Supply chain network design models for a circular economy: a review and a case study assessment

Global supply chains are getting increasingly dispersed, and hence, more complex. This has also made them more vulnerable to disruptions and risks. As a result, there is a constant need to reconfigure/redesign them to ensure competitiveness. However, the relevant aspects/facets for doing so are fragmented and scattered across the literature. This study reviews the literature to develop a holistic understanding of the key considerations (environment, cost, efficiency, and risks) in designing/redesigning global supply chains. This understanding is then applied to assess the global supply chain network of a leading multinational tire manufacturing firm; also to provide recommendations on redesigning it. The study has significant practical and research implications for global supply chain management

A multi-period multi-product stochastic inventory problem with order-based loan

This paper investigates a multi-product stochastic inventory problem in which a cash-constrained online retailer can adopt order-based loan provided by some Chinese e-commerce platforms to speed up its cash recovery for deferred revenue. We first build deterministic models for the problem and then develop the corresponding stochastic programming models to maximize the retailers' expected profit over the planning horizon. The uncertainty of customer demand is represented by scenario trees, and a scenario reduction technique is used to solve the problem when the scenario trees are too large. We conduct numerical tests based on real data crawling from an online store. The results show that the stochastic model outperforms the deterministic model, especially when the retailer is less cash-constrained. Moreover, the retailer tends to choose using order-based loan when its initial available cash is small or facing long receipt delay length

Supply chain network design models for a circular economy: a review and a case study assessment

Global supply chains are getting increasingly dispersed, and hence, more complex. This has also made them more vulnerable to disruptions and risks. As a result, there is a constant need to reconfigure/redesign them to ensure competitiveness. However, the relevant aspects/facets for doing so are fragmented and scattered across the literature. This study reviews the literature to develop a holistic understanding of the key considerations (environment, cost, efficiency, and risks) in designing/redesigning global supply chains. This understanding is then applied to assess the global supply chain network of a leading multinational tire manufacturing firm; also to provide recommendations on redesigning it. The study has significant practical and research implications for global supply chain management

Resource planning strategies for healthcare systems during a pandemic

We study resource planning strategies, including the integrated healthcare resources’ allocation and sharing as well as patients’ transfer, to improve the response of health systems to massive increases in demand during epidemics and pandemics. Our study considers various types of patients and resources to provide access to patient care with minimum capacity extension. Adding new resources takes time that most patients don't have during pandemics. The number of patients requiring scarce healthcare resources is uncertain and dependent on the speed of the pandemic's transmission through a region. We develop a multi-stage stochastic program to optimize various strategies for planning limited and necessary healthcare resources. We simulate uncertain parameters by deploying an agent-based continuous-time stochastic model, and then capture the uncertainty by a forward scenario tree construction approach. Finally, we propose a data-driven rolling horizon procedure to facilitate decision-making in real-time, which mitigates some critical limitations of stochastic programming approaches and makes the resulting strategies implementable in practice. We use two different case studies related to COVID-19 to examine our optimization and simulation tools by extensive computational results. The results highlight these strategies can significantly improve patient access to care during pandemics; their significance will vary under different situations. Our methodology is not limited to the presented setting and can be employed in other service industries where urgent access matters

Strategies to Manage Reduced Demand Among Mattress Manufacturers in Puerto Rico

The COVID-19 pandemic reduced consumer demand in Puerto Rico, resulting in manufacturing jobs decreasing from 76,000 in March 2020 to 72,600 in August 2020, and the PMI decreasing falling from 50.5 to 48.1 in the same period. Owners of mattress manufacturing firms in Puerto Rico who lack strategies to increase consumer demand risk financial losses. Grounded in the strategic management theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies owners of mattress manufacturing firms in Puerto Rico use to increase demand for mattresses. The participants included three owners of mattress manufacturing firms in Puerto Rico who successfully increased demand for mattresses. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and company documents related to mattress sales and demand. Thematic analysis of the data resulted in four themes: having inventory for immediate sales increased the demand for mattresses, marketing in social networks increased the demand for mattresses, establishing good prices increased the demand for mattresses, and delivering excellent customer service increased the demand for mattresses. A key recommendation is for owners of mattress manufacturing firms to post the amount of inventory available at their manufacturing facilities on their websites in response to the importance the buyers place buyers\u27 importance on buying products at the manufacturing facilities. The implications for positive social change include the potential of improved health benefits of more frequent mattress replacement and increased revenue that could translate into a larger more extensive tax base that local governments could use to implement community-based projects

