Operations and Supply Chain Management Commons^™

Uncovering The Dirty Secrets Of A Food Paradise: Young Journalists Go Undercover, Estelle Low, Miak Aw

Social Space

Singapore is universally known as a food paradise, but far less is known about the enormous amount of waste generated daily by individuals, supermarkets, food outlets and hotels. 20-something investigative journalists Miak Aw and Estelle Low go undercover to shed light on how much we waste as a nation and why this needs to change.

An Hsi Report: Adopting A Cage-Free Production Policy For Animal Products In Brazil, Humane Society International

HSI REPORTS

Farm animal welfare is becoming an important concern for governments, producers, and consumers worldwide. In particular, intensive confinement systems, such as battery cages and gestation crates, have been acknowledged as severely impairing to the physical comfort and expression of natural behaviors of animals. The European Union and select states in the United States have already passed bills eliminating these housing systems over the next several years. Numerous international retail and food production companies, including Burger King (North America), Smithfield Foods, and McDonald’s (Europe) are committed to gradually eliminating the use and sale of eggs and pork produced via intensive confinement …

A Critical Review Of Electrical Water-Bath Stun Systems For Poultry Slaughter And Recent Developments In Alternative Technologies, Sara J. Shields, A. B. M. Raj

Agribusiness Collection

Prior to slaughter, most farmed birds move through a constant-voltage, multiple- bird, electrical water-bath stun system. Using this system subjects live birds to stressful and painful shackling, and the potential exists for them to receive prestun electric shocks and induction of seizures while still conscious. The existing elec- trical water-bath stunner settings, particularly those used in U.S. slaughter plants, are not necessarily based on sound scientific data that they produce a consistent, immediate stun, and research indicates that they are not effective in all birds. Further, in multiple-bird, electrical water-bath systems, birds may miss the stunner completely. Evidence suggests that …

The Welfare Of Animals In The Pig Industry

Agribusiness Reports

The discordance between the behavioral needs of pigs and the life afforded to those raised commercially for the meat industry has created many animal welfare problems. Methods of pig production have changed substantially over the last several decades, and industrialized confinement operations have largely overtaken small, diversified farms. Overcrowded in indoor, barren environments, pigs in commercial production facilities are offered little opportunity to display their full range of complex social, foraging, and exploratory behavior. Behavioral abnormalities, such as tail-biting and aggression, arise due to environmental and social deficiencies. Poor air quality and intensive confinement may lead to health problems, and …

The Welfare Of Piglets In The Pig Industry

Agribusiness Reports

Pig production has changed dramatically over the last several decades, and most piglets are now raised on industrialized commercial operations that confine thousands of animals on one site. In these facilities, piglets are born and reared under conditions that dramatically contrast with the natural environment they are biologically adapted to fit. In nature, a mother sow builds a nest of twigs and leaves for the birth of her litter, and, after several days, the piglets gradually begin to leave the nest, explore their environment by rooting and nibbling, and slowly integrate into a larger family group. Piglets on commercial production …

Welfare Issues With Furnished Cages For Egg-Laying Hens

Agribusiness Reports

Furnished cages were developed in response to criticisms about conventional battery-cage confinement of laying hens in commercial egg production. Battery cages—small, barren, wire enclosures—restrictively confine the birds, depriving them of the opportunity to display many important patterns of behavior. In contrast, furnished cages are typically equipped with a nest box, perch, and dustbathing area, thereby providing more behavioral outlets than conventional cages. However, similar to conventional battery cages, furnished cages provide an unacceptably limited amount of space per bird; prevent many important locomotory activities, including running, jumping, flying, and wing-flapping; and constrain perching, dustbathing, and nesting. The severe locomotory restriction …

The Impact Of Animal Agriculture On The Environment And Climate Change In Brazil

Agribusiness Reports

The intensification of farm animal production in industrialized agricultural systems, or factory farms, compromises animal welfare and degrades the environment. Animal agriculture inefficiently consumes natural resources, contributes to deforestation, and produces immense quantities of animal waste, threatening water and air quality and contributing to climate change. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations estimated in 2006 that animal agriculture was responsible for 18% of global, anthropogenic, or humaninduced, greenhouse gas emissions and was ―by far the single largest anthropogenic user of land."

