. Drawing from the concepts of Systems and Chaos/Complexity theories, it is theorised that the movement from one form of relational arrangement to another is enacted in a non-linear and dynamic manner with periods of relational equilibrium disrupted by bifurcations resulting in the emergence of new levels of relationship. However, not all exchange relationships are susceptible to constant change, rather, there should be some threshold barrier or relationship inertia that must be overcome before a bifurcation occurs. Yet what is not known is how strong these bonds are to the enactment of opportunistic and collaborative partner behaviours. Hence, 189 manufacturing supply chain relationships were survey-interviewed in order to determine the impact that collaborative and opportunistic behaviours have on supply chain relational movement. The results show that generally exchange relationships do in fact change in response to these enacted behaviours, and that actual levels of supply chain behaviour over a range of 12 variables could be measured. Indeed, the level of opportunistic behaviour experienced by the sample was disturbing. In addition, the level of tolerance (zone of tolerance) for specific behaviours was measured for the first time in the field. Overall, it was found that supply chain exchange relationships do indeed evolve in a non-linear dynamic manner in response to opportunistic and collaborative manoeuvres by the dyadic actors. Finally, these ideas were summarised in the Dynamic Relational Development (DRD) concept that explains how supply chain relationships dynamically change. In addition, the dualistic nature of the collaborative versus opportunistic behaviour choice for exchange actors is tentatively reconciled by the deontological approach of the Supply Chain Citizen theory offered in this research.
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Morgan, Thomas V. "Supply Chain Learning: A Grounded Theory Analysis." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2018. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1248435/.
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Under the unifying theme of supply chain learning, this three essay dissertation extends scholarship by investigating these multi-tier relationships. Theory is emerged, grounded in data, gathered from functioning supply chains in an effort to provide scholars and practitioners with an increased understanding of the SCL phenomena. Essay 1, entitled "Supply Chain Learning: An Exploratory Literature Review" examines the current literature in an attempt to address the shortcomings and emerge areas that have been less explored and less understood. By exposing these areas of research opportunities using a grounded theory methodology, a framework was emerged allowing identification of the limitations of extant literature and providing a springboard for future research. This framework also allowed further investigation into the SCL processes and expansion of the current understanding by providing academia with a comprehensive review of the literature and revealing the shortcomings that exist related to SCL.
Using the framework emerged in Essay 1, Essay 2 entitled "Toward Supply Chain Learning: A Focus on the Customers of Logistics Service Providers" explores the rationalization and cognitive processes of senior level executives of firms utilizing national or global supply chains. These respondents are directly engaged in creating, establishing and operating relationships with third party logistics (3PL) providers within a functioning supply chain. By examining the relationships and processes from the point of view of customers of third party logistics providers, a unique perspective provides insight into these relationships. Using semi-structured interviews with these executives, grounded theory was once again used to emerge theory explaining the phenomena of SCL. In particular, this research examines the elements studied from the perspective of customers of third party logistics providers as they seek to develop new processes and solutions in hopes of obtaining a competitive advantage by adaptive learning with the help of their providers and trading partners. In addition, this research increases our understanding of SCL by examining a relationship between customers and 3PL providers, their experiences and outcomes.
Essay 3, entitled "Practical Application of Supply Chain Learning" focuses on the implications of the learning relationship and its impact on the practitioner. By providing the findings of the research in a context relatable to practitioners, this culmination of findings allows practitioners to relate the findings directly to their existing supply chains. Realizing that many supply chains are relationship driven, this research focuses on the findings of previous research to provide a more holistic view of the learning relationship process as it exists in multiple tiers of their existing supply chain. Providing a step-by-step explanation of the SCL process as emerged from previous research, executives are provided a tool to better identify, analyze and understand these processes as relatable in their existing environment.
As a methodical analysis of the IOL process, these essays provide the foundation for understanding the relationship process that exists between learning partners in a supply chain. Essay 1 provides basis for theory development by examining current literature and exposing the shortcomings while also emerging a preliminary framework on which to build future research. Essay 2 follows up on these deficiencies and attempts to saturate understanding of the IOL process, particularly from the point of view of 3PL customers in an existing supply chain. Essay 3 delivers these findings to executives in a relatable format, providing a holistic understanding of the phenomena. In summation, this dissertation provides theory emerged from data, explaining the learning relationship from the point of view of the customers of 3PL services, the cognitive dimensions and outcomes of these decisions as they relate to learning in the supply chain.
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Charoensiriwath, Chayakrit. "Competition in supply chain with service contributions." Diss., Available online, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004, 2004. http://etd.gatech.edu/theses/available/etd-04062004-153214/unrestricted/charoensiriwath%5Fchayakrit%5F200405%5Fphd.pdf.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004.Prof. Chen Zhou, Committee Member ; Prof. patrick S. McCarthy, Committee Member ; Prof. Gunter P. Sharp, Committee Member ; Prof. Paul M. Griffin, Committee Member ; Prof. Jye-Chyi Lu, Committee Chair. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.
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Smith, John D. "Towards a Theory of Services Supply Chain Management." Cleveland State University / OhioLINK, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1378934675.
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Carvalho, Helena. "Modelling resilience in supply chain." Doctoral thesis, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10362/8949.
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Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em
Engenharia IndustrialGlobal supply chains are vulnerable to a number of disturbances that may affect negatively company’s operational and financial performance. The company’s ability to cope with supply chain disturbances, i.e. the ability to be resilient, is vital to sustain the company and respective supply chain competitiveness. The aim of this thesis is modelling resilience in a supply chain context. More specifically, it is intended to develop an explanatory framework of the supply chain resilience phenomena and to model supply chain resilience indices to be deployed at individual company level. These indices intend to measure the companies’ ability to be resilient in a supply chain context. Using a theory building approach, a case study was conducted in seven companies’belonging to the Portuguese automotive upstream supply chain. It was found that managers do not associate supply chain disturbances to a particular type of events, but with the negative effects that events provoke. When companies experience a disturbance, its ability to deliver on-time may be compromised. The resilient practices, adopted by companies, depend on the type of supply chain disturbances and their negative effects. The main failure modes arising from the case study are “capacity shortage” and “material shortage”. Eight propositions were derived from the case study empirical findings. They were used to develop the supply chain resilience explanatory framework,to provide additional understanding regarding the relationships between supply chain disturbances, supply chain failure modes and resilient practices. To support the assessment of companies’ resilience, two resilience indices were modelled and developed. These indices intend to measure the companies’ ability to sustain its performance in terms of “on-time delivery” when a “capacity shortage” or “material shortage” occur. Finally, the indices were tested in companies belonging to the Portuguese automotive upstream supply chain. The dissertation contributes to the existing literature by empirically investigating the main effects of supply chain disturbances and how companies can increase supply chain resilience. It suggests an approach to assess companies’ resilience and identifies a set of supply chain state variables that companies may control to improve supply chain resilience.
Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - (SFRH/BD/43984/2008); (Project PTDC/EME-GIN/68400/2006 and Project MIT-Pt/EDAM-IASC/0033/2008)
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Vonasek, Scott M. "Synchronizing the 3M Cushion Mount Plus supply chain." Online version, 2000. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/2000/2000vonaseks.pdf.
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Stremler, David Jay. "Constraint-based supply chain inventory deployment strategies." Master's thesis, Mississippi State : Mississippi State University, 2001. http://library.msstate.edu/etd/show.asp?etd=etd-11102001-070052.
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Wang, Daisy Chen-yu. "MODERATING EFFECT OF SUPPLY CHAIN OPERATIONS STRATEGIES: THE MISSING LINK BETWEEN SUPPLY CHAIN RELATIONSHIP AND PERFORMANCE." OpenSIUC, 2011. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/320.
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This is the first research to empirically study the congruity in supply chain operations strategies. The tests show that the congruity in supply chain operations strategies are related to performance and also moderate the association between performance and the types of supply chain relationships. 308 manufacturing firms were studied for empirical tests. Various methods including multiple regressions, cluster analyses, and logistic regressions are applied in this study. Based on the tests, five hypotheses are supported and only one hypothesis is inconclusive. This dissertation contributes in different thresholds. First, by studying operations strategies through a different angle (the supply chain instead of a firm) this study reconciles results in the relationships between performance and operations strategies and between performance and supply chain relationships. Therefore, this study contributes to reconciling two long-term puzzles in both operations strategies and supply chain management literatures. Second, this research draws on three different disciplines, operations strategies, supply chain management and organization theory (resource dependence theory). This interdisciplinary approach provides a broader perspective in operations management research. Third, through this research, guidelines are provided for not only powerful firms but also the weak ones on how to improve their performance through developing different types of supply chain relationships and integrating their operations strategies with their supply chain members.
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Hassani, Mehraban Farhad. "Supply chain knowledge creation : applications of organizational knowledge creation theory." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 2014. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/supply-chain-knowledge-creation(02eaeb75-2fad-494b-ac4d-20e82dddfc60).html.
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Scholars argue that knowledge is a fundamental source for retaining competitive advantage, as value creation depends fundamentally on the competence of a firm to create new knowledge (Nonaka and Toyama, 2002). Knowledge creation is based on conversion of two types of knowledge: tacit knowledge, which is constituent to the comprehensiveness of an individual’s consciousness, and explicit knowledge, which can be readily communicated. Based on the framework by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), one of the most significant and cited models, the motivation of this research is to expand knowledge creation model from intra- to inter-organizational relationships theoretically and explore supply chain knowledge creation process in practice to examine the sequences of this extension. Studying three firms in the fashion industry, this thesis contributes to research on knowledge creation by taking a socio-technological perspective through a qualitative study of supply chain management. The research findings provide support for the proposed theoretical model in which social relationships and technology interact in the knowledge creation process to diminish supply chain complexities. While many supply chain relationships I observed appear to be influential in creating knowledge, one similarity among the cases here is that the effectiveness of the knowledge creation process has been limited due to the lack of harmony in employing knowledge resources. Knowledge creation process may be superficial due to the fact that they require a large revolution in work routines regarding the use of technology. Even where there is some degree of socialization, the process is partial because of incongruities between individuals understanding and corporate supply chain strategies.
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Li, Yongquan. "Demand information in supply chain manangement [i.e. management] /." View abstract or full-text, 2008. http://library.ust.hk/cgi/db/thesis.pl?IELM%202008%20LIY.
