Search results for: critical chain

Authors: Malihe Shahidan, Azin Madhi, Meisam Shahbaz

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In recent decades, the role of supply chains in sustaining businesses and establishing their superiority in the market has been under focus. The realization of the goals and strategies of a business enterprise is largely dependent on the cooperation of the chain, including suppliers, distributors, retailers, etc. Supply chains can potentially be disrupted by both internal and external factors. In this paper, resilience strategies have been identified and analyzed in three levels: sourcing, producing, and distributing by considering economic depression as a current risk factor for the machine-made rugs industry. In this study, semi-structured interviews for data gathering and thematic analysis for data analysis are applied. Supply chain data has been gathered from seven rug factories before and after the economic depression through semi-structured interviews. The identified strategies were derived from literature review and validated by collecting data from a group of eighteen industry and university experts, and the results were analyzed using statistical tests. Finally, the outsourcing of new products and products in the new market, the development and completion of the product portfolio, the flexibility in the composition and volume of products, the expansion of the market to price-sensitive, direct sales, and disintermediation have been determined as strategies affecting supply chain resilience of machine-made rugs' industry during an economic depression.

Keywords: distribution, economic depression, machine-made rug, outsourcing, production, sourcing, supply chain, supply chain resilience

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Authors: Arunava Chakrabarti

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A one-dimensional chain of magnetic atoms, representative of a quantum gas in an artificial quasi-periodic potential and modeled by the well-known Aubry-Andre function and its variants are studied in respect of its capability of working as a spin filter for arbitrary spins. The basic formulation is explained in terms of a perfectly periodic chain first, where it is shown that a definite correlation between the spin S of the incoming particles and the magnetic moment h of the substrate atoms can open up a gap in the energy spectrum. This is crucial for a spin filtering action. The simple one-dimensional chain is shown to be equivalent to a 2S+1 strand ladder network. This equivalence is exploited to work out the condition for the opening of gaps. The formulation is then applied for a one-dimensional chain with quasi-periodic variation in the site potentials, the magnetic moments and their orientations following an Aubry-Andre modulation and its variants. In addition, we show that a certain correlation between the system parameters can generate absolutely continuous bands in such systems populated by Bloch like extended wave functions only, signaling the possibility of a metal-insulator transition. This is a case of correlated disorder (a deterministic one), and the results provide a non-trivial variation to the famous Anderson localization problem. We have worked within a tight binding formalism and have presented explicit results for the spin half, spin one, three halves and spin five half particles incident on the magnetic chain to explain our scheme and the central results.

Keywords: Aubry-Andre model, correlated disorder, localization, spin filter

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Authors: Marco F. Benaglia, Mei H. Chen, Kune M. Tsai, Chia H. Hung

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As societal and family structures, consumer dietary habits, and awareness about food safety and quality continue to evolve in most developed countries, the demand for refrigerated and frozen foods has been growing, and the issues related to their preservation have gained increasing attention. A well-established cold chain logistics system is essential to avoid any temperature abuse; therefore, assessing potential disruptions in the operational processes of cold chain logistics centers becomes pivotal. This study preliminarily employs HACCP to find disruption factors in cold chain logistics centers that may cause temperature abuse. Then, concept mapping is applied: selected experts engage in brainstorming sessions to identify any further factors. The panel consists of ten experts, including four from logistics and home delivery, two from retail distribution, one from the food industry, two from low-temperature logistics centers, and one from the freight industry. Disruptions include equipment-related aspects, human factors, management aspects, and process-related considerations. The areas of observation encompass freezer rooms, refrigerated storage areas, loading docks, sorting areas, and vehicle parking zones. The experts also categorize the disruption factors based on perceived similarities and build a similarity matrix. Each factor is evaluated for its impact, frequency, and investment importance. Next, multiple scale analysis, cluster analysis, and other methods are used to analyze these factors. Simultaneously, key disruption factors are identified based on their impact and frequency, and, subsequently, the factors that companies prioritize and are willing to invest in are determined by assessing investors’ risk aversion behavior. Finally, Cumulative Prospect Theory (CPT) is applied to verify the risk patterns. 66 disruption factors are found and categorized into six clusters: (1) "Inappropriate Use and Maintenance of Hardware and Software Facilities", (2) "Inadequate Management and Operational Negligence", (3) "Product Characteristics Affecting Quality and Inappropriate Packaging", (4) "Poor Control of Operation Timing and Missing Distribution Processing", (5) "Inadequate Planning for Peak Periods and Poor Process Planning", and (6) "Insufficient Cold Chain Awareness and Inadequate Training of Personnel". This study also identifies five critical factors in the operational processes of cold chain logistics centers: "Lack of Personnel’s Awareness Regarding Cold Chain Quality", "Personnel Not Following Standard Operating Procedures", "Personnel’s Operational Negligence", "Management’s Inadequacy", and "Lack of Personnel’s Knowledge About Cold Chain". The findings show that cold chain operators prioritize prevention and improvement efforts in the "Inappropriate Use and Maintenance of Hardware and Software Facilities" cluster, particularly focusing on the factors of "Temperature Setting Errors" and "Management’s Inadequacy". However, through the application of CPT theory, this study reveals that companies are not usually willing to invest in the improvement of factors related to the "Inappropriate Use and Maintenance of Hardware and Software Facilities" cluster due to its low occurrence likelihood, but they acknowledge the severity of the consequences if it does occur. Hence, the main implication is that the key disruption factors in cold chain logistics centers’ processes are associated with personnel issues; therefore, comprehensive training, periodic audits, and the establishment of reasonable incentives and penalties for both new employees and managers may significantly reduce disruption issues.

