An enterprise collaborative management system: A case study of supplier selection in new product development

Businesses that remain competitive must not only look into their internal operations, but also communicate and work concurrently with all players in their supply chain network. In this paper, the supplier relationship management module of a server-based enterprise collaborative management system (ECMS) using enterprise application integration (EAI) technology for trial implementation at Honeywell Consumer Products (Hong Kong) Limited, is discussed. A case study using ECMS's supplier relationship management system (ISRMS) to integrate Honeywell's supplier rating system (SRS) and product coding system (PCS) via the case-based reasoning (CBR) technique, to select preferred suppliers during the new product development (NPD) process, is also reported here. It is found that the outsource cycle time, from the searching of potential suppliers to the allocation of orders, is greatly reduced. Through the ISRMS of ECMS, manufacturers identify preferred suppliers to form a supply network on which they depend for products, services and distribution effectively

Implementation of logistics information system to support reverse logistics - a case study

The carrying back of goods sold to the market has grown to be an important area of the logistics system for manufacturers today. Increased concern for the environment has led to new techniques to design products and supply chains that are both economically and ecologically feasible. The aim of this paper is to propose an infrastructure framework for supporting the design and implementation of a reverse logistics system. The first target is using the reverse logistics infrastructural framework to minimise the total logistics cost. The company should not only count the cost of forward logistics in terms of pushing the goods to the market, but also take into consideration the cost of taking the goods back to the point of origin. The second target is to set up the relevant information management tools to execute the reverse logistics activities at the minimum cost of additional expenses of the company. To validate the feasibility of the approach, a case study on a telecommunications services supply company has been conducted with promising results.Department of Industrial and Systems Engineerin

Improving postponement operation in warehouse: an intelligent pick-and-pack decision-support system

Today, many manufacturers prefer to shift their pick-and-pack postponement operations to third-party logistics companies to lower operational cost and improve mass customisation flexibility. The type of pick-and-pack operation is complicated, as it usually involves a large number of stock keeping units and several warehouse operations. Surprisingly, in most 3PL, the complicated postponement operations are still mainly managed by an experienced warehouse manager, which is an unreliable methodology and often creates many mistakes. A hybrid intelligent system integrating Case-Based Reasoning and Fuzzy Logic is proposed to support the manager in making pick-and-pack postponement decisions. The system comprises a solution-refining module that proposes and holds the details of past pick-and-pack operations. This approach will be of benefit to managers as effective decision support of pick and pack planning can be provided. A case study is used to illustrate the applicability and effectiveness of the approach. Implications of the proposed approach are discussed, and suggestions for further work are outlined.Department of Industrial and Systems Engineerin