Business Commons^™

Understanding Transparency In Supply Chains, Lucy N. Buck

Haslam Scholars Projects

The purpose of this thesis paper is to examine what standards should be used for supply chain product transparency across industries to satisfy the needs of external stakeholders, specifically Gen Z consumers. Sustainability is becoming increasingly important in supply chain management with growing stakeholder pressure, strict government regulations, and scarcity of resources. A scenario-based role-playing experiment is conducted using descriptive vignettes to measure Gen Z consumer reactions to the following factors: timing of transparency, type of product, and type of sustainability.

Online survey methods are used involving 33 students in one of the Honors and Scholars Programs at the University …

Seachi 2022 Symposium: Bringing Equality, Justice, And Access To Hci And Ux Agenda In Southeast Asia Region, Eunice Sari, Masitah Ghazali, Adi B. Tedjasaputra, Yohannes Kurniawan, Thippaya Chintakovid, Siranee Nuchitprasitchai, Ellya Zulaikha, Noris Binti Mohd Norowi, Tamas Makany

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Southeast Asia that consists of eleven countries, has been proud of its way of life and rich culture and is generally happy to maintain its long comforting tradition. However, the region cannot deny that its diverse population and strategic location have become a center of attention for global players to invest in the region. With the emergence of Industry 4.0, digital transformation has become mandatory for any organizations or nations in Southeast Asia to consider. Through SEACHI (Southeast Asian CHI) Symposium, we aim to grow awareness in HCI and UX to improve the design and development of technology for a …

Covid‑19 Vaccine Distribution: Exploring Strategic Alternatives For The Greater Good, Arben Asllani, Silvana Trimi

Department of Supply Chain Management and Analytics: Faculty and Staff Publications

The dire state of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis symbolized the urgency for efficient distribution and administration of vaccines to combat the virus as the most urgent public health service. This paper presents a prototype multi-criteria decision support model based on goal programming that can effectively support vaccination plans for the greater good of society. The optimization goals of the model include minimizing the number of fatalities and risk of spreading the disease, while complying with government health agency’s priority guidelines for vaccination. This study applied the model to a real-world dataset to demonstrate how it can be effectively applied as …

Feeding Sustainability: The Environmental And Social Effectiveness Of Food Bank Supply Chains, Nicole Craig

Honors Projects in Global Supply Chain Management

ood waste continues to develop as a global issue, especially within the United States. According to 2020 data collected from the Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, 10.5% of all households in the U.S. face food insecurity. Using grocery supply chains as a context, this study examines how food banks serve as sustainable resources for the distribution of recovered food to feed food insecure communities. Grocery stores, retailers, and other organizations acknowledge waste through the implementation of sustainable initiatives. Food banks and partnering agencies serve as an integral component of waste reduction. The primary data collection …

Supply Chain Sustainability In The Fashion Industry, Quinn Hanley

Honors Projects

Sustainability in the fashion industry has become an important topic recently for both retailers and consumers. Through my research I will be laying out what supply chain sustainability is, how it relates to the fashion industry, as well as how companies are doing it well or poorly. I will be using both scholarly pieces and other articles online to perform my research on the topic, to find a more in-depth understanding of how companies are affecting the world around us as well as the people around us. My goal with this research is to educate consumers about how supply chain …

Food Supply Impacts And Solutions Associated With The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Regional Australian Case Study, Stephanie Louise Godrich, Flavio Macau, Katherine Kent, Johnny Lo, Amanda Devine

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This study aimed to explore how food supply chains were impacted by COVID-19 and identify how the region could be better prepared for future crises. An online survey was completed by 107 consumers. In-depth interviews were conducted with 27 food supply stakeholders working in food production, distribution, retail, hospitality, institutions (i.e., childcare), logistics/freight and local government. Pre-COVID-19, farmer-direct distribution options and hospitality businesses comprised a substantial proportion of local food producer businesses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers favoured local food supply options, farmers collaborated, and produce usually destined for export was redirected into local markets. Critical food supply actions included …

