Operations and Supply Chain Management Commons^™

Enhancing Customer Support Operations Through Gpt & Q-Learning: A Model Study, Adam Alidra, Bob O'Brien, Dalton Young

SMU Data Science Review

Abstract. “Growth strategies that are purpose-led, customer-centric, experience-driven, data/AI-enabled, and technology-scaled require new mindsets…” (Cornfield, 2021). What can we take from this? Business growth and customer experience are inextricably tied together. Therefore, thriving, as an organization, is dependent on reimagining enterprise operations through modern, scalable data and AI technologies. Our study aims to enhance support operations with emerging AI capabilities, including OpenAI’s LLM models, built on self-attention mechanism transformer architecture, and tailored for business needs through prompt engineering. Our research uses Markov Decision Process and the Q-learning algorithm to evaluate synthetically created support incidents. Through this set of methods, our …

Global Brands Value Chains Create Competitive Advantage, Adriana N. Marchetti

Journal of Global Awareness

Marriott International, Inc., is an American international hospitality company that operates a broad portfolio of hotels and related lodging facilities. Founded by J. Willard Marriott in 1927, the company is based in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. In May 1927, the company began as an A&W Root Beer franchise in Washington, DC. Founders J. Willard and Alice Sheets Marriott started their business by selling cool drinks in the hot, muggy Washington, DC summers.

Since then, Marriott International has established itself across 139 countries with 8,000+ properties offering around 1.5 million guest rooms. This paper will explore Marriott International’s products and services, global …

Target: How A Top Retailer Overseas Global Sourcing Challenges, Gloria Clarissa

Journal of Global Awareness

As one of the largest and most distinguished retailers in the United States, Target Corporation has faced a multitude of global sourcing challenges, as well as other internal and external issues. Through research, Target’s implementation of several processes and systems can be analyzed to explore how it counters the ever-changing market and global supply chains. This includes analyses of its history, business model, supply chain components, and value chains. In conclusion, this comprehensive study provides valuable insights into Target Corporation’s business operations, market positioning, supply chain management, and challenges. By capitalizing on opportunities and fortifying its brand promise, Target has …

Zara, The Global Fast Fashion Pioneer From Spain, Hibah Ahmad

Journal of Global Awareness

Zara, a renowned fashion retailer, has gained a reputation for its innovative approach to global supply chain management. Zara is committed to providing affordable luxury clothing, home décor, accessories, and footwear. The company’s unique business model, characterizing them as “fast fashion,” allows them to continuously change their product lines to reflect the consumer market. Their incredibly fast turnaround time and affordable costs for modern and trendy pieces can create value for their customers while keeping inventory costs low. Overall, Zara’s supply chain practices reflect their success as a powerhouse in a highly competitive fashion industry.

How Does Pepsico Manage To Navigate In A Market Characterized By Intense Competition?, Thor K. Søndergǻrd

Journal of Global Awareness

This research article is about PepsiCo's evolution, supply chain, and how they manage in a market characterized by intense competition. PepsiCo has grown into a strong global company with a diverse portfolio. Positioned in competitive beverages and snacks markets, the company faces a lot of competition but manages to maintain its market position and continues to generate market share. The "PepsiCo Way" initiative focuses on optimizing the supply chain for effectiveness, strength, and sustainability. While navigating challenges, including the trend toward healthier options, PepsiCo continues to adapt and innovate for future success.

Smart Meetings, Morgan Forster, Arthur Durity, Cathy Cole

Operations Transformation

A one year look at how the CHA executive team focused on opportunities to have fewer yet more productive meetings! In this presentation we will discuss the details that help shape improvement around the challenge of too many meetings and share the results from lessons learned at PBMC and Waldo.

Thinking About Cement, Luke Weinbaum

Sustainable Supply Chain Management

A discussion and analysis of contemporary cement production, environmental impact and industry innovations.