Keywords: concept mapping, cold chain, HACCP, cumulative prospect theory

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Authors: Rose Antony, Vivekanand B. Khanapuri, Karuna Jain

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Online groceries have transformed the way the supply chains are managed. These are facing numerous challenges in terms of product wastages, low margins, long breakeven to achieve and low market penetration to mention a few. The e-grocery chains need to overcome these challenges in order to survive the competition. The purpose of this paper is to carry out a structural analysis of the enablers in e-grocery chains by applying Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) and MICMAC analysis in the Indian context. The research design is descriptive-explanatory in nature. The enablers have been identified from the literature and through semi-structured interviews conducted among the managers having relevant experience in e-grocery supply chains. The experts have been contacted through professional/social networks by adopting a purposive snowball sampling technique. The interviews have been transcribed, and manual coding is carried using open and axial coding method. The key enablers are categorized into themes, and the contextual relationship between these and the performance measures is sought from the Industry veterans. Using ISM, the hierarchical model of the enablers is developed and MICMAC analysis identifies the driver and dependence powers. Based on the driver-dependence power the enablers are categorized into four clusters namely independent, autonomous, dependent and linkage. The analysis found that information technology (IT) and manpower training acts as key enablers towards reducing the lead time and enhancing the online service quality. Many of the enablers fall under the linkage cluster viz., frequent software updating, branding, the number of delivery boys, order processing, benchmarking, product freshness and customized applications for different stakeholders, depicting these as critical in online food/grocery supply chains. Considering the perishability nature of the product being handled, the impact of the enablers on the product quality is also identified. Hence, study aids as a tool to identify and prioritize the vital enablers in the e-grocery supply chain. The work is perhaps unique, which identifies the complex relationships among the supply chain enablers in fresh food for e-groceries and linking them to the performance measures. It contributes to the knowledge of supply chain management in general and e-retailing in particular. The approach focus on the fresh food supply chains in the Indian context and hence will be applicable in developing economies context, where supply chains are evolving.

Keywords: interpretive structural modelling (ISM), India, online grocery, retail operations, supply chain management

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Authors: Kamille Beye

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Critical thinking is a topic that has been disputed in the field of education for decades, but many resulting debates have centered around strengthening critical thinking capabilities in the societies, workforces, and educational centers of the global north. In contrast, this paper provides an analysis of the teaching of critical thinking in Liberia, which has been ravaged by years of war and a recent Ebola outbreak. These crises have decimated the Liberian education sector, leading to a loss of teaching capacities that are essential to providing critical thinking education. Until recently, critical thinking had no seat at the table when the future needs of the country were discussed by the government and non-governmental agencies. Now, the University of Liberia has a bold goal to become one of the top twenty universities in West Africa in the next seven years, which has led to a focus on teaching critical thinking skills to improve learning. This paper argues that critical thinking is essential to strengthening not only the Liberian education system, but for promoting peace amongst community members, and yet it suggests that commitments to the teaching of critical thinking in Liberia have hitherto been overly superficial. Based on an initial scoping study, this paper will examine the potential impacts of teaching critical thinking skills to undergraduate students in the William V. S. Tubman School of Education at the University of Liberia on continued peacebuilding and reconstruction efforts of the country. The research contends that if critical thinking skills are taught, practiced and continually utilized, teachers and students will have the ability to engage with information and negotiate challenges to solutions in ways that are beneficial to the communities in which they live. The research will use a variety of methods, that include the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory. This research will demonstrate that critical thinking skills are not only needed for entering the workforce, but necessary for negotiating and expressing the needs and desires of local communities in a peaceful way.

