Search results for: supply chain logistics

Authors: Giulio Mangano, Alberto De Marco, Giovanni Zenezini

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The concept of City Logistics (CL) has emerged to improve the impacts of last mile freight distribution in urban areas. In this paper, a System Dynamics (SD) model exploring the dynamics of the diffusion of a ICT platform for CL management across different populations is proposed. For the development of the model two sources have been used. On the one hand, the major diffusion variables and feedback loops are derived from a literature review of existing diffusion models. On the other hand, the parameters are represented by the value propositions delivered by the platform as a response to some of the users’ needs. To extract the most important value propositions the Business Model Canvas approach has been used. Such approach in fact focuses on understanding how a company can create value for her target customers. These variables and parameters are thus translated into a SD diffusion model with three different populations namely municipalities, logistics service providers, and own account carriers. Results show that, the three populations under analysis fully adopt the platform within the simulation time frame, highlighting a strong demand by different stakeholders for CL projects aiming at carrying out more efficient urban logistics operations.

Keywords: city logistics, simulation, system dynamics, business model

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Authors: Linda D. F. Bambara, Marie Sawadogo

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Jatropha curcas (jatropha) is the plant that has been the most studied for biofuel production in West Africa. There exist however other plants such as Balanites aegyptiaca (balanites) that have been targeted as a potential feedstock for biofuel production. This biomass could be an alternative feedstock for the production of straight vegetable oil (SVO) at costs lower than jatropha-based SVO production costs. This study aims firstly to determine, through an MILP model, the optimal organization that minimizes the costs of the oilseeds supply of two biomass conversion units (BCU) exploiting respectively jatropha seeds and the balanitès seeds. Secondly, the study aims to carry out a comparative study of these costs obtained for each BCU. The model was then implemented on two theoretical cases studies built on the basis of the common practices in Burkina Faso and two scenarios were carried out for each case study. In Scenario 1, 3 pre-processing locations ("at the harvesting area", "at the gathering points", "at the BCU") are possible. In scenario 2, only one location ("at the BCU") is possible. For each biomass, the system studied is the upstream supply chain (harvesting, transport and pre-processing (drying, dehulling, depulping)), including cultivation (for jatropha). The model optimizes the area of land to be exploited based on the productivity of the studied plants and material losses that may occur during the harvesting and the supply of the BCU. It then defines the configuration of the logistics network allowing an optimal supply of the BCU taking into account the most common means of transport in West African rural areas. For the two scenarios, the results of the implementation showed that the total area exploited for balanites (1807 ha) is 4.7 times greater than the total area exploited for Jatropha (381 ha). In both case studies, the location of pre-processing “at the harvesting area” was always chosen for scenario1. As the balanites trees were not planted and because the first harvest of the jatropha seeds took place 4 years after planting, the cost price of the seeds at the BCU without the pre-processing costs was about 430 XOF/kg. This cost is 3 times higher than the balanites's one, which is 140 XOF/kg. After the first year of harvest, i.e. 5 years after planting, and assuming that the yield remains constant, the same cost price is about 200 XOF/kg for Jatropha. This cost is still 1.4 times greater than the balanites's one. The transport cost of the balanites seeds is about 120 XOF/kg. This cost is similar for the jatropha seeds. However, when the pre-processing is located at the BCU, i.e. for scenario2, the transport costs of the balanites seeds is 1200 XOF/kg. These costs are 6 times greater than the transport costs of jatropha which is 200 XOF/kg. These results show that the cost price of the balanites seeds at the BCU can be competitive compared to the jatropha's one if the pre-processing is located at the harvesting area.

Keywords: Balanites aegyptiaca, biomass conversion, Jatropha curcas, optimization, post-harvest operations

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Authors: Heng Ma

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Third-party warehousing logistics has an important role in the development of external logistics. At present, the third-party logistics in our country is still a new industry, the accounting system has not yet been established, the current financial accounting system of third-party warehousing logistics is mainly in the traditional way of thinking, and only able to provide the total cost information of the entire enterprise during the accounting period, unable to reflect operating indirect cost information. In order to solve the problem of third-party logistics industry cost information distortion, improve the level of logistics cost management, the paper combines theoretical research and case analysis method to reflect cost allocation by building third-party logistics costing model using Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing(TDABC), and takes S company as an example to account and control the warehousing logistics cost. Based on the idea of “Products consume activities and activities consume resources”, TDABC put time into the main cost driver and use time-consuming equation resources assigned to cost objects. In S company, the objects focuses on three warehouse, engaged with warehousing and transportation (the second warehouse, transport point) service. These three warehouse respectively including five departments, Business Unit, Production Unit, Settlement Center, Security Department and Equipment Division, the activities in these departments are classified by in-out of storage forecast, in-out of storage or transit and safekeeping work. By computing capacity cost rate, building the time-consuming equation, the paper calculates the final operation cost so as to reveal the real cost. The numerical analysis results show that the TDABC can accurately reflect the cost allocation of service customers and reveal the spare capacity cost of resource center, verifies the feasibility and validity of TDABC in third-party logistics industry cost accounting. It inspires enterprises focus on customer relationship management and reduces idle cost to strengthen the cost management of third-party logistics enterprises.

