Business Commons^™

Global Emergencies: How Do They Affect Supply Chain Management Students?, Alexander Stratton

Honors Theses

The goal of this thesis project is to discover how the effects of global emergencies such as Covid-19 affect graduating supply chain management students. Global emergencies cause issues and can completely disrupt supply chains. Therefore, it is hypothesized that since supply chain students may be of help in aiding these supply chains that they may currently or eventually be of higher need and value. Global disasters are full of uncertainties and it is unknown how an event on the scale of Covid-19 will influence employment decisions made by supply chain employers. Uncertainty can be worrisome and cause stress, so it …

Influence Of Convenience, Time-Savings, Price, And Product Variety On Amazon Prime Members And Non-Prime Shoppers’ Online Apparel Purchase Intention, Md Rashaduzzaman

Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The number of internet users and online shoppers in the United States has grown at an incredible rate over the past few decades. Greater convenience and availability of a wide assortment of apparel products at a cheaper price made online shopping very enticing to consumers. Amazon.com (Amazon) gained unprecedented popularity among consumers with its Amazon Prime program. Amazon’s retail revolutions changed consumer’s way of shopping and expectations. Both online and physical store retailers are facing tremendous pressure to fulfill that level of expectation. Thus, it is essential for retailers clearly understand the shopping expectations and preferences of Amazon Prime members …

The Brigade Combat Team (Bct): A Revolution In Organizational Structure, Adam Davis

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

This paper explores the U.S. Army’s force reorganization around the Brigade Combat Team (BCT), which began in 2002. The BCT shifted how various army units interacted by changing the echelon at which different types of units report to a single commander, essentially creating self-sufficient units of about 2,500 soldiers instead of the previous self-sufficient units of about 15,000 soldiers. This paper utilizes existing organizational theories and research to better understand the implications for such a dramatic change in organizational structure. It contextualizes the army’s reorganization by applying the Rational Actor, Political, and Bureaucratic Models outlined in Essence of Decision by …

The Difficulty With Introducing Project Management Techniques In Digital Startups, Isabela Mantilla

Dissertations and Theses

Digital startups face complex issues when it comes to accurately using project management techniques because of the startup’s scarcity of resources and the governance of projects , such as having different stages of growth and development. Since project management is needed in almost all businesses, dealing with this problem is important to improve the growth of startups and their organizational issues. Because of the correlation between startups using traditional project management techniques and their problems with implementing project management, this traditional model might not be relevant for startups. Startups seem to require more flexible and quick solutions to project management, …

Transshipment Timing In Inventory Competition, Lin Zang

Lingnan Theses and Dissertations (MPhil & PhD)

We study retailers’ preferences for transshipment timing in the presence of product substitution in overlapping markets where there is either pre-substitution transshipment (TS) or post-substitution transshipment (ST). By building a two-retailer game model, we find that when the retailer with excess inventory can dictate the transshipment price, there always exists a unique pair of equilibrium order quantities. We also find that the equilibrium order quantity in the post-substitution transshipment will always be larger than that in the pre-substitution transshipment in the symmetric case. But surprisingly, the expected profit of the post-substitution transshipment always dominates that of the pre-substitution transshipment, though …

Investigation Of An Avionics Part Deficiencies In Royal Saudi Air Force Fleets, Nasser S. Alanazi

Theses and Dissertations

The Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) is experiencing a shortage in certain avionics parts due to a lack of reliability. This issue is causing a supply chain disturbance in the F1-15 fleet and the Hawk fleet. One of the factors behind this problem is the environmental effects in Saudi Arabia .The study will investigate and analyze the methods for the Improvement Cycle Processes and the Quality Management within the RSAF repair cycle. Finding show that, the discrepancies are rising during summer and fall time due to the environment change, Other finding were addressed in the study.