Keywords: critical thinking, higher education, Liberia, peacebuilding, post-conflict

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Authors: Jiri Barta

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This paper deals with the prevention and management of emergencies. It focuses on the protection of assets of the critical infrastructure entities that are important to preventing, preparing for and management of emergencies and crisis situations. The paper defines assets and specifies their use and place in the process of crisis management and planning. Critical assets that are protected from the negative effects of emergency or crisis situation we can use in crisis management and response. This basic rule applies mainly to the substantial assets used in the protection of critical infrastructure processes.

Keywords: asset, continuity, critical infrastructure, crisis management process

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Authors: Jiri Barta, Jiří F. Urbanek

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This paper deals with a protection of the national and European infrastructure. It is issue nowadays. The paper deals with the perspectives and possibilities of "smart solutions" to critical infrastructure protection. The research project deals with computers aided technologies are used from the perspective of new, better protection of selected infrastructure objects. Protection is focused on communication and information channels. These communication and information channels are very important for the functioning of the system of protection of critical infrastructure elements.

Keywords: interoperability, communication systems, controlling proces, critical infrastructure, crisis workplaces, continuity

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Authors: Mohammed Sharaf, Alireza Shokri, Adrian Small, Toby Bridges

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This paper investigates digital transformation challenges in SMEs within the automotive supply chain. A case study approach and participant observation revealed significant data management and process optimization barriers, corroborated by a conceptual model. Stakeholder feedback, visualized through a pie chart, emphasized data management and process efficiency as primary concerns. Recommended strategies include implementing advanced data systems, process simplification, and enhancing digital skills. Despite the single-case study limitation, the findings offer actionable insights for SMEs to leverage Industry 4.0 technologies effectively. This research contributes to the strategic roadmap necessary for SMEs to achieve competitive digital transformation.

Keywords: automotive supply chain, digital transformation, industry 4.0

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Authors: Indika Fernando, Jiangang Fei, Roger Stanley, Hossein Enshaei

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Delicate produce such as fresh fruits are increasingly susceptible to physiological damage during the essential post-harvest operations such as transport and handling. Vibration and shock during the distribution are identified factors for produce damage within post-harvest supply chains. Mechanical damages caused during transit may significantly diminish the quality of fresh produce which may also result in a substantial wastage. Bananas are one of the staple fruit crops and the most sold supermarket produce in Australia. It is also the largest horticultural industry in the state of Queensland where 95% of the total production of bananas are cultivated. This results in significantly lengthy interstate supply chains where fruits are exposed to prolonged vibration and shocks. This paper is focused on determining the shock and vibration levels experienced by packaged bananas during transit from the farm gate to the retail market. Tri-axis acceleration data were captured by custom made accelerometer based data loggers which were set to a predetermined sampling rate of 400 Hz. The devices recorded data continuously for 96 Hours in the interstate journey of nearly 3000 Km from the growing fields in far north Queensland to the central distribution centre in Melbourne in Victoria. After the bananas were ripened at the ripening facility in Melbourne, the data loggers were used to capture the transport and handling conditions from the central distribution centre to three retail outlets within the outskirts of Melbourne. The quality of bananas were assessed before and after transport at each location along the supply chain. Time series vibration and shock data were used to determine the frequency and the severity of the transient shocks experienced by the packages. Frequency spectrogram was generated to determine the dominant frequencies within each segment of the post-harvest supply chain. Root Mean Square (RMS) acceleration levels were calculated to characterise the vibration intensity during transport. Data were further analysed by Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and the Power Spectral Density (PSD) profiles were generated to determine the critical frequency ranges. It revealed the frequency range in which the escalated energy levels were transferred to the packages. It was found that the vertical vibration was the highest and the acceleration levels mostly oscillated between ± 1g during transport. Several shock responses were recorded exceeding this range which were mostly attributed to package handling. These detrimental high impact shocks may eventually lead to mechanical damages in bananas such as impact bruising, compression bruising and neck injuries which affect their freshness and visual quality. It was revealed that the frequency range between 0-5 Hz and 15-20 Hz exert an escalated level of vibration energy to the packaged bananas which may result in abrasion damages such as scuffing, fruit rub and blackened rub. Further research is indicated specially in the identified critical frequency ranges to minimise exposure of fruits to the harmful effects of vibration. Improving the handling conditions and also further study on package failure mechanisms when exposed to transient shock excitation will be crucial to improve the visual quality of bananas within the post-harvest supply chain in Australia.

