Food supply chain network robustness : a literature review and research agenda

Today’s business environment is characterized by challenges of strong global competition where companies tend to achieve leanness and maximum responsiveness. However, lean supply chain networks (SCNs) become more vulnerable to all kind of disruptions. Food SCNs have to become robust, i.e. they should be able to continue to function in the event of disruption as well as in normal business environment. Current literature provides no explicit clarification related to robustness issue in food SCN context. This paper explores the meaning of SCN robustness and highlights further research direction

The Flexibility and Specialization of Resources - Competitive Strategies of Materials Decoupling Points of a Network Supply Chain of Metallurgic Products

AbstractThe configuration of the supply chain which realizes the postponed production strategy, requires consideration of the issue of formation of network relations in order to increase the supply potential. The increase in the number of network relations shaped by materials decoupling point of the supply chain can be a consequence of an endeavour to reduce the logistic costs, improvement in the level of the customer service or an increase in innovativeness. In the model presented in the article the authors considered the issue of reducing logistic costs with the established high level of the customer service, taking into account the problem of the flexibility of resources

Multi-objective optimisation of reliable product-plant network configuration.

Ensuring manufacturing reliability is key to satisfying product orders when production plants are subject to disruptions. Reliability of a supply network is closely related to the redundancy of products as production in disrupted plants can be replaced by alternative plants. However the benefits of incorporating redundancy must be balanced against the costs of doing so. Models in literature are highly case specific and do not consider complex network structures and redundant distributions of products over suppliers, that are evident in empirical literature. In this paper we first develop a simple generic measure for evaluating the reliability of a network of plants in a given product-plant configuration. Second, we frame the problem as a multi-objective evolutionary optimisation model to show that such a measure can be used to optimise the cost-reliability trade off. The model has been applied to a producer’s automotive light and lamp production network using three popular genetic algorithms designed for multi-objective problems, namely, NSGA2, SPEA2 and PAES. Using the model in conjunction with genetic algorithms we were able to find trade off solutions successfully. NSGA2 has achieved the best results in terms of Pareto front spread. Algorithms differed considerably in their performance, meaning that the choice of algorithm has significant impact in the resulting search space exploration

The Impact of Pooling on Throughput Time in Discretionary Work Settings: An Empirical Investigation of Emergency Department Length of Stay

We conduct an empirical investigation on the impact of pooling tasks and resources on throughput times in a discretionary work setting. We use an Emergency Department’s (ED) patient-level data (N = 234,334) from 2007 to 2010 to test our hypotheses. We find that when the ED’s work system had pooled tasks and resources, patients’ lengths of stay were longer than when the ED converted to having dedicated tasks and resources. More specifically, we find that dedicated systems resulted in a 9 percent overall decrease in length of stay, which corresponds to a 25-minute reduction in length of stay for an average patient of medium severity in this ED. We propose that the improved performance comes from a reduction in social loafing and a more distributed utilization of shared resources. These benefits outweigh the expected efficiency gains from pooling, which are commonly predicted by queuing theory

Managing Flexibility in Outsourcing

In recent years, outsourcing has gained considerable management attention. However, the benefits of outsourcing are not without concessions. One major risk is losing the flexibility to change the extent, nature, or scope of the outsourced business services, and such flexibility is strategically imperative in today\u27s dynamic business environment. This paper seeks to clarify the multi-dimensional notion of flexibility in outsourcing by examining robustness, modifiability, new capability, and ease of exit. Adapting from Evans (1991), we also develop a framework to classify existing practices in managing outsourcing flexibility. We go beyond contractual provision to surface a portfolio of pre-emptive, protective, exploitive, and corrective maneuvers. These strategic maneuvers map well to traditional notions in coordination theory, both in advanced structuring through loose coupling and dependency diversification, and in dynamic adjustment through proactive sensing and reactive adapting. We put forward a set of propositions hypothesizing the relationships between the various strategic maneuvers and the different dimensions of outsourcing flexibility, and discuss the moderating impact of such maneuvers on outsourcing success. We hope the greater conceptual clarity will not only contribute to the effectiveness of outsourcing management but also spawn a new research agenda on outsourcing flexibility

Determinants of sourcing flexibility and its impact on performance

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. Sourcing flexibility is an increasingly important building block of supply chain flexibility. Our study which is grounded in information processing theory argues that two mechanisms can support firms in building up sourcing flexibility. Based on a survey of 336 manufacturing firms from Europe and the U.S. and using partial least squares (PLS) modeling as well as hierarchical regression analysis, we show that supplier evaluation and selection, and the integration of information systems at the buyer-supplier interface are positively related to sourcing flexibility. Sourcing flexibility, in turn, is curvilinearly related to delivery performance. Finally, delivery performance positively influences the product's financial performance. The strong associations between sourcing flexibility, delivery performance, and product financial performance underscore that sourcing flexibility merits the attention of supply chain managers during supplier selection and purchasing decisions

Econometric Analysis of Pricing and Operational Strategies

This dissertation contains three essays. The first essay, entitled Pricing and Production Flexibility: An Empirical Analysis of the U.S. Automotive Industry, uses a detailed dataset of the U.S. auto industry to examine the relationship between production flexibility and responsive pricing. Our analysis shows that deploying production flexibility is associated with a reduction in observed discounts and with an increase in plant utilization. Our results allow quantifying some of the benefits of production flexibility. The second essay, entitled An Empirical Analysis of Reputation in Online Service Marketplaces, uses a detailed dataset from a leading online intermediary for software development services to empirically examine the role of reputation on choices and prices in service marketplaces. We find that buyers trade off reputation and price and are willing to accept higher bids posted by more reputable bidders. Sellers primarily use a superior reputation to increase their probability of being selected, as opposed to increasing their prices. Our analysis shows that the numerical reputation score has a smaller effect in situations where there exists a previous relationship between buyer and seller, when the seller has certified his or her skills, when the seller is local, or in situations that prompt higher interpersonal trust. The third essay, entitled The Effects of Product Line Breadth: Evidence from the Automotive Industry, studies the effects of product line breadth on market shares and costs, using data from the U.S. automotive industry. Our results show a positive association between product line breadth and market share and production costs. Beyond the effects on production costs, we study the effect of product line breadth on mismatch costs, which arise from demand uncertainty, and we find that product line breadth has a substantial impact on average discounts and inventories. Our results also show that platform strategies can reduce production costs and that a broader product line can provide a hedge against changes in demand conditions