Critical Success Factors For Supplier Selection: An Update

For many organizations effective supplier evaluation and purchasing processes are of vital importance. As the pace of market globalization quickens, the number of potential suppliers and the number of factors to consider when selecting suppliers increases. In this paper we present the critical success factors (CSFs) for supplier selection reported in the literature emanating from the seminal work of Dickson and provide an update based on reviewing more than 110 research papers. Our study indicates significant change in the relative importance of various critical success factors in the research reported during 1966-1990 versus 1990-2001. Increased competition and globalization of markets facilitated by Internet-based technologies have combined to dramatically change the ranking of factors while introducing new criteria to the supplier selection process. Based on the results of this study, we conclude that supplier selection criteria will continue to change based on an expanded definition of excellence to include traditional aspects of performance (quality, delivery, price, service) in addition to non-traditional, evolving ones (just-in-time communication, process improvement, supply chain management)

Revenue Management In Manufacturing: A Research Landscape

Revenue management is the science of using past history and current levels of order activity to forecast demand as accurately as possible in order to set and update pricing and product availability decisions across various sales channels to maximize profitability. In much the same way that revenue management has transformed the airline industry in selling tickets for the same flight at markedly different rates based upon product restrictions, time to departure, and the number of unsold seats, many manufacturing companies have started exploring innovative revenue management strategies in an effort to improve their operations and profitability. These strategies employ sophisticated demand forecasting and optimization models that are based on research from many areas, including management science and economics, and that can take advantage of the vast amount of data available through customer relationship management systems in order to calibrate the models. In this paper, we present an overview of revenue management systems and provide an extensive survey of published research along a landscape delineated by three fundamental dimensions of capacity management, pricing, and market segmentation

Comparative Analysis Of Production Control Systems Through Simulation

This paper presents a comparative analysis of seven different production control systems in a complex factory setup through computer simulation. Batch size, arrival rate, inter-arrival time, and maintenance type are the input parameters to the model. Work-in-process (WIP) and throughput (TH) are the system performance measurement output parameters. The study shows that a pull-based system does not outperform a push-based system with respect to WIP under all conditions. Pull-based systems prefer a smaller batch size to better control WIP. Each of the seven production control systems performs best at a specific inter-arrival time, although it is different for each system. Preventive maintenance is preferred over repair maintenance in a pull system and in a just-in-time (JIT) system. The computer simulation confirms that no single production control system is best under all conditions. The performance of a production control system depends not only on the type of manufacturing strategy chosen, but also on the values of the input parameters. This research shows that it makes no sense to comment on the superiority of one strategy over another without regard to the value of input parameters and the type of factory setup

Ant Algorithms: Review and Future Applications

A search for a robust optimization methodology for addressing dynamic problems in business and engineering has been in research for the past decade. One such tool in the array of algorithms is the Ant algorithms, inspired by the behavior of the real ants. These algorithms fall in the category of search meta-heuristics, which are used to arrive at the best possible solution from an initial one. The natural ant colonies exhibit the application of adhoc and dynamic decision-making process in their day-to-day living activities such as foraging and brooding that can definitely be used as a tool to tackle the mercurial scenarios present in the current industrial and manufacturing environment. This paper presents an overview of the concept of Ant algorithms and provides a review of its applications to solve real world problems

Business Process Reengineering: A Consolidated Methodology

Business Process Reengineering is a discipline in which extensive research has been carried out and numerous methodologies churned out. But what seems to be lacking is a structured approach. In this paper we provide a review of BPR and present ‘best of breed ‘ methodologies from contemporary literature and introduce a consolidated, systematic approach to the redesign of a business enterprise. The methodology includes the fiv

Graphene based wideband electromagnetic absorbing textiles at microwave bands

The design and realization of graphene based wideband electromagnetic (EM) absorbing textiles are becoming of primary interest. Hence, the development of new conductive coatings to be cast onto commercial textiles is crucial. In this article, we propose new graphene based absorbing textiles that conjugate outstanding EM absorbing properties at radiofrequency with low-weight, flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and washability. With this purpose, an innovative production process of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) coatings filled with graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) is developed for the production of radar-absorbing coated textiles, which are fully characterized in terms of morphological, electrical, and EM absorbing properties. In particular, the complex dielectric permittivity of the coated textiles including different amounts of GNPs is assessed through the measurement of the complex permittivity of a benchmark sample, the consequent estimation of the average GNP size and the prediction by simulations of the effective complex permittivity of graphene based coatings loaded with different GNP amounts. Such predicted data are crucial to design radar absorbing textiles with minimum bandwidths at −10 dB of 5 GHz and reflection coefficients below −5 dB over all the frequency range from 8 up to 18 GHz. These textiles are then produced and characterized in terms of reflection coefficient in free space against a plane wave with normal incidence. The obtained results demonstrate the full satisfaction of the design requirements. In fact, the produced samples show a reflection coefficient with a bandwidth at −10 dB up to 77% of the resonant frequency