Service Parts Management: Demand Forecasting and Inventory Control

Service Parts Management provides the reader with an overview and a detailed treatment of the current state of the research available on the forecasting and inventory management of items with intermittent demand. It is a comprehensive review of service parts management and provides a starting point for researchers, postgraduate students, and anyone interested in forecasting or managing inventory.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/1098/thumbnail.jp

The SOX-RFID Connection

Companies expect to gain many benefits from implementing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. Perhaps the one cited most often is lower supply chain costs, which result from the improved inventory visibility that the technology affords. But there\u27s another often overlooked advantage that supply chain managers should know about: RFlD technology can help them fulfill the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) if implemented and integrated properly. Conversely, RFID can complicate the already complex and costly internal mandates of SOX if the implementation is not approached the right way

Türk Halk Anlatılarında Ölüme İlişkin Tabu ve Kaçınmalar

Hayatın mutlak biçimde sona ermesi anlamına gelen ölüm, insanlığın önemli geçiş dönemlerinden birisi olmuştur. Bilinmezliği ve tekrarlanmayan bir fenomen olması nedeniyle ölüme karşı büyük bir merak ve ürperti hissedilmiş ve bu duygular eşliğinde ölüme ilişkin anlayışlar geliştirilmiştir. Toplumların inanç sistemleri doğrultusunda ölüme ilişkin farklı anlayışlar ve bu anlayışların şekillendirdiği çeşitli gelenek, görenek, ibadet ve ayinler oluşmuştur. Ölüme ilişkin anlayışlar ve uygulamalar, kültürler arası değişim göstermekle birlikte yaşamın sağlıklı bir biçimde devamını ve uzatılmasını amaçlamıştır. Bu amaç doğrultusunda, ihlal edilmesi halinde büyüsel güçleri harekete geçirebilen, dinî ve ahlâkî düşüncenin önsel ilkesi olan “tabu” adlı güçlü yasaklamalar oluşturulmuştur. Bu yasaklamalara riayet edilmesi; ölüm karşısında geçici de olsa zafer kazanılmasını, farklı bir dünyaya göçtüğü için yaşayanların dünyasına özlem duyan ölünün sakinleştirilmesini mümkün hale getirmektedir. Ölüme ilişkin tabu ve kaçınmalar, ölüme ve ölüye karşı beslenen olumsuz algıyı kırma, yaşayanları, ölüm karşısında hissedilen korku, kaygı ve dehşet gibi duygulardan mümkün olduğunca kurtarma gibi işlevler üstlenir. Uyulan tabu ve kaçınmalar, ürpertici bir olgu olan ölüm karşısında bireyi cesaretlendirmekte ve yaşamının tehdit altında olmadığına dair güvence vermektedir. Bu makalede öncelikle ölüme ilişkin tabu ve kaçınmaların oluşmasına yol açan psikolojik unsurların korku, kaygı, dehşet neler olduğu tartışılmıştır. Halk anlatılarından hareketle ölüm etrafında oluşan tabu ve kaçınmaların; cesede, ölüyü anma günlerine, ölen kişinin mülkiyetine, ölümün adına anmaya ilişkin tabu ve kaçınmalar olmak üzere dört alt başlık altında değerlendirilmesi uygun görülmüştür. Çalışmada Türk kültürünün erken devirlerinde ve değişik coğrafyalarında rastlanan ölüme ilişkin tabu ve kaçınmaların Türk halk anlatılarına yansıma biçimleri incelenmiştir. Bu çalışma esnasında ölüme ilişkin tabu ve kaçınmaların mitolojik ve dinî kökeninin sorgulanmasına gayret edilmiştir. Ölüm noktasında beliren tabu ve kaçınmaların; ölen kişiyi taşınmış olduğu yeni dünyasında mutlu kılmayı, onun geri dönüşünü engellemeyi ve geride kalanları ruhsal açıdan sağaltmayı amaçladığı tespit edilmiştir. Yine inceleme çerçevesinde Türk halk anlatılarında tespit edilen tabu ve kaçınmaların, ölüme karşı gösterilen inanç odaklı bir refleks olduğu ve insanın yaşam hakkını yücelttiği ortaya konmuştur