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Park, Kihyun. "Flexible and Redundant Supply Chain Practices to Build Strategic Supply Chain Resilience: Contingent and Resource-based Perspectives." University of Toledo / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1321426327.
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Viljoen, Nadia M. "Quantifying supply chain vulnerability using a multilayered complex network perspective." Thesis, University of Pretoria, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/63990.
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Today's supply chains face increasing volatility on many fronts. From the shop-floor where machines break and suppliers fail to the boardrooms where unanticipated price inflation erodes profi tability. Turbulence is the new normal.
To remain competitive and weather these (daily) storms, supply chains need to move away from an effi ciency mindset towards a resilience mindset. For over a little more than a decade industry and academia have awakened to this reality. Academic literature and case studies show that there is no longer a shortage of resilience strategies and designs. Unfortunately, industry still lacks the tools with which to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of such strategies and designs. Without the ability to quantify the benefi t it is impossible to motivate the cost.
This thesis adds one piece to the puzzle of quantifying supply chain vulnerability. Speci fically, it focussed on supply chains within urban areas. It addresses the question: "How does a supply chain's network design (internal con figuration) and its dependence on the underlying road network (external circumstances) make it more or less vulnerable to disruptions of the road network?"
Multilayered Complex Network Theory (CNT) held promise as a modelling approach that could capture the complexity of the dependence between a logical supply chain network and the physical road network that underpins it. This approach addressed two research gaps in complex network theory applications. In the supply chain arena CNT applications have reaped many benefi ts but the majority of studies regarded single-layer networks that model only supply chain relations. There were no studies found where the dependence of supply chain layers on underlying physical infrastructure was modelled in a multilayered manner. Road network applications offered many more multilayered applications but these primarily focussed on passenger transport, not freight transport.
The first artefact developed in the thesis was a multilayered complex network formulation representing a logical (supply chain) layer placed on a physical (road infrastructure) layer. The individual layers had predefi ned network characteristics and on their own could not hint at the inherent vulnerability that the system as a whole might have. From the multilayered formulation, the collection of shortest paths emerged. This is the collection of all shortest path alternatives within a network. The collection of shortest paths is the unique fingerprint of each multilayered network instance. The key to understanding vulnerability lies within the characteristics of the collection of shortest paths.
Three standard supply chain network archetypes were de fined namely the Fully Connected (FC), Single Hub (SH) and Double Hub (DH) archetypes. A sample of 500 theoretical multilayered network instances was generated for each archetype. These theoretical instances were subjected to three link-based progressive targeted disruption simulations to study the vulnerability characteristics of the collection of shortest paths. Two of the simulations used relative link betweenness to prioritise the disruptions while the third used the concept of network skeletons as captured by link salience. The results from these simulations showed that the link betweenness strategies were far more effective than the link salience strategy.
From these results three aspects of vulnerability were identifi ed. Redundancy quantifi es the number of alternative shortest paths available to an instance. Overlap measures to what degree the shortest path sets of an instance overlap and have road segments in common. Effi ciency step-change is a measure of the magnitude of the "shock" absorbed by the shortest paths of an instance during a disruption. For each of these aspects one or more metrics were defi ned. This suite of vulnerability metrics is the second artefact produced by the thesis.
The design of the artefacts itself, although novel, was not considered research. It is the insights derived during analysis of the artefacts' performance that contributes to the body of knowledge. Link-based progressive random disturbance simulations were used to assess the ability of the vulnerability metrics to quantify supply chain vulnerability. It was found that none of the de fined vulnerability aspects are good stand-alone predictors of vulnerability. The multilayered nature and random disturbance protocol result in vulnerability being more multi-faceted than initially imagined. Nonetheless, the formulation of the multilayered network proved useful and intuitive and even though the vulnerability metrics fail as predictors they still succeed in capturing shortest path phenomena that would lead to vulnerability under non-random protocols.
To validate the fi ndings from the theoretical instances, link-based random disturbance simulations were executed on 191 case study instances. These instances were extracted from real-life data in three urban areas in South Africa, namely Gauteng Province (GT), City of Cape Town (CoCT) and eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality (ET). The case study instances showed marked deviations from the assumptions underlying the theoretical instances. Despite these differences, the multilayered formulation still enables the quanti fication of the relationship between supply chain structure and road infrastructure. The performance of the vulnerability metrics in the case study corroborates the findings from the theoretical instances.
Although the suite of vulnerability metrics was unsuccessful in quantifying or predicting vulnerability in both the theoretical and case study instances, the rationale behind their development is sound. Future work that will result in more effective metrics is outlined in this thesis. On the one hand the development of a more realistic disruption strategy is suggested. Road network disruptions are neither completely random nor specifi cally targeted. Important segments with greater tra ffic loads are more likely to be disrupted, but the reality is that disruptions such as accidents, equipment failure or road maintenance could really occur anywhere on the network. A more realistic disruption strategy would lie somewhere on the continuum between targeted and random disruptions. Other future work suggests the refi nement of both artefacts by incorporating link
weights in both the logical and physical layers.
An unanticipated fi nding from this thesis is that future research in the fi eld may be expedited if theory-building emanates from real-life empirical networks as opposed to theoretically generated networks. Expanding the scope of the case study, characterising the true network archetypes found in practice and increasing the number of case study samples is a high priority for future work.Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2018.
National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant UID: 105519). Partial funding of doctoral research.
Industrial and Systems Engineering
PhD
Unrestricted
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LIU, YONG. "SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT THROUGH PRICE COMMITMENT POLICIES." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1132339383.
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Matthews, Lee. "How environmentally sustainable are Sustainable Supply Chain Management strategies? : a critical evaluation of the theory and practice of Sustainable Supply Chain Management." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2016. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/how-environmentally-sustainable-are-sustainable-supply-chain-management-strategies-a-critical-evaluation-of-the-theory-and-practice-of-sustainable-supply-chain-management(448f91c2-82f5-4cd5-8192-1ea6c35da81b).html.
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This thesis is a critical evaluation of the theory and practice of Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM). It seeks to understand why SSCM theory has so little to say about environmental sustainability and to explore how SSCM practice is contributing towards the transition towards sustainable development. I conjecture that SSCM scholars have not engaged sufficiently with the broader sustainability literature and other constructions of sustainability, which has led to a lack of theory development within SSCM. The sustainability paradigms framework that forms the core of the thesis was developed in order to broaden the discussion around sustainability within SSCM. Specifically, it embraces the contested nature of the concept of sustainability and uses multiple sustainability paradigms to construct future directions for theory development. In order to put the concept of environmental sustainability at the centre of SSCM theory, the concept of ‘environmental effectiveness’ was developed which seeks to differentiate between environmentally sustainable strategies and those that merely seek to achieve reductions in unsustainability. In order to evaluate the practice of SSCM, a case study was conducted. The concept of ‘environmental effectiveness’ is operationalized through the use of non-perceptual measures related to carbon emissions and evaluates the extent to which SSCM practices contribute towards climate stabilization, a key sustainability objective. It is found that those SSCM practices that have been shown to improve ‘environmental performance’ within the extant SSCM literature did not deliver ‘environmentally effective performance’ within the case study. This raises the possibility that the literature has mistaken reductions in unsustainability for sustainability proper and that we may need to go back to basics. The findings are discussed with reference to the sustainability paradigms framework and multiple opportunities for theory development within SSCM are explored.
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alramadin, manal. "Strategies to Mitigate Negative Results of Supply Chain Disruption." ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/7909.
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Supply chains are considered the foundation of the global economy, and businesses with global supply chains usually encounter at least 1 disruption annually. Mitigating the negative impact of disruptions is critical to supply chain managers, as disruptions can negatively impact organizational profitability and performance. Grounded in the resource dependence theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies organizational and supply chain managers use to mitigate negative results from supply chain disruption. Participants were 4 supply chain managers working in 2 different international organizations located in Jordan, who used effective strategies to mitigate supply chain disruptions. Data collection involved semistructured interviews and a review of organizational documents. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis, and 2 main themes emerged: Developing relationships and collaboration and strategy to identify supply chain disruption. The implications for positive social change include the potential for organizational and supply chain managers to mitigate negative results of supply chain disruptions and improve organizational performance. Sustaining organizational performance promotes the well-being of employees, families, communities, and the economy, which can result in customer satisfaction, business growth, and stable employment.
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Gunnarsson, Lidestam Helene. "Supply chain optimization in the forest industry." Doctoral thesis, Linköpings universitet, Optimeringslära, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-8856.
