Operations and Supply Chain Management Commons^™

Lockheed Martin Strategic Audit, Trevor Deboer, Gunnar Lombard, Sam Nelson, Tj Taylor, Paul Wynegar

Honors Theses

Abstract

This case study explores Lockheed Martin, a global leader in defense contracting. Our team performed a strategic audit using the theories of strategic management. Our research was pulled from various sources, including Lockheed Martin’s website, SEC filings, related news articles, and relevant industry analysis. The goals of this case study revolved around collecting data and performing analysis to evaluate Lockheed Martin’s potential for competitive advantage in the airplane and parts manufacturing industry.

Some of the various analyses performed on Lockheed Martin include firm analysis, industry analysis, internal analysis, external analysis, competitive dynamics, business-level strategy, corporate-level strategy, and exploring their …

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Maximizing The Benefits Of An On-Demand Workforce: Fill Rate-Based Allocation And Coordination Mechanisms, Tao Lu, Zhichao Zheng, Yuanguang Zhong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Problem definition: With the rapid growth of the gig economy, on-demand staffing platforms have emerged to help companies manage their temporary workforce. This emerging business-to-business context motivates us to study a new form of supply chain coordination problem. We consider a staffing platform managing an on-demand workforce to serve multiple firms facing stochastic labor demand. Before demand realization, each individual firm can hire permanent employees, whereas the platform determines a compensation rate for potential on-demand workers. After knowing the realized demand, firms in need can request on-demand workers from the platform, and then, the platform operator allocates the available on-demand …

Deploying Business Ecosystems To Cope With Ecological Transformation, Arnoud Cyriel Leo De Meyer

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

At a time when businesses must innovate quickly and in support of sustainability, "going it alone" is no longer the most effective or efficient model. Business ecosystems – networks of companies, researchers and other stakeholders each involved in a given value chain – offer an effective route to companies seeking not only to find new advantages, but to drive wider systemic change. When innovation takes place through ecosystems, often, the results are faster to diffuse through an industry or value chain. To address needs of the ecological transformation like the transition to clean fuels, this is exactly what is needed; …

Building Strength Through Collaboration: What Faith Community Nurses Need To Know, Marcia A. Potter

International Journal of Faith Community Nursing

This article is a practical guide and viewpoint narrative that offers definitions, justifications for, process steps, and a how-to checklist for Faith Community Nurses considering collaboration between multiple agencies outside of their own. The author offers simple guidelines and how-to advice on securing success, avoiding risks, and preventing costly misunderstandings between cooperating agencies when combining resources.

Making Manufacturing Strategic For The 21st Century, Arnoud De Meyer, Kasra Ferdows, Ann Vereecke

Asian Management Insights

The role of the manufacturing executive must be upgraded too.

A Strategic Audit Of Tesla Inc., Jayden Boesch

Honors Theses

This research paper examines Tesla's competitive advantages and challenges, as well as its strategy and objectives in the electric vehicle industry. The paper begins by providing an overview of the electric vehicle market and Tesla's position within it. It then discusses Tesla's business model, strategy, and objectives, as well as its competitive advantages over other firms in the industry. The paper also highlights key resources that Tesla needs to maintain its sustainable competitive advantage in the future, such as research and development, charging infrastructure, and top engineering talent. Finally, the paper identifies challenges that Tesla may face in the future, …

Union Pacific Strategic Audit, Maureen O'Hara

Honors Theses

Union Pacific is the largest domestic railroad in the United States, responsible for nearly all of the rail-based shipping in the 23 states making up the Western two-thirds of the country. The company provides a crucial link in the global supply chain. By utilizing internal and external analysis tools, this report seeks to understand how Union Pacific’s business model and strategies have led them to create and sustain competitive advantages against other big competitors in the transportation industry. The analysis utilizes tools such as PESTLE, Porter’s Five Forces, and SWOT analyses. Following the application of the analysis, strategic recommendations are …

Tracking The Donor Dollar: A Critical Examination Of Ngo Impact, Joshua Werth

Senior Honors Theses

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) comprise the backbone of civilization. Whether intended or not, governments fail to improve social situations, financial standings, and spirituality comprehensively. NGOs attempt to cover these areas. From Angola to Zambia, countless NGOs exist around the world; however, many fail due to a misplaced focus internally on the annual donations received rather than externally on the disenfranchised. Additionally, even if NGOs manage to stay afloat, they will need help procuring funds and then distributing those resources with the most effective impact for the impoverished. The honors thesis proposed will attempt to determine more effective impact measurements for NGOs, …

Putting Manufacturing On The Offensive, Arnoud De Meyer, Kasra Ferdows, Ann Vereecke

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The path for elevating the role of manufacturing in the company strategy in the last few decades has been rather clear: Improve the basic production capabilities-typically quality, reliability, lead times, and cost efficiency of production processes. Leading Japanese companies, like Toyota, showed the way. But as many have heeded the advice and followed suit, this approach has become essentially a defensive strategy; you must do it not to fall behind. Has manufacturing lost its potential to create capabilities on which a company's strategy can rest? Our answer is absolutely not. In fact, unlike before, manufacturing has multiple paths for creating …

