Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons^™

The Role Of Third Party Logistics Providers (3pls) In The Adoption Of Green Supply Chain Initiatives, Edward Sweeney, Pietro Evangelista, Maria Huge-Brodin, Karin Isaksson

Practitioner Journals

The increasing importance of environmental sustainability has sharpened the focus on the need for innovative approaches to the purchasing of transport and logistics services. This article points out some of the challenges that purchasers of transport and logistics services, as well as their suppliers in the third party logistics (3PL) industry, are facing. These include the need for closer collaboration between 3PLs and their customers, as well as developing systems for the robust assessment of the environmental sustainability of services. The article is based on several years’ research experience inIreland,ItalyandSweden.

Towards Operations Excellence: Optimising Staff Scheduling For New Emergency Department, Amr Arisha, Waleed Abo Hamad

Conference papers

This paper presents a case study of an Emergency Department of a public hospital in Dublin, and uses an integrated approach to determine optimal staffing levels to meet the challenges of its dynamic patient demand levels. A comprehensive stochastic model is developed to incorporate patients care pathways and the resources required along their treatment journeys. Analytical Hierarchical Process is utilised to enable decision makers to set their preferences for the facility’s strategic objectives. Evolutionary algorithms are applied to optimise staff schedules. The resulted optimized schedules maintains continuity of care delivery for patients while ensuring a balanced equilibrium among available staff.

The People Dimension In Logistics And Supply Chain Management – Its Role And Importance, Edward Sweeney

Books/Book chapters

It is widely recognised that the effective application of logistics and supply chain management (SCM) has a vital role to play in European economic recovery. Experience suggests that success in achieving higher levels of supply chain integration (SCI) depends on both physical and technical components (the hard-wiring), as well as human and behavioural components (the soft-wiring). There is significant evidence that the latter has been largely neglected by the logistics and SCM community. Furthermore, it appears that the majority of supply chain improvement initiatives by practitioners have been primarily concerned with technological, structural and process issues. This chapter …

Supply Chain "Mega-Trends": Current Status And Future Trends, Edward Sweeney

Practitioner Journals

The supply chain management (SCM) concept has become embedded in the thinking of many organisations in recent years. Originally introduced by management consultants in the early 1980s, SCM has a strong focus on integration of processes across functions within firms, as well as between the organisations that comprise the wider extended enterprise. There is a significant body of research to support the notion that the consistent delivery of value to customers is predicated on higher levels of intra-firm and inter-firm integration. Putting the supply chain integration (SCI) concept into practice is critically dependent on the ability of firms to manage …

Sustainable Purchasing Practices: An Investigation Into Current Industry Awareness And Practice, Frank Palisi, Kathryne Newton, Edward Sweeney

Conference papers

This research study illustrates the importance of sustainable purchasing practices for organizations in the U.S. distribution industry and answers several important questions: what is the current awareness of U.S. organizations regarding sustainable purchasing practices; to what extent are U.S. organizations evaluating, selecting, and retaining suppliers based upon sustainable purchasing practices; and to what extent are sustainable purchasing practices being implemented by the U.S. organizations under study? With an ever increasing global economy, is it critically important for organizations to put in place sustainability practices; the biggest impact organizations can make is often in an organization’s purchasing department. The researcher begins …

Manufacturing Strategy & Operations: Reflections On Key Current Issues: Challenges And Associated Human Resource Implications, Lorraine Mcgrath

Books/Book chapters

This chapter evaluates the current issues and challenges in defining a company’s manufacturing strategy and its production operations in consideration of the contemporary shift to low cost manufacturing locations. Competitive priorities of cost, quality, delivery and flexibility are reviewed. The structural and infrastructure elements of a manufacturing strategy are outlined. Mitigating risks in a global arena are reviewed. Collaborative efforts, including the cultural and personality issues of being human are included in the discussion of managing diversity in such a highly competitive and challenging enterprise resource planning environment.

Has Supply Chain Management Lost Its Relevance?, Natalie Descheres

Books/Book chapters

The context of business has changed dramatically over the last 15 years. The definition of need satisfaction, the shift from “dot to web” competition and the embedding of the organisation into a wider political and societal environment has transformed SCM contributions and the meaning of work for employees. Interdependence must evolve from the do-it-alone approach and yet the ashes are not proving fertile ground. In many ways, traditional models of management have not kept up with the changes and are taken aback by the complexity that surrounds us. Complexity is however not a feature of our world, but one of …

Where Next For Supply Chain Management?, Des Lee

Books/Book chapters

Supply chain management (SCM) has been so successful that it is largely taken for granted. Its success has been built on improving three key flows – of product, of money and of information – and on one core principle – core competence. What next for SCM? This article outlines the vulnerabilities that are embedded in modern supply chains and the unintended consequences of outsourcing activities that are not core competences. These consequences are global and have the potential to undermine past achievements. Finally, broad suggestions are made as to how these issues can be addressed and the areas on which …

Using Modelling And Simulation To Improve Elderly Care In Ireland: A Case Study, Amr Arisha, Mohamed Ragab, Wael Rashwan, Waleed Abo-Hamad

Articles

Health care services both globally and domestically - are encountering critical issues due to the increasing demand for services at the time of economic recession. Hospital performance is subject to many constraints, and planning is made more difficult by the complexity and uncertainty of demand. Population ageing is creating immense pressures on healthcare facilities across the world, leaving them struggling to cope with the growing demand for elderly healthcare services. Current demand-supply gaps result in prolonged waiting times for patients and substantial cost burdens for healthcare systems due to delayed discharges. This paper reports on a project that uses modelling …

A New Versatile Electronic Speckle Pattern Interferometer For Vibration Measurements, Viswanath Bavigadda

Doctoral

Electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) has been widely used for vibration amplitude and phase measurements. Conventional ESPI systems are bulk and expensive and need careful alignment of all the optical components which is a time consuming task. To overcome these problems alternative compact ESPI systems were developed using fibre-optical components or holographic optical elements (HOEs). The fibre-optic based ESPI systems suffer from random phase fluctuations induced by environmental temperature changes. Hence HOEs can be used as more powerful alternative optical elements to design ESPI systems. The time average ESPI method is widely used for vibration studies. The time average method …

Technology Adoption In Small And Medium-Sized Logistics Providers, Pietro Evangelista, Alan Mckinnon, Edward Sweeney

Articles

Purpose - The main aim of the research is to shed light on the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in the logistics innovation process of small and medium- sized third party logistics providers (3PLs).

Design/methodology/approach – A triangulated research strategy was designed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. The former involved the use of a questionnaire survey of small and medium-sized Italian 3PLs with 153 usable responses received. The latter comprised a series of focus groups and the use of seven case studies.

Findings – There is a relatively low level of ICT expenditure with few …