Improving order-picking operations with precedence constraints through efficient storage location assignment: evidence from a retail company

This paper is inspired by a manual picking retail company where shape and weight constraints affect the order-picking process. We proposed an alternative clustering similarity index that considers the similarity, the weight and the shape of products. This similarity index was further incorporated in a storage allocation heuristic procedure to set the location of the products. We test the procedure in a retail company that supplies over 191 stores, in Northern Portugal. When comparing the strategy currently used in the company with this procedure, we found out that our approach enabled a reduction of up to 40% on the picking distance; a percentage of improvement that is 32% higher than the one achieved by applying the Jaccard index, a similarity index commonly used in the literature. This allows warehouses to save time and work faster.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Modeling and analyzing a health care supply chain system

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.A Thesis presented on Improving and Redefining the Supply Chain in Healthcare, defining existing problems with current Supply Chain applications, and reviewing current applications and trends in the Supply Chain culture within the Manufacturing Industries and Healthcare Industries. Research of successful applications of new, and improvements to existing supply chain methodologies are presented. The concept of a future Supply Chain Management System, extending the boundaries of conventional Healthcare Supply Chain to include both conventional customer (Healthcare Materiel and Capital Assets Requestors and Distributors) and the nonconventional (the Healthcare Beneficiary), is presented in detail. Final discussions and conclusions of this concept are offered as a review of this concept for the reader of this manuscript

Modelling lean and green supply chain

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Engenharia IndustrialThe success of an organization depends on the effective control of its supply chain. It is important to recognize new opportunities for organization and its supply chain. In the last few years the approach to lean, agile, resilient and green supply chain paradigms has been addressed in the scientific literature. Research in this field shows that the integration of these concepts revealed some contradictions among so many paradigms. This thesis is mainly focused on the lean and green approaches. Thirteen different management frameworks, embodied in awards, standards and tools were studied to understand if they could contribute for the modelling process of a lean and green approach. The study reveals a number of categories that are common in most management frameworks, providing adequate conditions for a lean and green supply chain transformation. A conceptual framework for the evaluation of a lean and green organization`s supply chain was proposed. The framework considers six key criteria, namely, leadership, people, strategic planning, stakeholders, processes and results. It was proposed an assessment method considering a criteria score for each criterion. The purpose is to understand how lean and green supply chain can be compatible, using principles, practices, techniques or tools (i.e. elements) that support both, a lean and a green approach, in all key criteria. A case study in the automotive upstream supply chain was performed to understand more deeply if the elements proposed for the conceptual framework could be implemented in a real-scenario. Based on the conceptual framework and the case study, a roadmap to achieve a lean-green transformation is presented. The proposed roadmap revealed its contribution to the understanding on how and when an organization`s supply chain should apply the lean and green elements. This study is relevant to practice, as it may assist managers in the adoption of a lean and green supply chain approach, giving insights for the implementation of a hybrid supply chain.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia - (PhD fellowship: SFRH/BD/60969/2009); Project entitled "Lean, agile, resilient and green supply chain management" (LARG_SCM) which facilitated the development of case study and make possible the submission of papers at several International Meetings and Conference

Efficiency and responsiveness of supply chains in the high-tech electronics industry : a system dynamics-based investigation

Organizations can design planning systems for supply chain management in different ways in order to achieve the multiple objectives of supply chain management. In this book, a System Dynamics simulation model is used to assess the performance of planning approaches for supply chains in the high-tech electronics industry on the dimensions of responsiveness and efficiency. Supply chains in this industry are subject to a number of challenges that complicate the achievement of these two objectives, including short product life cycles and long component lead times. In recent years, companies experienced both decreasing delivery performance and increasing cost. The simulation results show that while the current planning approach in typical supply chains in this industry is not capable of supporting high responsiveness at the same time as high efficiency, it is possible to modify the planning system to achieve simultaneous improvements on both of these dimensions. Building on this simulation model, the book provides practical guidelines on how organizations can align the supply chain planning approach with different product characteristics and transform their supply chains into systems that are both responsive to customer demand and efficient

Modeling and analyzing a health care supply chain system

A Thesis presented on Improving and Redefining the Supply Chain in Healthcare, defining existing problems with current Supply Chain applications, and reviewing current applications and trends in the Supply Chain culture within the Manufacturing Industries and Healthcare Industries. Research of successful applications of new, and improvements to existing supply chain methodologies are presented. The concept of a future Supply Chain Management System, extending the boundaries of conventional Healthcare Supply Chain to include both conventional customer (Healthcare Materiel and Capital Assets Requestors and Distributors) and the nonconventional (the Healthcare Beneficiary), is presented in detail. Final discussions and conclusions of this concept are offered as a review of this concept for the reader of this manuscript.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT TRADEOFFS ANALYSIS

Supply chain management involves understanding complex interactions between many factors and using the understanding to achieve balance between conflicting objectives. Simulation is a very useful technique to evaluate the impact of changes in factors such as inventory control and business process parameters. This paper describes a simulation based study for analyzing the tradeoffs among service level, inventory and lead times for a large logistics supply chain. The study highlights the use of simulation in understanding seemingly non-intuitive results and guiding the effort for performance improvement