Joint Capacity Allocation And Job Assignment Under Uncertainty, Peng Wang, Yun Fong Lim, Gar Goei Loke

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In this paper, we consider the multi-period joint capacity allocation and job assignment problem. The goal of the planner is to simultaneously decide on allocating resources across the J different supply nodes, and assigning of jobs of I different demand origins to these J nodes, so as to maximize the reward for matching or minimize the cost of failure to match. We furthermore consider three features: (i) supply is replenishable after random time, (ii) demand is random; and (iii) demand can wait and need not be fully fulfilled immediately. Such problems emerge in many service management settings such as ride-sharing …

An Empirical Study To Understand The Effectiveness And Scope Of Blockchain Technology In Indian Public Sector, Radhakrishnan Airy, Hritika Gajarlawar, Nilay Bajaria, Ganesh Joshi

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

The Blockchain is a distributed database that is maintained as Blocks and contains all transactions or digital occurrences. These are the records of transactions that take place between parties.Blockchain blocks are kept as blocks and shared among participants. Each Block is examined, validated, and saved by the parties who are a part of the system/network, each brick is unique and contains the details of a single transaction as well as the transaction's hash key. The study offers insights to researchers about the opportunity threat and future use of blockchain in the public sector.

A Mixed-Methods Study To Determine The Impact Of Covid-19 On Food Security, Food Access And Supply In Regional Australia For Consumers And Food Supply Stakeholders, Stephanie Louise Godrich, Johnny Lo, Katherine Kent, Flavio Macau, Amanda Devine

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the Australian food supply through changed consumer purchasing patterns, and potentially, household food security. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of COVID-19 on the prevalence of food insecurity and food supply issues, and perspectives of food supply stakeholders in regional Australia. Methods: A mixed-methods consumer survey and in-depth interviews with food supply stakeholders were conducted in regional Australia, more specifically South West Western Australia between May and July 2020, immediately after the 1st wave of the pandemic. Results: The prevalence of food insecurity was 21% among consumers, and significantly more …

On The Test Accuracy And Effective Control Of The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case Study In Singapore, Guang Cheng, Sarah Yini Gao, Yancheng Yuan, Chenxiao Zhang, Zhichao Zheng

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examines the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) test accuracy (i.e., sensitivity and specificity) on the progression of the pandemic under two scenarios of limited and unlimited test capacity. We extend the classic susceptible–exposed–infectious–recovered model to incorporate test accuracy and compare the progression of the pandemic under various sensitivities and specificities. We find that high-sensitivity tests effectively reduce the total number of infections only with sufficient testing capacity. Nevertheless, with limited test capacity and a relatively high cross-infection rate, the total number of infected cases may increase when sensitivity is above a certain threshold. Despite the potential for …

Pricing Under Uncertainty: Forward And Option Pricing In Sports Markets, Preethika Sainam, Sridhar Balasubramanian, Shantanu Bhattacharya, Lin L. Ong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Tickets to popular elimination style tournaments (e.g., NFL Super Bowl) are expensive and scarce. Sports organizations sell these tickets well in advance of the final game. Fans hesitate to buy them because they are unsure about whether their favorite team will play in it. We present two alternatives to the current practice: consumer forwards and options. A fan pays a reserve price to secure her team-specific forward ticket. If that team makes it to the final game, the fan must (in the option case, has the choice to) pay an exercise price to purchase the ticket. If the team does …

Impact Of Restrictive Red Blood Cell Transfusion Strategy On Thrombosis-Related Events: A Meta-Analysis And Systematic Review, Mairehaba Maimaitiming, Chenxiao Zhang, Jingui Xie, Zhichao Zheng, Haidong Luo, Oon Cheong Ooi

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Background and Objectives There is an ongoing controversy regarding the risks of restrictive and liberal red blood cell (RBC) transfusion strategies. This meta-analysis assessed whether transfusion at a lower threshold was superior to transfusion at a higher threshold, with regard to thrombosis-related events, that is, whether these outcomes can benefit from a restrictive transfusion strategy is debated. Materials and Methods We searched PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and Scopus from inception up to 31 July 2021. We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in any clinical setting that evaluated the effects of restrictive versus liberal RBC transfusion in adults. …

