An investigation of the dispatching and expediting rules in buffer management : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology in Production Technology at Massey University

Buffer Management is a proactive way of controlling the flow of materials on a shop floor. For shops using the Drum-Buffer-Rope (DBR) scheduling system, information on the effectiveness of non-constraint resources can be captured by monitoring the buffer status. Practitioners use this information to initiate improvement efforts and to decide to expedite when some of the inevitable disruptions are likely to undermine shop performance. This study attempts to investigate three areas in Buffer Management: dispatching rules, expediting rules, and variance reduction. The selected dispatching rules are First-Come-First-Served (FCFS), Shortest Processing Time (SPT) and Minimum Slack Time (MINSLK). Both static and dynamic expediting rules are compared. Reduction in the coefficient of variance for processing times from 100% to 50% corresponds to the process of quality improvement. Mean protective capacity of non-constraint resources is varied to represent different levels of loading on the shop. Inventory and due date measures are used to appraise shop performance. Simulation results indicate that the FCFS dispatching rule is the method of choice if due date performance is important. The shop using the SPT dispatching rule produces lower cycle times. The dynamic expediting rule is only preferred in the shop using FCFS and when mean protective capacity is low. The reduction in processing time variability renders a dramatically improved shop performance

How does collaborative inventory management make progress?

Collaborative inventory management (CIM) has revolutionized electronics, textile, apparel, and grocery industries. An intriguing question is how far does the movement of CIM challenge the traditional practice of inventory management? This paper illustrates how to expose and challenge flawed assumptions of traditional inventory management. It also proposes a collaborative replenishment process that consists of a cyclic process of tactical planning, execution, and control. The proposed scheme makes it possible for the chain members to apply collaborative inventory management. The paper also outlines directions for future research.Keywords: inventory management, supply chain collaboration, logistics, theory of constraint

A Taxonomy of Supply Chain Collaboration

Supply chain collaboration has emerged as an important cooperative strategy leading to new focus on interorganisational boundaries as the determinants of performance. Although collaboration increasingly receives great attention both from practitioners and academics, relatively little attention has been given to systematically reviewing the research literature that has appeared about supply chain collaboration. The purpose of this paper is to examine previous studies on supply chain collaboration based on a taxonomy. The proposed taxonomy is composed of four different research streams of describing specific subjects of interorganisational settings, namely information sharing, business processes, incentive schemes, and performance systems. The analysis includes the assessment of research ideas and key findings. Results show the great variability of key concepts across the four components of the taxonomy and an increased awareness of complementarity amongst research streams. Several recommendations for future research are also identified in this paper. Keywords: supply chain collaboration, literature review, supply chain management, taxonom

Rethinking Management of Technology

This paper discusess how management of technology can be made more critical and a new method of reasoning is incorporated into this dicsipline to stimulate more widely application. Management of technology is found as a discipline that practitioners or academics need to have in order to be able to manage and improve technology. It relies on two streams of reasoning called deduction and induction. These two reasoning methods tends to neglect the human need to make sense and therefore fails to stimulate critical thinking of how to extract meaning from complex reality surrounding technology. It is suggested that abduction is the missing link in managemet of technology which is capable to combine the predominant strands of induction and deduction. Based on abductive thinking, TechnoValue is developed as a methodology to gain understanding the general statements when and how new technology creates value to all related stakeholders. Future research is also presented in this paper. Keywords: management of technology, induction, deduction, abduction, information technolog

A Taxonomy of Supply Chain Collaboration

Supply chain collaboration has emerged as an important cooperative strategy leading to new focus on interorganisational boundaries as the determinants of performance. Although collaboration increasingly receives great attention both from practitioners and academics, relatively little attention has been given to systematically reviewing the research literature that has appeared about supply chain collaboration. The purpose of this paper is to examine previous studies on supply chain collaboration based on a taxonomy. The proposed taxonomy is composed of four different research streams of describing specific subjects of interorganisational settings, namely information sharing, business processes, incentive schemes, and performance systems. The analysis includes the assessment of research ideas and key findings. Results show the great variability of key concepts across the four components of the taxonomy and an increased awareness of complementarity amongst research streams. Several recommendations for future research are also identified in this paper. Keywords: supply chain collaboration, literature review, supply chain management, taxonom