Keywords: bananas, handling, post-harvest, supply chain, shocks, transport, vibration

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Authors: Yuan Tian, Benhe Gao

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This paper aims to investigate a two stage supply chain of one leading supplier and one following retailer that experiences two factors perturbation out of supplier's production cost, retailer's marginal cost and retail price in stochastic demand environment. Granted that risk neutral condition has long been discussed, little attention has been given to disruptions under the premise of risk neutral supplier and risk aversion retailer. We establish the optimal order quantity and revealed the profit distribution coefficient in risk-neutral static model, make adjustment under disruption scenario, and then select utility function method for risk aversion model. Using buy-back contract policy, the improvement of parameters can achieve channel coordination where Pareto optimal is realized.

Keywords: supply chain coordination, disruption management, buy-back contract, lose aversion

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Authors: Laurin Zemmrich, Nicolai Stickler

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With the ongoing debate over how to incorporate sustainability, resilience, and value creation into business strategies, many procurement departments are put under pressure by governments, consumers, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders to disclose more information about their supply chains. According to practitioners and experts, procurement benefits the supply chain by increasing transparency and accountability, recruiting new suppliers, and supporting sustainable and ethical sourcing strategies. While most procurement departments establish these objectives, the bulk of activities are not carried out or are not regularly monitored. With the full potential of targeted sourcing still to be realized, procurement executives, in particular, are seeking for short-term cost-cutting impacts to appease external shareholders. We overcome this limitation by using an abductive approach to research and integrating empirical data from a Gioia methodology study design with relevant literature. Our analysis demonstrates that the procurement department has six essential levers aligned with sustainability, resilience, and value creation objectives and contributes to developing a new intra- and interorganizational purpose within the supply chain. Three enablers are identified as having a value-creating effect on supply chain interactions. Additionally, we discovered two impacts that alter the power balance between buyers and suppliers during transactions and have a cost-cutting or cost-avoiding effect. While cost-cutting, cost-avoidance, and dependency-reduction impacts are desirable, redistributing power may also have negative consequences. The article establishes a first strategy framework for evaluating the influence of the procurement department on supply chain transactions, allowing managers to understand better and apply the sourcing function inside a supply chain and embed it throughout the business.

Keywords: supply chain management, resilience, sustainability, value creation, purpose

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Authors: Vladimir Viktorov, M. Readul Mahmud, Carmen Visconte

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Numerical simulation were carried out to study the mixing of miscible liquid at different inlets volume ratio (1 to 3) within two existing mixers namely Chain, Tear-drop and one new “C-H” mixer. The new passive C-H micromixer is developed based on split and recombine principles, combining the operation concepts of known Chain mixer and H mixer. The mixing performances of the three micromixers were predicted by a preliminary numerical analysis of the flow patterns inside the channel in terms of the segregation or distribution of path lines. Afterward, the efficiency and the pressure drop were investigated numerically, taking into account species transport. All numerical calculations were computed at a wide range of Reynolds number from 1 to 100. Among the presented three micromixers, tear-drop provides fairly good efficiency except in the middle range of Re numbers but has high-pressure drop. In addition, inlets flow ratio has a significant influence on efficiency, especially at the Re number range of 10 to 50, Moreover maximum increase of efficiency is almost 10% when inlets flow ratio is increased by 1. Chain mixer presents relatively low mixing efficiency at low and middle range of Re numbers (5≤Re≤50) but has reasonable pressure drop. Furthermore, Chain mixer shows almost no dependence on inlets flow ratio. Whereas, C-H mixer poses excellent mixing efficiency (more than 93%) for all range of Re numbers and causes the lowest pressure drop, On top of that efficiency has slight dependency on inlets flow ratio. In addition, C-H mixer shows respectively about three and two times lower pressure drop than Tear-drop and Chain mixers.

Keywords: CFD, micromixing, passive micromixer, SAR

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Authors: Samira Mohabbatdar, Abbas Ahmadi, Mohsen S. Sajadieh

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This paper deals with a two-level supply chain consisted of one manufacturer and one retailer for single-type product. The demand function of the customers depends on price. We consider an integrated production inventory system where the manufacturer processes raw materials in order to deliver finished product with imperfect quality to the retailer. Then retailer inspects the products and after that delivers perfect products to customers. The proposed model is based on the joint total profit of both the manufacturer and the retailer, and it determines the optimal ordering lot-size, number of shipment and selling price of the retailer. A numerical example is provided to analyse and illustrate the behaviour and application of the model. Finally, sensitivity analysis of the key parameters are presented to test feasibility of the model.