An Overview Of Risk Management Practices In Hospitality Organizations In Germany, Farzaneh Soleimani Zoghi, Hannes Antonschmidt

Journal of Hospitality Financial Management

This paper aims to identify the key risks which are considered necessary by hospitality organizations in Germany. It also seeks to evaluate the actual process of risk management practiced by hoteliers and to assess managers’ opinions on the importance of a risk management approach in hospitality organizations. Primary data has been collected by semi-structured qualitative interviews with top managers and professionals in hospitality organizations in Germany. The findings show that the implementation of risk management practices in hospitality organizations in Germany is low and that significant differences exist between the theoretical risk management models and their practical execution in hotel …

University/Industry Collaboration: Using A Classroom Business Case To Enhance Student Problem-Solving/Learning Experience, Gregory Benson, Ngan N. Chau

Mountain Plains Business Conference

This study illustrates how an academic program utilizes industry partnerships as a resource to maintain the relevancy of its curriculum. In particular, a university/industry collaboration experience is examined to showcase how a real business problem at an industry partner has resulted in a business case used in the classroom to enhance students’ problem solving.

Key Words: Supply Chain Management (SCM), University/Industry Collaboration (UIC), Business Case Study

Study Of Stochastic Market Clearing Problems In Power Systems With High Renewable Integration, Saumya Sakitha Sashrika Ariyarathne

Operations Research and Engineering Management Theses and Dissertations

Integrating large-scale renewable energy resources into the power grid poses several operational and economic problems due to their inherently stochastic nature. The lack of predictability of renewable outputs deteriorates the power grid’s reliability. The power system operators have recognized this need to account for uncertainty in making operational decisions and forming electricity pricing. In this regard, this dissertation studies three aspects that aid large-scale renewable integration into power systems. 1. We develop a nonparametric change point-based statistical model to generate scenarios that accurately capture the renewable generation stochastic processes; 2. We design new pricing mechanisms derived from alternative stochastic programming …

Support New Business To Solve Old Problems With Kentucky’S Keystone Waste From Bourbon & Brewing, Samuel C. Kessler

Commonwealth Policy Papers

Provided here is a policy solution from the backside of Kentucky bourbon and brewing to upcycle Kentucky’s “keystone” wastes and grow businesses in the process. Potential effects range from removing the bottleneck on bourbon production and producing GHG-friendly biogas to lowering the price of milk.This full whitepaper brief provides an incentive model for keystone wastes which have a provider and a use. It is equally applicable for policymakers or advocates wishing to place a policy incentive behind waste-to-product upcycling, businesses involved with methane sequestration & renewable biogas energy, and shifting regulatory and penalizing models of pollution into incentive model for …

Recipe For Good: Analyzing The Authenticity Of Csr Commitments Among The Leadership Of A Parent Company To Global Restaurant Brands., Lauren E. Reuss

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a form of private self-regulation conducted by businesses; CSR aims to contribute to societal goals of philanthropy, activism, and ethics by improving society, policy, and or the environment. Corporate social responsibility is becoming a greater aspect of modern business, but as it becomes part of the modern discourse, it is right to question whether its efforts are authentic to those driving these initiatives? This case study seeks to understand how the leadership within the parent company of a global foods brand depicts authenticity and communicates its social and environmental efforts to stakeholders. Building on existing …

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 …

Perceptions Of Employability Skills Of Undergraduate Business Students In A Developing Country: An Exploratory Study, Wise Mainga, Reuben M. Daniel, Luis Alamil

Higher Learning Research Communications

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the relative importance of different employability skills for business graduates seeking initial employment.

Method: Semi-structured survey questionnaires were administered to human resources representatives from industry, business lecturers, and graduating business students to determine gaps in perceptions between the three stakeholder groups.

Results: There was some alignment and moderate discrepancies in perceptions of the relative importance of different employability skills between the three stakeholder groups. There were statistically significant differences in perceived importance of communication, teamwork, and interpersonal skills between graduating students and employers. There is evidence that employers were satisfied with …

Qualitative Findings From The Practice Of Outsourcing By The Aviation Technical Services Industry In Northern Europe: Comparison With Literature, Jukka Holkeri

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

The outsourcing of maintenance and other technical services is a trend in both military and civil aviation. This article uses input from real outsourcing cases in Northern Europe to verify previous literature findings and to introduce new viewpoints to fill an identified research gap.

Interviews of deeply involved individuals from six cases were selected and analyzed using the Delphi method. The findings were synthesized using a framework that articulates contexts, observed outcomes, and generative mechanisms.