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The scope of this thesis is modelling and solving large-scale planning problems in the supply chain within the forest industry. Five research papers are included, the first three of which focus on the modelling, and the last two on the solution methods. All problems included are tactical multi-commodity problems expressed as mixed integer programming (MIP) models. The work has been done in collaboration with two Swedish companies within the forest industry. In Paper I, a problem concerning the supply chain of forest fuel for Sydved Energileveranser AB is modelled and solved. We study the problem of deciding when and where forest residues are to be converted into wood chips, and how the residues and chips are to be transported and stored in order to satisfy energy demand at heating plants. The company has long-term contracts with forest owners and saw mills. Decisions in the model include whether or not additional harvest areas and saw mills are to be contracted and which terminals to use. The planning horizon is one year and monthly time periods are used. Papers II--V are based on planning problems at Södra Cell AB. The planning horizon is normally one year. Papers II--III consider only one time period. In Paper II the supply chain from pulp mills to customers is modelled and the combined problem of deciding terminal locations and which ship routes to use is studied. Shipping vessels chartered on short or long term are used to transport products to terminals in Europe. From each terminal, the products are transported to customers by truck, train, or a combination of both. In addition, trains and trucks can be used for transports directly to customers from mills. In Paper III the entire supply chain, from harvest areas to customers, is considered. Decisions included are transportation of raw materials, production mix, the distribution of pulp products, and the selection of potential orders and their quantities at customers. The ship routes are considered as flow links. In Papers IV--V the problems in Papers II--III are combined into one model and several time periods are used. Lagrangian heuristics based on Lagrangian decomposition are used as solution methods in both papers. In Paper IV, the approach leads to subproblems for each time period, whereas in Paper V, another approach that results in subproblems for different parts of the supply chain is developed. All models are based on real data from the companies. The models are detailed and describe the problems accurately. The solution methods are developed such that the solution time is kept within practical limits. Results from Papers II--III have been used by Södra Cell AB to support the change of the terminal structure as well as in budget planning.Denna avhandling presenterar matematiska modeller och lösningsmetoder för optimering av olika logistikproblem inom skogsindustrin. Vi studerar försörjningskedjor för skogsbränsle och massaproduker, och beaktar den årliga planeringen i syfte att optimera flödet. Det första problemet behandlar skogsbränsle och är ett samarbete med Sydved Energileveranser AB. Råmaterial i form av grenar och toppar från avverkningsplatser ska flisas och transporteras till värmeverk, eventuellt via terminaler. Det finns möjlighet att flisa både i skogen och på terminaler. Biprodukter från sågverk kan också användas som råmaterial. Vid behov kan utbudet av råmaterial utökas genom att fler avverkningsplatser och sågverk kontrakteras. Värmeverken har en efterfrågan, angiven i kWh per månad, som ska uppfyllas. Exempel på beslut som ska tas är var flisning ska ske, om nya avverkningsplatser ska kontrakteras, var lagring ska ske, samt hur och när skogsbränslet ska transporteras. Nästföljande problem behandlar massaprodukter och är ett samarbete med Södra Cell AB. Olika sorters massaved från skogen och biprodukter från sågverk utgör råmaterial för produktion av massaprodukter. Råmaterialet transporteras till massabruk för tillverkning enligt specificerade recept. De färdiga produkterna transporteras sedan med fartyg till terminaler i Europa. Från terminalerna transporteras produkterna vidare till pappersbruk, vilka är företagets slutkunder. Massaprodukterna transporteras i vissa fall med lastbil eller tåg direkt från massabruken till kunderna. Efterfrågan är angiven inom vissa gränser i olika order. Vissa order är fasta, vilket innebär att dess efterfrågan måste uppfyllas, medan andra order är fria. Exempel på beslut som ska tas är vilka bruk olika produkter ska produceras på, hur många och vilka terminaler som ska användas, samt hur transporterna ska utföras för att ge bästa resultat. Utifrån ovanstående beskrivningar har matematiska modeller formulerats. Ge-nom att lösa dessa kan vi få svar på logistik- och transportfrågorna och ett optimalt flöde kan hittas. För att lösa modellerna har kommersiell programvara använts. Heuristiker och mer avancerade optimeringsmetoder har också utvecklats i syfte att producera bra lösningar snabbare.
Article 4 was a manuscript entitled "Solving a multi-period supply chain problem for a pulp industry using Lagrangian heuristics based on time periods" at the time of the thesis defence.
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Chadist, Patrapa. "Factors underlying companies response to supply chain disruption : a grounded theory approach." Thesis, City University London, 2012. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/1254/.
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A wide range of recent man-made and natural disasters has demonstrated the importance of managing disruption risk in global supply chains. This research argues that supply chain disruptions are, de facto, unavoidable and consequently all complex supply chains can be considered inherently risky. This research focuses on a relatively unexplored issue in supply chain risk management, asking and answering the question of how companies specifically use time to respond to catastrophic events of low probability but high impact. Linking faster response lead-time with reduced impact, the goal is to identify and explore the underlying factors of managing disruption risk by answering how companies respond to supply chain disruptions. In reducing total response time by detecting the event, designing solutions, and deploying a recovery plan sooner after a disruption, the company can reduce the impact of disruption risk. The research uses Grounded Theory methodology to extend an emerging framework on time-based supply chain risk management. Empirical data is used from a range of sources including interviews and corporate publications from the events faced by global pharmaceutical manufacturer during a pandemic in 2009. The emerging categories of possible factors in response time are further developed using data from the events surrounding the worst maritime oil spill in history in 2010 under the management responsibility of the Exploration and Production (Upstream) division of a global energy company and from an industrial accident in 2005 in the Refining and Marketing division of the same firm. The research identifies four categories of factors that companies can focus on to reduce response time in the face of catastrophic events of low probability and high impact: organisational structure, preparation, partnership and reserve. The research derives new insights, presented as four propositions that relate the response time in managing supply chain disruption to negative or potentially positive impact.
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Zhu, Chengbin. "Supply Chain Revenue Management Considering Components' Quality and Reliability." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/28644.
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The reliability and quality of suppliers' components are inevitably two factors that impact the performance of the supply chain. Stochastic reliability affects the final production quantity and hence makes it more difficult to predict the manufacturer's best ordering quantity as opposed to the simpler traditional news vendor model. In addition, the quality of suppliers' products directly influence the potential demand in the market. Hence every firm in the supply chain system faces the needs to invest time, money and effort to improve the product quality even though it may bring a higher production and investment cost.
Thus our dissertation is divided into two parts. In the first part, we build a model for a two echelon supply chain system in which a single manufacturer sells his product to a market with stochastic demand. A group of suppliers provide essential components for the manufacturer. They may be: 1) homogeneous component suppliers, 2) complementary component suppliers or 3) divided into subgroups, suppliers in the same subgroup provide the same component while the components from different subgroups are assembled in the final product. The fraction of effective component ordered from each supplier is a random variable. We first analyze the manufacturer's optimal ordering quantity decision. We identify several important properties of the optimal decision. Then based on those properties, we devise optimal solution procedures and heuristic methods for the above three systems. Finally, in the case of Bernoulli reliability, we investigate the suppliers' price competition by non-cooperative game theory.
In the second part, we model a two echelon assembly system which faces deterministic demand affected by the market price and quality of the product. Therefore, the decisions of the firms are divided into two stages: in the first stage, they decide on how much effort to invest in the quality of the components or the final product to stimulate the market. They may make decisions simultaneously or sequentially. Then after the efforts are invested, in the second stage, the component suppliers first decide on their components' wholesale price and then the manufacture decides on the market price given the wholesale price. We identify the existence of Nash equilibrium in each stage through potential functions. Moreover, in the first stage decision, we find that the competition with a leader can always benefit the whole system compared with simultaneous competition.Ph. D.
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Chu, Qiao M. Eng Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Nisha Palvia. "Enhancing the customer service experience in call centers using preemptive solutions and queuing theory." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112874.
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Thesis: M. Eng. in Supply Chain Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Supply Chain Management Program, 2017.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (page 79).
The security alarms services market in the United States delivers hardware equipment and services to homeowners and businesses to help monitor and enhance personal property protection. Customer satisfaction via wait time reduction, first call resolution, and cost minimization are key drivers of success to players in this market. Most companies invest heavily in customer service systems including call centers. Our client, AlarmCo, a top provider of property protection, manages an inbound call center that supports a range of questions from customers who call within thirty days from the alarm installation date. Often, security companies fail to utilize strategic solutions when managing inbound customer call traffic and default to reactive measures which unnecessarily increase customer wait times. The key question the team aims to address in this thesis is: "How can we improve the customer service experience for customers of a major security service provider in the United States?" For this thesis, MIT partnered with OnProcess Technology, a managed services provider specializing in complex, global service supply chain operations, to develop a robust framework to preemptively reduce the number of inbound customer calls, and thereby improve customer service. Using ABC segmentation, the team categorized customers by reason code and demographics. To simulate the client's call center queue, the team calculated the key inputs for the queuing model including average wait time, interarrival rates and number of servers. The team then chose and developed the M/M/n stochastic queuing model for the simulation. The M/M/n queue reflects a simple system with parallel servers, arrivals with a Poisson distribution and service times that are exponentially distributed. Next, the customer segmentation was used to develop targeted preemptive solutions. Taking into account feasibility ratings, the team assigned success rates to each solution and adjusted the inbound call data accordingly. By analyzing the outputs of the simulation before and after adjusting the dataset, the team quantified the impact of preemptive solutions on the call center queue. Ultimately, narrowing to twelve strategic preemptive solutions led to the enhancement of the as-is queuing model by reducing average wait time by up to 35%.
by Qiao Chu and Nisha Palvia.
M. Eng. in Supply Chain Management
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Qu, Zhan, Horst Raff, and Nicolas Schmitt. "A Theory of Intermediation in Supply Chains Based on Inventory Control." Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2016. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-212009.
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The paper shows that taking inventory control out of the hands of retailers and assigning it to an intermediary increases the value of a supply chain when demand volatility is high. This is because an intermediary can help solve two incentive problems associated with retailers\' inventory control and thereby improve the intertemporal allocation of inventory. Adding an intermediary as a new link in a supply chain is also shown to reduce total inventory, to make shipments from the manufacturer less frequent and more variable in size, as well as to reduce social welfare.
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Furuhata, Masabumi. "E-market mechanism design for supply chain management." View thesis, 2009. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/45409.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, 2009.A thesis presented to the University of Western Sydney, College of Health and Science, School of Computing and Mathematics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and Docteur de L'Université de Toulouse, Faculté d'Informatique, under a cotutelle agreement. Includes bibliographies.
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Sweeney, Edward. "Implementation of supply chain management theory in practice : an empirical investigation in Ireland." Thesis, University of Hull, 2013. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:7181.
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Since its introduction by management consultants in the early 1980s, the supply chain management (SCM) concept has risen to prominence in both academic and commercial circles. A substantial body of academic knowledge has been, and continues to be, developed in the broad SCM domain. There is significant evidence that the effective implementation of SCM can result in improvements in the performance of firms. However, there is also evidence of a divergence between theory and practice in terms of SCM understanding and adoption. The fundamental purpose of the research described in this thesis is to disentangle the rhetoric from the reality in relation to SCM adoption in practice with specific reference to the situation in Ireland. Based on a comprehensive literature review the thesis posits a new definitional construct for SCM – the Four Fundamentals – and sets out four research questions. Answering these questions requires that a methodologically pluralist approach be adopted based on the author’s multi-paradigmatic philosophical positionality. In line with this, the empirical work comprises three main phases: focussed interviews, focus groups and a questionnaire survey. All phases use the author’s definitional construct as their basis. The data collected during the various stages of the empirical research allowed this definitional construct to be further developed. In addition, the findings suggest that, while levels of SCM understanding are generally quite high, there is room for improvement in relation to how this understanding is implemented in practice. In this context, a number of critical success factors and/or barriers to implementation are identified, as are a number of practical measures that could be implemented at policy/supply chain/firm level to improve the level of effective SCM adoption. There are some limitations in the author’s research and their identification allows some potentially fruitful future research avenues to be identified. This research contributes to the extant scholarly knowledge in the field by providing a profile of the current level of adoption of SCM theory in practice in an Irish context, as well as by contributing to scholarly rationalisation and understanding of the process of realising SCM theory in a practical context.