Keywords: third-party logistics enterprises, TDABC, cost management, S company

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Authors: Nikita Koradia

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Hyundai Motor Company, which started off as a small fish in a big sea, paved its way out successfully and established itself as an independent group from the conglomerate. Hyundai, with its officious power across the globe and particularly in South Korea in the automobile industry, has one the most complex yet fascinating governance structure. Being the second largest contributor to the Gross Domestic Product of South Korea after Samsung and having a market share of 51.3% domestically in automobile industry, Hyundai has faced its part of criticism owing to its anti-labor union approach and owing to its internalization of supply chain management. The censure has been coming from across jurisdictions like China, India, Canada, the EU, etc. The paper focuses on the growth of Hyundai and its inward and outward investment structure. The paper questions the ability of Hyundai to become a mini-state in itself by focusing on its governance structure. The paper further elaborates on its compliance and disclosure regime in the field of Corporate social responsibility and explores how far the business structure adopted by Hyundai works in its favor to become one of the leading automobile contenders in the market.

Keywords: compliance regime, disclosure regime, Hyundai motor company, supply-chain management

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Authors: S. N. S. Thein, H. L. Yang, Z. B. Liu

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There are many modes of transport. Among them, maritime transport is a major transportation mode of international trade. In the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (Burma), water transportation served as one of the most important modes of transport for country's exports and imports. Getting the accurate information and data-gathering activity are the most important aspects for any study field. Therefore, in this research, a historical review of the development of ports in Myanmar and how they have changed had been carried out. All the relevant literature and documents have also been reviewed, studied, and organized. The sources of collected data are from reports, journals, internet, as well as from the publications of authorized organizations and international associations. To get better understanding about real situation of maritime transport and logistics in Myanmar; current condition of existing ports, expansion and on-going projects, and future port development plans are described successively. Hence, the main purpose of this study is to build up a comprehensive picture of maritime transport and logistics, in addition to border trade within ASEAN and Myanmar. It will help for academic researchers, decision makers, and stakeholders for national planning as well as for the local and foreign investors to recognize current situation of maritime transport and logistics in Myanmar.

Keywords: ASEAN, border trade, logistics, maritime transport, ports of Myanmar

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Authors: Sindhu Govardhan, Kenneth G. Crowther

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Modernisation of the water sector is leading to increased connectivity and integration of emerging technologies with traditional ones, leading to new security risks. The convergence of Information Technology (IT) with Operation Technology (OT) results in solutions that are spread across larger geographic areas, increasingly consist of interconnected Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) devices and software, rely on the integration of legacy with modern technologies, use of complex supply chain components leading to complex architectures and communication paths. The result is that multiple parties collectively own and operate these emergent technologies, threat actors find new paths to exploit, and traditional cybersecurity controls are inadequate. Our approach is to explicitly identify and draw data flows that cross trust boundaries between owners and operators of various aspects of these emerging and interconnected technologies. On these data flows, we layer potential attack vectors to create a frame of reference for evaluating possible risks against connected technologies. Finally, we identify where existing controls, mitigations, and other remediations exist across industry partners (e.g., suppliers, product vendors, integrators, water utilities, and regulators). From these, we are able to understand potential gaps in security, the roles in the supply chain that are most likely to effectively remediate those security gaps, and test cases to evaluate and strengthen security across these partners. This informs a “shared responsibility” solution that recognises that security is multi-layered and requires collaboration to be successful. This shared responsibility security framework improves visibility, understanding, and control across the entire supply chain, and particularly for those water utilities that are accountable for safe and continuous operations.

Keywords: cyber security, shared responsibility, IIOT, threat modelling

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Authors: Vladimir Klepikov

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To develop the programs to supply crude oil to North European refineries, it is necessary to take into account the refineries’ location, crude refining capacity, and the transport infrastructure capacity. Among the countries of the region, we include those having a marine boundary along the Northern Sea and the Baltic Sea (from France in the west to Finland in the east). The paper envisages the geographic allocation of the refineries and contains the evaluation of the refineries’ capacities for the region under review. The sustainable operations of refineries in the region are determined by the transportation system capacity to supply crude oil to them. The assessment of capacity of crude oil transportation to the refineries is conducted. The research is performed for the period of 2005/2015, using the quantitative analysis method. The countries are classified by the refineries’ aggregate capacities and the crude oil output on their territory. The crude oil output capacities in the region in the period under review are determined. The capacities of the region’s transportation system to supply crude oil produced in the region to the refineries are revealed. The analysis suggested that imported raw materials are the main source of oil for the refineries in the region. The main sources of crude oil supplies to North European refineries are reviewed. The change in the refineries’ capacities in the group of countries and each particular country, as well as the utilization of the refineries' capacities in the region in the period under review, was studied. The input suggests that the bulk of crude oil is supplied by marine and pipeline transport. The paper contains the assessment of the crude oil transportation by pipeline transport in the overall crude oil cargo flow. The refineries’ production rate for the groups of countries under the review and for each particular country was the subject of study. Our study yielded the trend towards the increase in the crude oil refining at the refineries of the region and reduction in the crude oil output. If this trend persists in the near future, the cargo flow of imported crude oil and the utilization of the North European logistics infrastructure may increase. According to the study, the existing transport infrastructure in the region is able to handle the increasing imported crude oil flow.

