27,935 research outputs found
The impact of economic and supply chain trends on British warehousing
Purpose: Warehouses are key nodes in many supply chains and typically represent
over 20% of logistics costs. However, other than property market studies, there
has been relatively little research on warehousing, particularly as regards how
trends in warehouses may relate to changes in such parameters as wider economic
and supply chain factors. The purpose of this paper is to examine this area in
order to explore how trends in warehousing may relate to existing warehousing
and supply chain theory so as to facilitate further research into the
relationship between warehousing and "smarter" logistics strategies and
efficient supply chain performance.
Research approach: The paper is based on a longitudinal study examining the
take-up (i.e. occupation) of new large warehouses in Great Britain over the past
16 years covering some 700 records. For the purposes of this study, large
warehouses are classified as those over 100,000 square feet (9,290 square
metres) in area. These trends, together with those of total warehouse stock, are
then related to national statistics, warehouse surveys, supply chain changes and
other relevant data over that period.
Findings and Originality: This is a rare longitudinal study of this subject. It
is found that, until the recent recession, the total warehouse stock, as well as
the take-up of large warehouses, has been increasing and this can be associated
with such factors as economic growth, retail spending and globalisation. Both
the footprint and height of large warehouses has been rising and this may be due
to such factors as network economies and warehouse technology. The locations of
warehouses are becoming more dispersed, possibly due to the growth in e-commerce
and port-centric logistics. In addition, it was found that large warehouses have
been increasingly taken up by retailers and manufacturers rather than logistics
companies.
Research impact: This paper examines the possible influence of economic and
supply chain trends on warehousing in Great Britain. As well as testing existing
theories, the data provides a sound foundation for future research. For example,
there have been conflicting evidence in previous research regarding economies
and diseconomies of scale and this discussion can now be set against trends in
warehouse footprint and height.
Practical impact: The paper provides a better understanding and basis for
decision making by planners, developers, funding corporations, operators and end
users. For example, topics such as size and height of buildings are examined, as
well as trends in port-centric logistics, rail connections and e-fulfilment. The
changing nature of warehouse designs in terms of wider economic and supply chain
trends is particularly important for practitioners as warehousing costs are to a
large extent determined at the design phase and have a major impact on the
effectiveness of the overall supply chain of which they are a part
Mediating effect of management information system on the relationship of warehouse attributes and its efficiency in Malaysia’s small and medium enterprises
This dissertation studies the relationship between the influential warehouse efficiency and warehousing attributes (operations, Human Capital Management or HCM, and layout), applied by the Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) manufacturing firms in Malaysia. These perspective research objectives are to determine whether there is any relationship between the warehousing attributes, warehouse efficiency, and warehousing Management Information System (MIS). It also examines the mediating effect of warehousing MIS in the relationship between warehousing attributes and warehouse efficiency. A quantitative method approach is applied in this research methodology. Nine hypotheses have been proposed for the research with data collected from the survey of 182 SME manufacturing firm owners in Malaysia as listed in the SME Directory 2009. The findings indicate that the warehousing MIS significantly mediates and has an effect on the warehousing attributes and their relationship with warehouse efficiency in the SME manufacturing firms. Theoretically, the research contributes to the growth development of the warehouse efficiency theories. Practically it could facilitate the owners or warehouse managers of the manufacturing firms in making the right management decisions regarding warehousing. For future research, the study recommends further exploration into the areas of security, environment, safety and health, waste management, and integrated system (International Standards Organisation or better known as ISO 9000, ISO 14000, and ISO 18000). As a conclusion, this study provides new knowledge and important insights of warehousing attributes that will benefit manufacturing firms and other related industries, particularly for SMEs in Malaysi
Heterogeneous biomedical database integration using a hybrid strategy: a p53 cancer research database.
Complex problems in life science research give rise to multidisciplinary collaboration, and hence, to the need for heterogeneous database integration. The tumor suppressor p53 is mutated in close to 50% of human cancers, and a small drug-like molecule with the ability to restore native function to cancerous p53 mutants is a long-held medical goal of cancer treatment. The Cancer Research DataBase (CRDB) was designed in support of a project to find such small molecules. As a cancer informatics project, the CRDB involved small molecule data, computational docking results, functional assays, and protein structure data. As an example of the hybrid strategy for data integration, it combined the mediation and data warehousing approaches. This paper uses the CRDB to illustrate the hybrid strategy as a viable approach to heterogeneous data integration in biomedicine, and provides a design method for those considering similar systems. More efficient data sharing implies increased productivity, and, hopefully, improved chances of success in cancer research. (Code and database schemas are freely downloadable, http://www.igb.uci.edu/research/research.html.)
East Midlands strategic distribution study
This study assesses the importance of the logistics sector to the economy of the East Midlands and provides an understanding of land requirements and demand for sites from logistics companies in the region in the short, medium and long term
- …