Developing A Food And Beverage Corporate Sustainability Performance Structure In Indonesia: Enhancing The Leadership Role And Tenet Value From An Ethical Perspective, Tat Dat Bui, Hania Aminah, Ching Hsin Wang, Ming Lang Tseng, Mohammad Iranmanesh, Ming K. Lim

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The food and beverage industry is the second largest contributor to Indonesia’s economy; however, most industry firms significantly, and negatively, impact ecological and economic performance, and corporate sustainability performance is considered an area that can be significantly improved. This study aims to measure the causal interrelationships among the hierarchical attributes, as well as the decisive attributes that force successful corporate sustainability. Further, there are also other factors that have a negative impact, such as poor social justice and firms’ responsibilities and identities. Hence, emphasizing the ethics role to ensure a better sustainable performance in addition to focusing on the traditional …

R&D Consortia In Competitive Supply Chains, Pascale Crama, Gaoyan Lu, Yi Xu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

R&D consortia, which coordinate R&D activities of their member firms, have been successful in many industries. We study a model with two competing supply chains each consisting of a manufacturer and a supplier. The manufacturers compete in the final product market, and can conduct R&D to reduce unit product costs of their final products. The R&D can be done in three different ways: by the two manufacturers independently, by them jointly in a horizontal R&D consortium, or by the supplier and the manufacturer jointly in each supply chain in two vertical R&D consortia. We find that as compared to independent …

Stochastic Knapsack Revisited: The Service Level Perspective, Guodong Lyu, Mabel C. Chou, Chung-Piaw Teo, Zhichao Zheng, Yuanguang Zhong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

A key challenge in the resource allocation problem is to find near-optimal policies to serve different customers with random demands/revenues, using a fixed pool of capacity (properly configured). In this paper, we study the properties of three classes of allocation policies-responsive (with perfect hindsight), adaptive (with information updates), and anticipative (with forecast information) policies. These policies differ in how the information on actual demand and revenue of each customer is being revealed and integrated into the allocation decisions. We show that the analysis of these policies can be unified through the notion of "persistency" (or service level) values-the probability that …

Coordinated Delivery To Shopping Malls With Limited Docking Capacity, Ruidian Song, Hoong Chuin Lau, Xue Luo, Lei Zhao

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Shopping malls are densely located in major cities such as Singapore and Hong Kong. Tenants in these shopping malls generate a large number of freight orders to their contracted logistics service providers, who independently plan their own delivery schedules. These uncoordinated deliveries and limited docking capacity jointly cause congestion at the shopping malls. A delivery coordination platform centrally plans the vehicle routes for the logistics service providers and simultaneously schedules the dock time slots at the shopping malls for the delivery orders. Vehicle routing and dock scheduling decisions need to be made jointly against the backdrop of travel time and …

Apple And Foxconn: Addressing Power Imbalances In Global Supply Chains, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Global suppliers such as Foxconn can form strong business networks to put pressure on dominant clients such as Apple to address power imbalances in global supply chains

A Constraint Programming Approach To Load Capacity Planning In Container Vessels, Byung Kwon Lee, Joyce M. W. Low

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

A container vessel carries containers of various characteristics, in terms of size, weight, and contents. The cargo load of a container vessel, being subjected to a set of operational conditions and restrictions regarding ship stability and safety, is a fundamental element in decision-making when a shipping line provides logistics services to clients. This study presents a constraint programming-based model for the capacity planning of a container vessel under various operational conditions. The proposed model generates base solutions and is complemented with a rich scenario-based analysis that utilizes real-life ship data of a container vessel operated by a liner shipping company …

Effect Of Covid 19 Pandemic On Pharmaceutical Industry In Terms Of Inventory And Logistics Management, Shubhabrata Basu, Rimu Chaudhuri

