Electronic Business (EB) in the Context of Global Sourcing: A Proposed Framework

Global sourcing operates under the challenges and pressures of intensive global-wide competition. Global sourcing can benefit from the functionality of electronic business (EB) by exhibiting more flexible structures and added opportunities in communications and transactions with partners among worldwide supply chains/networks. This study aims to answer two research questions, “what are the relationships between global sourcing and EB?” and “how do EB applications and strategies help global sourcing lead to better performance?” Our literature review addresses the relationships between global sourcing and EB from three perspectives: the applied theories, the covered business scope, and the changing roles of flows. In analyzing the potential benefits of EB to global sourcing, the enhancement on SC components and alignment effects are discussed. Finally, a framework is proposed to highlight how EB and global sourcing interact with each other, resulting in five major issues: the enhancement of SC components, the changing micro-environment, the effect of accelerating evolution of global sourcing, the integration of activities, and the significant improvement on outcomes

Global supply chain design: A literature review and critique

In this paper, we review decision support models for the design of global supply chains, and assess the fit between the research literature in this area and the practical issues of global supply chain design. The classification scheme for this review is based on ongoing and emerging issues in global supply chain management and includes review dimensions for (1) decisions addressed in the model, (2) performance metrics, (3) the degree to which the model supports integrated decision processes, and (4) globalization considerations. We conclude that although most models resolve a difficult feature associated with globalization, few models address the practical global supply chain design problem in its entirety. We close the paper with recommendations for future research in global supply chain modeling that is both forward-looking and practically oriented

Capacity Planning with Financial and Operational Hedging in Low‐Cost Countries

The authors of this paper outline a capacity planning problem in which a risk-averse firm reserves capacities with potential suppliers that are located in multiple low-cost countries. While demand is uncertain, the firm also faces multi-country foreign currency exposures. This study develops a mean-variance model that maximizes the firm’s optimal utility and derives optimal utility and optimal decisions in capacity and financial hedging size. The authors show that when demand and exchange rate risks are perfectly correlated, a risk- averse firm, by using financial hedging, will achieve the same optimal utility as a risk-neutral firm. In this paper as well, a special case is examined regarding two suppliers in China and Vietnam. The results show that if a single supplier is contracted, financial hedging most benefits the highly risk-averse firm when the demand and exchange rate are highly negatively related. When only one hedge is used, financial hedging dominates operational hedging only when the firm is very risk averse and the correlation between the two exchange rates have become positive. With both theoretical and numerical results, this paper concludes that the two hedges are strategic tools and interact each other to maximize the optimal utility

Essays on Risk Mitigation Methods in Global Supply Chain Management

In this dissertation, we study risk mitigation methods in the area of global supply chain management. Recent economic uncertainties such as the U.S. credit and the Greek debt crises, and natural disasters such as the Japanese tsunami create a greater amount of uncertainty and risk for global supply chain operations. The goal of the dissertation is to develop new prescriptive policies for multinational corporations and global relief organizations in order to assist them in mitigating the risks present in their operating environment in an effective manner. The first essay of the dissertation investigates how a multinational corporation can effectively hedge against the exchange-rate risk by structuring and managing a supply chain in a global setting. Economic uncertainties such as the U.S. credit crises and the debt concerns in southern European countries (e.g., Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) call for new policies in order to operate under an increased level of uncertainty. For example, even though the Japanese Yen and the US Dollar are considered to be more stable currencies, they have exhibit significant fluctuations in recent times, putting the US Dollar at its record low against the Yen on October 24, 2011, since the Great Depression. Naturally, such exchange rate fluctuations increase the need to develop new risk mitigation policies that would assist global corporations in managing the fluctuations in their global revenues and profits. This essay provides multinational corporations with prescriptions for ways to cope with the increased amount of global economic uncertainty. It demonstrates that production hedging, defined as producing and supplying less than the firm\u27s total global demand, can be an effective policy in minimizing the negative implications of the exchange-rate risk while maximizing global profits. The second essay of the dissertation examines how a global relief organization can effectively hedge against the risk of demand uncertainty in its distribution of essential products to the areas of urgent needs. It is commonly observed that deficiencies in information infrastructure or economic instability contribute to the adversity of forecasting the need for essential supplies. This study stems from recognizing the ineffectiveness in the distribution of humanitarian aid supply in countries of need. Such distribution inefficiencies can lead to harmful consequences for many people. United Nations Children\u27s Fund (UNICEF) reports that in 2007 alone, 9.2 million children worldwide under the age of five died from largely preventable causes. It is important to recognize that many of the well-developed theories are hard to apply in these countries because of inferior infrastructure and the unstable nature of the economy and political environment. Thus, it is critical to develop new policies and insights for the managers of humanitarian organizations in order to increase the efficiency of distribution operations under uncertainty. Specifically, the second essay of this dissertation demonstrates that a relief organization can minimize the risk of shortages by strategically utilizing its limited budget on procurement and the transportation of essential supplies

Propuesta de reconfiguración de una cadena de abastecimiento de productos de consumo masivo.

El trabajo descrito a continuación hace uso de elementos de investigación de operaciones y cadenas de abastecimiento para mostrar en su recorrido los aspectos de la compañía objeto de estudio, la cual pertenece al sector de maní y pasabocas, esta compañía dedica sus esfuerzos a la producción de pasabocas y presenta aspectos a mejorar en lo relacionado a la administración y conocimiento de la cadena de abastecimiento, desde los proveedores, hasta el envío a los cliente. Para ello se tienen en cuenta no sólo aspectos tales como el número y ubicación geográfica de las instalaciones, donde se incluyen plantas y zonas de almacenaje, las restricciones del sistema y las limitaciones en recursos de la compañía, sino también, el aspecto de productos de consumo masivo, con características de baja densidad y alto volumen, factor de vital importancia para esta cadena de abastecimiento, realizándose la investigación con el fin de contribuir a la minimización de los costos logísticos totales, relacionados con el transporte de materias primas y productos terminados, operación de plantas y centros de distribución.PregradoINGENIERO(A) EN INDUSTRIA