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Fernie, Scott. "Making sense of supply chain management in UK construction organisations : theory versus practice." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2005. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/7740.
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Supply chain management is one of the newest and most fashionable managerial concepts to be sponsored by those organisations responsible for setting the change agenda in the construction sector. Its success elsewhere, its promise of productivity improvement and 'best practice' pedigree form the basis of arguments for its adoption in the construction sector. There are a number of assumptions that underpin this argument that are largely ignored by the promoters of such change and the construction management research community. Most notably, the transferability and utility of supply chain management in the context of organisations competing in the construction sector. However, it is argued in this thesis that these arguments fail to engage with the recursive relationship between context and practice. Managerial practice does not exist in a vacuum. The research therefore sets out to test the theory of supply chain management in the construction sector. In doing so, the research approach is informed by and draws on contextual approaches that are highly sensitive to the recursive relationship between context and practice. A multiple case study research strategy was chosen that sought to provide explanations for how practitioners make sense of supply chain management in the context of their organisations and forms the basis of theory testing. These explanations also provided a wealth of empirical evidence to test the assumptions that underpin calls for change in the construction sector. It is concluded that supply chain management does not make sense in the construction sector and that calls for its adoption lacked intellectual rigour and were indeed acontextual.
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Drake, Matthew J. "The Design of Incentives for the Management of Supply and Demand." Diss., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1853/13965.
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This dissertation analyzes the economic incentives involved in three distinct supply chain and revenue management decision environments. The first study examines the adoption of the percent deviation contract in a supply chain to induce the buyer to share some of the demand risk in an environment in which the buyer would typically place her order when she has full knowledge of the customer demand levels. The subgame-perfect Nash Equilibrium decisions are characterized, and the percent deviation is shown to achieve full supply chain channel coordination in cases where a simpler contract cannot. Pareto-improving examples based on
industry demand data are presented and discussed. The second section considers a revenue management problem for sports and entertainment organizations. Given that the organization starts the selling season by offering ticket packages exclusively, the optimal time during the selling season for the organization to begin selling individual-event tickets is derived. Extensions of the base model are developed to include multiple ticket packages and heterogeneous ticket packages. The model is illustrated using empirical data sets obtained from the Georgia Tech Athletic Department and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The third section develops a model of vendor-controlled category management in which vendors are in charge of the stocking and assortment decisions for a given amount of shelf space at a vendor when the retailer retains control over the retail price. The subgame-perfect Nash Equilibrium strategies for two vendors and a single retailer are analyzed, and a revenue-sharing contract is shown to coordinate the channel when the vendors can produce multiple brands in a given product category and shelf space is sufficiently large or small.
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Marley, Kathryn Ann. "Mitigating supply chain disruptions essays on lean management, interactive complexity, and tight coupling /." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1151680271.
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Jug, Ales. "Social Enterprises in Supply Chains." Digital WPI, 2019. https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/etd-dissertations/574.
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Fire prevention is a critical component in achieving social welfare and prosperity. The lack of worldwide fire prevention leads to an increasing number of fires, as well as to a greater number of fire-related deaths, injuries, and fire-related property damage. Traditionally, fire prevention has been the responsibility of individual governments, while fire prevention duties are usually carried out by local fire departments. Such an approach is very common and is observed globally. Until now, the above response has been successful. For example, due to fire prevention measures applied in the 1990s, the number of fires caused by open flames (such as candles) was significantly reduced. Since 2014, the number of fires in some Western countries (e.g., the US and the UK) shows an increasing trend. In March 2019,11, people have died in fires across Connecticut (O’Neill 2019). From 2017 to 2018, the number of people who died in fires in Mississippi grew by more than 40 percent (Moore 2019). Among the main reasons for this growth are new combustible materials, reduced fire prevention funds, and more dynamic lifestyles. Lack of fire prevention consequently increases fire risks, and, as a result, health inequalities. According to Whitehead and Dahlgren (2007), health inequalities are health differences that are avoidable, unjust, unfair, and unacceptable. The question arises: do current fire prevention services allow sufficient support for people to be safe from fire, specifically in domestic environments? Can social enterprises play a role and how do they fit into the fire prevention supply chain. The purpose of this research is to gain an understanding of social enterprises and their influence on supply chains, in general, and specifically for fire prevention supply chains. This phenomenon is evaluated through the lenses of social capital theory and institutional theory. Research (Rothstein and Stolle 2008) has shown the effects that social capital has on institutions, or simply how can it be used as a strategic resource (Gulati and Gargiulo 1999). Institutional and Social Capital Theories set the foundation of how social enterprises transform and contribute to sustainable supply chains, plus how they solve social problems, specifically fire safety (Patuelli and Savioli 2016). According to Wallace and Wallace (1997), social capital provides a collective resource that can be mobilized by individuals to enable communities to develop resilience against severe threats to public health, such as social exclusion or even unemployment. By identifying three dimensions of sustainable development: techno-economic, ecological and social (Clift 2003; Hutchins and Sutherland 2008; Yakovleva and Sarkis 2010), there are various social capital diffusion mechanisms for building sustainability within supply chains through social enterprise involvement. Transforming supply chains by building social legitimacy and by altering institutional norms, are examples of providing competitive advantages to supply chains and supply chain partners of social enterprises. This research seeks to understand social enterprises and entrepreneurship capabilities transform institutions to strengthen supply chain sustainability. Ideally, these institutions should provide solutions to the problem of decreased awareness of sustainable fire prevention, as well as available resources for fire prevention. This research focus is primarily on social sustainability and safety through fire prevention. The importance of this study lies in our contributions to help diffuse socially sustainable solutions and practices across supply chains. In this case, similar to other social concerns, the problem of fire prevention is a critical one within supply chains and society. Understanding the role of social enterprise to help diffuse these norms and practices help to understand general supply chain sustainability concerns for competitive and social reasons. Methodologically, a qualitative, exploratory method was applied. To analyze the data collected for this research, we used a Thematic Analysis. Three supply chains with social enterprises as a focal firm were investigated. This research contributes by furthering the theory of sustainable supply chains with the involvement of social enterprise; or hybrid organizations - that have both a social and a strategic financial outlook. The research involves the utilization of Thematic Analysis, and semi-structured interviews of three fire prevention-focused supply chains. This study is the first that investigates fire prevention from the perspective of supply chains and social enterprises. The results will inform other types of sustainability and social enterprises, which include humanitarian, environmental, educational, and poverty-based foci.
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Campling, Natasha. "Disconnection : a grounded theory of the user voice in England's wound dressing supply chain." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.655306.
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Al-Mutawah, Khalid. "A study of corporate culture compatibility on supply chain performance." Monash University. Faculty of Information Technology. Clayton School of Information Technology, 2009. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/73965.
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Supply chain systems have become a vital component of successful networked business firms/organisations. Over the last three decades, there has been a dramatic growth globally in the formation of supply chain networks. Research, however, indicates that there has been an increase in reported supply chains failures, and the incompatibility issues between participated organisations. Yet, these incompatibility issues are not just technical, but encompass wider cultural, organisational, and economical factors. Whilst research has shown the effect of such factors on supply chain performance, the influence of achieving corporate culture compatibility to the success of supply chains remains poorly understood. This is because it is widely accepted that organisations that operate in the same region possess a similar culture. In contrast, this research will examine the existence of corporate culture diversity between organisations in the same region, rather than diversity of national culture across different regions. Specifically, the study described the development of corporate culture compatibility between supply chains’ organisations and its influences on supply chain performance. Therefore, the thesis focus is the complex interrelationships between corporate culture compatibility of member organisations and supply chain performance. This research identifies cultural norms and beliefs of supply chain members within key organisational factors, rather than national or multi-national organisations factors, as in Hofstede (1983). A multi-method research design (combining case study, simulation, and neuro-fuzzy methods) was used to provide a rounded perspective on the phenomena studied. The multiple case studies helped to explore how corporate culture compatibility influences supply chain performance and develop a conceptual model for this association. The simulation experiments were conducted to verify the obtained conceptual framework from the multiple case studies, and investigate the effects of changing the corporate culture compatibility level on supply chain performance. The simulation is designed based on a Multi-Agent System (MAS) approach, in which each organisation in a supply chain is represented as an intelligent agent. Finally, a neuro-fuzzy approach is presented to assess corporate culture on supply chains context using real data. The analysis of the quantitative neuro-fuzzy study confirmed and validated the theoretical findings and adds depth to our understanding of the influences of corporate culture compatibility on supply chain performance. The study confirmed that organisations within the same supply chain in the same region possess different corporate cultures that consequently need the achievement of corporate culture compatibility as it is indicated by the literature. Moreover, the study revealed two types of corporate culture in supply chains’ context: individual culture and common culture. Individual culture refers to the internal beliefs within the organisation’s boundary, while common culture refers to beliefs when trading with partners across the organisation’s boundary. However, the study shows that common culture has more influences on supply chain performance than individual culture. In addition, the study highlighted bi-directional association between individual culture and common culture that helps the supply chain’s organisations developing their corporate culture compatibility. The results from the current study also showed that supply chain performance was shown to arise dramatically in response to corporate culture compatibility level increases. Yet, this increase in performance is diminished at a higher level of corporate culture compatibility, because more corporate culture compatibility increases are not cost effective for the organisations. In addition, organisations at a higher level of compatibility have more preferences to preserve their individual culture because it represents their identity. Furthermore, the study complements the gap in the literature related to the assessment of corporate culture of individual organisations in supply chains for sustaining a higher supply chain performance. While current culture assessment models observe individual organisations’ culture, the proposed approach describes a single concentrated model that integrates both individual and common culture in measuring influences of culture compatibility on supply chain performance. The findings from this study provide scholars, consultants, managers, and supply chain systems vendors with valuable information. This research thesis contributes to supply chain configuration and partnership formation theory, along with corporate culture theory, and is the first of its kind to establish the use of intelligent methods to model corporate culture compatibility. It is also one of the first empirical studies to compare corporate culture compatibility of supply chains’ organisations from organisational perspectives, rather than national perspectives.