Keywords: European region, infrastructure, oil terminal capacity, pipeline capacity, tanker draft

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Authors: T. Spiegel, J. Siegmann, C. F. Durach

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Challenges resulting from an international and dynamic business environment are increasingly being passed on from manufacturing companies to external service providers. Especially providers of complex, customer-specific industry services have to cope with continuously changing requirements. This is particularly true for contract logistics service providers. They are forced to develop efficient and highly flexible structures and strategies to meet their customer’s needs. One core element they have to focus on is the reorganization of their service development and sales process. Based on an action research approach, this study develops and tests a concept to streamline tender management for contract logistics service providers. The concept of modularized service architecture is deployed in order to derive a practice-oriented approach for the modularization of complex service portfolios and the design of customized quotes. These findings are evaluated regarding their applicability in other service sectors and practical recommendations are given.

Keywords: contract logistics, modularization, service development, tender management

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Authors: Tuğçe Yavaş Akış

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In recent years, due to an increased use of radioactive materials, radioactive sources are constantly being transported via air, road and ocean ways for medical, industrial, research etc. purposes throughout the world. The quantity of radioactive materials transported all around the world varies from negligible quantities in shipments of consumer products to very large quantities in shipments of irradiated nuclear fuel. Radioactive materials have been less attractive for social science researchers in literature. In this study, it is aimed to discover desired flow of radioactive materials from logistics service quality (LSQ) perspective. In doing so, case study approach will be employed by using secondary data collected from one of the world’s leading transportation companies’ customer care system reports. Movement of radioactive cargoes containing IR-192 and logistics process will be analyzed with the help of logistics service quality dimensions. Based on the case study that will be conducted, interaction between dimensions, the importance of each dimension in desired flow, and their relevance with desired flow of radioactive materials will be explained. This study will bring out the desired flow of radioactive materials transportation and be a guide for all other companies, employees and researchers.

Keywords: logistics service quality, LSQ dimension , radioactive material, transportation

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Authors: Alessandro Suardi, Rodolfo Picchio, Domenico Coaloa, Maria Bonaventura Forleo, Nadia Palmieri, Luigi Pari

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The reconversion process of the Italian sugar supply chain to bio-energy supply chains, as a result of the 2006 Sugar CMO reform, have involved research to define the best logistics, the most adapted energy crops for the Italian territory and their sustainability. Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.), Giant reed (Arundo donax L.) and Poplar (Poplar ssp.) are energy crops considered strategic for the development of Italian energy supply-chains. This study analyzed the environmental and the economic impacts on the farm level of these three energy crops. The environmental assessment included six farming units, two per crop, which were extracted from a sample of 251 rapeseed farm units (2751 ha), 7 giant reed farm units (7.8 ha), and 91 poplar farm units (440 ha) using a statistical multivariate analysis. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) research method has been used to evaluate and compare the sustainability of the agricultural phases of the crops studied. The impact analyses have been performed at mid-point and end-point levels. The results of the analysis shown that the fertilization, is the major source of environmental impact of the agricultural phase due to the production of the fertilizers and the soil emissions of GHG following the treatment. The perennial energy crops studied (Arundo donax L., Poplar ssp.) were environmentally more sustainable if compared with the annual crop (Brassica napus L.) for all the impact categories at mid-point and end-point levels analyzed. The most relevant impact category influenced by the agricultural process result the fossil depletion, mainly due to the fossil fuels consumed during the mineral fertilizers production (urea). Human health was the most affected damage category at the end point level. Poplar result the energy crop with the best environmental performance for the Italian territory, in the distribution areas most suitable for its cultivation.

Keywords: LCA, energy crops, rapeseed, giant reed, poplar

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Authors: Moh’d A. AL-Shboul

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Recently, and due to Arab spring and terrorism around the globe, pushing and driving most governments potentially to harmonize their border measures particularly the regional and an international transit trade within and among Customs Unions. The main purpose of this study is to investigate and provide an insight for monitoring and controlling the trade supply chain within and among different countries by using technological advancement (i.e. an electronic tracking system, etc.); furthermore, facilitate the local and intra-regional trade among countries through reviewing the recent trends and practical implementation of an electronic transit traffic and cargo that related to customs measures by introducing and supporting some case studies of several international and landlocked transit trade countries. The research methodology employed in this study was described as qualitative by conducting few interviews with managers, transit truck drivers, and traders and reviewing the related literature to collect qualitative data from secondary sources such as statistical reports, previous studies, etc. The results in this study show that Jordan and other countries around the globe that used an electronic tracking system for monitoring transit trade has led to a significant reduction in cost, effort and time in physical movement of goods internally and crossing through other countries. Therefore, there is no need to escort transit trucks by customs staff; hence, the rate of escort transit trucks is reduced by more than ninety percent, except the bulky and high duty goods. Electronic transit traffic has been increased; the average transit time journey has been reduced by more than seventy percent and has led to decrease in rates of smuggling up to fifty percent. The researcher recommends considering Jordan as regional and international office for tracking electronically and monitoring the transit trade for many considerations.