Aligning Performance Management Systems For Lasting Outcomes In Humanitarian Operations, Kalyn M. Howard

Theses and Dissertations

Logistics is dynamic, expansive, and critical to organizational success. While it is generally believed that effective logistics management is associated with positive performance outcomes, the links between organizational practice and performance are understudied. This dissertation leverages resource-based theory and organizational learning theory to examine organizational practice and performance in non-traditional logistics settings, with particular focus on military organizations and humanitarian operational settings. First, a meta-analytical study establishes generalizable associations between various operations management practices and performance outcomes. Then, this is applied to dynamic humanitarian logistics settings, exploring how practitioners perceive practice and performance, and how this is reported and documented …

Customer’S Operational Efficiency And Trade Credit Provision, Wai Ho Chan

Lingnan Theses and Dissertations (MPhil & PhD)

This study examines whether the trade credit provision is affected by customers’ operational efficiency. We link the supplier firms with their major customers using the Customer Segment database in order to identify the trade credit provision for each pair of supplier-customer relationships. While suppliers have the incentive to provide trade credit to high-quality customers in order to increase market share, excess trade credit would also harm the suppliers once the customers default. Our empirical results indicate that operational efficiency and trade credit are positively associated. This finding supports the view that suppliers tend to select and provide trade credit to …

Research On The Logistics Development Model Of Shanghai Free Trade Zone, Yuhong Xie

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Blockchain And Its Transformational Impact To Global Business, Mohammed Qaudeer

Operations Research and Engineering Management Theses and Dissertations

The advent of internet to the public back in 1994 resulted in the 4th industrial revolution disrupting and transforming business and communication models. As much as the transformation changed our lives and experiences, it has resulted in centralized models like Amazon and Facebook. It also resulted in exponential growth of Fraud, Identity theft, and lack of trust. Blockchain is considered an emerging technology of this era, which will trigger the 5th industrial revolution enabling another massive storm of disruptive transformation completely changing the current business models based on trust, security, collaboration and crypto currency. As the evolution of blockchain technology …

Essays On Competitive Perishable Food Supply Chain Networks: From The Impacts Of Tariffs And Quotas To Integration Of Quality, Deniz Besik

Doctoral Dissertations

Food, in the form of fresh produce, meat, fish, and/or dairy, is necessary for maintaining life. In this dissertation, I focus on the modeling and analysis of some of the inherent issues in competitive perishable food supply chain networks. I investigate the impacts of trade policies such as tariffs, quotas, and their combination – tariff-rate quotas, as well as the integration of food quality deterioration into food supply chains. The research is especially timely given the prevalence of trade wars and tariffs in todays global political environment. The work is multidisciplinary with constructs from food science integrated into the economics …

R&D Project Portfolio Selection With Multiple Stakeholders, Wenqi Lian

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Research and Development (R&D) is time consuming, expensive and risky; yet product life cycles are shortening and competition is fierce. Therefore, R&D often requires the collaboration and input of multiple stakeholders. This dissertation studies how collaborations involving multiple stakeholders can effectively make R&D project portfolio selection decisions to create the optimal social welfare. The two essays in the dissertation build stylized analytical models to examine R&D project portfolio selection in two different settings, academia and industry respectively. The models explicitly acknowledge the different information, goals and operational decisions of the stakeholders. In the first essay, we study a two-stage funding …

21st Century Supply Chain Innovations In The Fast Food Industry, Saitoti Meekisho

University Honors Theses

In the last 20 years, attending to consumer demand for at-home delivery has been an area of concern for supply chain specialists in the restaurant industry. Applying logistically-sound processes for food delivery to its final destination (Also called last-mile delivery) has become a necessity for restaurants to gain and sustain competitive advantages. This research seeks to catalog the dynamic last-mile delivery innovations by restaurants per consumer demand, assess the competitive sustainability of four current food delivery methods (takeout, restaurant delivery, 3^rd party company delivery, & monthly meal delivery) using the VRIN framework, and suggest collaborative delivery strategies for future …

Homeless Veterans In San Francisco / Housing Our Heroes, Raymond Gray

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

This paper will review the homeless population, including homeless veterans, in San Francisco, ways the city has tried to handle the situations with the homeless and project a path forward with ideas to help end homelessness for good. Before the COVID-19 Pandemic, San Francisco had an increase of homeless veterans of 8%, but the pandemic has caused these numbers to increase.

