Managing the trade-off implications of global supply

The cost versus response trade-off is a growing logistics issue due to many markets being increasingly characterized by demand uncertainty and shorter product life cycles. This is exacerbated further with supply increasingly moving to low cost global sources. However, the poor response implications of global supply are often not addressed or even acknowledged when undertaking such decisions. Consequently, various practical approaches to minimising, postponing or otherwise managing the impact of the demand uncertainty are often only adopted retrospectively. Even though such generic solutions are documented through case examples we lack effective tools and concepts to support the proactive identification and resolution of such trade-offs. This paper reports on case-based theory building research, involving three cases from the UK and USA used in developing a conceptual model with associated tools, in support of such a process

Stochastic multi-period multi-product multi-objective Aggregate Production Planning model in multi-echelon supply chain

In this paper a multi-period multi-product multi-objective aggregate production planning (APP) model is proposed for an uncertain multi-echelon supply chain considering financial risk, customer satisfaction, and human resource training. Three conflictive objective functions and several sets of real constraints are considered concurrently in the proposed APP model. Some parameters of the proposed model are assumed to be uncertain and handled through a two-stage stochastic programming (TSSP) approach. The proposed TSSP is solved using three multi-objective solution procedures, i.e., the goal attainment technique, the modified ε-constraint method, and STEM method. The whole procedure is applied in an automotive resin and oil supply chain as a real case study wherein the efficacy and applicability of the proposed approaches are illustrated in comparison with existing experimental production planning method

Retail logistics in the UK: past, present and future

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the logistical transformation of British retailing over the last three decades and to discuss likely challenges that face logistics managers in the future Design/Approach: Reviews the key works on retail logistics, including the research undertaken by the authors over the last 20 years. Findings: Illustrates how retailers have control of the supply chain in the UK drawing upon examples from both the grocery and fashion sectors. Challenges for the future include macro-environment issues such as climate change and recession in addition to improvements in existing in operations with regard to e-fulfilment and implementation of technologies such as RFID. Originality/Value: This paper provides one of the few contributions to appraise the research undertaken on retail logistics in the UK over the last 20-30 year

A Tactical Demand-Supply Planning Framework to manage ‎‎Complexity in Engineer-to-Order Environments: Insights from an in-‎‎depth ‎case study

The challenging demand-supply balancing in engineer-to-order (ETO) environments\ua0is often attributed to complexity. This study expands the understanding of managing\ua0complexity to obtain demand-supply balancing, focusing on the tactical planning\ua0logic of the order fulfilment process. An in-depth single case study was conducted\ua0and data describing the order fulfilment process at a construction company were\ua0collected and analysed. Findings suggest a tactical-level planning process framework,\ua0incorporating nine key decisions and three crucial activities, and their potential\ua0complexity-reducing and complexity-absorbing impact. The study contributes to the\ua0theoretical discussion of complexity in management practices, linking demandsupply\ua0balancing as a performance measure. The findings guide practitioners in ETO\ua0settings on anticipating potential medium-term consequences of key decisions on\ua0capacity. This emphasises the need of proper IT support to apply knowledge\ua0generated from previous projects and conduct comprehensive and robust scenariobased\ua0analyses

Evaluation of supply chain risk management for material procurement in Libyan oil industry

The oil industry is considered to be a major industry as it provides energy to all other industries. This industry is exposed to various risks due to extreme circumstances, such as remote area locations, harsh environment, equipment, and functional engineering materials that are exclusively manufactured for this industry. All of these circumstances can disrupt and threaten the existences of the industry. This is where risk management and supply chain risk management is vitally needed by researchers and practitioners. Therefore, the assessment and prediction of the impact of risks on the procurement operation performance of projects is a very challenging task. As a result of this, many projects in the Libyan oil industry and worldwide are still suffering from the impact of these risks. The aspect of risk in supply chain management is underdeveloped on the body of literature, and very few studies have addressed this issue due to its confidentiality. The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of supply-chain risk management in the Libyan oil industry and to understand how procurement practitioners assess supply chain risk management to achieve smooth procurement operations. The author derives a set of propositions and preliminary results which contribute to developing strategies to identify and mitigate those risks. Hence, the contribution to knowledge is to investigate these issues within the Libyan oil industry and also to develop a framework that can be used as a risk management supporting tool. Qualitative and quantitative (triangulation) were adopted for this research. This comprised of the investigation of 65 out of 93 Libyan procurement practitioners, as well as interviews of which 9 Libyan procurement practitioners participated. This research finds that service providers and contractor companies are the highest percentage within stakeholders, who are practising supply risk management techniques. However, this percentage is still low within its group. This research also identifies types of risks that majorly affect the performance of procurement operations, such as purchasing clone parts. Thus, providing valuable information for particular stages of response planning. It also explores how the consideration of risk management can reshape supply chain management. Moreover, a Procurement Risk Management Framework (PRMF) that has been developed and empirically validated

