Outsourcing and acquisition models comparison related to IT supplier selection decision analysis

This paper presents a comparison of acquisition models related to decision analysis of IT supplier selection. The main standards are: Capability Maturity Model Integration for Acquisition (CMMI-ACQ), ISO / IEC 12207 Information Technology / Software Life Cycle Processes, IEEE 1062 Recommended Practice for Software Acquisition, the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) guide. The objective of this paper is to compare the previous models to find the advantages and disadvantages of them for the future development of a decision model for IT supplier selection

Analysis of Customer Portfolio and Relationship Management Models : Bridging Managerial Dimensions

This paper broadly discusses the customer portfolio theories and their implications in reference to marketing and purchasing perspectives. It provides an insight into how marketers interpret and describe companies' actions. The central theme of the paper - the tools that can be used to facilitate relationship management. The discussion in the paper provides a framework for relationship management, the central tenet of which is to enable managers to invest their resources in the most efficient and effective way. The contributions to the understanding of relationship management are critically reviewed in the following sections. The alternative models have been developed in reference to the market environment and values concepts in reference to the triadic relationship among the organization, supplier and customer has been discussed in the contemporary managerial perspectives. The paper also draws applied recommendations are made about their relevance to strategic decision making and theoretical development in the area of customer portfolio management.Customer portfolio, customer relationship, supplier relationship, decision making, customer value

mFish Alpha Pilot: Building a Roadmap for Effective Mobile Technology to Sustain Fisheries and Improve Fisher Livelihoods.

In June 2014 at the Our Ocean Conference in Washington, DC, United States Secretary of State John Kerry announced the ambitious goal of ending overfishing by 2020. To support that goal, the Secretary's Office of Global Partnerships launched mFish, a public-private partnership to harness the power of mobile technology to improve fisher livelihoods and increase the sustainability of fisheries around the world. The US Department of State provided a grant to 50in10 to create a pilot of mFish that would allow for the identification of behaviors and incentives that might drive more fishers to adopt novel technology. In May 2015 50in10 and Future of Fish designed a pilot to evaluate how to improve adoption of a new mobile technology platform aimed at improving fisheries data capture and fisher livelihoods. Full report

Trading reliability targets within a supply chain using Shapley's value

The development of complex systems involves a multi-tier supply chain, with each organisation allocated a reliability target for their sub-system or component part apportioned from system requirements. Agreements about targets are made early in the system lifecycle when considerable uncertainty exists about the design detail and potential failure modes. Hence resources required to achieve reliability are unpredictable. Some types of contracts provide incentives for organisations to negotiate targets so that system reliability requirements are met, but at minimum cost to the supply chain. This paper proposes a mechanism for deriving a fair price for trading reliability targets between suppliers using information gained about potential failure modes through development and the costs of activities required to generate such information. The approach is based upon Shapley's value and is illustrated through examples for a particular reliability growth model, and associated empirical cost model, developed for problems motivated by the aerospace industry. The paper aims to demonstrate the feasibility of the method and discuss how it could be extended to other reliability allocation models

Selection of Wood Supply Contracts to Reduce Cost in the Presence of Risks in Procurement Planning

