Agile Supply Chain Management in Multinational Corporations: Opportunities and Barriers

The purpose of our research is to study new opportunities in agile supply chain management, identify barriers to agile supply chain management, develop a methodology to overcome these barriers and make proposals for agile supply chain management in multinational corporations.The study and analysis of supply chain management of multinational corporations allowed us to define the specifics of the industry using the following research methods: the choice of logistics intermediaries, forecasting (indicators, flows, etc.), nomenclature groups, risk optimization, statistical data analysis.The methods of grouping and systematizing statistical data into registries were applied to assess the business agility of supply chain management and obtain results. In addition, the expert assessment method was used to assess the agility indicators of the following companies METRO Cash & Carry, Gloria Jeans and Gazprom. Procurement (timeliness and prices), supply management, product management, finished-product output and shipment management were assessed. The calculations showed that the multinational corporations METRO Cash & Carry, Gloria Jeans and Gazprom should continue to increase the agility of supply chain management and implement the SCM strategy, which will quickly address and mitigate supply chain disruptions. We also believe that the companies should adapt SCM in the organizational structure optimization in order to eliminate bottlenecks

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) on the international space station: Part II — Results from the first seven years

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) is a precision particle physics detector on the International Space Station (ISS) conducting a unique, long-duration mission of fundamental physics research in space. The physics objectives include the precise studies of the origin of dark matter, antimatter, and cosmic rays as well as the exploration of new phenomena. Following a 16-year period of construction and testing, and a precursor flight on the Space Shuttle, AMS was installed on the ISS on May 19, 2011. In this report we present results based on 120 billion charged cosmic ray events up to multi-TeV energies. This includes the fluxes of positrons, electrons, antiprotons, protons, and nuclei. These results provide unexpected information, which cannot be explained by the current theoretical models. The accuracy and characteristics of the data, simultaneously from many different types of cosmic rays, provide unique input to the understanding of origins, acceleration, and propagation of cosmic rays.</p