Keywords: supply chain, pricing policy, defective quality, joint economic lot sizing

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Authors: M. G. Mattos, J. E. Pécora Jr, T. A. Briso

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Today's challenging business environment, with unpredictable demand and volatility, requires a supply chain strategy that handles uncertainty and risks in the right way. Even though inventory models have been previously explored, this paper seeks to apply these concepts on a practical situation. This study involves the inventory replenishment problem, applying techniques that are mainly based on mathematical assumptions and modeling. The primary goal is to improve the retailer’s supply chain processes taking store differences when setting the various target stock levels. Through inventory review policy, picking piece implementation and minimum exposure definition, we were able not only to promote the inventory reduction as well as improve sales results. The inventory management theory from literature review was then tested on a single case study regarding a particular department in one of the largest Latam retail chains.

Keywords: inventory, distribution, retail, risk, safety stock, sales, uncertainty

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Authors: Te-Jen Chang, Ping-Sheng Huang, Shan-Ten Cheng, Chih-Lin Lin, I-Hui Pan, Tsung- Hsien Lin

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RSA system is a great contribution for the encryption and the decryption. It is based on the modular exponentiation. We call this system as “a large of numbers for calculation”. The operation of a large of numbers is a very heavy burden for CPU. For increasing the computational speed, in addition to improve these algorithms, such as the binary method, the sliding window method, the addition chain method, and so on, the cluster computer can be used to advance computational speed. The cluster system is composed of the computers which are installed the MPICH2 in laboratory. The parallel procedures of the modular exponentiation can be processed by combining the sliding window method with the addition chain method. It will significantly reduce the computational time of the modular exponentiation whose digits are more than 512 bits and even more than 1024 bits.

Keywords: cluster system, modular exponentiation, sliding window, addition chain

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Authors: Mohit Tyagi, Pradeep Kumar

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The objective of this research work is to identify and analyze the significant corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices with an aim to improve the supply chain performance of automobile industry located at National Capital Region (NCR) of India. To achieve the objective, 6 CSR practices have been considered and analyzed using expert’s preference rating (EPR) approach. The considered CSR practices are namely, Top management and employee awareness about CSR (P₁), Employee involvement in social and environmental problems (P₂), Protection of human rights (P₃), Waste reduction, energy saving and water conservation (P₄), Proper visibility of CSR guidelines (P₅) and Broad perception towards CSR initiatives (P₆). The outcomes of this research may help mangers in decision making processes and framing polices for SCP implementation under CSR context.

Keywords: supply chain performance, corporate social responsibility, CSR practices, expert’s preference rating approach

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Authors: J. C. Riaño-Rojas, J. D. Alzate-Cardona, E. Restrepo-Parra

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In this work, a study of generic magnetic nanoparticles varying the metric space is presented. As the metric space is changed, the nanoparticle form and the inner product are also varied, since the energetic scale is not conserved. This study is carried out using Monte Carlo simulations combined with the Wolff embedding and Metropolis algorithms. The Metropolis algorithm is used at high temperature regions to reach the equilibrium quickly. The Wolff embedding algorithm is used at low and critical temperature regions in order to reduce the critical slowing down phenomenon. The ions number is kept constant for the different forms and the critical temperatures using finite size scaling are found. We observed that critical temperatures don't exhibit significant changes when the metric space was varied. Additionally, the effective dimension according the metric space was determined. A study of static behavior for reaching the static critical exponents was developed. The objective of this work is to observe the behavior of the thermodynamic quantities as energy, magnetization, specific heat, susceptibility and Binder's cumulants at the critical region, in order to demonstrate if the magnetic nanoparticles describe their magnetic interactions in the Euclidean space or if there is any correspondence in other metric spaces.

Keywords: nanoparticles, metric, Monte Carlo, critical behaviour

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Authors: Henry Lau, Dilupa Nakandala, Li Zhao

