Drivers of relationship quality and supply chain collaboration: evidence from a developing country

Many studies on supply chain collaboration (SCC) have wholly focused attention on developed countries and rarely considered the significance in 3rd world nations. Although SCC has been well researched, this research attempts to shift the attention to Nigeria, a developing nation with the largest economy in Africa. This paper examines the significance of supply chain collaborative activities and relationship quality in Nigerian beverage manufacturing industry, particularly for superior business performance. Results were collected from a total of 269 wholesalers of the largest beverage manufacturing firms in Nigeria. We examined the effects ofcollaborative activities and relationship quality between wholesalers and manufactures on the wholesalers’ business performance. Specific collaborative activities and relationship quality measures that impact wholesalers’ performance were revealed through regression analyses. Manufacturers and service providers in Nigeria continually seek knowledge on gaining competitive advantage and improving their organizational performance due to the highly unpredictable business environment that they operate in. Our study offers insights for practitioners both in Africa and the global environment regarding the value of collaborative activities and relationship quality between supply chain members as mechanisms for achieving outstanding business performance

Thermomechanical behaviour of silty sandy clays: An experimental and numerical investigation

This paper is devoted to the experimental and numerical investigation of the effect of temperature on the volumetric behaviour of silty sandy clay. A temperature-controlled oedometer is developed to study thermally induced volume change. In this system, an electrical ring heater is placed around the conventional oedometer cell, which accommodates the sample. A very low temperature increase rate was achieved by the thermal controller unit to ensure reasonable saturation durations. The interpretation of the test is assisted by the performance of a numerical analysis based on a coupled formulation incorporating the relevant THM phenomena. Heating and cooling at constant isotropic stress show that the thermal volumetric behaviour of clay samples depends on various factors, such as recent stress history prior to the heating and cooling test. The performance and analysis of the thermal consolidation tests have significantly enhanced the understanding of the thermal volumetric behaviour of tested clay and have proved the capability of the numerical formulation to provide adequate modelling capacity

High speed pressure learning in UK feature film units

The conference paper is available at http://neumann.hec.ca/aimac2005/PDF_Text/Ludwin_Linda.pdf. This conference paper is not available through the Chester Digital RepositoryThis conference paper discusses how UK film units (as temporary organisations) work and learn together

Historical trends in abiotic and biotic resource flows in the EU (1990-2010)

In its Communication “Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe” the European Commission defined a vision for EU resource consumption by 2050: the economy will have grown compatibly with resource constraints and planetary boundaries, preserving a high standard of living and lowering the environmental impacts. Such vision entails the sustainable management of natural resources, i.e. raw materials, energy, water, air, land and soil as well as biodiversity and ecosystems. In this paper, we focus on analysing the trends of abiotic and biotic resource consumption within the EU27 over the past 20 years, beyond traditional mass-based approaches to resource accounting (e.g. Domestic Material Consumption DMC and total material requirements, TMR). In fact, our assessment is performed at inventory level (thus accounting for the biophysical flows of resources) and at impact assessment level, using different life-cycle impact assessment methods (LCIA) for resource depletion and scarcity. The resources considered in the analysis include only those extracted in EU territory, including: raw materials (metals and minerals), energy carriers, biotic and water resources and the timeframe is 20 years (1990-2010). The final aim is the assessment of the evolution of resource flows in the economy (LCI) and the related resource depletion (LCIA) due to European production and consumption. Trends of resource consumption and associated depletion as well as other existing indicators for monitoring resource efficiency are reported and analysed with the aim of: highlighting the occurrence of decoupling over time, both in absolute and relative terms and giving a comprehensive overview of trends related to different resources, usually handled separately in the existing literature. To complete the sustainability assessment of resource consumption research needs are listed, particularly concerning the need of complementing the study with the analysis of socio-economic drivers underpinning the resource consumption trends.JRC.H.8-Sustainability Assessmen

Stochastic effects on the dynamics of a resonant MEMS magnetometer: a Monte Carlo investigation

In the design of Lorentz force MEMS magnetometers, the coupled thermo-electro-magneto-mechanical fields governing the dynamics of the relevant compliant structures can be appropriately exploited to enhance their performances. In recent works, we showed that reduced-order models for the dynamics of the said movable structures can be recast in the form of the Duffing equation, where nonlinear terms arise from the multi-physics governing the problem. As stochastic effects may play a role due to the micrometric dimensions of the device, an investigation of the link between the statistics of sensor imperfections and output is here carried out. The said imperfections at the microscopic length-scale are modeled in terms of: overetch thickness, assumed to feature a uniform distribution in a proper interval matching available experimental data; and elastic properties of the vibrating polycrystalline silicon film, as obtained through a numerical homogenization procedure over a representative film volume. To get insights into the effects of the parameters governing the nonlinear dynamics of the resonant structure, a Monte Carlo analysis is adopted

Hybrid reduced-order modeling and particle-Kalman filtering for the health monitoring of flexible structures

MEMS-based, surface-mounted structural health monitoring systems were recently proposed to locate possible damage events in lightweight composite structures. To track the structural dynamics induced by the external actions and identify in real-time the inception of drifts from the virgin, or undamaged state, recursive Bayesian filters are here adopted. As the main drawback of any on-line identification method might be linked to the excessive computational costs, two solutions are jointly enforced: an order-reduction of the numerical model used to track the structural behavior, through the proper orthogonal decomposition in its snapshot-based version; an improved particle filtering strategy, which features an extended Kalman updating of each evolving particle before the resampling stage. While the former method alone can reduce the number of effective degrees-of-freedom of the structure to a few only (depending on the excitation), the latter allows to track the evolution of damage and also locate it thanks to an intricate formulation. To assess the proposed procedure, the case of a thin plate subject to bending is investigated; it is shown that, when the procedure is fed by measurements gathered by a network of inertial MEMS sensors appropriately deployed over the plate, damage is efficiently and accurately estimated and located