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11^th March 2020, after the outbreak that was first reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic affected world economy including the pharmaceutical sector. The health crisis unleashed in the world because of this pandemic and the attempts of various countries and organizations in the world to contain it have also fuelled the greatest economic crisis in modern history. This significant fall in world trade in goods and services have been triggered by the interruption and break down of local and global supply chains, generating high levels …

How Incidents Impact Congestion On Roadways: A Queuing Network Approach, Pedro Cesar Lopes Gerum, Melike Baykal-Gursoy

Supply Chain Management

Motivated by the need for transportation infrastructure and incident management planning, we study traffic density under non-recurrent congestion. This paper provides an analytical solution approximating the stationary distribution of traffic density in roadways where deterioration of service occurs unpredictably. The proposed solution generalizes a queuing model discussed in the literature to long segments that are not space-homogeneous. We compare single and tandem queuing approaches to segments of different lengths and verify whether each model is appropriate. A single-queue approach works sufficiently well in segments with similar traffic behavior across space. In contrast, a tandem-queue approach more appropriately describes the density …

Digitalization In Food Supply Chains: A Bibliometric Review And Key-Route Main Path Analysis, Abderahman Rejeb, Karim Rejeb, Alireza Abdollahi, Suhaiza Zailani, Mohammad Iranmanesh, Morteza Ghobakhloo

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Technological advances such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, big data, social media, and geographic information systems represent a building block of the digital transformation that supports the resilience of the food supply chain (FSC) and increases its efficiency. This paper reviews the literature surrounding digitalization in FSCs. A bibliometric and key-route main path analysis was carried out to objectively and analytically uncover the knowledge development in digitalization within the context of sustainable FSCs. The research began with the selection of 2140 articles published over nearly five decades. Then, the articles were examined according to several bibliometric metrics such as year of …

Impact Of Supply Chain Integration On Halal Food Supply Chain Integrity And Food Quality Performance, Mohd Helmi Ali, Mohammad Iranmanesh, Kim Hua Tan, Suhaiza Zailani, Nor Asiah Omar

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Purpose: The current complex halal food supply chain (SC) has caused food scandals, which have illustrated the weakness of multiple food quality standards and certification and audits in ensuring food safety. Drawn on the resource-based view (RBV) theory, the purpose of this study is to explore the impacts of SC integration (SCI) on halal food SC integrity and, consequently, food quality. Design/methodology/approach: Empirical data were collected from 275 halal-certified food companies in Malaysia and analysed using structural equation modelling – SmartPLS3.0. Findings: The results confirmed that SCI, including internal, supplier and customer integrations, has significant effects on the dimensions of …

Development Of A Framework To Support Informed Shipbuilding Based On Supply Chain Disruptions, Katherine Smith, Rafael Diaz, Yuzhong Shen

VMASC Publications

In addition to stresses induced by the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chains worldwide have been growing more complex while facing a continuous onslaught of disruptions. This paper presents an analysis and extension of a graph based model for modeling and simulating the effects of such disruptions. The graph based model combines a Bayesian network approach for simulating risks with a network dependency analysis approach for simulating the propagation of disruptions through the network over time. The initial analysis provides evidence supporting extension to for using a multi-layered approach allowing for the inclusion of cyclic features in supply chain models. Initial results …

Exploring Blockchain Adoption Supply Chains: Opportunities And Challenges, Adrian V. Gheorghe, Omer F. Keskin, Farinaz Sabz Ali Pour

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

In modern supply chains, acquisition often occurs with the involvement of a network of organizations. The resilience, efficiency, and effectiveness of supply networks are crucial for the viability of acquisition. Disruptions in the supply chain require adequate communication infrastructure to ensure resilience. However, supply networks do not have a shared information technology infrastructure that ensures effective communication. Therefore decision-makers seek new methodologies for supply chain management resilience. Blockchain technology offers new decentralization and service delegation methods that can transform supply chains and result in a more flexible, efficient, and effective supply chain. This report presents a framework for the application …

