How Social Capital, Supply Chain Integration, and Customer Loyalty Affect Performance

This study identifies a common variable from supplier to consumer within the firms and supply chains of the Northeastern United States. Social capital appears to be significant from supply chain all the way to the consumer. Retail firms and consumers within the Northeast were chosen as the diversity of cultures and population density were ideal to provide the 405 participant population in this study. The study argues that social capital mediates the relationship between supply chain integration and firm performance within the supply chain. Findings were similar to that of previous works in the manufacturing and service industries; however, the results of this study were unique as they directed the focus of the research instruments on the retail industry

How Social Capital, Supply Chain Integration, and Customer Loyalty Affect Performance

This study identifies a common variable from supplier to consumer within the firms and supply chains of the Northeastern United States. Social capital appears to be significant from supply chain all the way to the consumer. Retail firms and consumers within the Northeast were chosen as the diversity of cultures and population density were ideal to provide the 405 participant population in this study. The study argues that social capital mediates the relationship between supply chain integration and firm performance within the supply chain. Findings were similar to that of previous works in the manufacturing and service industries; however, the results of this study were unique as they directed the focus of the research instruments on the retail industry

Estudo e otimização da gestão de stocks numa empresa do setor de produtos naturais e suplementos alimentares

Mestrado em Ciências EmpresariaisNo paradigma atual, a redução de custos para as empresas é um indicador de gestão cada vez mais importante, estas procuram a racionalização de custos através de uma maior eficiência operacional. Com uma correta gestão de custos de inventário e de stocks, as empresas podem obter uma poupança significativa. Neste estudo são aplicados modelos e teorias académicas de gestão de stocks numa empresa no sector de produtos naturais e suplementos alimentares (por motivos de confidencialidade o nome da empresa será omitido). O principal objetivo é proporcionar uma redução de custos anuais no seu inventário através da otimização da sua política de gestão de stocks. Com base na aplicação da análise ABC é possível ordenar os vários produtos em stock desta empresa consoante a sua relevância financeira para a mesma. Com a aplicação do modelo da Quantidade Económica de Encomenda (QEE), é definida a quantidade ótima de encomenda em cada encomenda realizada, respondendo a questões como o momento da encomenda e a quantidade ótima que deverá ser encomendada para minimização dos custos. Esta análise garante a procura total anual e considera os custos relacionados com a efetuação de encomendas e posse de stocks. Este estudo permitiu, com base nos métodos académicos de gestão de stocks aplicados, demonstrar que seria possível uma redução de custos de 29,17%, em relação ao custo total anual de stocks obtido pela empresa em análise no ano de 2016.Nowadays, cost reduction for organizations is an increasingly important management indicator. Cost rationalization through increased operational efficiency is a key factor. With an effective inventory and its cost management, organizations can get significant savings. In this study, academic models and theories of stock management were applied to an organization belonging to natural products and food supplements sector (for reasons of confidentiality the name of organization will be omitted). The objective is reducing annual costs in its inventory by optimizing its management policy stocks. The application of the ABC analysis has enabled to order the various products in stock from this organization accordingly to its financial relevance. With the application of the model of the Economic Ordering Quantity, the optimal order quantity is indicated on each order made, answering questions such as: how much and when it is necessary to place orders. This study guaranteed the total annual demand, considering the costs related to the ordering and stocks possession. Based on the academic methods of applied stock management, this study showed that a cost reduction of 29.17% would be achieved in relation to the 2016 actual total annual cost of stocks.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Strategic Inventories in a Supply Chain with Vertical Control and Downstream Cournot Competition

Strategic Inventory (SI) has been an area of increased interest in theoretical supply chain literature recently. Most of the work so far however, has only considered a supply chain without downstream competition between retailers. Competition is ubiquitous in most market situations, hence, interactions between SI and retailer competition merits study as a first step in bringing the conversations and insights from this stream of literature to the real world. We present here a two-period and a three-period model of one manufacturer supplying an identical product to two retailers who form a Cournot duopoly. We also study a Commitment contract, where the manufacturer commits to all the selling seasons’ wholesale prices at the beginning of the 1st period. Commitment contracts have been shown previously to eliminate SI carriage over two selling seasons in the absence of retailer competition. We aim to deduce if this type of contract has the same effect in the presence of downstream competition. We determine closed-form Nash Equilibrium decision variable values for each of these models using game-theoretic modeling, a price-dependent linear demand function, and backward induction. We find that, the introduction of downstream Cournot duopoly competition leads to lower profits for both the manufacturer and retailer. This holds, whether the number of selling season is two or three. Consumer Surplus is also uniformly lower under retailer competition, compared to a downstream monopoly supply chain. When we try to deduce the effect of SI carriage under Cournot duopoly competition, by comparing an SC with Cournot duopoly competition and SI allowed between periods, to a similar SC with a Cournot duopoly downstream and a static, repeating, one-shot game in each period, with no SI carried – we find again that manufacturer and retailer profits are both lower when SI carriage is allowed. This holds whether the number of selling seasons is two or three. Consumer Surplus is also lower uniformly over both two and three selling seasons. Under a Commitment contract, over two selling seasons, the manufacturer ends up with an advantage, making a higher profit with downstream retailer competition, than compared to supplying to a monopoly downstream under the same contract. The retailers, while competing as a Cournot duopoly, are not able to use the relative advantage that comes from a Commitment contract to make a higher profit, as they are, when the downstream is a single retailer monopoly. The consumer also is disadvantaged by the introduction of downstream Cournot competition under a Commitment contract. When we compare a manufacturer supplying to a Cournot duopoly downstream of retailers, with, and without a Commitment contract (dynamic ordering), we see that the manufacturer and consumer benefit under a Commitment contract, making higher profits, but the retailer is at a disadvantage. It would be an interesting extension of this work to generalize the results from two and three selling seasons, presented here, to the “n” period case. It would also be benefi-cial to run empirical studies in real-world supply chains to validate if and to what extent the insights developed by this kind of game-theoretic modeling hold in a real-world supply chain setting. Development of contracts that are more effective than a Commitment con-tract in coordinating this supply chain would be another possible area for further research