Design Innovation Paradigm and Patterns of Family Cars

Innovation plays an important role in product design development that would respond to the user’s needs. However, users’ perspective on innovation is influenced by the values that grow in a society. The changes in society values have influenced the users’ perspective towards the innovation of the car. This situation leads to gaps between how designers think about the innovation and what the users’ needs of the car innovation design are. Thus, this study intends to compare the differences between the designers and users’ perspective on the innovation of the Indonesian car industry. The study focused on the design of the four top-selling cars in Indonesia, namely: Toyota Innova, Toyota Avanza, Suzuki APV and Nissan Grand from the year 1998 to 2012. The survey was conducted by distributing 303 questionnaires from June 10 to June 16, 2013 to a virtual community at saft7.com, one of Indonesia’s well known automotive websites. Then, questionnaires were distributed and interviews were conducted about the characteristics of product design innovation in several automotive industries, namely: Toyota, on December 1 and March 21, 2013; Daihatsu, on March 18, 2013, Suzuki on April 16, 2013; and Nissan, on May 1, 2013 and May 16, 2013. Furthermore, the data compiled from the industry and the public respondents were processed using the non-parametric Mann-Whitney test and Wilcoxon W. This nonparametric test was performed on two independent samples to determine similarities and differences in the values ??of certain variables between the two groups tested. The results show that the designers and users tend to perceive car innovation as being part of the incremental innovation category. The innovation gaps were found in the attributes of the orientation of innovation and the product’s platform. However, the slight difference indicates that users tend to look at the design innovation as a differentiator and a novelty marker for cars they would purchase. Keywords: incremental innovation, radical innovation, design driven innovation, designer perception, user perception, family car, design innovation

Multi-Stakeholder Innovation in Tourism Industry: A Recent Development and Future Directions

Abstract: Tourism is the most affected industry due to the Covid-19 pandemic, though it can be reinstated through innovations and collaborations. For instance, the marketing paradigm has shifted from product to service-dominant logic, influencing open innovations. The closed innovations are ineffective in the current business environment because of excluding other actors, such as suppliers, universities, research organizations, public institutes, competitors, and tourists, specifically during the pandemic. This indicates stakeholder networks are essential in promoting tourism industry innovations. Therefore, this research examined the existing literature on multi-stakeholder innovation in the tourism industry. The relevant articles were identified using multiple keywords search on major research databases and analyzed based on tourism innovation research stream, type, and characteristic of innovation (value creation-value capture), innovation platforms, research methodology, the network actors, and key concepts. After identifying the gap, relevant literature for academicians and practitioners was provided. The literature is expected to guide practitioners on the importance of stakeholder innovations to restore and improve tourism conditions from the pandemic.Keywords: Literature review, Future direction, Innovation, Collaboration, Multi-stakeholder, Tourism industr

Trucks Pooling and Allocation in TSE Concept Using GIS Spatial and Novel FFOA

Strategic system logistics business entails the importance of regulating truck pooling facilities and allocating the trucks for cost optimization goals. Regulators and investors must consider spatial constraints such as the supply-demand gap and service distance. Little attention has been paid to developing decision logistics models, particularly truck pooling and allocation decisions. In this study, the FFOA and GIS were used to determine the spatial component of truck pooling decisions, providing a scenario for origin pooling and delivery distance. The model evaluates truck allocation to each city, a distance vector, a spatial factor, and city demand are used for the cost optimization goal. The results show that the FFOA model successfully defines the optimal truck allocation for each truck pooling site with a cost. The managerial implication in developing a sharing economy concept for truck logistics is to use the study's framework model result to solve challenges in truck logistics