Reducing Carbon Emissions In Supply Chain Transportation, Khalid Bin. Essa

Sustainable Supply Chain Management

This chapter explores strategies to reduce carbon emissions in supply chain transportation, a sector responsible for nearly one-quarter of global energy-related CO₂ emissions. It begins by analyzing the environmental impact of major transport modes trucks, planes, and ships and identifies operational challenges like inefficient fleets, outdated infrastructure, and time-sensitive delivery pressures.

The chapter presents practical solutions including the adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles, use of route optimization software, intermodal transport methods, and energy-efficient warehouse operations. Each approach is supported by real-world case studies from Maersk, UPS, and Walmart, illustrating how industry leaders are improving both sustainability and logistics performance. …

Sentinel Surveillance Of Sars-Cov-2 Rates And Equity Impacts Using Labor And Delivery Patients In Phoenix, Arizona, Caitlyn J. Linehan, Trisalyn Nelson, Celeste V. Bailey, Esma Gel, Dean V. Coonrod, Cheryl K. Roth

Department of Supply Chain Management and Analytics: Faculty Publications

Proactive management of SARS-CoV-2 requires timely and complete population data to track the evolution of the virus and identify at risk populations. However, many cases are asymptomatic and are not easily discovered through traditional testing efforts. Sentinel surveillance can be used to estimate the prevalence of infections for geographical areas but requires identification of sentinels who are representative of the larger population. Our goal is to evaluate applicability of a population of labor and delivery patients for sentinel surveillance system for monitoring the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. We tested 5307 labor and delivery patients from two hospitals in Phoenix, Arizona, …

Bursting At The Seams: An Examination Of The Enrollment Changes At The University Of Mississippi, Carrol Trent Imbler

Honors Theses

Enrollment at the University of Mississippi is at an all-time high. As one of the smallest public universities within the Southeastern Conference (SEC), Ole Miss has faced many changes within the past few years because of its growing population. This research answers the question: “How are offices and departments on campus managing their efforts to accommodate an increased number of students?” Through interviews with faculty, staff, and students on campus, I identified multiple departments who had to adjust their usual practices. These include housing, parking and transportation, advising offices within each school, admissions, and other student services. All these factors …

Preferences, Risk Neutrality And Risk-Sensitive Mdps, James Alexander, Matthew J. Sobel

Faculty Scholarship

A binary preference relation on a real vector space satisfying four (natural) axioms is shown to induce a utility function composed of a linear function to the reals and a weakly monotonic function. The key axiom is decomposition, and the utility function can be taken to be linear if and only if this axiom’s converse is also satisfied. Important consequences follow for risk-sensitive discounted Markov decision processes, decision trees, and the discounted utility model in economics. Since the four axioms imply that preferences correspond to discounting, the four axioms without the converse imply that preferences are consistent with discounting without …

Navigating Towards Sustainability: Tackling Eu Transportation Carbon Emissions, Michael Andre Barajas

Sustainable Supply Chain Management

Mobility plays an essential role in our daily lives, yet the consequences of transportation are often overlooked or misunderstood. Most people take transportation for granted, not considering the opportunity cost of our easy accessibility, namely carbon emissions. These emissions cause significant environmental damage, threatening the ability of future generations to enjoy what we have now unless we reduce and stop them.

The European Union has been a leader in sustainability over the past decade, expressing concerns about carbon emissions and exploring various ways to address the issue. To understand the EU's future plans, it is crucial to grasp the scale …

Cloud Server's Impact: The Environment And Supply Chain, Jeremy Silvis

Sustainable Supply Chain Management

In our data-driven society, the exponential growth of data generation presents both opportunities and challenges. Each day, 328.77 million terabytes of data are produced, necessitating vast storage solutions. Traditional data storage methods, such as HDDs and SSDs, have given way to the revolutionary Cloud, which offers scalable and accessible storage options. However, the environmental impact of Cloud servers, characterized by significant energy and water consumption, raises concerns. This chapter examines the evolution of data storage, the environmental ramifications of Cloud servers, and the sustainability efforts of Cloud companies. The chapter also explores the transformative effects of the Cloud on global …

Identifying High-Value Tactical Livestock Decisions On A Mixed Enterprise Farm In A Variable Environment, Michael Young, John Young, Ross S. Kingwell, Philip E. Vercoe

Animal production and livestock research articles

Context

Australia is renowned for its climate variation, featuring years with drought and years with floods, which result in significant production and profit variability. Accordingly, to maximise profitability, dryland farming systems need to be dynamically managed in response to unfolding weather conditions.

