Egyptian pyramid or Aztec pyramid: How should we describe the industrial architecture of automotive supply chains in Europe?

This article questions a terminology that is frequently used to describe automotive supply chains’ industrial architecture. Since vertical disintegration became a trend in the 1980s, this architecture has been represented using the image of the pyramid. Implicitly, authors have had the image of an Egyptian pyramid in mind, one that is pointed at the top and broad at the base. We will demonstrate that even if pyramids are an appropriate image, in the auto industry the Aztec variant, with its shortened peak and room for SMEs, is more accurate. The paper’s first section – with its more historical focus – explains the birth of the Egyptian pyramid. The section 2 puts forward the idea that the Egyptian metaphor is more misleading than informative. We start by demonstrating that overusing this metaphor will ultimately exclude a number of very strategic companies from analysis. This is followed by a presentation of the findings from a study of 750 French SMEs*, in which it is demonstrated both that some continue to maintain direct access to carmakers and also that the hierarchy of tiers comprising this supply chain features greater porosity than is commonly recognized.modularity, supply chain, industrial architecture, SME, automobile.

Intelligent Sales Forecasting Technique Application

The primary objective of this study was to design and implement a machine learning-based sales forecasting system to enhance the production capacity and sales trajectory. The deployed model features a web-based interface that allows users to input parameters to generate predictions. The application of an intelligent forecasting technique, namely a machine learning model, significantly contributed to determining the optimal manufacturing output for a specific product in this study. The data analysis was conducted utilizing statistical software known as Tableau. The machine learning algorithm employed for constructing the model was the multiple linear regression model, which is particularly well-suited for trend analysis. The supplied dataset was utilized to train and test a supervised machine learning model, which was subsequently deployed on a local web server. Furthermore, a database system was effectively implemented to facilitate data storage, retrieval, and manipulation. The model was evaluated using two commonly employed metrics, the Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) and the Mean Absolute Error (MAE), within the Jupyter notebook environment. The resulting evaluation scores were 2.364858669808942 for RMSE and 1.7610409547966064 for MAE. These metrics were deemed effective in accurately predicting outcomes and efficiently presenting results.&nbsp