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Nesrine, Abdel Halim Abdel Mohsen El Tawy. "The impact of buyer supplier partnership on FMCG's supply chain agility : a grounded theory approach." Thesis, Brunel University, 2014. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/13872.
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This research study investigated the influence of maintaining a partnership form of relationship between a Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) multinational company and its core suppliers, on their abilities to achieve supply chain agility. It took place within the Middle East region, where the in-depth case study used for data collection was Unilever (North Africa Middle East). The research also focused on the role played by information technology within Unilever’s (North Africa Middle East) partnership with its core suppliers and the achievement of a high level of agility within their supply chain. In addition to these two main aims, the research also focused on exploring the required attributes of supply chain agility within FMCG industry and also to explore the attributes of buyer-supplier partnership required to help the companies working within this type of industry to achieve agility within their supply chain. To achieve the aims and objectives of this research, this study used qualitative methods for collecting rich and valuable data. Several data collection methods under the umbrella of the in-depth case study approach were used. The methodological approach used by the research was the Grounded Theory approach (Strauss and Corbin, 1990-1998). Data was collected from the case study managerial level in Unilever’s (North Africa Middle East) main clusters within the Middle East in three different rounds, using semi-structured interviews. Data was also collected from five core suppliers for Unilever (North Africa Middle East). The research also used other data collection means, such as documents collected during the researcher’s visits to the case studies and observation. Data was analysed using the steps and procedures of the Grounded Theory approach (Strauss and Corbin, 1990-1998). Data analysis took place in three interrelated iterative steps: open coding process, axial coding process followed by the selective coding process, leading to the generated theory of the research. The findings of the study, as presented in the research’s generated theory, showed that the partnership, with its attributes explored during the research, between Unilever (North Africa Middle East) and its core suppliers can be considered as the starting driver helping the companies working within this type of industry to achieve a higher level of supply chain agility, through the attributes explored during the research. The generated theory also showed that the role played by information technology can be considered as the catalyst in this equation. It played the role of channelling the relationship between the two concepts: buyer-supplier partnership and supply chain agility. Information technology can be considered as the catalyst because the evidence indicates that without it the relationship between Unilever (North Africa Middle East) supplier partnership and supply chain agility would struggle to be achieved. In more detailed, 43 open codes had been derived from the first analysis coding process, and which were derived under the main pre-determined themes: FMCGs industry-based features, Buyer-supplier relationships, Information sharing and information technology, and Agility. These 43 open codes provided the basis for stages 2 and 3 of the analysis. In the axial coding process (the second data analysis), the axial sub categories and the axial categories were determined and the axial paradigm model was used in the analysis. In the final coding process: the selective analysis, the core category of the research was determined to be ‘Partnership existence with core suppliers’. The relationship of this core category with the other elements in the paradigm model namely: casual conditions, context, intervening conditions, action/interactional strategies, and consequences. The research has its own Theoretical, Methodological, and Managerial contributions. Among these contributions is that it can be considered a novel research, using a grounded theory approach to generate a theory, showing the relationship between buyer-supplier partnership and supply chain agility in this dimensional manner.
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Zaharieva, Elissaveta. "Supply chain management and international marketing problems in transitional economies : evidence from the Bulgarian wine industry." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.273515.
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Xu, Dong. "An Integrated Simulation, Learning and Game-theoretic Framework for Supply Chain Competition." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/338942.
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An integrated simulation, learning, and game-theoretic framework is proposed to address the dynamics of supply chain competition. The proposed framework is composed of 1) simulation-based game platform, 2) game solving and analysis module, and 3) multi-agent reinforcement learning module. The simulation-based game platform supports multi-paradigm modeling, such as agent-based modeling, discrete-event simulation, and system dynamics modeling. The game solving and analysis module is designed to include various parts including strategy refinement, data sampling, game solving, equilibrium conditions, solution evaluation, as well as comparative statistics under varying parameter values. The learning module facilitates the decision making of each supply chain competitor under the stochastic and uncertain environments considering different learning strategies. The proposed integrated framework is illustrated for a supply chain system under the newsvendor problem setting in several phases. At phase 1, an extended newsvendor competition considering both the product sale price and service level under an uncertain demand is studied. Assuming that each retailer has the full knowledge of the other retailer's decision space and profit function, we derived the existence and uniqueness conditions of a pure strategy Nash equilibrium with respect to the price and service dominance under additive and multiplicative demand forms. Furthermore, we compared the bounds and obtained various managerial insights. At phase 2, to extend the number of decision variables and enrich the payoff function of the problem considered at phase 1, a hybrid simulation-based framework involving systems dynamics and agent-based modeling is presented, followed by a novel game solving procedure, where the procedural components include strategy refinement, data sampling, gaming solving, and performance evaluation. Various numerical analyses based on the proposed procedure are presented, such as equilibrium accuracy, quality, and asymptotic/marginal stability. At phase 3, multi-agent reinforcement learning technique is employed for the competition scenarios under a partial/incomplete information setting, where each retailer can only observe the opponent' behaviors and adapt to them. Under such a setting, we studied different learning policies and learning rates with different decay patterns between the two competitors. Furthermore, the convergence issues are discussed as well. Finally, the best learning strategies under different problem scenarios are devised.
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Pillay, Poobalan. "An empirical exploration of supply chain constraints facing the construction industry in South Africa." Thesis, Vaal University of Technology, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10352/382.
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The South African Construction Industry is one of the largest contributors to the gross domestic product of the country as well as to employment. It has, however, been experiencing significant challenges due to multifaceted factors. The main objective of this research was to identify the supply chain management constraints within the South African Construction Industry and how these can be overcome. This study is by nature descriptive and exploratory and contains qualitative elements. The problems were identified through a literature review, focused group discussions and interviews with major construction companies in South Africa.
The findings also indicate that the main supply chain management constraints are to a greater extent internal and typical of supply chain methodologies and approaches. These constraints are among others the lack of coordination, collaboration and commitment between suppliers and clients within the supply chain, poor leadership in key areas of systems, design problems (many changes and inconsistent information), deficient internal and external communication and information transfer, inadequate management within the supply chain, mainly poor planning and control just to mention a few.
A model based on supply chain system management as well as the Theory Of Constraints (TOC) has been developed that can be a useful tool to address the constraints in the construction sector. Originating from the study are applicable recommendations for the South African construction industry supply chains, covering key themes that have been articulated in the study, particularly benchmarking to the theory of constrains. Such recommendations include further research core components of supply chain such as, collaborations, logistics and how each of system components can be linked to performance of the supply chain management system.
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Ogunyemi, Titilayo C. "Investigating socially responsible purchasing perceptions : perspective from the food and drink supply chains in Nigeria." Thesis, Brunel University, 2017. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/16089.
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The purpose of this research was to examine how social issues are perceived and addressed in the food and drink sector, focusing on the narrower context of Nigerian purchasing practices, identifying the drivers, and barriers to the adoption of socially responsible purchasing (SRP) in the organisational supply chains. This research is underpinned by the stakeholder and institutional theories with the use of Carroll's CSR pyramid to explain the perceptions of stakeholders and the level at which each of the practices is in the pyramid. An in-depth study was conducted in multinational and indigenous food and drink organisations in Nigeria. Data was gathered from practitioners comprising of employees, managers, and executives by means of questionnaires and semi-structured face-to-face interviews to triangulate data sources. Drawing on the data collected, respondents' perspective of the meaning of socially responsible purchasing provided new insights into the phenomenon with various meanings and contestations. The findings suggest that socially responsible purchasing practices have a moderate positive influence on the organisations' supply chains within an unstable economic environment. Some of the practices were perceived to be voluntary and having an ethical underpinning while others were related to legal responsibilities. The findings suggest that the moderate influence is due to internal and external factors within the institutional environment. This research context was restricted to private organisations in the food and drink sector in Nigeria which might limit the generalisation of the findings. However, the findings may be transferable to other sectors of the economy where socially responsible purchasing issues are addressed in the supply chains. In practice, SRP is perceived to be an important element of CSR and supply chains despite the barriers to its implementation. The practices should be properly implemented to help in the sustenance of organisational supply chains. This research will be insightful for other industrial sectors as well as developing economies in Africa. The findings advance the stakeholder and institutional theories by providing an in-depth perception of various stakeholders and SRP practices within the institutional environment of organisations' supply chains. The research has contributed to enriching the literature on CSR and supply chains sustainability in Nigeria which has a relative shortage of literature on CSR and supply chain.
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Topp, Jessie Marie. "The role of sustainability reporting in the agri-food supply chain." Thesis, Kansas State University, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/19082.
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Master of ScienceDepartment of Communications and Agricultural Education
Jason D. Ellis
Agricultural sustainability is a growing concern for the general public because of agriculture’s considerable use of land, water, and other natural resources. In response to this growing concern, companies have started to publish sustainability reports to highlight sustainable practices. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of sustainability reporting from companies in the agri-food supply chain. The research objectives of this study were (1) determine the prevalence of sustainability reporting among food system companies, (2) identify, to what extent, the three components of the triple bottom line model are represented in sustainability reports, (3) determine if/how sustainability reporting differs among sectors of the agriculture supply chain, (4) assess how companies describe stakeholder engagement in sustainability reports, and (5) explore which aspects of reputation are included in sustainability reports. In total, 66 agribusinesses were included in this study of which 16 had published sustainability reports. Data for the quantitative content analysis were collected using a scorecard based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. Results indicated that sustainability reporting is limited among companies involved in the agriculture and food supply chain. Though better than sectors studied in previous research, agribusinesses also struggle to explain stakeholder engagement and need to focus sustainability report content to align more closely with the three components of the triple bottom line model – environment, economic, and social.
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Radanliev, Petar. "A conceptual framework for supply : supply chain systems architecture and integration design based on practice and theory in the North Wales slate mining industry." Thesis, University of South Wales, 2014. https://pure.southwales.ac.uk/en/studentthesis/a-conceptual-framework-for-supply(1f84ee4b-b348-426b-94ed-2259bc1c716c).html.