Les activités d'achat dans l'industrie des pâtes et papiers représentent une part importante du coût global de la chaîne d'approvisionnement. Les décideurs prévoient l'approvisionnement en bois requis jusqu'à un an à l'avance afin de garantir le volume d'approvisionnement pour le processus de production en continu dans leur usine. Des contrats réguliers, flexibles et d'options avec des fournisseurs de différents groupes sont disponibles. Les fournisseurs sont regroupés en fonction de caractéristiques communes, telles que la propriété des terres forestières. Cependant, lors de l'exécution du plan, des risques affectent les opérations d'approvisionnement. Si les risques ne sont pas intégrés dans le processus de planification des achats, l'atténuation de leur impact sera generalement coûteuse et compliquée. Des contrats ad hoc coûteux supplémentaires pourraient être nécessaires pour compenser le manque de livraisons. Pour aborder ce problème dans cette thèse, dans un premier projet, un modèle mathématique déterministe des opérations d'approvisionnement est développé. L'objectif du modèle est de proposer un plan d'approvisionnement annuel pour minimiser le coût total des opérations relatives. Les opérations sont soumises à des contraintes telles qu’une proportion minimale de l'offre par chaque groupe de fournisseurs, des niveaux cibles des stocks, de la satisfaction de la demande, la capacité par la cour à bois et la capacité du procédé de mise en copeaux. Les décisions sont liées à la sélection des contrats d'approvisionnement, à l'ouverture de cour à bois et aux flux du bois. Dans un deuxième projet, une évaluation du plan d'approvisionnement à partir du modèle déterministe du premier projet est effectuée en utilisant une approche de simulation Monte Carlo. Trois stratégies contractuelles différentes sont comparées : fixes, flexibles et une combinaison des deux types des contrats. L'approche de simulation de ce projet évalue la performance du plan par la valeur attendue et la variabilité du coût total, lorsque le plan est exécuté pendant l'horizon de planification. Dans un troisième projet, une approche de programmation stochastique en deux étapes est utilisée pour fournir un plan d'approvisionnement fiable. L'objectif du modèle est de minimiser le coût prévu du plan d'approvisionnement en présence de différents scénarios générés en fonction des risques. Les décisions lors de la première étape sont la sélection des contrats dans la première période et l'ouverture des cours à bois. Les décisions de la deuxième étape concernent la sélection des contrats commençant après la première période, les flux, l'inventaire et la production du procédé de la mise en copeaux. iii L'étude de cas utilisée dans cette thèse est inspirée par Domtar, une entreprise des pâtes et papiers située au Québec, Canada. Les résultats des trois projets de cette thèse aident les décideurs à réduire les contraintes humaines liées à la planification complexe des achats. Les modèles mathématiques développés fournissent une base pour l'évaluation de la stratégie d'approvisionnement sélectionnée. Cette tâche est presque impossible avec les approches actuelles de l'entreprise, car les évaluations nécessitent la formulation de risques d'approvisionnement. L'approche de programmation stochastique montre de meilleurs résultats financiers par rapport à la planification déterministe, avec une faible variabilité dans l'atténuation de l'impact des risques.Procurement activities in the pulp and paper industry account for an important part of the overall supply chain cost. Procurement decision-makers plan for the required wood supply up to one year in advance to guarantee the supply volume for the continuous production process at their mill. Regular, flexible and option contracts with suppliers in different groups are available. Suppliers are grouped based on common characteristics such as forestland ownership. However, during the execution of the plan, sourcing risks affect procurement operations. If risks are not integrated into the procurement planning process, mitigating their impact is likely to be expensive and complicated. Additional expensive ad hoc contracts might be required to compensate for the lack of deliveries. To tackle this problem, the first project of this thesis demonstrates the development of a deterministic mathematical model of procurement operations. The objective of the model is to propose an annual procurement plan to minimize the total cost of procurement operations. The operations are subject to constraints such as the minimum share of supply for each group of suppliers, inventory target levels, demand, woodyard capacity, and chipping process capacity. The decisions are related to the selection of sourcing contracts, woodyards opening, and wood supply flow. In the second project, an evaluation of the procurement plan from the deterministic model from project one is performed by using a Monte Carlo simulation approach. Three different strategies are compared as fixed, flexible, and a mix of both contracts. The simulation approach in this project evaluates the performance of the plan by the expected value and variability of the total cost when the plan is executed during the planning horizon. In the third project, a two-stage stochastic programming approach is used to provide a reliable procurement plan. The objective of the model is to minimize the expected cost of the procurement plan in the presence of different scenarios generated based on sourcing risks. First-stage decisions are the selection of contracts in the first period and the opening of woodyards. Second-stage decisions concern the selection of contracts starting after the first period, flow, inventory, and chipping process production. The case study used in this thesis was inspired by Domtar, which is a pulp and paper company located in Quebec, Canada. The results of three projects in this doctoral dissertation support decision-makers to reduce the human limitation in performing complicated procurement planning. The developed mathematical models provide a basis to evaluate the selected procurement strategy. This task is nearly impossible with current approaches in the company, as the evaluations require the formulation of v sourcing risks. The stochastic programming approach shows better financial results comparing to deterministic planning, with low variability in mitigating the impact of risks

Sustainable supply chain management in tourism

Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) encapsulates the trend to use purchasing policies and practices to facilitate sustainable development at the tourist destination. Most research has focused on environmental aspects of manufacturing, while other aspects of sustainability or the challenges for the service sector are largely ignored. Yet SSCM is particularly important for tour operators, as the product depends on the activities of suppliers, such as accommodation, transport and activities. Therefore, tour operators' contribution to sustainable tourism will be more effective through the definition and implementation of policies that acknowledge responsibility for the impacts of suppliers. Exploratory research of SSCM practices amongst tour operators generated a wide range of examples of good practice across the whole supply chain, and recommendations are made for more widespread engagement. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Supply Portfolio Concentration in Outsourced Knowledge-Based Services

In the extant vertical integration literature, the question of how the firm's portfolio of outsourced work is managed across suppliers has been relatively understudied. We seek to advance this area of research by examining factors that influence how concentrated the firm's outsourcing is among its set of suppliers. Using data on the outsourcing of patent legal services, we find empirical evidence that outsourced knowledge-based service work is concentrated in the hands of fewer suppliers when: (1) it requires greater firm-specific knowledge; (2) there is a higher level of interrelatedness across outsourced projects; (3) the firm's reliance on outsourcing is high; (4) its outsourced projects are focused on a narrower (capability) domain; and (5) the technological dynamism of this domain is low. Our study suggests that examining portfolio-level phenomena in outsourcing is a useful complement to the predominant focus on transaction-level outcomes in prior research because it provides insights into how firms manage tradeoffs across their entire set of outsourced projects.

Lignocellulosic Ethanol: The Path to Market

The cost effective production of transport fuels from biomass is essential if the EU aspiration to substitute 10% of transport fuels with sustainable alternatives by 2020 is to be met. The hope, voiced by the Parliament’s Industry and Energy Committee, is that at least 40% of the 2020 target will come from second-generation biofuels, and therein lies the challenge: second-generation conversion technologies are not yet commercial. Multiple pathways are being investigated around the globe, but dominant pathways have yet to emerge and business models have yet to be proven. Nevertheless, expectations are running high and there has been significant investment in R&D in the US, Europe and Asia. The production of ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass is commercially and environmentally one of the most promising options, and in 2007 the US Department of Energy (DOE) provided more than US$1 billion toward lignocellulosic ethanol (LE) projects. Their goal was to make the fuel cost competitive at$1.33 per gallon, when deployed at scale, by 2012. The majority of studies also suggest that LE will result in superior greenhouse gas savings compared to ethanol produced from starch. Despite favourable predictions for cost and environmental performance, market deployment requires practical and plausible development paths that are able to support progress from existing small-scale demonstration plant to large industrial installations. Moreover, these development paths must be sufficiently attractive to persuade developers and investors that lignocellulosic ethanol remains an opportunity worth pursuing