San Francisco has lined a path forward to house the homeless during these difficult times, by placing them into hotels. Creating an endless game of hiding the homeless will only create other issues; this must end. With partnerships …

Food Insecurity And Socially Responsible For-Profit Entities, Maison Dewalt

Honors Projects

This paper explores the viability of a for-profit entity being dedicated to addressing food insecurity. Through examination of challenges associated with food insecurity, as well as through review of current, effective for-profit food distributors in the U.S. food system, this paper identifies the need for an alternative approach to resolving food insecurity. The paper posits that such an approach may exist through business model integration in establishing a new, socially responsible for-profit entity.

Markets And Supply Chains: An Investigation Of The Institutions Influencing The Farm-Supply Chain Interface, Jessica L. Darby

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Farm-level operations have lasting and amplified impacts that promulgate the entire supply chain, and the farm is increasingly in the forefront of today’s headlines on topics such as social responsibility, environmental sustainability, traceability, and food safety. Despite its significance, however, the farm remains a ‘black box’ and has traditionally operated independently with little information-sharing, trust, or collaboration with buyers downstream. This dissertation begins to unpack this ‘black box’ by employing different methodologies to identify the factors influencing exchange in the farm-supply chain interface. In Essay 1, I examine why the farm continues to be a challenge for ‘traditional’ collaborative approaches …

Simulation Modeling Of Cross-Dock And Distribution Center Based Supply Chains, Ghewa Al Chall

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Companies are implementing new strategies to meet the customer requirements in terms of quality, timing, and cost. One of these strategies is cross-docking, which can be defined as the process of consolidating the products coming from different suppliers, but having the same destination, with minimal handling and almost no storage between loading and unloading of the goods. The purpose of this research is to investigate the benefits of having a cross-docking facility in a supply chain. In this research, we focus on developing discrete event simulation models using the opensource Java Simulation Library (JSL). Also, we work on augmenting an …

The Dynamics And Effects Of Supply Network Structure, Marat Davletshin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The rising interest in network theory among supply chain scholars reflects an emerging shift in perspective. To deliver global speed, efficiency, and responsiveness, modern firms’ supply chains are becoming increasingly complex. The patterns of interactions and interdependencies among hundreds of firms interconnected by these complex supply chains cannot be adequately explored from the dyadic perspective, which has dominated supply chain research for decades. Many supply chain scholars agree that the language of networks can provide a syntax and structure to describe and explore this complex reality. The actual application of network theory in supply chain research, however, has been limited. …

Essays On Agricultural Commodity Processing, Bin Li

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation investigates two important issues in agricultural commodity processing: (i) biomass commercialization; that is, converting organic waste into a saleable product, from economic and environmental perspectives, and (ii) optimal procurement portfolio design using multiple suppliers and spot market, and the impact of by-product introduction on this optimal portfolio.

The first chapter examines the economic implications of biomass commercialization from the perspective of an agri-processor that uses a commodity input to produce both a commodity output and biomass. We characterize the value of biomass commercialization and perform sensitivity analysis to investigate how spot price uncertainty (input and output spot price …

Fundamentals Of Business - Introduction To Information Technology, Joy Goldschmidt

Honors Theses

This chapter will discuss the relevance and importance of information technology and its integration into several business models. The term Information Technology encompasses all types of technology used to create, store, exchange, and utilize data and information in all shapes and forms. This chapter will primarily focus on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) technology, which refers to a type of software that organizations use to manage day-to-day busy-ness activities such as accounting, procurement, project management, risk management, and supply chain management. In more simpler terms, ERP systems tie together a variety of business operations, enabling a smooth flow of data and …

Analyzing Local Alcohol Vendor Inventory Management Strategy, Angelo J. Amore

Senior Theses

This paper attempts to analyze how local alcohol vendors maintain their inventory throughout the year in Columbia, attempting to manage factors such as the season, sporting events, and other public gatherings and events. The research question resulted in contacting over 30 local alcohol vendors in Columbia, to ask them questions regarding their strategy in alcohol inventory management. The responses to these questions were then used to organize the vendors into groups by whether or not they utilize a reorder point to purchase/brew alcohol, or if they utilize periodic ordering. The vendors were also asked to rank the seasons from most …

The Supply Chain Of Digital Music: Empowering Independent Artists Through Availability And Accessibility, Justin Reed