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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.
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Tran, Huong Thi. "Framework to Evaluate Entropy Based Data Fusion Methods in Supply Chain Management." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2016. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc955034/.
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This dissertation explores data fusion methodology to deduce an overall inference from the data gathered from multiple heterogeneous sources. Typically, if there existed a data source in which the data were reliable and unbiased, then data fusion would not be necessary. Data fusion methodology combines data form multiple diverse sources so that the desired information - such as the population mean - is improved despite redundancies, inaccuracies, biases, and inflated variability in the data. Examples of data fusion include estimating average demand from similar sources, and integrating fatality counts from different media sources after a catastrophe. The approach in this study combines "inputs" from distinct sources so that the information is "fused." Another way of describing this process is "data integration." Important assumptions are 1. Several sources provide "inputs" for information used to estimate parameters of a probability distribution. 2. Since distributions for the data from the sources are heterogeneous, some sources are less reliable. 3. Distortions, bias, censorship, and systematic errors may be more prominent in data from certain sources. 4. The sample size of sources data, number of "inputs," may be very small. Examples of information from multiple sources are abundant: traffic information from sensors at intersections, multiple economic indicators from various sources, demand data for product using similar retail stores as sources, polling data from various sources, and disaster count of fatalities from different media sources after a catastrophic event. This dissertation seeks to address a gap in the operations literature by addressing three research questions regarding entropy base data fusion (EBDF) approaches to estimation. Three separate, but unifying, essays address the research questions for this dissertation. Essay 1 provides an overview of supporting literature for the research questions. A numerical analysis of airline maximum wait time data illustrates the underlying issues involved in EBDF methods. This essay addresses the research question: Why consider alternative entropy-based weighting methods? Essay 2 introduces 13 data fusion methods. A Monte Carlo simulation study examines the performance of these methods in estimating the mean parameter of a population with either a normal or lognormal distribution. This essay addresses the following research questions: 1. Can an alternative formulation for Shannon's entropy enhance the performance of Sheu (2010)'s data fusion approach? 2. Do symmetric and skewed distributions affect the 13 data fusion methods differently? 3. Do negative and positive biases affect the performance of the 13 methods differently? 4. Do entropy based data fusion methods outperform non-entropy based data fusion methods? 5. Which data fusion methods are recommended for symmetric and skewed data sets when no bias is present? What is the recommendation under conditions of few data sources? Essay 3 explores the use of the data fusion method estimates of the population mean in a newsvendor problem. A Monte Carlo simulation study investigates the accuracy of the using the estimates provided in Essay 2 as the parameter estimate for the distribution of demand that follows an exponential distribution. This essay addresses the following research questions: 1. Do data fusion methods with relatively strong performance in estimating the parameter mean estimate also provide relatively strong performance in estimating the optimal demand under a given ratio of overage and underage costs? 2. Do any of the data fusion methods deteriorate or improve with the introduction of positive and negative bias? 3. Do the alternative entropy formulations to Shannon's entropy enhance the performance of the methods on a relative basis? 4. Is the relative rank ordering performance of the data fusion methods different in Essay 2 and Essay 3 in the resulting performances of the methods? The contribution of this research is to introduce alternative EBDF methods, and to establish a framework for using EBDF methods in supply chain decision making. A comparative Monte Carlo simulation analysis study will provide a basis to investigate the robustness of the proposed data fusion methods for estimation of population parameters in a newsvendor problem with known distribution, but unknown parameter. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to determine the effect of multiple sources, sample size, and distributions.
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Greening, Philip. "The influence of market structure, collaboration and price competition on supply network disruptions in open and closed markets." Thesis, Cranfield University, 2013. http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/8473.
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The relaxation of international boundaries has enabled the globalisation of
markets making available an ever increasing number of specialised suppliers
and markets. Inevitably this results in supply chains sharing suppliers and
customers reflected in a network of relationships.
Within this context firms buyers configure their supply relationships based on
their perception of supply risk. Risk is managed by either increasing trust or
commitment or by increasing the number of suppliers. Increasing trust and
commitment facilitates collaboration and reduces the propensity for a supplier to
exit the relationship. Conversely, increasing the number of suppliers reduces
dependency and increases the ease of making alternative supply
arrangements.
The emergent network of relationships is dynamic and complex, and due in no
small part to the influence of inventory management practices, tightly coupled.
This critical organization of the network describes a system that contrary to
existing supply chain conceptualisation exists far from equilibrium, requiring a
different more appropriate theoretical lens through which to view them.
This thesis adopts a Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) perspective to position
supply networks as tightly coupled complex systems which according to Normal
Accident Theory (NAT) are vulnerable to disruptions as a consequence of
normal operations. The consequential boundless and emergent nature of supply
networks makes them difficult to research using traditional empirical methods,
instead this research builds a generalised supply network agent based
computer model, allowing network constituents (agents) to take autonomous
parallel action reflecting the true emergent nature of supply networks.
This thesis uses the results from a series of carefully designed computer
experiments to elucidate how supply networks respond to a variety of market
structures and permitted agent behaviours. Market structures define the vertical
(between tier) and horizontal (within tier) levels of price differentiation. Within
each structure agents are permitted to autonomously modify their prices
(constrained by market structure) and collaborate by sharing demand
information.
By examining how supply networks respond to different permitted agent
behaviours in a range of market structures this thesis makes 4 contributions.
Firstly, it extends NAT by incorporating the adaptive nature of supply network
constituents. Secondly it extends supply chain management by specifying
supply networks as dynamic not static phenomena. Thirdly it extends supply
chain risk management through developing an understanding of the impact
different permitted behaviour combinations on the networks vulnerability to
disruptions in the context of normal operations. Finally by developing the
understanding how normal operations impact a supply networks vulnerability to
disruptions it informs the practice of supply chain risk management.
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Alexander, Anthony Edward. "Sustainable supply chain management and decision theory : a qualitative exploration using planetary boundaries and social foundations." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2016. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/96059/.
Full textAbstract:
The research considers the use of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) policies as a means to forge a bridge beween the micro scale of individual firm operations and the macro scale of ecological and societal impact(referred to as Kleindorfer's Challenge). Qualitative case study research is undertaken across different economic sectors identified with specific macro-scale challenges that are taken as a more precise and up-to-date definition for sustainability. This research assumes the plaentary boundaries (PB) framework, developed by environmental scientists led by Rockstrom & Steffen et al., and the social foundations (SF) framework, from international development, defined by Raworth & Leach et al. as the basis of the definition used. Eight firms grouped into five case studies are subjected to in-depth investigation into how they relate their own activities to sustainabiity outcomes via their SSCM policy and the barriers they face. To understand the nature of knowledge versus uncertainty within each firm, decision theory is adopted and elaborated in the context of sustainability. In particular, Snowden's Cynefin framework and Keeney's value-focussed decision analysis are adopted as aspects of the dominant logic for each firm. This shapes their decision making abilities when faced with complexities and ambiguities in delivery SSCM in the context of various external pressures (notably from legislative, investor and customer demands). The resulting evidence informs a model of substantive sustainability, whereby firms with substantive impacts are distinguished from those without substantive impacts, in terms of the PB+SF framemworks. This helps firms realise the extent to which they should be concerned about sustainability issues, with some firms having a disconnect between their stated goals and their actual influence, and other firms with substantial impacts receiving insufficient attention from academia and practice.
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Jraisat, Luai Eid. "Information sharing in an export supply chain relationship : the case of the Jordanian fresh fruit and vegetable export industry." Thesis, Brunel University, 2010. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/5076.
Full textAbstract:
The aim of this research is to develop, examine and validate a conceptual framework, which explains factors of the export supply chain relationship focusing on information sharing in export supply chain management field. This research seeks to understand the dyadic exporter-producer relationship in the export industry of fresh fruit and vegetables from Jordan to the European Union. Jordan supplies very limited fresh fruit and vegetable exports to the European market and the exporter-producer relationships are still weak, which impedes the emergence of a high performance supply chain within this promising market. There has been a lack of conceptual and empirical research on information sharing, which limits the understanding of the business relationship and there is no theoretical framework analysing export supply chain relationships. Therefore, this research examines the possible association between the following factors: relationship, network and transaction dimensions; information sharing; and export performance. A framework for the influence of information sharing on a dyadic exporter-producer relationship of supply chain management guiding this research is developed initially, based on three perspectives: relationship marketing theory, network theory and transaction cost theory. Qualitative methodology is used to achieve the research aim and objectives in Jordan. The research is comprised of two phases. In phase one, seven interviews with experts are conducted to refine the initial framework for key propositions and propose a framework for supply chain management. In phase two, there are ten multiple-case studies, which contain 40 semi-structured interviews, 40 hours of observations and archival records. These cases are primarily conducted with the selected exporter and producer firms in the export industry of fresh fruit and vegetables. Data are collected and analysed, based on key themes and a case study protocol, which individually explore each exporter-producer relationship ―case‖ in order to examine the proposed framework. Finally, the ten cases are cross-analysed to explain the key findings and to match them to the framework in order to validate it as the final conceptual framework for supply chain management. The research findings support the central premise that specific dimensions of relationships, networks and transactions are the key antecedents of information sharing, which in turn influences export performance. The findings confirm that the exporters and the producers are able to support their relationships through the benefits gained from these dimensions at the relationship, network and transaction levels of the export III Information Sharing in an Export Supply Chain Relationship Luai Jraisat supply chain. It is through this alignment that firms create better information sharing between them. Likewise, the findings suggest that firms will be able to gain strategic advantages from supply chain management based on information sharing and its components, namely content, sharing methods, sources and value, thus suggesting that the firms should apply information sharing to improve financial and non-financial export performance. The research makes key contributions to theory and methodology, and has policy and managerial implications. Theoretical contributions are made to the supply chain management literature by providing a holistic framework for supply chain management to understand the exporter-producer relationship. The research expands on the applications of the three perspectives combined and focuses on information sharing as a key factor. Methodological contributions are offered as this research connects the qualitative methodology to the theory, enabling an analytical generalisation of supply chain management relationships by examining both sides of the dyadic relationship to guide their information sharing. This research expands more on the validity and reliability aspects to ensure the strength of this qualitative empirical research. Policy and managerial implications are addressed for managers and policy-makers. The research limitations and guidelines for future research are discussed.