Keywords: electronic tracking system, facilitation system, regional and international corridor, supply chain security, transit trade

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Authors: Boris G. German, Edward Jiménez, Sebastián Espinoza, Andrés G. Chico, Ricardo A. Narváez

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The unique flora and fauna of The Galapagos Islands has leveraged a tourism-driven growth in the islands. Nonetheless, such development is energy-intensive and requires thousands of gallons of diesel each year for thermoelectric electricity generation. The needed transport of fossil fuels from the continent has generated oil spillages and affectations to the fragile ecosystem of the islands. The Zero Fossil Fuels initiative for The Galapagos proposed by the Ecuadorian government as an alternative to reduce the use of fossil fuels in the islands, considers the replacement of diesel in thermoelectric generators, by Jatropha curcas vegetable oil. However, the Jatropha oil supply cannot entirely cover yet the demand for electricity generation in Galapagos. Within this context, the present work aims to provide an optimization model that can be used as a selection criterion for approving new Jatropha Curcas collection points in rural areas of Manabi-Ecuador. For this purpose, existing Jatropha collection points in Manabi were grouped under three regions: north (7 collection points), center (4 collection points) and south (9 collection points). Field work was carried out in every region in order to characterize the collection points, to establish local Jatropha supply and to determine transportation costs. Data collection was complemented using GIS software and an objective function was defined in order to determine the profit associated to Jatropha oil production. The market price of both Jatropha oil and residual cake, were considered for the total revenue; whereas Jatropha price, transportation and oil extraction costs were considered for the total cost. The tonnes of Jatropha fruit and seed, transported from collection points to the extraction plant, were considered as variables. The maximum and minimum amount of the collected Jatropha from each region constrained the optimization problem. The supply chain was optimized using linear programming in order to maximize the profits. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was performed in order to find a profit-based criterion for the acceptance of future collection points in Manabi. The maximum profit reached a value of $ 4,616.93 per year, which represented a total Jatropha collection of 62.3 tonnes Jatropha per year. The northern region of Manabi had the biggest collection share (69%), followed by the southern region (17%). The criteria for accepting new Jatropha collection points in the rural areas of Manabi can be defined by the current maximum profit of the zone and by the variation in the profit when collection points are removed one at a time. The definition of new feasible collection points plays a key role in the supply chain associated to Jatropha oil production. Therefore, a mathematical model that assists decision makers in establishing new collection points while assuring profitability, contributes to guarantee a continued Jatropha oil supply for Galapagos and a sustained economic growth in the rural areas of Ecuador.

Keywords: collection points, Jatropha curcas, linear programming, supply chain

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Authors: Madhu Babu Cherukuri, Tamoghna Ghosh

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Factory supply chain management spends billions of dollars every year to procure and manage equipment spare parts. Due to technology -and processes changes some of these spares become obsolete/dead inventory. Factories have huge dead inventory worth millions of dollars accumulating over time. This is due to lack of a scientific methodology to identify them and send the inventory back to the suppliers on a timely basis. The standard approach followed across industries to deal with this is: if a part is not used for a set pre-defined period of time it is declared dead. This leads to accumulation of dead parts over time and these parts cannot be sold back to the suppliers as it is too late as per contract agreement. Our main idea is the time period for identifying a part as dead cannot be a fixed pre-defined duration across all parts. Rather, it should depend on various properties of the part like historical consumption pattern, type of part, how many machines it is being used in, whether it- is a preventive maintenance part etc. We have designed a predictive algorithm which predicts part obsolescence well in advance with reasonable accuracy and which can help save millions.

Keywords: obsolete inventory, machine learning, big data, supply chain analytics, dead inventory

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Authors: Enes Caliskan, Hatice Camgoz Akdag

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There is no doubt that humanity needs to realize the sustainability problems in the world and take serious action regarding that. All members of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the most comprehensive study on sustainability internationally, in 2015. The summary of the study is 17 sustainable development goals. It covers everything about sustainability, such as environment, society and governance. The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), such as the Internet, mobile phones, and satellites, is essential for tackling the main issues facing sustainable development. Hence, the contributions of 3 major ICT companies to the sustainable development goals are assessed in this study. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is utilized as a methodology for this study. Since QFD is an excellent instrument for comparing businesses on relevant subjects, a House of Quality must be established to complete the QFD application. In order to develop a House of Quality, the demanded qualities (voice of the customer) and quality characteristics (technical requirements) must first be determined. UN SDGs are used as demanded qualities. Quality characteristics are derived from annual sustainability and corporate social responsibility reports of ICT companies. The companies' efforts, as indicated by the QFD results, are concentrated on the use of recycled raw materials and recycling, reducing GHG emissions through energy saving and improved connectivity, decarbonizing the value chain, protecting the environment and water resources by collaborating with businesses that have completed CDP water assessments and paying attention to reducing water consumption, ethical business practices, and reducing inequality. The evaluations of the three businesses are found to be very similar when they are compared. The small differences between the companies are usually about the region they serve. Efforts made by the companies mostly concentrate on responsible consumption and production, life below water, climate action, and sustainable cities and community goals. These efforts include improving connectivity in needed areas for providing access to information, education and healthcare.

Keywords: multi-criteria decision-making, sustainable supply chain risk, supply chain agility, quality function deployment, Sustainable development goals

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Authors: Alhasan Hakami, Arun Kumar, Sung J. Shim, Yousef Abu Nahleh

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In recent years, many high intensity earthquakes have occurred around the world, such as the 2011 earthquake in Tohoku, Japan. These large-scale disasters caused huge casualties and losses. In addition, inefficient disaster response operations also caused the second wave of casualties and losses, and expanded the damage. Effective disaster management can be used to respond to the chaotic situation, and reduce the damage. However, some inefficient disaster response operations are still used. Therefore, this case study chose the 921 earthquakes for analysing disaster emergency logistics problems and proposed the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) to solve disaster emergency logistics problems. Moreover, it analyses the effect of human factors on system operation, and suggests a solution to improve the system.