Many of the key literature findings were verified by this case analysis, but there were also some contradictions and new observations that had not been …

How A Supply Chain Stumble Changes A Company’S Policies And Progress 20 Years Later: A Case Study Of Gap Inc., Alexandra Futterman

CMC Senior Theses

Gap Inc. is the third-largest American retailer. Founded in 1969, Gap Inc. holds four brands, Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Athleta. In the late 1990s and early 2000s Gap Inc. made headlines for child labor abuses along with many other large brands. After this negative attention, Gap Inc. began developing policies and practices to combat ethical supply chain issues. These policies included a Human Rights Policy, a Code of Vendor Conduct, working conditions standards, and even capacity building programs that boarded company reaches into communities they touch. In conjunction with the policies Gap Inc. has published several social responsibility …

Achieving Excellence For California’S Freight System: Developing Competitiveness And Performance Metrics; Incorporating Sustainability, Resilience, And Workforce Development, Jian-Yu Ke, Fynnwin Prager, Jose Martinez, Chris Cagle

Mineta Transportation Institute Publications

This study explores the question of whether California's freight system is staying competitive with other US regions. A novel analytical framework compares supply chain performance metrics across multiple US states and regions for seaports, airports, highways, freight rail service, and distribution centers by combining the Performance Evaluation Matrix (PEM), Competitive Position Matrix (CPM), and Business Process Management (BPM) approaches. Analysis of industry data and responses from structured interviews with 30 freight industry experts across 5 transportation sectors suggests that California's freight system is competitive for seaports, airports, and freight rail; however, highways and distribution centers have room for improvement with …

Humanitarian Supply Chain & Logistics Aid Management At Global Relief Services, Christine Schrage, Daniel Bumblauskas, Bennett Becicka

Journal of Business & Entrepreneurship

Global Relief Services is working with a world-renowned international consulting firm on a site location strategy. The consulting firm, ABC Inc., had previously supported the United Nations (UN) on multiple crisis situations over the past ten years and has experience assisting with site location decisions in the past. The GRS team, assisted by the logistics team of ABC Inc., will determine an optimal site(s) for warehousing supplies in areas distant from vendor donors. Students’ recommendations should include the optimal site location and resource allocation strategy and planning.

B Corps’ Social Media Communications During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Through The Lens Of The Triple Bottom Line, Manveer Mann, Sang-Eun Byun, Whitney Ginder

Department of Marketing Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The COVID-19 pandemic and rising demand for transparency has heightened the importance of sustainability communications on social media to generate deeper stakeholder engagement. Although B Corporations (B Corps), businesses committed to the triple bottom line (TBL), could serve as a catalyst for sustainable development, little is known about how they communicate on social media during a crisis. Therefore, we examined social media communications of B Corps to (1) identify salient topics and themes, (2) analyze how these themes align with the TBL, and (3) evaluate social media performance against industry benchmarks. We focused on the apparel, footwear, and accessories (AFA) …

The Revenue Operations (Revops) Framework: A Qualitative Study Of Industry Practitioners., Oliviero Mottola

Dissertations and Theses

In recent years Revenue Operations or RevOps has emerged in professional circles as a new approach to manage Sales, Marketing and Customer Success teams in the context of b2b sales. In practitioner circles, RevOps definitions range from the increased collaboration of the three job functions to an all-out creation of job function within organizations. While the subject of interdepartmental alignment has been covered extensively in academia (albeit not exhaustively), RevOps as a term and set of practices has received no attention and industry practitioners struggle to find a unified set of best practices that isn’t coming from organizations trying to …

Tree-Based Algorithm For Stable And Efficient Data Clustering, Hasan Aljabbouli, Abdullah Albizri, Antoine Harfouche

Department of Information Management and Business Analytics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The K-means algorithm is a well-known and widely used clustering algorithm due to its simplicity and convergence properties. However, one of the drawbacks of the algorithm is its instability. This paper presents improvements to the K-means algorithm using a K-dimensional tree (Kd-tree) data structure. The proposed Kd-tree is utilized as a data structure to enhance the choice of initial centers of the clusters and to reduce the number of the nearest neighbor searches required by the algorithm. The developed framework also includes an efficient center insertion technique leading to an incremental operation that overcomes the instability problem of the K-means …

It Won’T Be Business As Usual After Covid-19, Arnoud De Meyer

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

As customer behaviours change, they will reshape business models in the post-coronavirus world.

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 …

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 …

Strategic Plan: Amazon, Olivia J. Flamand, Aaron Wisher, Shannon Riley

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

No abstract provided.

Failed Policy As Seen In The Solar Trade War, Emma Weirich

Economics Theses

Increasing protectionist policies in the United States have attempted to protect solar manufacturing jobs; however, they have created negative repercussions for the majority of the industry. This paper aims to analyze the 2018 30% US tariff on all imported photovoltaic cells and modules and whether or not it has been an effective policy to protect and encourage the solar industry. To do so, the paper will analyze similar tariffs enacted in 2012 and 2014 by the United States to understand how the tariffs have been impacting the solar energy’s labor market and photovoltaic module and cell price fluctuations. By researching …

Developing A Shipping Registration Strategy For The Philippines: A Business And Policy Framework, Althea Marie E. Calag, Carlo B. Cruz

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.