Impact of information exchange on supply chain strategies

Due to globalisation and the competition faced from Asian countries, there is an emergent need to investigate how to extend the limited capabilities of developing countries in order to survive in the market as well as reach global market. Developing countries play an important role as OEM units to provide global markets with under-brand names. Many difficulties face the industrial zones in these countries in their attempt to reach this target and these prevent them from providing their own brands. For example, many sectors in Egyptian industry are outperformed by Chinese competition and have even lost their domestic market share. Textiles are one of the most affected industries as a result of this competition. The risk of Egyptian fabrics vanishing from global markets is indicated by a huge reduction in export rate after the quota phase-out. Egyptian textile producers rely on global agreements to reach global markets. The period after the Multi-Fibre agreement shows an obvious drop in exportation rates till the Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ) agreement was issued. Can the same scenario occur after QIZ quota phase-out? What should Egyptian fabric manufacturer do? Since the situation is alarming and may result in exporting the high quality Egyptian cotton to global markets instead of to its domestic manufacturers, the flood of Chinese fabrics in Egyptian Markets requires that the question “how to survive and compete with low-cost Chinese fabrics?” be investigated. The aim of the research was to investigate the deficiencies experienced by Egyptian firms trying to reach global markets and maintain their domestic market share. The research conducted an exploratory-explanatory empirical study to identify the major issues facing textile fabricators in Egyptian industrial zones. Case studies and a survey outcome were matched to provide validated empirical findings. An Interpretive Structuring Modelling approach was used to indicate the stages of supply chain deficiencies based on the case study findings. The major issues causing supply chain deficiencies are defined from the case study analysis and validated using the survey approach. The outcome of the empirical study indicates that supply chain design, integration and IT infrastructure are considered as major issues that lead to the existing deficiencies of the textile industry supply chain in Egypt despite the low level assigned to their importance. At the same time, production and procurement issues are considered as dependant on poor supply chain design, IT infrastructure and unreliable forecasting despite the high level assigned to their importance. A stage-based model for supply chain deficiencies in the Egyptian textile sector was highlighted in this study to indicate dependency and driving power among internal deficiencies. A framework, indicates supply chain deficiencies and their leading factors in Egypt, was concluded from this study. The study points out a number of external issues related to the surrounding environment and the government’s role in contributing to the aggravation of the existing deficiencies. The research uses simulation techniques to test the proposed solution that might provide better supply chain performance. A System Dynamic approach is used to model a case study of the investigated industry. Different scenarios of fulfilling local and international orders have been tested. These scenarios are represented in: expansion of production capacity, reduction of inventory levels or reduction of procurement time. Since addressing the internal deficiency, which empirical study respondents’ pointed out as being the most important one, could not provide an adaquate solution for the existing deficiencies, supply chain re-structuring to represent a collaborative pattern between partners was, therefore, tested and proved to have a great effect on supply chain performance. A collaborative pattern among supply chain partners indicated its positive impact on supply chain performance. The simulation experiments prove that the individual decisions of supply chain partners cannot bring about improvement to supply chain cost and responsiveness. The negative impact of an unreliable logistic system on supply chain performance was confirmed through the simulation experiments. The study provides the managerial levels in textile organisations with a solid causal basis for the supply chain deficiencies in the Egyptian textile sector. The outcome of the work can be employed by governmental authorities to address such difficulties and accelerate the growth of this sector globally. The thesis provides the fundamentals for investigating deficiencies in developing countries that might be extended by other researchers to investigate other defective sectors in Egypt and other developing countries

European Quality Scoreboard: preliminary results

Purpose: Nowadays, quality is usually measured based on the ISO 9000 registration numbers. However this gives us a narrow perspective of quality. To overcome this issue it is proposed a new model to measure macroquality in the Europe Union - the European Quality Scoreboard (EQS). This scoreboard is not just based on the number of ISO 9000 issued certificates per country, but also based in other indicators that are related to the country quality state-of-the-art. Each one of the indicators, previous validated with an expert panel, has a different weigh of importance in the computation of the score. Through the EQS it will be possible to make a comparative assessment and characterization of the quality performance of each European Union Country and understand their behaviors concerning quality. It is expected that the scoreboard will be able to aggregate countries in a more accurate way according to their quality performance. Methodology/Approach: To achieve the goal of this project, it was performed a set of statistical analyses over public data sets and in the final stage the scoreboard indicators had been validated with a specialists panel, composed by people from the industry sector and from academia. Findings: The scoreboard allows one to aggregate countries in a more accurate way according to their quality performance. Originality: The EQS is an instrument that provides a comparative assessment of the macroquality in the European Union countries, allowing one to characterize the quality state-of-theart in each one of those countries. The results provide an additional important contribution to the worldwide study of quality approaches diffusion and evolution

Impact of the contemporary manufacturing environment on cost accounting information systems "an Egyptian case study"

This thesis examines the relevance of current cost accounting systems to the manufacturing environment. Egyptian manufacturing companies in the ex-public industrial sector have suffered from relatively various obstacles, with problems in production planning and control in particular. These impediments were responsible for negative effects on costs and caused low profitability for these companies in most years. Cost accounting systems were basically established for the purpose of preparing financial statements not for operational control.The literature was reviewed to explore changes in the manufacturing environment with emphasis on the developments in production planning and control systems and also to investigate the developments in cost accounting systems.To examine this research phenomenon empirically, a case study was conducted in an Egyptian EI-Nasr automotive manufacturing company. Data was collected from published and unpublished reports and by semi-structured interviews within the case company.The thesis is divided into two main parts: Part I to cover the literature review in this area. Part II for the case study analysis. The study covered three major areas of analysis. First is an overview of all factors which shape the old and new manufacturing environments and the developments in the systems of production planning and control. Second is a detailed investigation of the traditional and new cost accounting systems. Third is the main findings and conclusion including exposing the relationship between the different planning and control systems and the various cost accounting systems. It also includes a wide range of suggestions for improving the cost accounting systems of the studied case company.The major findings of this study were that manufacturing environment played a significant role in designing cost accounting systems. It concluded that planning capabilities of the company and suppliers play a significant role in the process of cost reduction and improve the competitive position

