Agile Supply Chain: competing in volatile markets

Abstract: Turbulent and volatile markets are becoming the norm as life-cycle shortens and global economic and competitive forces create additional uncertainty. Under uncertainty volatile competitive environment, supply chain are reaching the point where they need to be more agile-intelligent, fast in movement, flexible, and efficient customer responsive to changes, this paper suggests that the key to survival in these changed conditio ns is through agility- Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee, especially, by the creation of efficient consumer responsive supply chain. A definition and the route are addres sed, meanwhile the paper discuss the approach that using agile supply chain to competitive in the volatile and turbulent markets. Key words: agile supply chain; information technolog

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

Mastering Uncertainty in Mechanical Engineering

This open access book reports on innovative methods, technologies and strategies for mastering uncertainty in technical systems. Despite the fact that current research on uncertainty is mainly focusing on uncertainty quantification and analysis, this book gives emphasis to innovative ways to master uncertainty in engineering design, production and product usage alike. It gathers authoritative contributions by more than 30 scientists reporting on years of research in the areas of engineering, applied mathematics and law, thus offering a timely, comprehensive and multidisciplinary account of theories and methods for quantifying data, model and structural uncertainty, and of fundamental strategies for mastering uncertainty. It covers key concepts such as robustness, flexibility and resilience in detail. All the described methods, technologies and strategies have been validated with the help of three technical systems, i.e. the Modular Active Spring-Damper System, the Active Air Spring and the 3D Servo Press, which have been in turn developed and tested during more than ten years of cooperative research. Overall, this book offers a timely, practice-oriented reference guide to graduate students, researchers and professionals dealing with uncertainty in the broad field of mechanical engineering

Business process modelling in demand-driven agri-food supply chains : a reference framework

Keywords: Business process models; Supply chain management; Information systems; Reference information models; Market orientation; Mass customisation; Configuration; Coordination; Control; SCOR; Pot plants; Fruit industry Abstract The increasing volatility and diversity of demand urge agri-food supply chains to become more demand driven, i.e. sensitive and responsive to demand information of the ultimate consumer. Companies that participate in demand-driven supply chains must manage a high variety and variability of supply chain configurations to meet the specific requirements of their customers. Business process models can be valuable means to achieve this by supporting the design of customised supply chain configurations and subsequently the engineering of enabling information systems. However, existing reference process models do not sufficiently support specific requirements in demand-driven agri-food supply chains. Therefore, this dissertation aims to design a reference framework for business process modelling that i) is setup to enable the instantiation of various specific supply chain configurations, ii) supports a seamless translation of high-level supply chain designs to detailed information engineering models, and iii) is sector-specific i.e. contains domain-specific knowledge for the agri-food sector. The research started with the definition of basic design requirements based on literature review and subsequently existing reference models were assessed on these requirements. Based on this assessment and the reviewed literature, a generic framework was constructed. This generic framework was applied, evaluated and refined in three different case studies: i) an explorative multiple case study in the Dutch flower industry, ii) an in-depth multiple case study in the European fruit industry, and iii) a single case study in the Dutch flower industry on implementation of the framework in configurable process models. The main result of this thesis is the design of a framework for reference process modelling in demand-driven agri-food supply chains. The framework provides concepts and a toolkit for modelling a wide variety of supply chain configurations from standard model components. As such, it enhances shared understanding and reuse of process knowledge in supply chain design and information systems engineering. The framework consists of two parts: i) an object system definition and ii) a toolbox for modelling the defined object system. The object system definition provides typologies of the main elements of supply chain configurations, i.e. business processes, product units, control systems and coordination mechanisms. The toolbox provides the representation power for modelling the defined object system. It identifies three types of supply chain process models: 1. Product Flow Models: visualise the allocation of basic transformations to supply chain actors and the related product flows from input material into end products; 2. Thread Diagrams: visualise how order-driven and forecast-driven processes are decoupled in specific supply chain configurations (positions Customer Order Decoupling Points), and how interdependences between processes are coordinated; 3. Business Process Diagrams: depict the sequence and interaction of control and coordination activities (as identified in Thread Diagrams) in an executable notation. For each process model type, the toolbox contains i) standard model building blocks (reference components), ii) a method to configure specific diagrams (configuration tree), and iii) pre-configured models (reference templates) that capture reusable knowledge abstracted from the case studies. The toolbox also includes a conceptual architecture for implementation of enabling information systems. The main addition of this thesis to existing theory is the design of an innovative artefact: a new framework that captures the concepts needed to design adequate reference process models in demand-driven agri-food supply chains. Therefore, the thesis has defined, developed and evaluated the representation power needed to model a wide variety of supply chain configurations as specific networks with different allocations of business processes to supply chain participants and different modes of control and coordination. More specifically, three additional contributions can be mentioned. First, the research has applied the concept of mass customisation to reference process models, which implies that customised models are configured from a repository of standard building blocks i.e. predefined model components. As such, it contributes to the emerging field of process model configuration, which is a relatively new research area. Second, the research has developed a framework that combines process models at different levels of abstraction for two main purpose of usage: supply chain design and information systems engineering. As such, it contributes to the development of a common conceptualisation and consistent terminology of these two research streams. Third, the research has applied the framework to specific agri-food sectors, i.e. pot plants and fruit supply chains. As such, it has developed sector-specific reference process models for pot plants and fruit supply chains, which do not yet exist. The main practical value of the framework helps to map, in a timely, punctual and coherent way, the business processes of the supply chain configurations that a company must manage in order to fulfil the different demand requirements of their customers. The framework is designed for demand-driven supply chains that aim to provide a rapid and customised response to volatile demand. We have argued that this imposes stringent demands on information systems and requires. The designed framework supports the ability to design and implement customised supply chain configurations by supplying business and ICT professionals with concepts and a toolkit for modelling a wide range of supply chain configurations. As such, although designed for demand-driven supply chains, the framework is a general tool for supply chain modelling. <br/