Senior Theses

The process of creating and sharing digital music can be viewed from the “supply chain” perspective: identifying the resources and value-adding tools that ultimately result in a final audio product. By researching and documenting the steps involved in this process, I identify this supply chain as a series of steps, an itinerary, or process model of digital music creation. Moreover, I found that each step in the process can be assess for its accessibility and usability by independent artists. I conclude by exploring how this democratizes the music industry by affording independent artists the necessary tools and empowerment to create …

Sortie-Based Aircraft Component Demand Rate To Predict Requirements, Thomas R. O'Neal

Theses and Dissertations

Weapon System Sustainment (WSS) costs are growing at an increasing rate despite the vast efforts to reduce them. Researchers have attributed much of the cost increase to inaccurate demand forecasts for weapon system spare parts. In 2011, the forecast to sustain all United States Air Force (USAF) aircraft was 19% accurate and WSS costs per year have continuously increased. The purpose of this study is to explore a parsimonious change to aircraft component forecasting to reduce costly forecast error. This study substitutes flying hours with sorties for the purpose of demand forecasting. Many F-16 and B-52 spare parts are evaluated …

Resilient Aircraft Sustainment: Quantifying Resilience Through Asset And Capacity Allocation, Zachary B. Shannon

Theses and Dissertations

Decision makers lack a clear, generalizable method to quantify how additional investment in inventory and capacity equates to additional levels of resilience. This research facilitates a deeper understanding of the intricacies and complex interconnectedness of organizational supply chains by monetarily quantifying changes in network resilience. The developed Area under the Curve metric (AUC) is used to quantify the level of demand that each asset allocation can meet during a disruptive event. Due to its applicability across multiple domains, the USAF F-16 repair network in the Pacific theater (PACAF) is modeled utilizing discrete event simulation and used as the illustrating example. …

Strategic Sourcing Of Air Force Contingency Pharmaceuticals: A Cost-Benefit Analysis Approach, Adam J. Brubakken

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to identify and explore effective supply chain management principles as mitigating measures to improve contingency pharmaceutical item shortfalls in the Air Force Medical Service Contingency Pharmaceutical Program. Analysis of current pharmaceutical shortages demonstrates a significant trend of insufficient demand signals for various pharmaceutical items, resulting in instances of non-fulfillment by private sector suppliers. Through the scope of transaction cost economics, a cost-benefit analysis for various alternatives was conducted. The proposed alternatives evaluated in this thesis include continuation of the status quo, centralized procurement models from a single site, and procurement from regionally designated ordering …

An Analysis Of The Competitive Advantages And Threats For Micro, Small & Medium-Sized Businesses (Msmes) In Mexico, Jose Luis Pool Sierra

University Honors Theses

This thesis analyzes the Micro, Small & Medium-sized (MSMEs) businesses in Mexico, their current threats and competitive advantages. The research explores the major issues business owners face and potential strategies they could implement in order to thrive and promote growth for their organizations, using strategies in Supply Chain Management and Good Managerial planning practices, such as the application of the Supply Chain Operations Reference Model (SCOR). The thesis also analyzes a medium-sized business in Mexico and recommends strategies based on the SCOR framework that such an organization could apply to their business operations in order to avoid obstacles and potential …

Too Good To Eat? Cosmetic Standards And Waste In Agricultural Supply Chain, Jiahui Xu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

There is a significant amount of food wasted at the farm level due to high cosmetic standards adopted by retailers. We examine the economic incentives for retailers to adopt such high cosmetic standards and their impact on food loss. We build a sequential game between a retailer and a farmer, where the retailer signs a contract with the farmer specifying both the wholesale price and cosmetic quality standard. By adopting high cosmetic standards, retailers can motivate farmers to exert a higher effort to improve the cosmetic quality, e.g., using better seeds and applying more pesticides. As for the drivers of …

Inherent Jeopardy Of Performance Based Contracting Metrics: A Simulation Experiment, Daniel Cherobini