Leanness and agility as means for improving supply chains. A case study on Egypt

Supply chain management has received greater attention from the academics and the practitioners, however the literature review lacks a comprehensive view for supply chain management practices and how its members should act to contribute to its overall success (Li el at., 2005). In this era, where the business organisations are working in several challenging threats and opportunities, greater attention is given to supply chain management. Nowadays, companies are always searching for means to improve their supply chains. The main aim of this research is to show "how leanness and agility approaches can be used within the same enterprise as complementary means for improving its supply chain". To achieve this research objective, the research has provided an assessment and summarised the literature on the supply chain management, lean thinking and agility thinking including their importance; their definitions; their practices and the relationship between lean and agility. The resulted proposed framework deduced from the literature has been applied in the Egyptian Manufacturing Business to show the relationship between the agility principles, lean principles, entity performance and the successful supply chain

The role of supply chain integration between integrated information technology and financial performance – a disaggregated framework and findings

Purpose To examine the role of supply chain integration (SCI – i.e. supplier integration, customer integration and internal integration) between integrated information technology (IIT) and financial performance (FP). Design/methodology/approach An explanatory sequential mixed-methods study was conducted, collecting quantitative data first and then examining the quantitative results with in-depth qualitative data from a sample targeting manufacturing and services firms in Egypt. Findings This study indicates that IIT relates positively to SCI, which in turn relates positively to FP. Main enablers/mechanisms and disablers/barriers for those linkages are identified. Research limitations/implications After establishing the linkages between ITT, SCI and FP in the quantitative phase of research, a qualitative phase based on follow-up interviews provide deeper understanding about mechanisms and contexts behind those linkages. Practical implications Offer firms guidance to assess IIT, SCI and FP. Originality/value With a disaggregated framework of IIT, SCI and FP, this study contributes by answering a need for development of a methodological toolbox of the field in supply chain management, with a rigorous use of mixed method research, as a way of departing from the normal approach to help researchers in providing a deeper and richer understanding of supply chain problems

The usage of social media and e-reputation system in global supply chain : comparative cases from diamond & automotive industries

The last decade witnesses a heave use of social media-based information systems in different fields of business such as logistics, procurement, and supply chain management. Managing these types of information systems, could help companies to outsource their supply chain functions in a global scale and enhance their competitive advantages. However, the digital performance of these activities inherent risks of inappropriate supplier selection process, lack of trust, limited information about supply conditions (e.g., pricing, shipping and timing). To address such challenges, this research explains how companies use e-reputation systems and social media to select their global trusted suppliers. Based on two-case evidence from British Diamond and Egyptian Automotive companies, the researchers conducted 20 interviews with purchasing and supply chain professionals. Chen & Lin’s reputation system model has been adopted to explain the process of selecting and evaluating a trusted supplier and to inform our data analysis. Our findings pointed diamond professionals’ lack of experience of how to use e-reputation systems and lack do not understand the role of social media-based ratings or referrals during the stages of selection suppliers’ discovery and approval. Though, automotive professionals find e-reputation system a strong tool to build goodwill, tacit credibility, competence and predictable trust. Ironically, both cases confirm that supply chain professional use these systems to re-evaluate and reselect their existing suppliers than to extend new supply networks. Keywords: e-Reputation Systems, Social Media, Global Supply Chai