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In today’s business, it is well-recognized that risk is an important factor that needs to be taken into consideration before a decision is made. Studies indicate that both the number of risks faced by organizations and their potential consequences are growing. Supply chain risk management has become one of the major concerns for practitioners and researchers. Supply chain leaders and scholars are now focusing on the importance of managing supply chain risk. In order to meet the challenge of managing and mitigating supply chain risk (SCR), we must first identify the different dimensions of SCR and assess its relevant probability and severity. SCR has been classified in many different ways, and there are no consistently accepted dimensions of SCRs and several different classifications are reported in the literature. Basically, supply chain risks can be classified into two dimensions namely disruption risk and operational risk. Disruption risks are those caused by events such as bankruptcy, natural disasters and terrorist attack. Operational risks are related to supply and demand coordination and uncertainty, such as uncertain demand and uncertain supply. Disruption risks are rare but severe and hard to manage, while operational risk can be reduced through effective SCM activities. Other SCRs include supply risk, process risk, demand risk and technology risk. In fact, the disorganized classification of SCR has created confusion for SCR scholars. Moreover, practitioners need to identify and assess SCR. As such, it is important to have an overarching framework tying all these SCR dimensions together for two reasons. First, it helps researchers use these terms for communication of ideas based on the same concept. Second, a shared understanding of the SCR dimensions will support the researchers to focus on the more important research objective: operationalization of SCR, which is very important for assessing SCR. In general, fresh food supply chain is subject to certain level of risks, such as supply risk (low quality, delivery failure, hot weather etc.) and demand risk (season food imbalance, new competitors). Effective strategies to mitigate fresh food supply chain risk are required to enhance operations. Before implementing effective mitigation strategies, we need to identify the risk sources and evaluate the risk level. However, assessing the supply chain risk is not an easy matter, and existing research mainly use qualitative method, such as risk assessment matrix. To address the relevant issues, this paper aims to analyze the risk factor of the fresh food supply chain using an approach comprising both fuzzy logic and hierarchical holographic modeling techniques. This novel approach is able to take advantage the benefits of both of these well-known techniques and at the same time offset their drawbacks in certain aspects. In order to develop this integrated approach, substantial research work is needed to effectively combine these two techniques in a seamless way, To validate the proposed integrated approach, a case study in a fresh food supply chain company was conducted to verify the feasibility of its functionality in a real environment.

Keywords: fresh food supply chain, fuzzy logic, hierarchical holographic modelling, operationalization, supply chain risk

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Authors: Sabrina Ladjama, Aicha Rizi, Azzedine Abbaci

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In this work, we use the crossover model to formulate a comprehensive fundamental equation of state for the thermodynamic properties for several n-alkanes in the critical region that extends to the classical region. This equation of state is constructed on the basis of comparison of selected measurements of pressure-density-temperature data, isochoric and isobaric heat capacity. The model can be applied in a wide range of temperatures and densities around the critical point for n-heptane. It is found that the developed model represents most of the reliable experimental data accurately.

Keywords: crossover model, critical region, fundamental equation, n-heptane

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Authors: Alie Wube Dametew, Frank Ebinger

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This study investigated the roles of technological innovation on basic metal industries and then developed technological innovation framework for enhancing sustainable competitive advantage in the basic metal industries. The previous research work indicates that technological innovation has critical impact in promoting local industries to improve their performance and achieve sustainable competitive environments. The filed observation, questioner and expert interview result from basic metal industries indicate that the technological capability of local industries to invention, adoption, modification, improving and use a given innovative technology is very poor. As the result, this poor technological innovation was occurred due to improper innovation and technology transfer framework, non-collaborative operating environment between foreign and local industries, very weak national technology policies, problems research and innovation centers, the common miss points on basic metal industry innovation systems were investigated in this study. One of the conclusions of the article is that, through using the developed technological innovation framework in this study, basic metal industries improve innovation process and support an innovative culture for sector capabilities and achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

Keywords: technological innovation, competitive advantage, sustainable, basic metal industry, conceptual model, sustainability, supply chain integration

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Authors: Rachid Benmoussa, Fatima Ezzahra Essaber, Roland De Guio, Fatima Zahra Ben Moussa

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Implementing green practices in supply chain management is a complex task mainly because ecological, economical and operational goals are usually in conflict. Green practices might thus face companies’ reluctance because managers can consider its implementation obviously as a performance lean degradation. To implement lean and green practices successfully, companies need relevant decision-making tools to highlight the correlation between them. To contribute to this issue, this work tries to answer the following research question: How to use simulation to assess correlation (antagonism or convergence) between lean and green goals? To answer this question, we propose in this paper a based simulation process that measures correlation generally between two variables. So as to prove its relevance, a logistics academic case study is used to illustrate all its stages. It shows, as for example, that Lean goal 'Stock' and Green goal 'CO₂ emission' are not conceptually correlated (linearly).