Theses and Dissertations

There is a growing trend across the world to adopt Performance Based Contracting strategies to support logistics systems. Using these policies, contract payments are strongly related to the performance achieved compared to prespecified metrics. However, managers are not always confident on what are the most suitable performance goals to use in these agreements. As a consequence, contractors struggle to deliver the desired performance results, while aircraft fleets experience an increase in support costs. And when the results are inadequate, leaders are tempted to impose even more performance targets to contractors, willing to exercise more control over the support organization. In …

Undergraduate Pilot Training Attrition: An Analysis Of Individual And Class Composition Component Factors, Christina M. Akers

Theses and Dissertations

The Air Force is working hard to reduce the shortage of nearly 2,000 pilots that threatens the Air Force’s core mission. Officials have focused on increasing retention and training throughput. Despite this, the first Pilot Training Next class graduated in August of 2018 with 13 of the initial 20 students (65.5% graduation rate). The purpose of this research is to explore attrition reduction by understanding how class composition of individual abilities and personalities affects the class graduation rate. Using AFOQT scores, SDI+ scores, PCSM scores, flight hours, and college GPAs, correlations were studied and a simple linear regression was run …

การวิเคราะห์หาคลังสินค้าแห่งใหม่โดยใช้ระบบสารสนเทศภูมิศาสตร์ : กรณีศึกษาบริษัท Fmcg, ณิชาภัทร หมอกมืด

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

บริษัท FMCG เป็นบริษัทมีการผลิตหรือจำหน่ายสินค้าอุปโภคบริโภคที่มีสภาพคล่องการเคลื่อนไหวอย่างรวดเร็วมาก และด้วยจำนวนของผู้ใช้สินค้าอุปโภคบริโภคที่มีจำนวนมากขึ้น ทำให้บริษัทต้องผลิตสินค้าในจำนวนที่มากขึ้นเพื่อเป็นการตอบสนองความต้องการของลูกค้า ทั้งนี้สืบเนื่องมาจากเมื่อต้นปี 2563 บริษัทมียอดความต้องการของสินค้าส่งออกที่มากขึ้น เนื่องจากฐานการผลิตที่ไทยได้เพิ่มจำนวนสินค้าและประเทศส่งออกที่มากขึ้น โดยเพิ่มมากขึ้นหลายเท่าตัวจากเดิมและครอบคลุมความต้องการของทั้ง ASEAN จึงเป็นสาเหตุให้เกิดความต้องการในการผลิตสินค้าที่มากขึ้น เมื่อความต้องการมากขึ้นวัตถุดิบในการผลิตและสินค้าสำเร็จรูปก็มากขึ้นพื้นที่หรือคลังสินค้าในการจัดเก็บจึงจำเป็นต้องมีการบริหารจัดการให้เพียงพอกับกับความต้องการที่มากขึ้น ด้วยเหตุนี้จึงจำเป็นต้องปรับปรุงการบริหารจัดการสินค้าคงคลังแต่ละคลังให้มีความเหมาะสมและเพียงพอต่อความต้องการของลูกค้าเพื่อลดค่าใช้จ่ายในการจัดเก็บสินค้าที่เกินความจำเป็น เพิ่มระดับความพึงพอใจของลูกค้า และเพิ่มความน่าเชื่อถือให้กับบริษัท การนำระบบสารสนเทศทางภูมิศาสตร์มาใช้ในการคำนวณค่าใช้จ่ายในการขนส่งจากโรงงานการผลิตไปยังคลังสินค้าแห่งใหม่ และจากคลังสินค้าแห่งใหม่ไปยังท่าเรือกรุงเทพฯ เพื่อความแม่นยำในการวิเคราะห์ด้านภูมิศาสตร์มากขึ้น ทั้งนี้เพื่อเลือกคลังสินค้าใหม่ที่จะทำการเช่าสามารถเพื่อที่จะสามารถแก้ไขปัญหาที่เกิดขึ้น และมีการทำงานที่ตรงตามความต้องการของลูกค้าอย่างสูงสุดและใช้งานคลังสินค้าอย่างเต็มประสิทธิภาพมากขึ้น โดยทำการศึกษาจากตัวอย่างของกรณีคลังสินค้าที่อยู่ในอำเภอบางพลี อำเภอบางบ่อ อำเภอบางเสาธง และอำเภอเมืองจังหวัดสมุทรปราการจำนวน 10 แห่ง