Strategies to Manage Reduced Demand Among Mattress Manufacturers in Puerto Rico

The COVID-19 pandemic reduced consumer demand in Puerto Rico, resulting in manufacturing jobs decreasing from 76,000 in March 2020 to 72,600 in August 2020, and the PMI decreasing falling from 50.5 to 48.1 in the same period. Owners of mattress manufacturing firms in Puerto Rico who lack strategies to increase consumer demand risk financial losses. Grounded in the strategic management theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies owners of mattress manufacturing firms in Puerto Rico use to increase demand for mattresses. The participants included three owners of mattress manufacturing firms in Puerto Rico who successfully increased demand for mattresses. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and company documents related to mattress sales and demand. Thematic analysis of the data resulted in four themes: having inventory for immediate sales increased the demand for mattresses, marketing in social networks increased the demand for mattresses, establishing good prices increased the demand for mattresses, and delivering excellent customer service increased the demand for mattresses. A key recommendation is for owners of mattress manufacturing firms to post the amount of inventory available at their manufacturing facilities on their websites in response to the importance the buyers place buyers\u27 importance on buying products at the manufacturing facilities. The implications for positive social change include the potential of improved health benefits of more frequent mattress replacement and increased revenue that could translate into a larger more extensive tax base that local governments could use to implement community-based projects

Propuesta de mejora para la gestión y control de producción de postes y accesorios de concreto utilizando la metodología Lean Manufacturing en una empresa concreter

El presente proyecto de investigación tiene como objetivo reducir los diversos problemas que presenta el sector de construcción, específicamente las empresas concreteras, quienes ofrecen al mercado productos en base de concreto armado. Estos problemas impactan directamente en la rentabilidad y competitividad a nivel nacional. Por ello se considera necesario aplicar herramientas y metodologías de Ingeniería; con el fin de reducir costos operativos, penalidades por incumplimiento de pedidos y aumentar la competitividad. El problema identificado en este proyecto es la mala gestión y control de la producción, que incluye consecuencias directas con respecto a la calidad, planificación de operaciones y método de trabajo; generando principalmente sanciones por incumplimiento de pedidos, aumento de costos operativos y pérdida de costo de oportunidad que afectan negativamente la eficiencia del proceso de producción de postes y accesorios de concreto. Para ello, se propone la implementación de un modelo de mejora aplicando la filosofía Lean Manufacturing; cuya aplicación está enfocada a mejorar tres residuos principales en el sistema de producción: defectos, inventario y tiempo de espera. Las propuestas del estudio generaron una reducción de 6.46% productos defectuosos, una reducción de 9.50% en el indicador de penalidades, un incremento de 21% en la OEE de las máquinas y una reducción del 35% en el tiempo de ciclo. Además, se evidencio la reducción de un 1.81% en sobrecostos operativos, lo cual impacta en $30,199.The propose of this research is to reduce several problems presented by the construction sector, specifically concrete companies, who offers reinforced concrete products to the market. These problems have a direct impact on profitability and competitiveness at the national level. For this reason, it is necessary to apply engineering tools and methodologies; in order to reduce operating costs, penalties for non-fulfillment of orders and increase competitiveness. The problem identified on this project is poor management and control of production, which includes direct consequences regarding quality, operations planning and work method; mainly generating penalties for non-fulfillment of orders, increased operating costs and loss of opportunity cost, which negatively affect the efficiency of the concrete poles and accessories production process. For this, the implementation of an improvement model is applying the Lean Manufacturing philosophy; whose application is focused on improving three main residues in the production system: defects, inventory and waiting time. The study proposals generated a 6.46$ 30,199.Trabajo de Suficiencia Profesiona