Evolution of Supply Chain Collaboration: Implications for the Role of Knowledge

Increasingly, research across many disciplines has recognized the shortcomings of the traditional “integration prescription” for inter-organizational knowledge management. This research conducts several simulation experiments to study the effects of different rates of product change, different demand environments, and different economies of scale on the level of integration between firms at different levels in the supply chain. The underlying paradigm shifts from a static, steady state view to a dynamic, complex adaptive systems and knowledge-based view of supply chain networks. Several research propositions are presented that use the role of knowledge in the supply chain to provide predictive power for how supply chain collaborations or integration should evolve. Suggestions and implications are suggested for managerial and research purposes

Methodologies for performance enhancement in decentralized supply chains

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Approaching Dynamic PSA within CANDU 6 NPP

The outline of this dissertation is going to present the applications that are the subject of the work and also the lay down of work content. Chapter 1 reviews the conventional PSA main concepts, summarizes a short introduction history of Dynamic PSA (DPSA) and presents a non-exhaustive DPSA state-of-the-art with the recent and future developments. Chapter 2 presents the first application of the thesis, which is actually an introduction in the context of the Integrated Dynamic Decision Analysis (IDDA) code, that represents the main tool used in the attempt of approaching the Dynamic PSA. Starting from a description that reflects the level of knowledge about the system, IDDA code is able to develop all the scenarios of events compatible with the description received, from both points of view: either logical construction, or probabilistic coherence. By describing the system configuration and operation in a logically consistent manner, all the information is worked out by the code and is made available to the analyst as results in terms of system unavailability, minimal cut sets, uncertainty associated. The code allows also the association of different consequences that could be of interest for the analyst. The consequences could be of any type, such as economical, equipment outage time, etc.; for instance it can be considered an outage time for certain components of the system and then is calculated the “expected risk”. The association of consequences provides the inputs for a good decision making process. Chapter 3 represents the core applications of the present work. The applications purpose is the coupling between the logic probabilistics of the system or plant and associated phenomenology of primary heat transport system of a generic CANDU 6 NPP. First application is the coupling between the logic-probabilistic model of EWS system and associated phenomenology of primary heat transport system of CANDU 6 NPP. The considered plant transient is the total Loss of Main Feed-water with or without the coincident failure of the Emergency Water Supply System. The second application is considering the CANDU 6 Station Blackout as plant transient-consequential condition, moreover the loss of all AC power sources existing on the site. The transient scenarios development consider the possibility to recover the offsite grid and the use of mobile diesel generators in order to mitigate the accident consequences. The purpose is to challenge the plant design and response and to check if the plant conditions of a severe accident are reached. The plant response is challenged for short and long periods of time. The IDDA code allows interfacing the logic-probabilistic model of the system with the plant response in time, therefore with the evolution in time of the plant process variables. This allows raising sequences of possible events related in cause-consequence reasoning, each one giving place to a scenario with its development and its consequences. Therefore this allows acquiring the knowledge not only of which sequences of events are taking place, but also of the real environment in which they are taking place. Associating the system sequences that lead to system unavailability on demand with the resulting phenomenology proves to be a useful tool for the decision making process, both in the design phase and for the entire power plant life time. Chapter 4 presents future possible applications that could be developed with the present Dynamic PSA approach. A particular application could be the optimization or development of robust plant emergency operating procedures. In fact it consists in the coupling between the logic-probabilistics of the plant configurations corresponding to the Emergency Operating Procedure (EOP) and the associated phenomenology of the primary heat transport systems with the consideration for the plant safety systems. The application could highlight those situations where the plant fails either because of hardware failures or system dynamics and furthermore to reveal those situations where changing of the hardware states brings the process variables of the system state out of the system domain. A timeline course should be created for the process variables characterizing the plant state and that should reveal the time windows that operators have at disposition for intervention, in order to avoid potentially catastrophic conditions. Some week points in the EOP could be identified and then resolutions to be provided for their improvement, on the basis of sensitivity analyses. Chapter 5 presents the conclusions and the insights of the work and outlines possible improvements in terms of the present methodology proposed

Cross-border E-commerce Risk Evaluation from Sellers’ Perspective

While the development of cross-border e-commerce is flourishing, the associated risk factors should not be underestimated. In this paper, we analyze risk in cross-border e-commerce from the external environment and platform construction to establish a cross-border e-commerce risk evaluation index system from sellers\u27 perspective. Subsequently, the weights of the indicators are calculated on account of entropy weight method, and combined with fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to construct a cross-border e-commerce risk evaluation model. The results show that the weight of platform risk is more than environmental risk, and the risk level of cross-border e-commerce from sellers\u27 perspective is low. Finally, we attempt to propose some strategies to prevent risks, hoping to provide some theoretical insights into the issue of risk prevention in cross-border e-commerce