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Meyer, Stephan. "Energieeffizienzsteigerung entlang der Supply Chain – Entscheidungsmodell zur wertschöpfungskettenorientierten Emissionsminderung in Transformationsländern." Doctoral thesis, Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2012. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-83577.
Full textAbstract:
Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht wie rationale Entscheidungsfindungen in Transformationsländern katalysiert werden können, indem durch den Fokus auf die internationale Wertschöpfungskette Synergieeffekte zwischen den Unternehmen genutzt und in deren Folge die Transaktionskosten, für Investitionsentscheidungen in energieeffiziente Technologien und Prozesse zur Erfüllung der Emissionsreduktionen, gesenkt werden können. Es wird das Wirken der Marktmechanismen analysiert und der Fokus auf die Transformationstheorie sowie die Ingenieurwissenschaften gelegt. Das Supply Chain Management, als anwendungsorientierte Realwissenschaft mit expliziter Ausrichtung auf Wertschöpfungsprozesse, wird in Bezug auf strategische Investitionsentscheidungen im Allgemeinen und Investitionen in Energieeffizienzmaßnahmen im Speziellen, weiterentwickelt. Mit Hilfe einer empirisch basierten Fallstudie werden die abgeleiteten Erkenntnisse einer kritischen Prüfung unterzogen und beispielhaft dargestellt, wie das entwickelte Entscheidungsmodell eingesetzt werden kann.
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Jamil, Kazi Safayat, and Manuel Soares. "Ensuring Supply Chain Resilience in the Food Retail Industry during COVID-19 : The Case for the Food Retail Companies in Sweden using Resource-Based View Theory." Thesis, Jönköping University, IHH, Marketing and Logistics, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-52539.
Full textAbstract:
Background: COVID-19 has brought so many changes in the business environment and in the ways of doing business. Food retail companies in Sweden have been trying to cope with the changes and challenges and have made necessary decisions to become resilient. It is in their urge to become resilient; however, the implementation is arduous at times. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is two-folded. One is to know the supply chain inefficiencies, and the other is to understand how the inefficiencies can be mitigated through the actions of the supply chain professionals. Method: Semi-structured questions have been asked in the interviews to gather in-depth insights from the industry expert. The interviews were taken from the branch managers of food retail stores in Sweden. The analysis has been done based on the content analysis. Findings: Content analysis assisted the emergence of the factors. It was done by analyzing the quotes from the branch managers. Therefore, the relationship between the characteristics and the RBV theory has been scrutinized. Conclusion: The purpose of the thesis was to find the inefficiencies of the food retail supply chain in pandemic times. Also, it was to find the solution about how the supply chain inefficiencies can be tackled to ensure supply chain resilience in the food retail stores in Sweden. For that purpose, data have been collected right from the field where the action takes place, and therefore, the data have been analyzed. Hence, the problems have been found, and the solutions have been recommended.
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Wang, Yiting. "A game theory approach for the collaborative planning of production and transportation activities in the supply chain." Thesis, Bordeaux, 2018. http://www.theses.fr/2018BORD0058/document.
Full textAbstract:
L’étude de la planification entre partenaires coopérant au sein d’une chaine logistique au niveau tactique fait l’objet de cette thèse. Le présent travail se focalise plus particulièrement sur la coordination des processus de planification des activités de transport et de production, autour d’une nouvelle approche fondée sur la théorie des jeux. Deux situations de coopération sont considérées, selon le caractère homogène ou hétérogène des partenaires ; ainsi une première étude est menée sur un ensemble d’opérateurs de transport pour ensuite être étendue à la relation entre l’entreprise manufacturière et les transporteurs qui travaillent avec elle. L’expérimentation s’appuie sur des modèles mathématiques en programmation linéaire pour simuler les processus de planification des différents groupes de partenaires (également appelés coalitions), un protocole de coopération utilisant certaines propriétés liées à la théorie des jeux et sur une répartition équitable des gains / coûts telle que préconisée par la valeur de Shapley. Les modèles et l’ensemble du protocole sont appliqués à deux cas d’étude basés sur des jeux de données réalistesThis thesis focuses on the collaboration between partners inside supply chain at the tactical level of planning. This work aims to develop a new approach based on game theory to solve the problem of coordinating processes concerned by production and transportation planning decision making. Two types of coalitions cooperative games are implemented according to the nature of partners: the cooperation between homogeneous partners concerns multiple transport operators while the other case is more on the relationships between heterogeneous partners including one manufacturer and multiple transport operators. The coordination is supported by mathematical models implemented in linear programming which simulate the planning process within the various possible pools of partners, also called “coalitions”. These models are used in a gains/costs sharing protocol between the partners which is based on the Shapley value. Some basic properties are checked in order to verify if the cooperation is valid. The models and the protocol are assessed on theoretical test cases based on realistic data sets
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"Three Essays on Theorizing Supply Chain-Make Versus Supply Chain-Buy." Doctoral diss., 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.44428.
Full textAbstract:
abstract: The dissertation aims to provide a new perspective on the management of multi-tier supply chains. When a firm decides to buy a product from a supplier, the buying firm also needs to decide whether to use the supplier to make the lower-tier sourcing decisions or to make those decisions in-house. I call the former "supply chain-buy" and the latter "supply chain-make." If the choice is supply chain-buy, the buying firm releases sourcing control of its bill of materials (BOM) to the top-tier supplier and this supplier, then engages with the supply base to determine the BOM's supply chain. If the choice is supply chain-make, the buying firm maintains sourcing control of the BOM and engages with its own supply base to select the lower-tier suppliers. The dissertation provides a theoretical foundation and empirical observations for understanding the supply chain make-buy decisions. The dissertation consists of three main chapters: Chapter 2 extends the make-or-buy literature into the multi-tier supply management context to provide theoretical reasons for engaging in supply chain-make as opposed to supply chain-buy. Building on transaction cost economics, the knowledge-based view, and structural hole theory, Chapter 2 explains the phenomenon that cannot be fully explained by a single-theoretic perspective. Chapter 3 empirically investigates the economic and behavioral factors that influence individual purchasing managers' supply chain make-buy decision-making. Specifically, the roles of behavioral uncertainty, interpersonal trust, and familiarity are considered. A scenario-based behavioral experiment involving the members of the Institute for Supply Management is employed. Lastly, Chapter 4 studies the performance implications of particular supply network structures influenced by supply chain make-buy decisions. Supply chain make-buy decisions can affect the prevalence of structural holes in supply networks. Chapter 4 investigates the different types of structural holes in supply networks. It provides a novel way of understanding structural holes in the supply network context by distinguishing structural holes between the focal firm's suppliers (horizontal structural holes) from those between its customers and suppliers (vertical structural holes). Panel data on supply networks and firm financial indicators are used for analysis in Chapter 4.Dissertation/Thesis
Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2017
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Cheng, Ya-Yun, and 鄭雅云. "Applications of Fuzzy Set Theory in Supply Chain Management." Thesis, 2001. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/01064259482373604237.
Full textAbstract:
碩士元智大學
工業工程研究所
89
The study offers a fuzzy linear supply chain model that operates in an uncertain environment. It shows that the external supplier reliability and the external consumer demand are the major factors of the uncertainty. This study uses fuzzy sets to explain the uncertainty of linear supply chain, and its major goal is to determine the order quantities for each inventory in the supply chain, that give an acceptable service level of the supply chain at reasonable total cost (to minimize both holding cost and shortage cost in each stock period). In addition, two control concepts of the supply chain are treated: (1) fully decentralized control of each inventory and (2) partial coordinate control in the inventories. These two methods can individually turn out the best fuzzy decision and evaluate the supply chain performance as well. The results of this study are as follows. (1)The best order quantities of the fuzzy linear supply chain model using fuzzy sets to explain the uncertainty is a fuzzy decision. It shows that the best order quantities will be relatively changed according to different possibilities of goods need from the possibilities of the external supplier reliability and the external consumer demand. (2) When the possibilities of the external supplier reliability and the external consumer demand become increasing, the best order quantities turns out more clearly. On the other hand, when these two possibilities mentioned above become decreasing, the best order quantities turns out more fuzzily. (3) By using fully decentralized control to plan order quantities and inventories in each inventory of the linear supply chain, it reflects that the best order quantities in each inventory turns out the same. (4) By using partial coordinate control to plan order quantities and inventories in each inventory of the linear supply chain, it reflects that the difference compared with fully decentralized control is that the best order quantities in each inventory turns out differently. (5) When the possibilities of the external supplier reliability and the external consumer demand become increasing, the fill rate of the supply chain is also relatively increasing. On the other hand, when the possibilities mentioned above become decreasing, the fill rate of the supply chain is decreasing too. (6) Partial coordinate control can result a better fill rate of the supply chain. Thus, in case consumer’s satisfaction serves as the sole factor for decision making, then the method of partial coordinate control is recommended to use so as to plan order quantities and inventories in each inventory of the linear supply chain. (7) Fully decentralized control can result a better control on the cost of the supply chain. Thus, in case cost control serves as the sole factor for decision making, then the method of fully decentralized control is recommended to use so as to plan order quantities and inventories in each inventory of the linear supply chain.
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Tong, Jordan David. "Inventory Management and Supply Chain Finance: Theory and Empirics." Diss., 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10161/5761.
Full textAbstract:
A payment scheme specifies when payments are made between firms in a supply chain. It has direct implications on how supply chain inventory is financed and managed. Longer supply chains due to globalization and the recent credit crisis have increased the pressure to make financing the supply chain more efficient. It was recently reported that 81% of UK firms say that market conditions have brought procurement and finance strategies in closer alignment. Meanwhile, information technology platform advancements provide opportunity for increased variety of payment schemes. It is therefore important to understand how different payment schemes should be captured in inventory decisions. This dissertation examines the impact of supply chain finance (the set of financial payment transactions that are triggered by supply chain events) on inventory management from both normative and behavioral perspectives.
We seek to address the following questions. From a normative perspective: How does the optimal inventory policy depend on the supply chain financing structure? What is the right inventory financing scheme for a supply chain? From a behavioral perspective: How do real managers psychologically process payments when making inventory decisions, and how are they affected by the supply chain financing scheme? The results are reported in three chapters, described below.