Keywords: soft systems methodology, emergency logistics, earthquakes, Japan, system operation

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Authors: Dixit Garg, S. Luthra, A. Haleem

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During recent years, the natural environment has become a challenging topic that business organizations must consider due to the economic and ecological impacts and increasing awareness of environment protection among society. Organizations are trying to achieve the goals of improvement in environment, low cost, high quality, flexibility and more customer satisfaction. Performance measurement frameworks are very useful to monitor the performance of any organization. The basic goal of this paper is to identify performance measures and ranking of these performance measures of GSCM performance measurement towards sustainability framework. Five perspectives (Environment, Economic, Social, Operational and Cost performances) and nineteen performance measures of GSCM performance towards sustainability have been have been identified from extensive literature review. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique has been utilized for ranking of these performance perspectives and measures. All pair comparisons in AHP have been made on the basis on the experts’ opinions (selected from academia and industry). Ranking of these performance perspectives and measures will help to understand the importance of environmental, economic, social, operational performances, and cost performances in the supply chain.

Keywords: analytical hierarchy process, green supply chain management, performance measures, sustainability

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Authors: Ahlem Dhahri, Waleed Omri, Audrey Becuwe, Abdelwahed Omri

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In industrial processes, decision-making ranges across different scales, from process control to supply chain management. The purchasing decision-making process in the supply chain is presently gaining more attention as a critical contributor to the company's strategic success. Given the scarcity of thorough summaries in the prior studies, this bibliometric analysis aims to adopt a meticulous approach to achieve quantitative knowledge on the constantly evolving subject of purchasing decision-making in supply chain management. Through bibliometric analysis, we examine a sample of 358 peer-reviewed articles from the Scopus database. VOSviewer and Gephi software were employed to analyze, combine, and visualize the data. Data analytic techniques, including citation network, page-rank analysis, co-citation, and publication trends, have been used to identify influential works and outline the discipline's intellectual structure. The outcomes of this descriptive analysis highlight the most prominent articles, authors, journals, and countries based on their citations and publications. The findings from the research illustrate an increase in the number of publications, exhibiting a slightly growing trend in this field. Co-citation analysis coupled with content analysis of the most cited articles identified five research themes mentioned as follows integrating sustainability into the supplier selection process, supplier selection under disruption risks assessment and mitigation strategies, Fuzzy MCDM approaches for supplier evaluation and selection, purchasing decision in vendor problems, decision-making techniques in supplier selection and order lot sizing problems. With the help of a graphic timeline, this exhaustive map of the field illustrates a visual representation of the evolution of publications that demonstrate a gradual shift from research interest in vendor selection problems to integrating sustainability in the supplier selection process. These clusters offer insights into a wide variety of purchasing methods and conceptual frameworks that have emerged; however, they have not been validated empirically. The findings suggest that future research would emerge with a greater depth of practical and empirical analysis to enrich the theories. These outcomes provide a powerful road map for further study in this area.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis, citation analysis, co-citation, Gephi, network analysis, purchasing, SCM, VOSviewer

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Authors: Colette Malyack, Pius Egbelu

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Business-to-Customer (B2C) delivery options have improved to meet increased demand in recent years. The change in end users has forced logistics networks to focus on customer service and sentiment that would have previously been the priority of the company or organization of origin. This has led to increased pressure on logistics companies to extend traditional B2B networks into a B2C solution while accommodating additional costs, roadblocks, and customer sentiment; the result has been the creation of the omnichannel delivery network encompassing a number of traditional and modern methods of package delivery. In this paper the many solutions within the omnichannel delivery network are defined and discussed. It can be seen through this analysis that the omnichannel delivery network can be applied to reduce the complexity of package delivery and provide customers with more options. Applied correctly the result is a reduction in cost to the logistics company over time, even with an initial increase in cost to obtain the technology.

Keywords: network planning, last mile delivery, omnichannel delivery network, omnichannel logistics

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Authors: Emilio Galdeano-Gómez, Juan C. Pérez-Mesa, Laura Piedra-Muñoz, María C. García-Barranco, Jesús Hernández-Rubio

