The Role of Maintenance and Facility Management in Logistics: A Literature Review

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a literature review on the different ways of carrying out Facility Management and related topics in order to uncover that there is limited research regarding the impact of Facility Management on the logistics and operational performance of warehouses. Design/methodology/approach - Four different focus areas have been identified and for each one different methodologies and streams of research have been studied. Findings - The study underlines the importance of Facility Management for the logistics operations; therefore it supports the notion that investments aiming at preserving the status of the building and service components of warehouses are crucial. Originality/value - This paper aims to suggest to Facility Management managers that they can contribute to enhance business performance by designing effective Facility Management strategie

Agglomeration Economies and Heterogeneity within Young Innovative Companies

This paper fits into a new trend in empirical studies on agglomeration economies paying explicit attention to heterogeneity within innovative companies. The paper represents micro-level research, and is based on 21 in-depth case studies in a selected sample of young, innovative companies in the Netherlands. The selection criteria for sampling are derived from resource-based theory, e.g. age, size, corporate position, engaged in services or manufacturing industry. The selected sectors include mechatronics, biotechnology, ICT services and engineering services. In an attempt to identify causal factors and to identify different clusters of companies, we make use of rough set analysis, a method that typically fits small samples and qualitative data. Our research focuses on the importance perceived by company managers of a range of agglomeration advantages for the functioning of the company and on the perceived space in which the company could function satisfactorily. Based on our empirical explorations and given the theoretical positions of the selected case-studies, we arrive at the following findings (1) there is a divide of young, innovative companies into two, namely those facing a high level of importance (in large cities), and those facing a limited importance. In addition, network-based companies that outsource most of their activities to other companies may be facing no importance at all, potentially representing a third category; (2) the strongest factor influencing importance of agglomeration economies is corporate position, e.g. being a corporate spin-off or subsidiary (or not); (3) the spatial influence of agglomeration advantages tends to be broader than large cities only, but there are differences between the individual advantages, e.g. those working in a larger area of central cities, suburban places and medium-sized cities at larger distances, and those exclusively working in large cities or the largest city. Examples of the latter are a pool of young, internationally oriented labour force and direct access to the most advanced telecommunication infrastructure and services. The paper discusses the research design and the empirical outcomes and proposes various new hypotheses to be tested in large scale research.

Working paper 06-07 - Potential ICT-enabled Offshoring of Service Jobs in Belgium

This paper provides a rough estimate for Belgium of the proportion of service jobs at risk of being offshored in the wake of ICT-developments, and compares the results for Belgium with results for the EU15 and the US. Occupational employment data from the Labour Force Survey are used to produce this estimate by identifying service jobs that could possibly be offshored due to ICT-enabled tradability. The results show that the share of such jobs is lower for Belgium than for the EU15 or the US, but that there is an upward trend in this share over the period 1993 to 2005. Industry-level data and a shift-and-share analysis are used to explain the results.ICT

Offshoring to new shores: Nearshoring to Central and Eastern Europe

Offshoring of IT services and back-office services to low-wage countries is a fast-growing market. Besides India, the pacesetter and dominant insourcer, there are numerous other countries and regions attempting to establish themselves as offshoring locations. Our report focuses on nearshoring locations in Central and Eastern Europe. An increasing number of examples confirm the growing importance of this region. However, a precise comparison of the attributes of different locations reveals that Central and Eastern Europe only leads the way in specific areas and for tasks with specific requirements.Offshoring, IT industry, Central and Eastern Europe

Job Creation Through Building the Field of Impact Sourcing

Provides an overview of the field of impact sourcing - using business process outsourcing to create sustainable jobs for the lowest-income populations. Offers case studies, examines models, outlines challenges, and presents an action agenda

Supply chain control: Trade-offs and system requirements

The official published version can be accessed from the link below.A paper describes the underlying forces which drive change in manufacturing enterprises and supply chains. It sets out the complexities in modern capitalism and global economics and illustrates the trade-offs that can be made. IT systems which are required to assist improvements to both customer service and enterprise manufacturing performance are explained, alluding to the special case for the semiconductor industry. Arguments are presented showing how the new tools being developed with the ESPRIT project 20544, X-CITTIC, will satisfy the control needs for a virtual enterprise. This paper describes the underlying forces which drive change in manufacturing enterprises and supply chains. It sets out the complexities in modem capitalism and global economics and illustrates the trade-offs that can be made. IT systems which are required to assist improvements to both customer service and enterprise manufacturing performance are explained alluding to the special case for the semiconductor industry. Finally it shows how the new tools being developed with the ESPRIT project 20544, XCITTIC, will satisfy the control needs for a virtual enterprise

Globalization and Economic Mobility

Reviews current research on the impact of international trade, outsourcing, and foreign direct investment on unemployment and inequality, and discusses their implications for intragenerational and intergenerational mobility

How Third party logistics providers create effectiveness and efficiency by coordinating customers´activities an strategies

Logistics providers are developing competitive advantage by coordinating different customers logistics solutions. We are presenting some of the basic factors taken into consideration for a TPL firm when coordinating its customers. The possibilities to coordinate are dependent not only on activities of different customers, suppliers and customers´customers but also the attitudes and behavior reflected from their strategies. The dimensions of main importance for coordination are used as a base for finding suitable customer profiles. Finally we are discussing how the logistics providers effectively cope with the dynamic interaction and the network fit between customers.Customer coordination; Third party logistics providers (TPLs); Networks;

Offshoring and Immigrant Employment: Firm-level Theory and Evidence

We propose and solve a simple model of firm-level decisions to offshore production stages of lower skill intensity than that of activities that remain in the domestic location. In theory, offshoring is optimal only for the more productive among heterogeneous firms if it entails a fixed cost. In a large sample of Italian firms, offshoring - especially of intermediate production stages - is indeed more prevalent among firms that are larger and more productive, and is predicted by arguably relevant firm-level characteristics. We also document that offshoring decreases the share of unskilled employment in domestic production facilities as well as firms’ propensity to employ immigrant workers, and we discuss the possible determinants and policy implication of the latter finding.