Complexity and Commitment in Supply Chain Management Initiatives

While the benefits of supply chain management have been widely reported within industry, adoption of supply chain management initiatives have been slow and below industry expectations. To better understand and effectively address this problem of adoption within industry, this paper takes a closer look at the individual supply chain management initiatives to achieve a new understanding on the barriers that hamper the adoption process. This paper presents a framework that categorises different SCM initiatives according to a complexitycommitment continuum. By analysing three initiatives from the grocery industry, we argue that the inherent complexity of SCM initiatives poses barriers to adoption due to the degree of organisation commitment required

Lower Silurian stromatolites in shallow-marine environments of the South China Block (Guizhou Province, China) and their palaeoenvironmental significance

In northern Guizhou Province (Upper Yangtze Platform, South China Block) two types of reef communities developed in the Lower Silurian (upper Aeronian, Llandovery) Shihniulan Formation; they are calcimicrobial- and metazoan-dominated structures, and existed because of northward deepening of the shallow-marine ramp setting in which they grew. Stromatolitic communities are the focus of the present study and dominated the shallowest reef structures, while metazoan-dominated reefs, previously described in other papers, grew in the outer shelf portion of the ramp. Stromatolitic reefs occur in several sections 23 (Daijiagou, Baishanxi, Jianba and Lianghekou), palaeogeographically close to Qianzhong Land. Within the stromatolite units, laminar sheets of microbial mats and columns are pronounced, with individual stromatolite thicknesses generally less than one meter. Some very small stromatolites are only centimeters in diameter and thickness. Stromatolitic units are cyanobacterial bindstones mostly associated with shales, siltstones and thin-bedded bioclastic limestones. Their growth was frequently punctuated by siliciclastic sediments, and their shallow-water nature is demonstrated by association with birds-eye structures, cross-stratified sediments, and Lingulella-bearing silts in intertidal or/and lagoonal environments. The stromatolites formed during a regression and erosion surfaces are common at the top of the Shihniulan Formation. The Tongzi Uplift, a short-duration expansion of Qianzhong Land, ended the deposition of the late Aeronian limestones.This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (granted No. 41072002, 41372022, XDB10010503 and 41521061)