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The situation in which firms engage in simultaneous cooperation and competition with each other is a phenomenon known as co-opetition. This scenario has received increasing attention in business economics and management analyses. In the domain of supply chain networks and for small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, these strategies are of greater relevance given the complex environment of globalization and competition in open markets. These firms face greater challenges regarding technology and access to specific resources due to their limited capabilities and limited market presence. Consequently, alliances and collaborations with both buyers and suppliers prove to be key elements in overcoming these constraints. However, rivalry and competition are also regarded as major factors in successful internationalization processes, as they are drivers for firms to attain a greater degree of specialization and to improve efficiency, for example enabling them to allocate scarce resources optimally and providing incentives for innovation and entrepreneurship. The present work aims to contribute to the literature on SMEs’ internationalization strategies. The sample is constituted by a panel data of marketing firms from the Andalusian food sector and a multivariate regression analysis is developed, measuring variables of co-opetition and international activity. The hierarchical regression equations method has been followed, thus resulting in three estimated models: the first one excluding the variables indicative of channel type, while the latter two include the international retailer chain and wholesaler variable. The findings show that the combination of several factors leads to a complex scenario of inter-organizational relationships of cooperation and competition. In supply chain management analyses, these relationships tend to be classified as either buyer-supplier (vertical level) or supplier-supplier relationships (horizontal level). Several buyers and suppliers tend to participate in supply chain networks, and in which the form of governance (hierarchical and non-hierarchical) influences cooperation and competition strategies. For instance, due to their market power and/or their closeness to the end consumer, some buyers (e.g. large retailers in food markets) can exert an influence on the selection and interaction of several of their intermediate suppliers, thus endowing certain networks in the supply chain with greater stability. This hierarchical influence may in turn allow these suppliers to develop their capabilities (e.g. specialization) to a greater extent. On the other hand, for those suppliers that are outside these networks, this environment of hierarchy, characterized by a “hub firm” or “channel master”, may provide an incentive for developing their co-opetition relationships. These results prove that the analyzed firms have experienced considerable growth in sales to new foreign markets, mainly in Europe, dealing with large retail chains and wholesalers as main buyers. This supply industry is predominantly made up of numerous SMEs, which has implied a certain disadvantage when dealing with the buyers, as negotiations have traditionally been held on an individual basis and in the face of high competition among suppliers. Over recent years, however, cooperation among these marketing firms has become more common, for example regarding R&D, promotion, scheduling of production and sales.

Keywords: co-petition networks, international supply chain, maketing agrifood firms, SMEs strategies

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Authors: N. Jena, Nitin Seth

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Globalization and free trade has forced the organizations to continuously rethink and rework on the increasing cost of logistics. World wide, it is visualized that on one side the steel sector is witnessing rapid growth and on the other side it is facing huge challenges in terms of availability of raw materials for uninterrupted production. Inbound logistics also gains significant importance for ensuring the timely availability of raw materials. It is seen that in Indian steel sector logistic cost is still very large and challenging. Effectively managing the inbound logistics in steel decides the profitability and serviceability of the organization. Effective management of inbound logistics also has a major role on the inventory of the organization. Since, the logistics for the steel industry in India is evolving rapidly and it is the interplay of infrastructure, technology and new types of service providers that will define whether the industry is able to help its customers to reduce their logistics costs. Integration of Logistics has been treated as one of the most potential area for the companies to provide a base for cost reduction. In spite of the proven area for benefits for the industry, it is very surprising that none of the researchers have explored this area. Although, many researchers explored the subject of logistics in steel industry, but their perspective varied from exploring and understanding the associated cost and finding out the relations between them. Visualizing a potential gap, the present research is under taken to explore the integration opportunities in inbound logistics for steel sector. Typically in Indian steel sector where in most of the manufacturers depend on imported materials for processing the logistics is very challenging and accounts for transactions at supplier – who is situated in different country, shipper- who is transporting the material to the host country, regulators in both countries-that include customs and various clearing agents, local logistics service providers and local transporters/handlers. It is seen that In bound logistics cost in the steel sector is very high and accounts for about 15-16% of the turn over, integration of information across different channels provides and opportunity for improvements and growth of the organization. In the present paper, a case of leading steel manufacturer has been taken and the potentials for integration of information across various partners have been identified. The paper provides the identification of grey area in steel sector for major improvements in cycle time and lowering the inventories by integration of information. Finally, based on integration of information, the paper presents a business information framework for steel sector.

Keywords: integration, steel sectors, suppliers, shippers, customs and cargo agents, transporters

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Authors: Pichaya Poonlarp, Danai Boonyakiat, C. Chuamuangphan, M. Chanta

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Current consumers’ behavior trends have changed towards more health awareness, the well-being of society and interest of nature and environment. The Royal Project Foundation is, therefore, well aware of organic agriculture. The project only focused on using natural products and utilizing its highland biological merits to increase resistance to diseases and insects for the produce grown. The project also brought in basic knowledge from a variety of available research information, including, but not limited to, improvement of soil fertility and a control of plant insects with biological methods in order to lay a foundation in developing and promoting farmers to grow quality produce with a high health safety. This will finally lead to sustainability for future highland agriculture and a decrease of chemical use on the highland area which is a source of natural watershed. However, there are still shortcomings of the postharvest management in term of quality and losses, such as bruising, rottenness, wilting and yellowish leaves. These losses negatively affect the maintenance and a shelf life of organic vegetables. Therefore, it is important that a research study of the appropriate and effective postharvest management is conducted for an individual organic vegetable to minimize product loss and find root causes of postharvest losses which would contribute to future postharvest management best practices. This can be achieved through surveys and data collection from postharvest processes in order to conduct analysis for causes of postharvest losses of organic pak-choi, baby pak-choi, and choy sum. Consequently, postharvest losses reduction strategies of organic vegetables can be achieved. In this study, postharvest losses of organic pak choi, baby pak-choi, and choy sum were determined at each stage of the supply chain starting from the field after harvesting, at the Development Center packinghouse, at Chiang Mai packinghouse, at Bangkok packing house and at the Royal Project retail shop in Chiang Mai. The results showed that postharvest losses of organic pak-choi, baby pak-choi, and choy sum were 86.05, 89.05 and 59.03 percent, respectively. The main factors contributing to losses of organic vegetables were due to mechanical damage and underutilized parts and/or short of minimum quality standard. Good practices had been developed after causes of losses were identified. Appropriate postharvest handling and management, for example, temperature control, hygienic cleaning, and reducing the duration of the supply chain, postharvest losses of all organic vegetables should be able to remarkably reduced postharvest losses in the supply chain.