Keywords: simulation, lean, green, supply chain

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Authors: Zohreh Ramin

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One of the most important contributions that Edward Said has had in the realm of critical theory is his insistence on the worldliness of the text and the critic. By this, Said meant that the critic and the text must be considered in their ‘material’ contexts. Foregrounding the substantial role of a critic as embodying what he refers to as ‘critical consciousness’, a true critic, Said maintains, is one who can stand between the ‘dominant culture’ and ‘the totalizing forms of critical systems.’ Considered as one of Iran’s major contemporary intellectuals, Jalal Ale Ahmad is responsible for introducing the idea of ‘Westoxication’ in Iran, constructing a social paradigm of the necessity to return to tradition in contemporary Iran. The present paper intends to study Al-Ahmad’s definition of the orient versus the occident, his criticism of the ‘machination’ of contemporary Iranian society, and his solution to the problem of ‘Westoxication’. The objective of this study is to see whether Ale Ahmad can be considered as embodying the spirit of ‘critical consciousness’ as described by Said as the necessary tool in the hands of an intellectual who is simultaneously attached filitavely to his culture but can detach himself affilitavely through employing critical consciousness.

Keywords: Westoxication, filiative, affiliative, machination

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Authors: Abdelouahab Errida, Bouchra Lotfi, Elalami Semma

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In this paper, we try to address the topic of multiple change management by adopting an engineered research methodology, conducted within a Moroccan company during its implementation of several change projects that aim at improving its supply chain management performance. Firstly, we present the key concepts related to our research, namely change management, multiproject management and supply chain management. Then, we try to assess how the change management and multi-project management are applied in this company. Finally, we try to propose an approach that will help managers in dealing with multiple change projects. This approach proposes to integrate change management, project management and multi-project management for managing change projects according to three organizational levels: executive level, project portfolio level and change project level.

Keywords: change management, multi-project management, project management, change portfolio, supply chain management,

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Authors: Sevde D. Karayel, Ediz Atmaca

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Supplier selection subject is vital because of development competitiveness and performance of firms which have right, rapid and with low cost procurement. Considering the fact that competition between firms is no longer on their supply chains, hence it is very clear that performance of the firms’ not only depend on their own success but also success of all departments in supply chain. For this purpose, firms want to work with suppliers which are cost effective, flexible in terms of demand and high quality level for customer satisfaction. However, diversification and redundancy of their expectations from suppliers, supplier selection problems need to be solved as a hard problem. In this study, supplier selection problem is discussed for critical piece, which is using almost all production of products in and has troubles with lead time from supplier, in a firm that produces medical devices. Analyzing policy in the current situation of the firm in the supplier selection indicates that supplier selection is made based on the purchasing department experience and other authorized persons’ general judgments. Because selection do not make based on the analytical methods, it is caused disruptions in production, lateness and extra cost. To solve the problem, AHP and TOPSIS which are multi-criteria decision making techniques, which are effective, easy to implement and can analyze many criteria simultaneously, are used to make a selection among alternative suppliers.

Keywords: AHP-TOPSIS methods, multi-criteria decision making, supplier selection problem, supply chain management

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Authors: Behzad Hezarkhani, Greys Sosic

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Collaborative purchasing and replenishment have proven to be beneficial in supply chain management. This talk addresses the situation where buyers, potentially in possession of private procurement channels, carry out cooperative purchasing by submitting their bids to a coordinator. The collaborative organization is faced with two basic decisions: (1) who will be allocated with the products, and (2) how much each party should pay. We discuss mechanisms that could achieve desirable outcomes in this settings with special attention to the strategic behavior of the buyers.

Keywords: supply chain management, group purchasing organizations, game theory, mechanism design

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Authors: Indika Fernando, Jiangang Fei, Roger Stanely, Hossein Enshaei

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Ever increasing demand for quality fresh produce by the consumers, had increased the gravity on the post-harvest supply chains in multi-fold in the recent years. Mechanical injury to fresh produce was a critical factor for produce wastage, especially with the expansion of supply chains, physically extending to thousands of miles. The impact of vibration damages in transit was identified as a specific area of focus which results in wastage of significant portion of the fresh produce, at times ranging from 10% to 40% in some countries. Several studies were concentrated on quantifying the impact of vibration to fresh produce, and it was a challenge to collect vibration impact data continuously due to the limitations in battery life or the memory capacity in the devices. Therefore, the study samples were limited to a stretch of the transit passage or a limited time of the journey. This may or may not give an accurate understanding of the vibration impacts encountered throughout the transit passage, which limits the accuracy of the results. Consequently, an approach which can extend the capacity and ability of determining vibration signals in the transit passage would contribute to accurately analyze the vibration damage along the post-harvest supply chain. A mechanism was developed to address this challenge, which is capable of measuring the in transit vibration continuously through the transit passage subject to a minimum acceleration threshold (0.1g). A system, consisting six tri-axel vibration transducers installed in different locations inside the cargo (produce) pallets in the truck, transmits vibration signals through LORA (Long Range Radio) technology to a central device installed inside the container. The central device processes and records the vibration signals transmitted by the portable transducers, along with the GPS location. This method enables to utilize power consumption for the portable transducers to maximize the capability of measuring the vibration impacts in the transit passage extending to days in the distribution process. The trial tests conducted using the approach reveals that it is a reliable method to measure and quantify the in transit vibrations along the supply chain. The GPS capability enables to identify the locations in the supply chain where the significant vibration impacts were encountered. This method contributes to determining the causes, susceptibility and intensity of vibration impact damages to fresh produce in the post-harvest supply chain. Extensively, the approach could be used to determine the vibration impacts not limiting to fresh produce, but for products in supply chains, which may extend from few hours to several days in transit.