Exact Algorithms For Practical Instances Of The Railcar Loading Problem At Marine Container Terminals, Manwo Ng, Dung-Ying Lin

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

With the growth in global trade and its environmental footprint, sustainable modes of freight movement are increasingly important in today’s globalized world. This study focuses on on-dock rail, where the rail terminal is located within the marine container terminal. On-dock rail has in recent years become an essential mode of transportation to move containers out of congested marine container terminals. This study contributes to the literature by presenting tailored exact solution algorithms for a recently proposed optimization model to optimize the loading of double-stack trains. In particular, a 3-stage solution framework is presented for the case when rail cars have …

Schedule Reliability In Liner Shipping Timetable Design: A Convex Programming Approach, Abraham Zhang, Zhichao Zheng, Chung-Piaw Teo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Container liner shipping is the primary mode of moving manufactured products across continents. Partly due to inherent uncertainties at sea and ports, the liner shipping industry has long had a notorious reputation of schedule delays and unreliable on-time performance. This paper formulates a new approach to incorporate schedule reliability targets in liner shipping timetable design, to balance bunker consumption, time taken for the voyage, and schedule delays. We first model a surrogate problem using a copositive program through a moment decomposition approach and solve it as a convex semidefinite programming relaxation. We next incorporate schedule reliability targets implicitly by exploiting …

Chapter 9: Building An Iron-Clad Supplier Diversity Program, Quinton L. Marks, Abeni El-Amin Ph.D.

Management Faculty Publications

There are critical issues identified with reconciling parity in supplier diversity initiatives. Supplier diversity programs (SDP) are an instrument utilized to facilitate the process. This endeavor analyzes the best techniques to develop diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) strategy to develop manufacturing suppliers. Moreover, quality control frameworks for developing supplier diversity programs in manufacturing necessitates strategic planning, which is necessary to support supplier diversity initiatives. For instance, questions that supplier diversity managers must ask include, Does the company have an existing minority supplier program? If so, what are its pros, cons, and evaluative measures? If not, why hasn’t there been …

On The Feasibility Of Speed Limits In Ocean Container Shipping, Manwo Ng

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

The maritime industry is witnessing an increasingly loud call to contribute to the global trend towards environmental sustainability and decarbonization. One possible policy measure is the use of speed limits to reduce harmful emissions from ocean shipping. While the idea of slowing down ships to obey speed limits might seem intuitive, one key distinguishing characteristic of container shipping is that it is designed to adhere to a fixed, typically weekly, sailing schedule. This paper contributes to the literature investigating the feasibility of speed limits by demonstrating that speed limits are not always feasible in container shipping because of the rigid …

Data Analytics And Decision-Making Systems: Implications Of The Global Outbreaks, Desheng Wu, David L. Olson, James H. Lambert

Department of Supply Chain Management and Analytics: Faculty and Staff Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the goals and functions of technology-based systems around the world [16]. From a health perspective, the World Health Organization has reported that over six million have died of the disease. Government efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 have had drastic impact on global supply chains. The world’s health systems have been heavily taxed. Travel is difficult anywhere, and more difficult internationally. Economies are still in downturns [13], as many workers have been taken out of the economy for indefinite periods of time, and the structure of work has radically changed, with many working remotely …

Exploring Food Supply Chain Trends In The Covid-19 Era: A Bibliometric Review, Abderahman Rejeb, Karim Rejeb, Andrea Appolloni, Mohammad Iranmanesh, Horst Treiblmaier, Sandeep Jagtap

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Recently, the food supply chain (FSC) has been severely disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, putting the vital flow of food products from farmers and producers to the ultimate consumers at risk. Furthermore, due to the pandemic, several food organizations have been prompted to rethink their strategies for the future. Although the literature on FSC research in the COVID-19 era is increasing, no attempt has been made to summarize this stream of research using bibliometric techniques. This paper fills this knowledge gap and looks at the current scholarly discourse around the FSC and COVID-19. Applying bibliometric techniques, 287 journal articles …