Transaction Streams: Definition and Implications for Trust in Internet-Based Electronic Commerce.

In this paper we analyze how transactions related to the exchange of goods and services are being performed on the Internet. The adoption of electronic markets in an industry has a disintermediation potential because it can create a direct link between the producer and the consumer (without the need for the intermediation role of distributors). Electronic markets lower the search cost, allowing customers to choose among more providers (which ultimately reduces both the costs for the customer and the profits for the producer). In this paper we contend that electronic markets on the Internet have the opposite effect, resulting in our increase in the number of intermediators. We introduce transaction streams, which model how transactions are being conducted and help explain the types of new intermediators that are appearing on the Internet. We also describe mechanisms by which companies are exploring ways of extending transaction streams. To illustrate the model and validate our findings, we analyze transaction streams in the insurance industry and review associated concepts such as trust and brands.transactions; electronic markets;

Simplexity: A Hybrid Framework for Managing System Complexity

Knowledge management, management of mission critical systems, and complexity management rely on a triangular support connection. Knowledge management provides ways of creating, corroborating, collecting, combining, storing, transferring, and sharing the know-why and know-how for reactively and proactively handling the challenges of mission critical systems. Complexity management, operating on “complexity” as an umbrella term for size, mass, diversity, ambiguity, fuzziness, randomness, risk, change, chaos, instability, and disruption, delivers support to both knowledge and systems management: on the one hand, support for dealing with the complexity of managing knowledge, i.e., furnishing criteria for a common and operationalized terminology, for dealing with mediating and moderating concepts, paradoxes, and controversial validity, and, on the other hand, support for systems managers coping with risks, lack of transparence, ambiguity, fuzziness, pooled and reciprocal interdependencies (e.g., for attaining interoperability), instability (e.g., downtime, oscillations, disruption), and even disasters and catastrophes. This support results from the evident intersection of complexity management and systems management, e.g., in the shape of complex adaptive systems, deploying slack, establishing security standards, and utilizing hybrid concepts (e.g., hybrid clouds, hybrid procedures for project management). The complexity-focused manager of mission critical systems should deploy an ambidextrous strategy of both reducing complexity, e.g., in terms of avoiding risks, and of establishing a potential to handle complexity, i.e., investing in high availability, business continuity, slack, optimal coupling, characteristics of high reliability organizations, and agile systems. This complexity-focused hybrid approach is labeled “simplexity.” It constitutes a blend of complexity reduction and complexity augmentation, relying on the generic logic of hybrids: the strengths of complexity reduction are capable of compensating the weaknesses of complexity augmentation and vice versa. The deficiencies of prevalent simplexity models signal that this blended approach requires a sophisticated architecture. In order to provide a sound base for coping with the meta-complexity of both complexity and its management, this architecture comprises interconnected components, domains, and dimensions as building blocks of simplexity as well as paradigms, patterns, and parameters for managing simplexity. The need for a balanced paradigm for complexity management, capable of overcoming not only the prevalent bias of complexity reduction but also weaknesses of prevalent concepts of simplexity, serves as the starting point of the argumentation in this chapter. To provide a practical guideline to meet this demand, an innovative model of simplexity is conceived. This model creates awareness for differentiating components, dimensions, and domains of complexity management as well as for various species of interconnectedness, such as the aligned upsizing and downsizing of capacities, the relevance of diversity management (e.g., in terms of deviations and errors), and the scope of risk management instruments. Strategies (e.g., heuristics, step-by-step procedures) and tools for managing simplexity-guided projects are outlined

Manufacturing System Design Framework Manual

Previous Lean Aerospace Initiative research in factory operations had indicated that the greatest performance gains are realized when the manufacturing system is designed from the top down and from supplier to the customer. Manufacturing system designs were most effective when the entire product value stream was designed or redesigned (not just a shop, division or segment of the factory). This led to a focus on manufacturing system design. The objective in this study was to develop a method or process that would assist manufacturing system designers as they developed (or modified) the manufacturing system for their needs. This effort was developed to be applicable to a single product manufacturing system design or a multiple product manufacturing system design. A systems approach was used with an enterprise perspective. Several important products were produced as the problem was addressed: a list of the manufacturing system design inputs and a definition of manufacturing system types (each included in the appendices)