Improving Disaster Response Efforts With Decision Support Systems

As evidenced by Hurricane Katrina in August, 2005, disaster response efforts are hindered by a lack of coordination, poor information flows, and the inability of disaster response managers to validate and process relevant information and make decisions in a timely fashion. A number of factors contribute to current lackluster response efforts. Some are inherent to the complex, rapidly changing decision-making environments that characterize most disaster response settings. Others reflect systematic flaws in how decisions are made within the organizational hierarchies of the many agencies involved in a disaster response. Slow, ineffective strategies for gathering, processing, and analyzing data can also play a role. Information technology, specifically decision support systems, can be used to reduce the time needed to make crucial decisions regarding task assignment and resource allocation. Decision support systems can also be used to guide longer-term decisions involving resource acquisition as well as for training and the evaluation of command and control capability

Supply chain agility, adaptability and alignment: empirical evidence from the Indian auto components industry

Purpose: To examine when and how organizations create agility, adaptability, and alignment as distinct supply chain properties to gain sustainable competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach: The current study utilizes the resource-based view (RBV) under the moderating effect of top management commitment. To test our research hypotheses, we gathered 351 usable responses using a pre-tested questionnaire. Findings: Our statistical analyses suggest that information sharing and supply chain connectivity resources influence supply chain visibility capability, which, under the moderating effect of top management commitment, enhance supply chain agility, adaptability and alignment. Originality/value: Our contribution lies in: (i) providing a holistic study of the antecedents of agility, adaptability and alignment; (ii) investigating the moderating role of top management commitment on supply chain agility, adaptability and alignment; (iii) following the RBV and addressing calls for investigating the role of resources in supply chain management, and for empirical studies with implications for supply chain design

Swift trust and commitment: the missing links for humanitarian supply chain coordination?

Coordination among actors in a humanitarian relief supply chain decides whether a relief operation can be or successful or not. In humanitarian supply chains, due to the urgency and importance of the situation combined with scarce resources, actors have to coordinate and trust each other in order to achieve joint goals. This paper investigated empirically the role of swift trust as mediating variable for achieving supply chain coordination. Based on commitment-trust theory we explore enablers of swift-trust and how swift trust translates into coordination through commitment. Based on a path analytic model we test data from the National Disaster Management Authority of India. Our study is the first testing commitment-trust theory (CTT) in the humanitarian context, highlighting the importance of swift trust and commitment for much thought after coordination. Furthermore, the study shows that information sharing and behavioral uncertainty reduction act as enablers for swift trust. The study findings offer practical guidance and suggest that swift trust is a missing link for the success of humanitarian supply chains

The role of Big Data in explaining disaster resilience in supply chains for sustainability

The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a theoretical framework to explain resilience in supply chain networks for sustainability using unstructured Big Data, based upon 36,422 items gathered in the form of tweets, news, Facebook, WordPress, Instagram, Google+, and YouTube, and structured data, via responses from 205 managers involved in disaster relief activities in the aftermath of Nepal earthquake in 2015. The paper uses Big Data analysis, followed by a survey which was analyzed using content analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results of the analysis suggest that swift trust, information sharing and public-private partnership are critical enablers of resilience in supply chain networks. The current study used crosssectional data. However the hypotheses of the study can be tested using longitudinal data to attempt to establish causality. The article advances the literature on resilience in disaster supply chain networks for sustainability in that (i) it suggests the use of Big Data analysis to propose and test particular frameworks in the context of resilient supply chains that enable sustainability; (ii) it argues that swift trust, public private partnerships, and quality information sharing link to resilience in supply chain networks; and (iii) it uses the context of Nepal, at the moment of the disaster relief activities to provide contemporaneous perceptions of the phenomenon as it takes place. Vol 142 (2) pp.1108-111

Capability-based resource allocation for effective disaster response

As the frequency and severity of disasters around the world increase, there is an urgent need for moreefficient and effective allocation of response resources to impact jurisdictions. In a disaster situation, timewasted may define the line between life and death. In this paper, we develop an integer programmingmodel for the capability-based multi-resource multi-location allocation problem. The model is intendedto take advantage of a nationwide resource inventory listing in order to allocate response personnel,facilities, supplies and equipment to impact jurisdictions

Information diffusion among agents: implications for humanitarian operations

The basis for this article is an information-processing view of the UN’s cluster approach. We use agent-based modeling and simulations to show that clusters, if properly utilized, encourage better information flow and thus facilitate effective response to disasters. The article intends to turn the attention of the humanitarian community to the importance of sharing information and the role of cluster leads in facilitating humanitarian aid. Our results indicate that if cluster leads act as information hubs, information reaches its target faster, enabling a prompt humanitarian response. In addition, we show that information quality is critical for effective resource utilization—if cluster leads filter information, it moves faster. We also found evidence that the willingness to exchange information plays a larger role in transmitting information than that of an information hub, particularly during later stages of response operations