A pro-active and collaborative approach to reverse logistics—a case study

Reverse logistics is considered to be the key for re-manufacturing and sustainable development. It has gained increasing attention in the last decade and has been a new frontier of strategic management. One of the driving forces for firms to adopt the reverse logistics practice is cost saving from reverse logistics activities. Another motivation to put reverse logistics forward is probably due to environmental impacts on non-returnable materials. Reverse logistics, however, may require cooperation of more than one company and hence it is generally poorly managed due to self-interest of different companies. Therefore, a pro-active and collaborative approach to reverse logistics is demanded. This paper reports a case study of using returnable packaging materials between a manufacturer and an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) supplier. A cross-company team was established to pursue the goal of the reverse logistics project. Tangible and intangible benefits of reverse logistics from this case study are presented in this paper.     

供应链道德风险逾渗的临界状态研究

为了确定能将供应链道德风险控制在不对供应链造成重大危害的临界点,构建以人为力度的供应链道德风险复杂网络模型,并据此给出供应链道德风险诱发的传递特性和拓扑特性的变化规律。按照逾渗理论,根据供应链中道德风险传递的特征,以随机攻击与蓄意攻击两种方式控制供应链道德风险的传递过程,确定出在随机攻击与蓄意攻击两种策略下,需要控制的最小数量的员工,从而确定供应链道德风险逾渗的临界状态。结论认为,随机攻击时供应链道德风险系统呈现鲁棒性,而蓄意攻击时供应链道德风险系统呈现脆弱性,蓄意攻击供应链道德风险这种策略是非常有效,并且这种临界概率取决于供应链系统的结构以及道德风险的特征。     

考虑顾客退货时在线企业的定价与订货策略

电子商务环境中,顾客退货是非常普遍的现象,是在线零售企业运营决策不可忽视的重要考虑因素． 以此为背景,本文将顾客退货引入到在线零售企业的单周期和多周期定价订货策 略研究中． 在确定性需求问题中给出了解析解,在随机性需求问题中证明了解的存在唯一性并做了相应的数值试验． 试验结果显示: 单周期情况下,退货率与在线零售企业定价正相关,而与订货量和收益负相关; 价格弹性与在线零售企业定价、收益负相关,对订货量的影响通过一个临界值发生相反的变化; 市场随机波动对在线零售企业的决策行为也有很大影响． 多周期情况下,在线零售企业会在初始期采取低价高订货量策略,而在末期采取高价低订货量策略,退货率越高,企业总收益越低． 同时,针对单周期随机性需求问题,借助期望－方差分析法分析了考虑顾客退货时期望收益的波动,得出风险偏好不同的在线零售企业策略选择有很大不同． 无论哪种情况,努力控制顾客退货率都有利于在线零售企业获得高收益．     

RFID technology for increasing visibility in ETO supply chains: a case study

This paper presents the application of an innovative system for increasing visibility along an Engineer-To-Order supply chain. The system has been applied in a leading Italian company that manufactures vessels and tube heat exchangers. By means of this method, the company shares information about its shop floor activities with other actors in the supply chain, i.e. clients and suppliers. The system elements are as follows: Radio-frequency identification transponders (to identify either components, operators, tooling machines (e.g. welding machines) or production phases), a Wi-Fi network (to communicate data) and a web-based application that is accessible by the company’s clients. This paper shows the methodology that is used to define the system’s architecture and the technical solutions adopted. Benefits in terms of reduction in costs for monitoring and control have been observed. Moreover, customers perceived the increased visibility of the production process to be a valuable service.     

Environmental and social supply chain management sustainability practices: construct development and measurement

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise and operationalise the concept of supply chain management sustainability practices. Based on a multi-stage procedure involving a literature review, expert Q-sort and pre-test process, pilot test and survey of 156 supply chain directors and managers in Ireland, we develop a multidimensional conceptualisation and measure of social and environmental supply chain management sustainability practices. The research findings show theoretically sound constructs based on four underlying sustainable supply chain management practices: monitoring, implementing systems, new product and process development and strategy redefinition. A two-factor model is then identified as the most reliable: comprising process-based and market-based practices.     