Aims

The aim of this study is to identify and quantify optimal tactical livestock management for different weather-years.

Methods

This study employed a whole-farm optimisation model to analyse a representative mixed enterprise farm located in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. Using this model, we investigated the economic significance of five key livestock management tactics. These included …

Effects Of Climate Change On The Agricultural Supply Chain In The American Northeast, Brian Villanueva

Honors Projects in Global Supply Chain Management

The purpose of this project is to investigate the effects that climate change will have on the agricultural supply chain in the Northeast United States. The goal is to provide risk mitigation methods to farmers and supply chain professionals for how to combat the rapidly changing environmental status quo. This was investigated by surveying 21 farmers about their opinions about the current state of farming and their optimism or pessimism on the future of farming. The findings reflected a great concern for the future of farming despite many alarming signals about the increasing intensity of storms. The conclusion was that …

Supply Chain Management Internship – J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc., Garrett Locknar

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

The transportation industry touches every facet of business: research and development, final mile services, raw material procurement, even technology innovation and application design. Without transportation of goods, people, and services, each business as we know would fall apart. The greater supply chain itself relies heavily on the presence and precision of transportation to create value for each specific company’s operations. Beginning in the summer of 2022, I have had the privilege of interning at J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc., one of the world’s largest logistics and transportation companies, which has opened my eyes to the sheer impact of transportation on each …

Supply Chain Management Internship Thesis – The Mercery, Katherine Chamberlin

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

The main purpose of this thesis is to evaluate my internship with The Mercery, enabled by the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation’s VIP Internship program. This provides background information on both the company and the program, along with the different projects and skills I worked on throughout this semester-long internship. This is accompanied by a self-assessment and learning objectives, implications for the company, and the main project results. Finally, this concludes with the summation of all my learnings and growth, and an assessment of the experience.

Supply Chain Management Internship – Tyson Foods Inc., Burke Hoover

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

In my thesis I reflect upon my internship at Tyson Foods Inc., where I served as a Transportation Strategy Intern in the Supply Chain department. My role centered on logistics strategy, transportation management, and third-party logistics provider relationships. Through projects like the Request for Proposal (RFP) implementation and the development of carrier and lane scorecards, I learned about the complexities of supply chain management. This experience also highlighted the critical role of communication, soft skills, and technical competence in the industry. This internship provided me with hands-on experience, allowed me to apply academic knowledge, and helped me realize my strengths …

Spatiotemporal Negative Inventory Outlier Decomposition For Supply Chain Applications In Consumer-Packaged Goods (Cpg), Hayden Mcdonald

Data Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Coca-Cola is a popular soft drink brand with sales occurring in every Walmart store across the world, which generates large quantities of data and requires a robust supply chain system. However, the company does not currently have a sophisticated, automated, and/or prescriptive system for detecting where, when, and why inventory outages occur and applying preventative measures to avoid loss of revenue from the absence of inventory on store shelves. This thesis proposes and applies a novel, prescriptive system for this purpose. An inventory outage can be seen as a ‘negative’ statistical outlier in a time series of inventory for an …

The Importance Of Data Preparation In A Data Science Problem, Sophia Beard

Data Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study is going to be based on an inventory outlier automation data science problem that is being solved to identify and prescribe inventory level outliers to help keep shelves stocked in terms of beverages. The objective of this paper will address why it is so important to understand the data that is involved in a particular data science problem and how planning ahead ensures a successful outcome in the data science world. In this data science project, Spatiotemporal Outlier Analysis for Inventory Intervention Automation, it was crucial for the team to understand, research, and visualize the data we were …