Risk assessment and relationship management: practical approach to supply chain risk management

The literature suggests the need for incorporating the risk construct into the measurement of organisational performance, although few examples are available as to how this might be undertaken in relation to supply chains. A conceptual framework for the development of performance and risk management within the supply chain is evolved from the literature and empirical evidence. The twin levels of dyadic performance/risk management and the management of a portfolio of performance/risks is addressed, employing Agency Theory to guide the analysis. The empirical evidence relates to the downstream management of dealerships by a large multinational organisation. Propositions are derived from the analysis relating to the issues and mechanisms that may be employed to effectively manage a portfolio of supply chain performance and risks

Reducing the delivery lead time in a food distribution SME through the implementation of six sigma methodology

Purpose – Six sigma is a systematic data driven approach to reduce the defect and improve the quality in any type of business. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings from the application of six sigma in a food service “small to medium sized enterprise” (SME) in a lean environment to reduce the waste in this field. Design/methodology/approach – A simplified version of six sigma is adopted through the application of appropriate statistical tools in order to focus on customer's requirements to identify the defect, the cause of the defect and improve the delivery process by implementing the optimum solution. Findings – The result suggests that modification in layout utilization reduced the number of causes of defect by 40 percent resulting in jumping from 1.44 sigma level to 2.09 Sigma level which is substantial improvement in SME. Research limitations/implications – Simplicity of six sigma is important to enabling any SME to identify the problem and minimize its cause through a systematic approach. Practical implications – Integrating of supply chain objectives with any quality initiatives such as lean and six sigma has a substantial effect on achieving to the targets. Originality/value – This paper represents a potential area in which six sigma methodology along side the lean management can promote supply chain management objectives for a food distribution SME

Practices for strategic capacity management in Malaysian manufacturing firms

While the notion of manufacturing capabilities is a long-standing notion in research on operations management, its actual implementation and management has been hardly researched. Five case studies in Malaysia offered the opportunity to examine the practice of manufacturing managers with regard to strategic capability management. The data collection and analysis was structured by using the notion of Strategic Capacity Management. Whereas traditionally literature has demonstrated the beneficial impact of an appropriate manufacturing strategy on the business strategy and performance, the study highlights the difficulty of managers to set the strategy, let alone implementing it. This is partly caused by the immense pressure of customers in these dominantly Make-To-Order environments for SMEs. Current concepts for manufacturing capabilities have insufficiently accounted this phenomenon and an outline of a research agenda is presented

An Exploratory Study of RFID Implementation in the Supply Chain

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the barriers and motivations for adopting radio frequency identification (RFID), the level of RFID implementation, the processes RFID is utilized in, and issues in the deployment of RFID. A survey instrument was developed based on a literature review. The survey was then distributed to the members of the Association for Operations Management Rhode Island and Boston chapters. The results were then analyzed. It was found that the majority of the surveyed firms are not considering RFID implementation. Lack of a business case and lack of understanding were cited as their main concerns. For firms considering RFID implementation and firms that had implemented RFID, better inventory management, obtaining competitive advantage, and cost reduction were the three most important motivations for adopting RFID. Financial concerns and the lack of a business case were the most prevalent issues. In addition, product tracking (pallets, cases, and items) in shipping was the most cited RFID application. It was also found that considering firms are facing less pressure from customers to adopt RFID and reported a much higher degree of apprehension regarding potential issues than implementing firms reported for actual difficulties faced. One of the limitations is the small sample size (n = 49) which may limit the generalizability of the results. By identifying barriers, motivations, and issues in the implementation of RFID, this study further educates practitioners on the challenges and opportunities of RFID, as well as providing direction to academicians for further research on this area

Farm SMEs sustainability assessment based on Bellagio Principles. The case of Messinian Region, Greece

Purpose: Sufficient support of the sustainability of farm products embedded in a region (such as Products of Designated Origin / PDOs) to overcome significant obstacles to access domestic and remote markets. Main research question is how to overcome such inherent difficulties and transform them into challenges and opportunities to the new market environment. Design/methodology /approach: Combination of simplicity with the complicated issue of sustainability for awareness of small farmers SMEs and their collective representatives. Improve the understanding of the Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM), to facilitate sustainability through use of the ‘Bellagio Principles’ for assessing sustainability of local farm products and facilitating further enhancement. Use of certain PDOs farm products of the Messinian region of Greece, such as local Sfela Feta cheese, olive oil, olives and raisins, to assess sustainability and improvement. Formation of a conceptual constructive action R&D framework of broader use in building-up and performing implementation of holistic supply chain strategy. Expected Findings: Providing better understanding of the SSCM. Insights on how SMEs co-operatives can collectively apply holistic strategies concerning local farm PDOs to fulfil competitiveness and sustainability requirements, under variant product and market conditions. Originality / Value : Improving the know-how, focusing on the sustainability of regional, traditional products and its effects upon supply chain performance and market access. Practical implications for regional-based farm SMEs in the design of holistic value creation strategies to produce sustainable competitive advantage. Interactive cause and effect dynamic implications of sustainable development on social, economic and physical environment

Sustainable Value Proposition Design in a Product-Service System

Many companies have started to add services to their tangible products in order to defend themselves from increased competition from low-cost economies. Research regarding the transition towards product-service systems (PSS) and how the PSS providers' business models are affected exists, but there is a lack of research regarding how the suppliers to the PSS providers are affected by the transition towards PSS. Therefore, this thesis studies the situation for a supplier/partner to an OEM that has changed their business model to a PSS providing one. As the first step in a development of a new business model aims this thesis to provide guidelines for how to set up value propositions suitable for a supplier/partner in this new environment. When technologically complex products, such as aircraft engines, are provided through PSS offerings it is hard to translate customer needs into quality parameters, which makes it hard to sustain the value to customer over time. Therefore, how to keep the value offering sustainable over time is also investigated in this thesis. The aim of this study was to investigate how a sustainable value proposition can be designed for a product and technology supplier/partner to an OEM that offers PSS solutions. The research has been performed through studying relevant literature and collecting empirical data from a case company through semi-structured interviews and a workshop. The case company in this research is Volvo Aero Corporation (VAC). The empirical findings show that VAC wants to offer product-service bundled solution, which fit the whole spectra of PSS value propositions, to their partners/customers. To be able to deliver these different types of product-service bundled solutions different value propositions that suit the different kinds of PSS offerings are needed. Requirements that must be fulfilled to be able to offer and deliver the different types of value propositions exist in terms of securing sufficient information access, aligning the incentives of all actors involved and achieving an internal consensus of what is delivered

Improving root cause analysis through the integration of PLM systems with cross supply chain maintenance data

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a system architecture for integrating Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems with cross supply chain maintenance information to support root-cause analysis. By integrating product-data from PLM systems with warranty claims, vehicle diagnostics and technical publications, engineers were able to improve the root-cause analysis and close the information gaps. Data collection was achieved via in-depth semi-structured interviews and workshops with experts from the automotive sector. Unified Modelling Language (UML) diagrams were used to design the system architecture proposed. A user scenario is also presented to demonstrate the functionality of the system

Scor Quality Model Affecting Manufacturing Firm’s Supply Chain Quality Performance And The Moderating Effect Of Qms

The main objective of this study is hypothesis testing to explain the nature of the relationship between the independent variables (The SCOR quality model) and the dependent variable (Supply Chain Quality Performance) and moderated by (QMS). Objektif utama kajian ini adalah untuk menerangkan hubungan antara model SCOR kualiti dengan prestasi kualiti rantaian bekalan sesebuah firma dan QMS memoderasikan huungan model SCOR kualiti dengan prestasi kuality rantaian bekalan