Keywords: postharvest losses, organic vegetables, handling improvement, shelf life, supply chain

Procedia PDF Downloads 457

Authors: Sulemana Ibrahim

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Food security remains a paramount global challenge, with vulnerable regions grappling with issues of hunger and malnutrition. This study embarks on a comprehensive exploration of data-driven strategies aimed at ameliorating food security in such regions. Our research employs a multifaceted approach, integrating data analytics to predict crop yields, optimizing supply chains, and enhancing food distribution networks. The study unfolds as a multi-dimensional analysis, commencing with the development of robust machine learning models harnessing remote sensing data, historical crop yield records, and meteorological data to foresee crop yields. These predictive models, underpinned by convolutional and recurrent neural networks, furnish critical insights into anticipated harvests, empowering proactive measures to confront food insecurity. Subsequently, the research scrutinizes supply chain optimization to address food security challenges, capitalizing on linear programming and network optimization techniques. These strategies intend to mitigate loss and wastage while streamlining the distribution of agricultural produce from field to fork. In conjunction, the study investigates food distribution networks with a particular focus on network efficiency, accessibility, and equitable food resource allocation. Network analysis tools, complemented by data-driven simulation methodologies, unveil opportunities for augmenting the efficacy of these critical lifelines. This study also considers the ethical implications and privacy concerns associated with the extensive use of data in the realm of food security. The proposed methodology outlines guidelines for responsible data acquisition, storage, and usage. The ultimate aspiration of this research is to forge a nexus between data science and food security policy, bestowing actionable insights to mitigate the ordeal of food insecurity. The holistic approach converging data-driven crop yield forecasts, optimized supply chains, and improved distribution networks aspire to revitalize food security in the most vulnerable regions, elevating the quality of life for millions worldwide.

Keywords: data-driven strategies, crop yield prediction, supply chain optimization, food distribution networks

Procedia PDF Downloads 45

Authors: Elham Ahmadi, Roshaali Khaturia, Pardis Sahraei, Mohammad Niyayesh, Omid Fatahi Valilai

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Nowadays, Information Technology (IT) is changing the way traditional enterprise management concepts work. One of the most dominant IT achievements is the Blockchain Technology. This technology enables the distributed collaboration of stakeholders for their interactions while fulfilling the security and consensus rules among them. This paper has focused on the application of Blockchain technology to enhance one of traditional inventory management models. The Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) has been considered one of the most efficient mechanisms for vendor inventory planning by the suppliers. While VMI has brought competitive advantages for many industries, however its centralized mechanism limits the collaboration of a pool of suppliers and vendors simultaneously. This paper has studied the recent research for VMI application in industries and also has investigated the applications of Blockchain technology for decentralized collaboration of stakeholders. Focusing on sustainability issue for total supply chain consisting suppliers and vendors, it has proposed a Blockchain based VMI conceptual model. The different capabilities of this model for enabling the collaboration of stakeholders while maintaining the competitive advantages and sustainability issues have been discussed.

Keywords: vendor managed inventory, VMI, blockchain technology, supply chain planning, sustainability

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Authors: Yananda Siraphatthada

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The objectives of this research were to study the level of influencing factors, leadership, supply chain management, innovation, competitive advantages, business success, and affecting factors to the business success of the mobile phone system service providers in Bangkok Metropolitan. This research was done by the quantitative approach and the qualitative approach. The quantitative approach was used for questionnaires to collect data from the 331 mobile service shop managers franchised by AIS, Dtac and TrueMove. The mobile phone system service providers/shop managers were randomly stratified and proportionally allocated into subgroups exclusive to the number of the providers in each network. In terms of qualitative method, there were in-depth interviews of 6 mobile service providers/managers of Telewiz and Dtac and TrueMove shop to find the agreement or disagreement with the content analysis method. Descriptive Statistics, including Frequency, Percentage, Means and Standard Deviation were employed; also, the Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used as a tool for data analysis. The content analysis method was applied to identify key patterns emerging from the interview responses. The two data sets were brought together for comparing and contrasting to make the findings, providing triangulation to enrich result interpretation. It revealed that the level of the influencing factors – leadership, innovation management, supply chain management, and business competitiveness had an impact at a great level, but that the level of factors, innovation and the business, financial success and nonbusiness financial success of the mobile phone system service providers in Bangkok Metropolitan, is at the highest level. Moreover, the business influencing factors, competitive advantages in the business of mobile system service providers which were leadership, supply chain management, innovation management, business advantages, and business success, had statistical significance at .01 which corresponded to the data from the interviews.

Keywords: mobile service providers, facilitating factors, Bangkok Metropolitan, business success

Procedia PDF Downloads 340

Authors: Rebecca Angeles

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This case study features the Kuehne + Nagel PharmaChain solution for ‘cold chain’ pharmaceutical and biologic product shipments with IOT-enabled features for shipment temperature and location tracking. Using the case study method and content analysis, this research project investigates the application of the structurational model of technology theory introduced by Orlikowski in order to interpret the firm’s entry and participation in the IOT-impelled marketplace.