Optimisation of vendor-managed inventory systems

Imperial Users onl

Inventory drivers in a pharmaceutical supply chain

In recent years, inventory reduction has been a key objective of pharmaceutical companies, especially within cost optimization initiatives. Pharmaceutical supply chains are characterized by volatile and unpredictable demands –especially in emergent markets-, high service levels, and complex, perishable finished-good portfolios, which makes keeping reasonable amounts of stock a true challenge. However, a one-way strategy towards zero-inventory is in reality inapplicable, due to the strategic nature and importance of the products being commercialised. Therefore, pharmaceutical supply chains are in need of new inventory strategies in order to remain competitive. Finished-goods inventory management in the pharmaceutical industry is closely related to the manufacturing systems and supply chain configurations that companies adopt. The factors considered in inventory management policies, however, do not always cover the full supply chain spectrum in which companies operate. This paper works under the pre-assumption that, in fact, there is a complex relationship between the inventory configurations that companies adopt and the factors behind them. The intention of this paper is to understand the factors driving high finished-goods inventory levels in pharmaceutical supply chains and assist supply chain managers in determining which of them can be influenced in order to reduce inventories to an optimal degree. Reasons for reducing inventory levels are found in high inventory holding and scrap related costs; in addition to lost sales for not being able to serve the customers with the adequate shelf life requirements. The thesis conducts a single case study research in a multi-national pharmaceutical company, which is used to examine typical inventory configurations and the factors affecting these configurations. This paper presents a framework that can assist supply chain managers in determining the most important inventory drivers in pharmaceutical supply chains. The findings in this study suggest that while external and downstream supply chain factors are recognized as being critical to pursue inventory optimization initiatives, pharmaceutical companies are oriented towards optimizing production processes and meeting regulatory requirements while still complying with high service levels, being internal factors the ones prevailing when making inventory management decisions. Furthermore, this paper investigates, through predictive modelling techniques, how various intrinsic and extrinsic factors influence the inventory configurations of the case study company. The study shows that inventory configurations are relatively unstable over time, especially in configurations that present high safety stock levels; and that production features and product characteristics are important explanatory factors behind high inventory levels. Regulatory requirements also play an important role in explaining the high strategic inventory levels that pharmaceutical companies hold

Development of a robust and resilient Supply Chain System for selected companies in Gauteng

Abstract: These days, in the extremely competitive nature of business, nearly every big business has to reap the benefits of investing in improvements of its supply chain. The beginning of the upgrades is considered together with the examination concerning profits and most organisations have addressed measures that a supply chain execution and monitor changes in order to drive the benefits of their business. While execution estimation is basic, most organisations either measure excessively or pay little attention to supply chain. Different weaknesses may incorporate; an excessive number of measurements, disconnected measurements, clashing measurements, obsolete measurements, temperamental information, and absence of possession, among others. Some organisations measure incorrect variables in their pursuit of their objectives. This is detrimental to the realisation of these objectives and this affects the organisation. Framework estimations lead to improved framework. "Estimation is the initial step that prompts control and in the long run to progress. In the event that you can't gauge something, you can't get it. On the off chance that you can't get it, you can't control it. On the off chance that you can't control it, you can't improve it" (Harrington, 2012)...M.Ing. (Quality and Operations Management

Supply chain business modelling

The developed work is motivated by the hypothesis that the presented Supply Chain Business Model is a practical and comprehensive approach to support not only operational day-to-day business decisions, but most importantly strategic and long term decisions that may define the success and the longevity of a business. Conceptually, the Business Supply Chain Model developed in this thesis replicates the behaviour and decision making of the different agents in a supply chain, and an Optimisation Module determines the optimised parameters that maximise the overall business profit, whatever scenario it may be. In the optimisation module, a Genetic Algorithm was used to determine the best equation parameters for each individual agent that optimise the overall supply chain profit. Furthermore, several business case-scenarios are presented and the findings highlighted. These case-scenarios prove that: the HC model is robust when subjected to predictable or unpredictable causes of variability; the bullwhip effect can be reduced significantly by applying GA as the optimisation tool; the improvement of profits needs to be evaluated at a global scale, independently of the individual agents’ profit; impact of supply shortages in the SC ; retail expansion analysis; delivery patterns change impact in profitability; impact of sourcing decisions in the SC profitability; model suitability for seasonal vs. non-seasonal products. The SC Modelling framework generic and globalising approach means that is easily applied and transposed to any other business realities and it can be easily changed to reflect other SC scenarios. The costing model associated means that, at any point in the network, all costs and profits can be easily measured. For the first time the shelf-life of a product captured and losses of product due to BBE dates, quantified. In this model the optimisation methodology runs parallel to the developed simulation tool, so the optimisation should be only run for new scenarios