Understanding Mortality Rates Of Laying Hens In Cage-Free Egg Production Systems

Agribusiness Reports

In cage-free egg production systems, concerns have been raised over hen mortality rates. High mortality is an obvious indicator of poor welfare, and problems should be addressed without delay. It is important to note, however, that mortality can vary substantially between hen flocks, and that some cage-free systems have healthy flocks that do not suffer substantial death losses. These systems can serve as models for the rest of the industry, since mortality is not inherent to any particular system, but a consequence of how well the system is managed.

Adopting A Cage-Free Production Policy For Animal Products In Brazil

Agribusiness Reports

Farm animal welfare is becoming an important concern for governments, producers, and consumers worldwide. In particular, intensive confinement systems, such as battery cages and gestation crates, have been acknowledged as severely impairing to the physical comfort and expression of natural behaviors of animals. The European Union and select states in the United States have already passed bills eliminating these housing systems over the next several years. Numerous international retail and food production companies, including Burger King (North America), Smithfield Foods, and McDonald’s (Europe) are committed to gradually eliminating the use and sale of eggs and pork produced via intensive confinement …

Lululemon’S Commitment To The Environment: A Tangle Of Seaweed, Suppliers, And Social Responsibility, A. Erin Bass

Marketing and Management Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

It was the morning of Wednesday, November 14, 2007. The article on the front page of the New York Times Business Section read “‘Seaweed’ Clothing Has None, Tests Show.” The story asserted that one of Lululemon’s product lines, VitaSea, which purported to contain a seaweed fiber designed to release marine amino acids, minerals and vitamins into the skin upon contact with moisture, contained no such ingredient. Both Chip Wilson, Chairman and Founder of athletic wear retailer Lululemon, and Robert Meers, Lululemon’s CEO, were about to embark on their first damage-control mission since the company’s Initial Public Offering in July. This …

Supply Chain Integration: Cluster Analysis Of The Impact Of Span Of Integration, Vijay R. Kannan, Keah Choon Tan

Management Faculty Publications

Purpose

This paper aims to explore whether firms that integrate only with partners adjacent to them in the supply chain exhibit different patterns of supply chain practice and performance than those that also integrate with partners more distant in the supply chain.

Design/methodology/approach

Cluster analysis of survey data is used to partition firms based on the span of the supply chain involved in their integration efforts.

Findings

Firms with a broad span of integration have a greater focus on alignment with suppliers and customers, and have more of a supply chain focus than those with a narrow span. They also …

Supply Chain Information And Relational Alignments: Mediators Of Edi On Firm Performance, Keah Choon Tan, Vijay R. Kannan, Chin-Chun Hsu, G. Keong Leong

Management Faculty Publications

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of inter-organization information exchange on supply chain information and relational alignment. Drawing on literature on information systems, supply chain management, and logistics, the paper aims to present a multidimensional framework for considering electronic data interchange (EDI) adoption in supplier management and its effect on information and relational alignment. Design/methodology/approach: Theories drawn from resource-dependent and transaction cost economics, and the resource-based view of the firm were used to establish hypotheses. Structural equation modeling using survey data of manufacturing firms was used to test the hypotheses and research model. Findings: Results …

A Remanufacturing News-Vendor With Pricing And Take-Back Pricing, Keyu Lu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This paper analyzes the problem of a remanufacturing news-vendor with selling and take-back price decision. In our model, the remanufacturer decides selling price, take-back price, and order quantity for new materials. She then uses the stochastic take-back quantity and the new material to meet the stochastic demand comparably to a news vendor setting. We allow demand and take-back supply to be correlated. In this thesis, we study a production problem with dual input sources: raw materials and recycled or remanufactured take-back items. To answer when mixed-sourcing is best, we analyze the model under deterministic setting first, provide criteria for different …

