A decision-making approach for investigating the potential effects of near sourcing on supply chain

Purpose - Near sourcing is starting to be regarded as a valid alternative to global sourcing in order to leverage supply chain (SC) responsiveness and economic efficiency. The present work proposes a decision-making approach developed in collaboration with a leading Italian retailer that was willing to turn the global store furniture procurement process into near sourcing. Design/methodology/approach - Action research is employed. The limitations of the traditional SC organisation and purchasing process of the company are first identified. On such basis, an inventory management model is applied to run spreadsheet estimates where different purchasing and SC management strategies are adopted to determine the solution providing the lowest cost performance. Finally, a risk analysis of the selected best SC arrangement is conducted and results are discussed. Findings - Switching from East Asian suppliers to continental vendors enables a SC reengineering that increases flexibility and responsiveness to demand uncertainty which, together with decreased transportation costs, assures economic viability, thus proving the benefits of near sourcing. Research limitations/implications - The decision-making framework provides a methodological roadmap to address the comparison between near and global sourcing policies and to calculate the savings of the former against the latter. The approach could include additional organisational aspects and cost categories impacting on near sourcing and could be adapted to investigate different products, services, and business sectors. Originality/value - The work provides SC researchers and practitioners with a structured approach for understanding what drives companies to adopt near sourcing and for quantitatively assessing its advantage

Value Proposition for Sustainable Last-Mile Delivery. A Retailer Perspective

The sustainability of last-mile (LM) freight delivery is crucial to add value to the stakeholders in the distribution chain. However, its achievement is often hindered by a poor consideration of their needs by both literature and practice. The goal of this paper is to address the point of view of local retailers by exploring their needs about innovative LM delivery services and identifying sustainable value propositions (VP). A survey was submitted to retailers operating in the limited traffic zone of Torino (Italy). The survey data were analyzed by a factor analysis using a principal component analysis (PCA) to extract the factors. A correlation analysis was also conducted between the needs and selected contextual variables. The results show that retailers accept higher costs for more reliable deliveries and stock reduction. Retailers also correlate punctuality and flexibility because flexible and on-time deliveries allow for better inventory management, higher control, and, in turn, improved customer service level. This work is one of the first research attempts to quantify local retailers’ LM delivery needs and provides guidelines about how to design value-added logistics services. Moreover, from a practical point of view, the analysis shows the main VP that managers and practitioners should consider in the development of LM initiatives

A Framework to Select Techniques Supporting Project Risk Management

The need for increasing quality while reducing time and costs asks for developing knowledge about how to manage risk in projects. However, communication and knowledge creation are not easy tasks, especially when dealing with uncertainty, because decision-making is often fragmented and a shared perspective on the goals, opportunities, and threats of a project is missing. With the purpose of stimulating knowledge, a framework to classify techniques supporting project risk management is proposed. To this end, three dimensions encompassing the main aspects characterising the managerial and operational scenario of a project are considered: the phases of the risk management process, the phases of the project life cycle, and the corporate maturity towards risk. The taxonomy is then applied to a wide selection of risk techniques based on the analysis of literature and the authors' experience. Future research efforts will be directed towards refining the framework and testing it in multiple industrie

A Structured Approach to Analyse Logistics Risks in the Blood Transfusion Process

Blood transfusion is a critical healthcare process due to the nature of the products handled and the complexity driven by the strong interdependence among the sub-processes involved. Most of the errors causing adverse events originate during the blood logistics activities. Several literature contributions apply risk management to the transfusion process but often in a fragmented and reactive way. Moreover, few of them focus on logistics risks and assess the effectiveness of risk responses through operational key performance indicators (KPIs). The present paper applies a comprehensive and structured approach to proactively identify and analyse logistics risks as well as define responses to improve blood bag traceability, focusing on hospital wards. The implementation of such actions is monitored by specific KPIs whose measurement enables an improved communication flow among actors allowing to uncover residual risks. Future research will extend the application to further blood transfusion settings and supply chain echelons. The outcomes of this work might assist practitioners in improving policy making about blood supply chains. As a matter of fact, they allow a better understanding of the associated material and informational flows and the related risks, which supports setting effective strategies to either prevent adverse events or mitigate their effects

Investigating the environmental awareness of Logistics Service Providers. The case of Italy

Environmental sustainability in transportation operations is acquiring an increasing importance in recent years and a lot of Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) are including green practices in their business. However, the interests of logistics operators and the related level of awareness about the adoption of environmental friendly practices are still not deeply analyzed in literature. Therefore, the proposed paper is intended to investigate the perception of LSPs about the environmental issues and their willingness of pursuing future green strategies. To this end, based on a literature analysis aimed at identifying a comprehensive list of green practices, a questionnaire survey is administered to LSPs operating in the Italian market. The data gathered are then analyzed via the Kruskal-Wallis test and the questionnaire outcomes discussed with the LSPs participating to the survey through face to face interviews. Results show that the environment is highly considered by the freight carriers of the sample, both small and large ones. In addition, personnel involved in different company roles appear to pay diverse levels of attention to the sustainability issue. In particular, the reduction of pollutant is considered more crucial for employees in charge of dealing with operations (median equal to 5) and reverse logistics is perceived less important by managers (median equal to 3). The outcomes of the study might support companies to achieve sustainability and promote the green awareness issue. At the same time, policy makers might be facilitated by this study in designing environmental friendly programs in the logistics field

Paving the Way for Warehouse Centralization in Healthcare: A Preliminary Assessment Approach

Centralized logistics management is currently one interesting option for healthcare systems facing an increasing need to improve responsiveness and service quality while reducing costs. This work focuses on one aspect of centralized logistics, namely warehouse centralization and proposes a preliminary approach to assess material management in healthcare institutions as a first step towards decisions about the implementation of such a strategy. A list of variables and relationships between them characterizing warehouse material management are identified based on a literature review and knowledge of real logistics processes. Statistical analysis is then applied to assess the existence of such relationships in a set of healthcare organizations in order to understand the management commonalities that can stimulate warehouse centralization as well as the criticalities that could potentially hinder it. The approach is tested in a healthcare logistics system in Northern Italy. The results proved the ability of the methodology to identify the relevant issues the involved institutions need to work on when undertaking warehouse centralization strategies. The case warehouses revealed a good degree of commonalities in their management practices although three critical aspects were identified, namely a limited efficiency in human resource allocation, a high fragmentation of stock product demand and a relevant number of stock products with low annual demand. This work provides a methodology to increase material managers’ awareness about the factors enabling successful centralized inventory strategies in the healthcare sector