A model for enhancing customer satisfaction for quality services and awareness through community participation

Customer satisfaction as a means of measuring government performance has been on top of global debates of developmental programs at local government. The background of this study highlighted the position of customer satisfaction in many municipal coun-cils in the world and with special focus on Batu Pahat Municipal Council (BPMC). The research problem statement was that it has been observed that municipal aware-ness and community participation have not been harnessed for customer satisfaction for municipal councils’ service delivery. The aim and objectives of the study were to investigate the effects of Community Participation (CP) on customer satisfaction. Four research questions and five hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The study population was 401,902 defined as a group of service users who are directly involved in receiving the services provided by the BPMC. The sample for the study was 400 survey respondents from the citizens living within BPMC. A structured questionnaire was presented to the respondents, selected through simple random sampling. Explor-atory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were used to test the validity and reliability of the conceptual research model. The survey results sup-ported three hypotheses (H1, H2, H3) confirming that community participation has a mediating effect on customer satisfaction in BPMC. Hypothesis five (H5) was sup-ported in the main research, which indicates that CP has a mediating effects on cus-tomer satisfaction and also confirmed the pilot study that municipal awareness has an effect on customer satisfaction. The unique finding of the study is that, it has espoused the importance of CP as a mediator towards achieving customer satisfaction. This re-search has only been applied to BPMC, and further testing across different MC’s in Malaysia is needed to generalise the findings. The researcher concludes that commu-nity participation can enhance customer satisfaction through comprehensive model at the grass root level

Compras, armazenamento e stocks naTecnorém, S.A

O presente relatório de estágio foi desenvolvido no âmbito do curso de Mestrado em Gestão da Escola Superior de Tecnologia e Gestão do Instituto Politécnico de Leiria. O estágio decorreu de 18 de setembro de 2017 a 17 de janeiro de 2018 e foi realizado na Tecnorém, S.A, uma empresa do setor da construção civil. As atividades realizadas ao longo do estágio permitiram aprofundar conhecimentos de gestão e, em particular, desenvolver competências relativas ao software de gestão Primavera, processo de compras, gestão de stocks e de armazéns. Ao longo desses quatro meses conheceu-se a empresa, foi possível observar e analisar a forma como os processos associados à gestão de stocks funcionam na prática e partir daí identificar medidas que permitirão melhorar essa gestão. Com a implementação dessas medidas, numa primeira fase, a empresa deverá aproveitar os stocks acumulados, para os quais não existia um plano de escoamento. Numa fase posterior, essas medidas permitirão minimizar a acumulação involuntária de stocks. As medidas propostas envolvem os processos de compras do Departamento de Instalações Especiais e do Departamento de Aprovisionamento e Logística, o registo das existências em armazém, o layout do armazém e a arrumação e organização dos artigos armazenados. O Departamento de Instalações Especiais deverá começar a coordenar diariamente as encomendas entre todos os engenheiros com o objetivo de diminuir a quantidade de encomendas realizadas ao mesmo fornecedor. O registo das existências em armazém é conseguido através do registo informático de todo o material em stock, que se traduzirá num conhecimento permanente das quantidades em armazém e das encomendas já colocadas. A mudança de layout contribuirá para a melhoria da organização dos armazéns. Relacionado com a mudança de layout está a intervenção 5S, que atua na organização, arrumação, limpeza e identificação de produtos e zonas do armazém

Supply chain integration model: practices and customer values

Dissertation to obtain PhD in Industrial EngineeringIn order to increase partnership efficiency and truly meet the customers' demands, in today's business environment companies are operating in supply chains. Integration of supply chains facilitates minimizing diferent types of wastes and satisfying needs of the end customer. The first step toward supply chain integration is to understandand the customer values, and to reconfigure supply chain to support those values. The current research addresses supply chain integration through quantifying relations between supply chain practice and customer values. It employs Bayesian network and analytic network process as tools to quantify comparative relations among entities. The proposed approach starts with identifying trade-offs along customer values using Bayesian network. In parallel supply chain practices are comparatively analyzed through interviews with experts which is technically quantified using analytic network process. Thereafter, these two parallel phases join together to form a network of customer values and supply chain practices. The network is able to quantitatively identify relations among nodes; in addition, it can be used to plan scenarios and handle senstitivity analyses. This model is expected to be used by supply chain decision makers to have a quantitative measure for monitoring the influence of practices on preferences of the end customer. A survey and two case studies are discussed which go through aforementioned phases. The survey identifies and analyzes six customer values namely quality, cost, customization, time, know-how and respect for the environment. It makes input for the two cases which develop supply chain integration model for fashion and food industry. Supply chain practices are categorized into two groups of manufacturing and logistics practices. The two case studies include five manufacturing practices as cross functional operations, decrease work in process, implement standards, mixed production planning, and use recyclable materials as well as four logistics practices namely visibility to upstream /downstream inventories, information sharing with customer, implement logistics standards, and just in time.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - (MIT Project: MIT-Pt/EDAM-IASC/0022/2008