Value-driven partner search for <i>Energy from Waste</i> projects

Energy from Waste (EfW) projects require complex value chains to operate effectively. To identify business partners, plant operators need to network with organisations whose strategic objectives are aligned with their own. Supplier organisations need to work out where they fit in the value chain. Our aim is to support people in identifying potential business partners, based on their organisation’s interpretation of value. Value for an organisation should reflect its strategy and may be interpreted using key priorities and KPIs (key performance indicators). KPIs may comprise any or all of knowledge, operational, economic, social and convenience indicators. This paper presents an ontology for modelling and prioritising connections within the business environment, and in the process provides means for defining value and mapping these to corresponding KPIs. The ontology is used to guide the design of a visual representation of the environment to aid partner search

Resilience in Humanitarian Supply Chains: A Focus on the Procurement Decisions

This thesis looks into how the need for resilience in humanitarian aid supply chains influences procurement strategy decisions. Increasingly, the need for resilience in supply chains has become undoubted and management researchers have prescribed diverse ways of pursuing it; not only so that supply chains may be better prepared to avoid, respond and recover from disruptions, but to also provide them with competitive advantage. Considering that the procurement function has gone beyond a simple business function to include the strategic management of resources and suppliers when pursuing supply chain resilience (SCR), the role of procurement decisions cannot be understated, especially as suppliers could become significant sources of disruptions. This is even more pronounced in humanitarian supply chains where disruptions do not only result in the loss of limited resources but sometimes human lives as well. Due to this criticality for resilience in humanitarian supply chains and the limited research here particularly from a procurement perspective, this research collects qualitative data through semi-structured interviews and document analysis from 8 UK-based humanitarian organisations. The data is analysed to identify how these organisations pursue SCR formative elements from a procurement perspective and also how pre-contract procurement decisions relative to inter-organisational interactions are guided by the need for resilience. Findings show that cross-training, flexible contracting, and financial resilience are critical to attaining SCR in humanitarian supply chains as they influence many of the identified formative elements. Differences are identified in the relationships between decisions taken under procurement strategy towards resilience from those in commercial supply chains, with monetary value and donor requirements being major influencing factors. Donor influence on procurement decisions in humanitarian organisations is identified to positively influence multiple formative elements including risk avoidance, sustainability, decision making and culture. It however inhibits flexibility and agility. Contributions from this research include the presentation of a theoretical framework on procurement strategy decisions towards achieving SCR. This is then empirically tested in UK humanitarian supply chain context and a simple but useful framework to aid managerial decision making in the sector is provided

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

Structured process improvements in facilities management organisations: Best practice case studies in the retail sector

Facilities management is a key managerial discipline and large corporations are increasingly recognising its importance in respect of achieving organisational goals and objectives. Enterprises are able to improve their performance by the more effective use of resources, the matching of appropriate support systems to business activities, and the application of assertive management by those best qualified and equipped to carry it out. However, FM organisations lack clear guidelines to direct their improvement efforts and to benchmark their performance against other organisations. The SPICE FM (Structured Process improvement in construction environments – facilities management) maturity framework was developed as a response to this requirement. SPICE FM draws a distinction between FM organisations that have ‘mature’ or well-established processes, and those where the processes are ‘immature’. This paper briefly describes the characteristics of the SPICE FM Framework, followed by a review of the key findings from the case study undertaken

Sustainable and Resilient Supplier Selection in the Context of Circular Economy: An Ontology-Based Model

Purpose: Selecting the optimal supplier is a challenging managerial decision that involves several dimensions that vary over time. Despite the considerable attention devoted to this issue, knowledge is required to be updated and analyzed in this field. This paper reveals new opportunities to advance supplier selection research from a multidimensional perspective. Moreover, this study aims to formalise supplier selection knowledge to enable the appropriate selection of sustainable, resilient and circular criteria. Design/methodology/approach: This study is developed in two stages. First, a systematic literature review is conducted to select relevant papers. Descriptive and thematic analyses are employed to analyze criteria, solving approaches and case studies. Second, a criterion knowledge-based framework is developed and validated by experts to be implemented as ontology using Protégé software. Findings: (1) Evaluating the viability of suppliers need further studies to integrate other criteria and to align supplier selection objectives with research advancement; (2) Artificial intelligence tools are needed to revolutionize and optimize the traditional techniques used to solve this problem; (3) Literature lucks frameworks for specific sectors; (4) The proposed ontology provides a consistent criteria knowledge base. Practical Implications: For academics, the results of this study highlight opportunities to improve the viable supplier selection process. From a managerial perspective, the proposed ontology can assist managers in selecting the appropriate criteria. Future works can enrich the proposed ontology and integrate this knowledge base into an information system. Originality/value: This study contributes to promoting knowledge about viable supplier selection. Capitalizing the knowledge base of criteria in a computer-interpretable manner supports the digitalization of this critical decision

International Purchasing in Small and medium-sized Danish manufacturing companies-Foreign supplier selection-

The present paper focuses on the international purchase behavior of small and medium sized manufacturing firms activating in Denmark. The study aims to identify the internationalization patterns of the purchasing activities and to understand what the most important criteria that drive purchasing managers, when making selection decision regarding the international suppliers, are. The theoretical part of the research is based on creating a conceptual model for purchasing activities in the international trade context, where the main motive for sourcing internationally, barriers to sourcing and strategic decisions in international purchasing are highlighted. Moreover, the paper examines the supplier assessment and selection process in order to identify the main selection criteria for international suppliers. The practical part of the paper contains the presentation and analysis of the research findings. Over 2.000 web-mailed surveys were delivered towards previously identified Danish manufacturing SMEs that are involved in import activities. Respondents’ answers have been analyzed according to their preferences on different types of products, supplier-base structures and buyer-supplier relationships. According to the research results, the respondent firms are relatively highly involved in international purchasing. Furthermore, the primary drivers for choosing a foreign supplier have been recognized as being commitment to quality, delivery reliability and technological capability of the supplier.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format