Application and evaluation of packaging postponement strategy to boost supply chain responsiveness: a case study

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how packaging postponement can be effectively leveraged in a dynamically changing diverse retail market where responsiveness is key. The study also guides about the empirical evaluation of how packaging postponement affects the performance in the sanitary pads supply chain by considering operating measures. The focal company belongs to the Indian Fast Moving Consumer Goods sector, hygiene products category. It examines the measures that are critical to a responsive supply chain and presents a comparative analysis of selected measures before and after implementation. The findings illustrate that the packaging postponement not only improves competitive advantage but also significantly contributes to improving product proliferation and supply chain responsiveness. The study provides understanding of drivers and obstacles for packaging postponement strategy with operational insights about ‘how-to’ implement. Most of modelling-based research studies justify the adoption of postponement through savings in inventory only and underplay on other operating measures. While justifying, studies emphasise ‘form’/manufacturing aspects and underestimate the packaging aspects of postponement. This paper addresses these gap areas by systematically highlighting prerequisites and demonstrates the benefits of adopting a packaging strategy to handle variety and responsiveness in an emerging economy.     

A study of supply chain integration in the aeronautics sector

Competitive pressure, high development costs, long lead times, rapidly changing technologies and the risks inherent in projects combined with the delays seen in the latest aircraft models (with the rise in costs that these have entailed) highlight the need to reorganise the supply chain in the aeronautics sector paying special attention to an improvement in inter- and intra-organisational integration. The aim of this study is to analyse the situation of supply chain integration (SCI) in the aeronautics sector using three dimensions (information integration, coordination and resource sharing and organisational relationship linkage), considering both internal integration and external integration with customers and suppliers. A group of first-tier supplier experts analyse the dimensions and assess the degree to which the factors that define SCI have been achieved. The results enable strengths and weaknesses to be determined and indicate possible improvements to the situation that is detected with clear managerial implications.     

Using vulnerability performance indicators to attain food supply chain robustness

High effectiveness and leanness of modern supply chains (SCs) increase their vulnerability, i.e. susceptibility to disturbances reflected in non-robust SC performances. Both the SC management literature and SC professionals indicate the need for the development of SC vulnerability assessment tools. In this article, a new method for vulnerability assessment, the VULA method, is presented. The VULA method helps to identify how much a company would underperform on a specific Key Performance Indicator in the case of a disturbance, how often this would happen and how long it would last. It ultimately informs the decision about whether process redesign is appropriate and what kind of redesign strategies should be used in order to increase the SC's robustness. The applicability of the VULA method is demonstrated in the context of a meat SC using discrete-event simulation to conduct the performance analysis.     

Green supply chain management practices in India: an empirical study

This paper presents an empirical study of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices in the Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in India. Although the research in the area of GSCM has grown in recent times, the literature has yet to furnish an accepted explanation for why green practices are to be manifested in supply chain management given external and internal pressures. These MSMEs have been involved in such green supply chain practices only to the extent of their participation as suppliers, distributors and in other capacities as business partners. This study confirms and validates that Indian MSMEs face significant pressures from external stakeholders to adopt GSCM practices. Among internal pressures, on-the-job training forces MSMEs in India to adopt GSCM practices. It has been also established that external pressures and adoption of GSCM are fully mediated by internal pressures.     

Evaluation of the green supply chain management practices: a fuzzy ANP approach

Environmentally responsible manufacturing, green supply chain management (GSCM), and related principles have become important strategies for companies to achieve profit and gain market share by lowering their environmental impacts and increasing their efficiency. As environment has become a key strategic consideration in supply chains, this study examines the components and elements of GSCM and suggests a novel GSCM evaluation framework. It also provides a real-case study of Ford Otosan, one of the pioneering companies about environmental subjects in Turkey, to illustrate the industrial application of our theoretical assessment model. The identified components are integrated into a strategic assessment and evaluation tool using analytical network process (ANP). The dynamic characteristics and complexity of the GSCM analysis environment make the ANP technique a suitable tool for this study. Moreover, to cope with ambiguity and vagueness of the decision maker's evaluations, the fuzzy extension of the ANP method is preferred.