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN ROMANIA

The purpose of this paper is to identify the main opportunities and limitations of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The survey was defined with the aim to involve the highest possible number of relevant CSR topics and give the issue a more wholesome perspective. It provides a basis for further comprehension and deeper analyses of specific CSR areas. The conditions determining the success of CSR in Romania have been defined in the paper on the basis of the previously cumulative knowledge as well as the results of various researches. This paper provides knowledge which may be useful in the programs promoting CSR.Corporate social responsibility, Supportive policies, Romania

Sustainable supply chain management trends in world regions: A data-driven analysis

This study proposes a data-driven analysis that describes the overall situation and reveals the factors hindering improvement in the sustainable supply chain management field. The literature has presented a summary of the evolution of sustainable supply chain management across attributes. Prior studies have evaluated different parts of the supply chain as independent entities. An integrated systematic assessment is absent in the extant literature and makes it necessary to identify potential opportunities for research direction. A hybrid of data-driven analysis, the fuzzy Delphi method, the entropy weight method and fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory is adopted to address uncertainty and complexity. This study contributes to locating the boundary of fundamental knowledge to advance future research and support practical execution. Valuable direction is provided by reviewing the existing literature to identify the critical indicators that need further examination. The results show that big data, closed-loop supply chains, industry 4.0, policy, remanufacturing, and supply chain network design are the most important indicators of future trends and disputes. The challenges and gaps among different geographical regions is offered that provides both a local viewpoint and a state-of-the-art advanced sustainable supply chain management assessment

Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructures 2nd Volume

The second volume of the book contains the manuscripts that were accepted for publication in the MDPI Special Topic "Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure" after a rigorous peer-review process. Authors from academia, government and industry contributed their innovative solutions, consistent with the interdisciplinary nature of cybersecurity. The book contains 16 articles, including an editorial that explains the current challenges, innovative solutions and real-world experiences that include critical infrastructure and 15 original papers that present state-of-the-art innovative solutions to attacks on critical systems

An Integrated Retail Supply Chain Risk Management Framework: A System Thinking Approach

It is often taken for granted that the right products will be available to buy in retail outlets seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. Consumer perception is that of a simple service requirement, but the reality is a complex, time sensitive system - the retail supply chain (RSC). Due to short product life-cycles with uncertain supply and demand behaviour, the RSC faces many challenges and is very vulnerable to disruptions. In addition, external risk events such as BREXIT, extreme weather, the financial crisis, and terror attacks mean there is a need for effective RSC risk management (RSCRM) processes within organisations. Literature shows that although there is an increasing amount of research in RSCRM, it is highly theoretical with limited empirical evidence or applied methodologies. With an active enthusiasm coming from industry practitioners for RSCRM methodologies and support solutions, the RSCRM research community have acknowledged that the main issue for future research is not tools and techniques, but collaborative RSC system wide implementation. The implementation of a cross-organisational initiative such as RSCRM is a very complex task that requires real-world frameworks for real-world practitioners. Therefore, this research study attempts to explore the business requirements for developing a three-stage integrated RSCRM framework that will encourage extended RSC collaboration. While focusing on the practitioner requirements of RSCRM projects and inspired by the laws of Thermodynamics and the philosophy of System Thinking, in stage one a conceptual reference model, The �6 Coefficient, was developed building on the formative work of supply chain excellence and business process management. The �6 Coefficient reference model has been intricately designed to bridge the theoretical gap between practitioner and researcher with the aim of ensuring practitioner confidence in partaking in a complex business process project. Stage two focused on a need for a standardised vocabulary, and through the SCOR11 reference guide, acts as a calibration point for the integrated framework, ensuring easy transfer and application within supply chain industries. In their design, stages one and two are perfect complements to the final stage of the integrated framework, a risk assessment toolbox based on a Hybrid Simulation Study capable of monitoring the disruptive behaviour of a multi-echelon RSC from both a macro and micro level using the techniques of System Dynamics (SD) and Discrete Event Simulation (DES) modelling respectively. Empirically validated through an embedded mixed methods case study, results of the integrated framework application are very encouraging. The first phase, the secondary exploratory study, gained valuable empirical evidence of the barriers to successfully implementing a complex business project and also validated using simulation as an effective risk assessment tool. Results showed certain high-risk order policy decisions could potentially reduce total costs (TC) by over 55% and reduce delivery times by 3 days. The use of the �6 Coefficient as the communication/consultation phase of the primary RSCRM case study was hugely influential on the success of the overall hybrid simulation study development and application, with significant increase in both practitioner and researcher confidence in running an RSCRM project. This was evident in the results of the hybrid model’s macro and micro assessment of the RSC. SD results effectively monitored the behaviour of the RSC under important disruptive risks, showing delayed effects to promotions and knowledge loss resulted in a bullwhip effect pattern upstream with the FMCG manufacturer’s TC increasing by as much as €50m. The DES analysis, focusing on the NDC function of the RSC also showed results of TC sensitivity to order behaviour from retailers, although an optimisation based risk treatment has reduced TC by 30%. Future research includes a global empirical validation of the �6 Coefficient and enhancement of the application of thermodynamic laws in business process management. The industry calibration capabilities of the integrated framework application of the integrated framework will also be extensively tested