Keywords: post-harvest, supply chain, wireless transducers, LORA, fresh produce

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Authors: Motlatjo Ntatamala, Natasha Ravyse, Michael Laubsher

Abstract:

As much as students are being assessed through reflective activities, it is important to examine and check if those very same activities really assist in influencing and shaping both their writing and critical thinking skills. The skills which students will acquire from the reflective activities will not only be beneficial for the present or immediate moment, but they will also carry them over to their 4th year of writing a mini dissertation and in future for those who would want to explore their post-graduate studies. Thus, the only way to source the reliable and raw feedback on whether students think the reflective activities help them think about their writing and critical thinking skills is to get a direct students’ perspective by analysing their submitted reflective activities. Writing a research proposal implies that critical thinking is a talent that will grow in a holistic manner, as evidenced by previous studies. However, no research has been conducted to investigate the impact of critical thinking on legal writing skills in the South African setting. This study seeks to examine the effectiveness of the reflective activities in 3rd years’ students’ writing and towards their critical thinking. The proposed paper aims to examine the effectiveness of the reflection activities as an encouragement and motivation to their both writing and thinking skills. The paper will make use of students’ activities as a means of data collection and the activities will thus be analysed.

Keywords: reflection activities, writing skills, critical thinking skills, reflective thinking

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Authors: Anusha De, Bjorn Van Campenhout

Abstract:

Faced with imperfect information, economic actors use judgment and perceptions in decision-making. Inaccurate perceptions or false beliefs may result in inefficient value chains, and systematic bias in perceptions may affect inclusiveness. In this paper, perceptions in Ugandan maize supply chains are studied. A random sample of maize farmers where they were asked to rate other value chain actors—agro-input dealers, assembly traders and maize millers—on a set of important attributes such as service quality, price competitiveness, ease of access, and overall reputation. These other value chain actors are tracked and asked to assess themselves on the same attributes. It is observed that input dealers, traders and millers assess themselves more favorably than farmers do. Zooming in on heterogeneity in perceptions related to gender, it is evident that women rate higher than men. The sex of the actor being rated does not affect the rating.

Keywords: gender, input dealers, maize supply chain, perceptions, processors

Procedia PDF Downloads 148

Authors: Manojkumar Sabanayagam

Abstract:

The Riemann hypothesis is an unsolved millennium problem and the search for a solution to the Riemann hypothesis is to study the pattern of prime number distribution. The scope of this paper is to identify the solution for the critical strip and the critical line axis, which has the non-trivial zero solutions using complex plane functions. The Riemann graphical plot is constructed using a linear complex variable function (X+iY) and is applicable only when X>1. But the investigation shows that complex variable behavior has two zones. The first zone is the transformation zone, where the definition of the complex plane should be a non-linear variable which is the critical strip zone in the graph (X=0 to 1). The second zone is the transformed zone (X>1) defined using linear variables conventionally. This paper deals with the Non-linear function in the transformation zone derived using cosine and sinusoidal time lag w.r.t imaginary number ‘i’. The alternate complex variable (Cosθ+i Sinθ) is used to understand the variables in the critical strip zone. It is concluded that the non-trivial zeros present in the Real part 0.5 are because the linear function is not the correct approach in the critical strip. This paper provides the solution to Reimann's hypothesis.

Keywords: Reimann hypothesis, critical strip, complex plane, transformation zone

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Authors: Solehah Yaacob

Abstract:

The study focuses on revisiting the effectiveness of Critical Thinking in human mind capability as a major faculty in human life. The tool used as a measurement of this knowledge ability consists of several processes including experience and education background. To emphasize the `Overview` concept, the researcher highlights two major aspects of philosophical approach, they are; Divine Revelation Concept and Modern Scientific Theory. The research compares between the both parties to introduce the Divine Revelation into Modern Scientific theory. An analytical and critical study of the both concepts become the methodology of the discussion.

Keywords: critical thinking, knowledge, intellectual, language

Procedia PDF Downloads 421