In the first chapter, "Payment schemes and the financed inventory," we present a model of payment schemes in an echelon supply chain. A payment scheme specifies when payments are made between firms. Standard inventory decision models make strict assumptions about the payment scheme in order to avoid explicitly tracking financial flows. These assumptions, however, often do not hold in practice. We show that these assumptions can be relaxed. In particular, we introduce a model that allows us to track the financial flow of inventory models depending on the inventory policy and the payment scheme. We also define two new measures - financed inventory and margin backorders. These new measures allow us to leverage the structure of the payment scheme to define an equivalent problem that does not have to explicitly track financial flows. We apply this method to the base stock model and economic order quantity model to demonstrate the sensitivity of the optimal inventory policy to the payment scheme. Our results provide simple closed-form formulas for inventory managers and also sheds light on what is the right payment scheme for a supply chain.
The second chapter, "The effect of payment schemes on inventory decisions: The role of mental accounting," focuses on managerial behavior: how do manager's mentally process and evaluate payments when making an inventory decision? Keeping the net profit structure constant, we study how the payment scheme affects inventory decisions in the newsvendor problem. Specifically, we examine three payment schemes which can be interpreted as the inventory order being financed 1) by the newsvendor herself, 2) by the supplier, and 3) by the customer. We find in laboratory experiments that the order quantities may be higher or lower than the expected profit-maximizing solution depending on the payment scheme. Specifically, the order quantity under newsvendor own financing is greater than that under supplier financing, which is, in turn, greater than the order quantity under customer financing. This observed behavior biases orders in the opposite direction as what a regular or hyperbolic time-discounted utility model would predict, and cannot be explained by loss aversion models. Instead, the findings are consistent with a model that underweights the order-time payments, which is consistent with the "prospective accounting" assumption in the mental accounting literature. A second study shows the results hold even if all actual payments are conducted at the same time, suggesting that the framing of the payment scheme is sufficient to induce mental accounting of payments at different times. We further validate the robustness of our model under different profit-margin conditions. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the psychological processes involved in newsvendor decisions and have implications for supply chain financing practices and supply chain contract design.
The third chapter, "Reference prices and transaction utility in inventory decisions," studies another aspect of mental accounting in inventory decisions - the phenomenon that individuals often view a price as relative to other prices when making an evaluation. We present a descriptive model of the effects of reference prices and transaction utility in a newsvendor setting. The model predicts that an individual's order is irrationally increasing in past purchasing costs, decreasing in past selling prices, and decreasing in the proportion of high profit margin to low profit margin products in the decision portfolio. Three laboratory experiments support the model's predictions. These results suggest that managerial supervision and/or intervention are most valuable after a sudden increase or decrease in the cost or price of a product, or for a product that differs significantly in profit margin from other products in the category. We further extend the study to a supply chain setting. We show analytically that the supplier's optimal wholesale price is lower when the newsvendor is subject to reference effects compared to when the newsvendor is rational, and that the supplier's optimal retail price may be higher or lower depending on whether the reference effect is stronger for the newsvendor or for customers. Finally, we show that supply chains may suffer from a behavioral inefficiency we call a behavioral price whip: an increase in the transfer price between two nodes may influence the upstream node to order more than is rational while the downstream node demands less than is rational. These results suggest that suppliers should carefully evaluate the reference effect on both customers and retailers, and that everyday low pricing has a behavioral benefit over high-low pricing.
Dissertation
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Sanajian, Nima. "Supply Chain Design - Competitive and Financial Perspectives." Thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1807/35071.
Full textAbstract:
In this thesis we study problems in the context of inventory control and facility location. In chapter 2 we study the competition among risk averse newsvendors. We showed that the well-known result for the single-product monopoly firm, which states higher risk aversion causes the firm to reduce its order quantity, cease to hold under the competition. We concluded that the higher risk aversion does not necessarily cause both firms to reduce their order quantity. We showed that the impact of risk aversion on equilibrium quantities is a trade-off between two effects: (a) Own risk aversion increment which causes that the firm reduces its order quantity and (b) Effect of spillover demand from competitor which causes that the firm increases its order quantity. We also show which firm raises its order quantity as both firms become more risk averse depending on their attributes: profitability ratio (overstocking to understocking ratio), initial risk aversion level and demand characteristic (distribution and substitution). In Chapter 3, we study how the operational decisions of a firm's manager depend on her own incentives, the capital structure, and financial decisions in the context of the newsvendor framework. We showed that in contrast to common practices, tying the manager's compensation to stock price (equity value) may not be optimal for shareholders. We propose to tie the managers' compensation to the firm value or include a debt-like instrument in the compensation package to mitigate the risk taking behaviour of the managers. We also show how the board of directors can modify the compensation structure based on the state of the economy and publicly available information about company's demand. In Chapter 4, we study the effect of risk attitude of decision makers on well-known location problems with uncertain demand. In addition to providing mathematical formulations for those problems, we also discussed how we can solve these problems using linearization techniques. We also shed some light on the importance of considering the volatility and correlation structure. Furthermore, we apply a Bayesian updating method, a useful tool for updating the probability distribution to incorporate the consultants' view about uncertain factors in location problems.
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Sen, Gupta Rajorshi. "Management of Intellectual Property in Supply Chain Outsourcing." Thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2012-08-11855.
Full textAbstract:
Firms outsource productive tasks to different locations in order to exploit factor price differentials and gain efficiencies from specialization. However, the benefits of outsourcing come with two risks. The first problem occurs when firms share their pre-existing intellectual property (IP) such as database and trade secrets with contractors. While IP is shared to facilitate the outsourcing project, the contractor may behave opportunistically and misappropriate the IP for its own benefit. Since firms derive significant value from their IP, this can lead to severe economic damages in terms of reduced market share and brand value. The second agency problem arises due to non-contractible effort exerted by the contractor. Depending on the outsourced task, shirking can lead to higher costs and poor quality product. In this dissertation, contractual solutions are developed to mitigate these agency problems associated with outsourcing.
First, several IP misappropriation cases are enumerated in the context of outsourcing. The existing literature is reviewed and the limitations are addressed in the light of these actual cases. Second, theoretical models are developed by considering two forms of IP misappropriation, depending on whether a R&D contractor emerges as a direct competitor of the principal firm, or the contractor sells the principal?s IP to a competitor. Contracts are developed to implement a ?carrot and stick? strategy, whereby firms share limited IP with their contractor and also provide incentive payments to deter shirking problem. It is shown that complementary strategies like product differentiation, task modularization, and investment in technological solutions can be useful when legal enforcement is weak. It is also demonstrated that even under the possibility of IP misappropriation; firms may gain from outsourcing if in-house inefficiency is high. However, if legal enforcement is weak, outsourcing would entail higher transaction costs. Finally, an event study is conducted to examine the effect of trade secret misappropriation on the value of Lexar. While Lexar is still outsourcing, it is explored how Lexar survived the IP misappropriation problem through product differentiation and marketing strategies.
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Chen, Miao-Pei, and 陳苗霈. "Allocation of cost savings in information sharing supply chain using cooperative game theory- A case of the tourism souvenir supply chain." Thesis, 2017. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/a624qw.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立臺灣大學
工業工程學研究所
105
With the development of Internet and e-commerce, the issue of information sharing is considered the most important key to the cost savings. Through information sharing, it can help the upstream player, which is manufacturer predict the demand of the market accurately. Further, it can reduce the costs of excess inventory or the costs of out of stock. It can also reduce a great influence of the bullwhip effect. In the past, although there are a lot of methods to use information sharing to save the cost, it does not combine the current trend to allocate the cost of the player in the supply chain. In this study, we construct the platform and develop a new business model in the supply chain. We can use the platform to obtain the demand information and cooperate with each other to implement information sharing. The goal is to save the more costs and obtain the optimal allocation in the supply chain. Therefore, we use the cooperative game theory to analyze and allocate the cost savings. Finally, we can find the optimal cooperation in the supply chain. Specifically, we concern with the tourism souvenir supply chain as an example.
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Tseng, Jui-Yu, and 曾瑞煜. "Game Theory Approach for Cooperative Advertising in Manufacturer-Retailer Supply Chain." Thesis, 2008. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/06959479894036827473.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立清華大學
工業工程與工程管理學系
96
Cooperative advertising is an interactive relationship between a manufacturer and a retailer in which the retailer initiates and implements a local advertisement and the manufacturer shares part of the costs. Except cooperative advertising, the manufacturer uses the national advertising to strengthen the brand image and the retailer stimulates consumer’s buying behavior by the local advertising. Therefore, the main reason for the manufacturer to use cooperative advertising is to motivate immediate sales, and for the retailer is to reduce his total advertisement expenditure. In this thesis, we focus on the cooperative advertising with discounts and without discounts and proposed three models to define the relationships. These three models included two non-cooperative game structures which are Stackelberg game and Nash game as well as one cooperative model. We derive the solutions of three models by mathematical programming model, and present the comparisons by their results. Furthermore, we showed several examples to illustrate the cooperative advertising models and proposed the procedure for strategy decision. According to the procedure, the manufacturer determines whether a price deduction percentage will increase his profit. If a price deduction percentage will increase manufacturer’s profit, and both players choose the same model, then the manufacturer will derive an optimal price deduction percentage to obtain the optimal profit. However, if the manufacturer and the retailer choose different models, then we suggest them to do fully coordinative cooperative advertising.
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Hsu, Chien-hua, and 許建華. "Antecedents, Collaboration and Supply Chain Performance:A Perspective of Social Exchange Theory." Thesis, 2008. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/60148662594899459858.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立中正大學
資訊管理所
96
In the modern society, with the development of information technology, the interaction or collaboration between companies is increasingly complicated. Therefore, improving the efficiency of supply chain performance is an essential issue under such variable circumstances. In present supply chain, upstream and downstream enterprise''s interaction and collaboration act important factors. We can understand that the four factors（trust, commitment, reciprocity and power） based on social exchange theory that can affect both inter-organization information sharing and the collaboration. Object of study is first 1500 enterprises in Taiwan. The findings are that the four factors affect information sharing and the three factors affect collaboration. Both information sharing and collaboration can improve supply chain performance.