Benchmarking And Evaluating The Comparative Efficiency Of Urban Paratransit Systems In The United States: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach, Hokey Min, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 encouraged public transit authorities to reassess the way they serve aging populations and physically handicapped individuals requiring door-to-door services. As the demand for paratransit services rose dramatically the last few years due to a growing number of aging baby-boomers and injured Iraq-Afghanistan War veterans, many public transit authorities have been faced with the dilemma of meeting the growing demand while controlling costs in times of ongoing budget crises. To help public transit authorities better cope with such a dilemma, this paper evaluates the comparative operating efficiency of 75 selected paratransit agencies in …

Aircraft Leasing With Contracts, Qiong Zuo

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

We study a problem of rental rate pricing and rental contract designing in aircraft leasing industry. In a framework of Stackelberg game, the system is composed of an airline company (carrier) and an aircraft leasing company (lessor). Acting as the leader, the lessor announces daily rental rates and/or provides long-term contracts on a finite horizon with multiple periods. For each period, the carrier determines the aircraft leasing number to adjust the flight capacity, and applies a dynamic pricing policy for air-tickets based on a seasonally stochastic demand and some economic factor, such as oil price. We find the optimal policies …

Effective Project Planning: Making The Most Of Project Planning Tools, Bert De Reyck

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Although project planning tools such as Microsoft Project and Primavera have become indispensable tools for supporting the project planning process in a wide variety of industries and organizations, many companies do not use these tools in the best possible way, resulting in disappointment and frustration as well as a lack of effective project management support. In this article, we propose several guidelines on what to do,

Critical Factors In Project Success: A Study Of Public Sector Construction Projects In Malaysia., Wan Maimun Wan Abdullah

Student Works (2010-2019)

The importance of the construction industry to nation building necessitates that project implemented achieves project success. However, studies and evidence have shown that there is a low probability in consistently achieving project success. Nevertheless, it seems that the definition of project success and how to achieve project success is quite illusive. For more than a century, researchers have been grappling with its definition but the concept remained ambiguous. From the early identification of time, cost and quality as elements of project success, researchers have added many other outcomes and objectives including stakeholders, project manager, communication, leadership, project management, organization structure, …

Factors Influencing Activity-Based Costing (Abc) Success Implementation : A Study Among Manufacturing Firms In China., Zhang Yi Fei

Student Works (2010-2019)

Nowadays firms are experiencing a constant changing business context. Accurate costing information is crucial for any firms to survive and stay competitive. However, traditional volume based costing systems are subjected to many criticisms due to the failure to provide firms with a reliable, accurate and timely costing information. Activity-Based Costing (ABC) was introduced by Cooper and Kaplan (1988) to address the shortcomings of the traditional costing systems, and it is more suitable to assist management in strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation in today‟s advanced business environment. Motivated by the benefits of ABC, a number of researchers have conducted various studies …

Web-Based Supply Chain Management Capabilities In Malaysian Firms And Its Effect On Firm's Performance : An Empirical Study., Fakri Abdul Rashid

Student Works (2010-2019)

The study investigated the relationship between the five facets of web based supply chain management (WBSCM) capabilities and the firm performance in manufacturing and services firms in Kaula Lumpur. Malaysia. The objectives of the study were 1) to examine the level WBSCM’s capabilities and firm performance, 2) to examine the relationship between WBSCM’s capabilities and firm performance, 3) to examine the effect of WBSCM’s capabilities in relation to firm’s performance. Based on the literature reviews a model of relationship was proposed and developed   to examine the relationships between the five factors of WBSCM’s capabilities and firm performance To test the …

Accidents Will Happen. Do Safety Systems Improve Warehouse Safety Performance?, Rene B. M. De Koster, B. M. Balk, I Davelaar, M. Martens

11th IMHRC Proceedings (Milwaukee, Wisconsin. USA – 2010)

Safety is becoming more and more an issue in warehouses. In the literature, effective measures leading to increased occupational health and safety have hardly been researched. Most research focuses on the impact of perceived safety-related leadership of managers and worker safety consciousness on ‘safety climate’ and workers’ safe behavior. We have carried out exploratory research into which measures really improve the safety performance of a warehouse. We particularly focus on the effects of (1) safety-related work procedures, (2) safety leadership, and (3) workers’ safety consciousness. Based on a survey we show that safety leadership and safety-related work procedures significantly drive …