Keywords: Internet of Things (IOT), radio frequency identification (RFID), structurational model of technology (Orlikowski), supply chain management

Procedia PDF Downloads 219

Authors: Giuseppe Timperio, Robert de Souza

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Logistics operations in the context of disaster response are characterized by a high degree of complexity due to the combined effect of a large number of stakeholders involved, time pressure, uncertainties at various levels, massive deployment of goods and personnel, and gigantic financial flow to be managed. It also involves several autonomous parties such as government agencies, militaries, NGOs, UN agencies, private sector to name few, to have a highly collaborative approach especially in the critical phase of the immediate response. This is particularly true in the context of L3 emergencies that are the most severe, large-scale humanitarian crises. Decision-making processes in disaster management are thus extremely difficult due to the presence of multiple decision-makers involved, and the complexity of the tasks being tackled. Hence, in this paper, we look at applying ICT based solutions to enable a speedy and effective decision making in the golden window of humanitarian operations. A high-level view of ICT based solutions in the context of logistics operations for humanitarian response in Southeast Asia is presented, and their viability in a real-life case about logistics network design is explored.

Keywords: decision support, disaster preparedness, humanitarian logistics, network design

Procedia PDF Downloads 154

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

Procedia PDF Downloads 166

Authors: Yena Lee, Vassilis M. Charitopoulos, Karthik Thyagarajan, Ian Morris, Jose M. Pinto, Lazaros G. Papageorgiou

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With globalisation, the need to have better coordination of production and distribution decisions has become increasingly important for industrial gas companies in order to remain competitive in the marketplace. In this work, we investigate a problem that integrates production, inventory, and routing decisions in a liquid oxygen supply chain. The oxygen supply chain consists of production facilities, external third-party suppliers, and multiple customers, including hospitals and industrial customers. The product produced by the plants or sourced from the competitors, i.e., third-party suppliers, is distributed by a fleet of heterogenous vehicles to satisfy customer demands. The objective is to minimise the total operating cost involving production, third-party, and transportation costs. The key decisions for production include production and inventory levels and product amount from third-party suppliers. In contrast, the distribution decisions involve customer allocation, delivery timing, delivery amount, and vehicle routing. The optimisation of the coordinated production, inventory, and routing decisions is a challenging problem, especially when dealing with large-size problems. Thus, we present a two-stage procedure to solve the integrated problem efficiently. First, the problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model by simplifying the routing component. The solution from the first-stage MILP model yields the optimal customer allocation, production and inventory levels, and delivery timing and amount. Then, we fix the previous decisions and solve a detailed routing. In the second stage, we propose a column generation scheme to address the computational complexity of the resulting detailed routing problem. A case study considering a real-life oxygen supply chain in the UK is presented to illustrate the capability of the proposed models and solution method. Furthermore, a comparison of the solutions from the proposed approach with the corresponding solutions provided by existing metaheuristic techniques (e.g., guided local search and tabu search algorithms) is presented to evaluate the efficiency.

Keywords: production planning, inventory routing, column generation, mixed-integer linear programming

Procedia PDF Downloads 99

Authors: Mourad Bakouka, Abdelaziz Rabehi

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Companies need to have logistics and transportation in place that can adapt to the changing nature of construction sites. This ensures they can react quickly when needed. A study was conducted to develop a way to locate and track materials on construction sites. The system is an RFID/GPS integration that's required to pull off this feat. The study also reports how the platform has been used in construction. They found many advantages to using it, including reductions in both time and costs as well as improved management of materials orders. . For example, the time in which a project could start up was shortened from two weeks to three days with just a single digital order. As of now, the technology is still limited in its widespread adoption due largely to overall lack of awareness and difficulty connecting to it. However, as more and more companies embrace it in construction, the technology is expected to become ubiquitous. The developed platform provides contractors and construction managers with real-time information about the status of materials and work, allowing them to better manage the workflow in a project. The study sheds new light on this subject, which is essential to know. This work is becoming increasingly aware of the use of smart tools in constructing buildings.

Keywords: materials management, internet of things (IoT), radio frequency identification (RFID), construction site, supply chain management

Procedia PDF Downloads 64

Authors: Hubert Pun

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When a manufacturer outsources the production of a product, it distributes its intellectual property (IP) into a supply chain that it may not be able to fully control. An IP agreement between a manufacturer and its suppliers is a popular solution to address the challenge of supplier-copycatting. The goal of this paper is to examine the impact of copycatting, from both the supplier and third-party firms, and the effectiveness of an IP agreement. Specifically, we use a game-theoretic approach to examine a system where a manufacturer outsources to a supplier. The supplier and a third-party firm decide whether or not to enter the market with copycat products while the manufacturer selects the level of marketing investment. The manufacturer can reduce the threat of supplier-copycatting by signing an IP agreement. We find that the manufacturer can be worse off from signing an IP agreement with its supplier, even if the IP agreement is costless and perfectly enforceable. We show that a manufacturer can deter copycat products through vertical integration and IP agreements and we outline the instances where each method is preferred. Furthermore, we find that the manufacturer may choose not to invest in quality improvements as a copycat deterrence strategy. We show that the supplier can benefit from the manufacturer’s decision to sign an IP agreement and that the supplier and the consumers can benefit from government regulations against copycat products. Our paper demonstrates the strengths and limitations of various copycat deterrence strategies when a supplier and third-party may produce copycat products.

Keywords: coopetitive supply chain, copycat, government regulation, intellectual property

Procedia PDF Downloads 164