Operations and Supply Chain Management Commons^™

Leadership After A Tornado Strike: Supply Chain Management Triage, Gregory Benson, Susan Jensen

Mountain Plains Journal of Business and Technology

An F2 tornado had tracked less than 100 feet from the Caldwin manufacturing plant, the largest producer of an essential engine value train component in the United States. Bob, Materials Manager at the plant and a member of the senior management team, was at home when the evening storm hit. Bob immediately headed to the plant when he received word of the emergency situation. On his way to the factory a rush of questions nearly overwhelmed him. How bad was the situation? How prepared was his team of employees to handle the situation? What should customers and suppliers be told …

Shopping Activity At Warehouse Club Stores And Its Competitive And Network-Density Implications, Stanley Frederick W.T. Lim, Elliot Rabinovich, Sungho Park, Minha Hwang

School of Business: Faculty Scholarship

Warehouse club (WC) retailers have typically expanded to new markets using stand‐alone stores, rather than pursuing dense store networks as other (non‐WC) retailers have in the past. While this strategy generates operating efficiencies, it also imposes high travel costs on households to shop, which calls into question WC stores’ resilience to spatial competition from stores operating other formats. We examine this phenomenon by using data on households’ shopping activity across markets served by Costco Wholesale stores. Specifically, we evaluate these stores’ resilience to spatial competition by estimating the share of households’ expenditures relative to travel costs to shop at the …

A Simple New Scoring System For Predicting The Mortality Of Severe Acute Pancreatitis: A Retrospective Clinical Study, Lei Wang, Yan-Bo Zeng, Jia-Yun Chen, Qian Luo, Rowan Wang, Ruijie Zhang, Zhichao Zheng, Yuan-Hang Dong, Wen-Bin Zou, Xiaoqing Xie, Yi-Qi Du, Zhao-Shen Li

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

It is critical to accurately identify patients with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) in a timely manner. This study aimed to develop a new simplified AP scoring system based on data from Chinese population.We retrospectively analyzed a consecutive series of 585 patients diagnosed with SAP at the Changhai hospital between 2009 and 2017. The new Chinese simple scoring system (CSSS) was derived using logistic regression analysis and was validated in comparison to 4 existing systems using receiver operating characteristic curves.Six variables were selected for incorporation into CSSS, including serum creatinine, blood glucose, lactate dehydrogenase, heart rate, C-reactive protein, and extent of …

Flexibly Serving A Finite Number Of Heterogeneous Jobs In A Tandem System, Yun Fong Lim, Bingnan Lu, Rowan Wang, Wenjia Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Many manufacturing and service systems require a finite number of heterogeneous jobs to be processed by two stations in tandem. Each station serves at most one job at a time and there is a finite buffer between the two stations. We consider two flexible servers that are cross-trained to work at both stations. The duration for a server to finish a job at a station is exponentially distributed with a rate that depends on the server, the station, and the job. Our goal is to identify an efficient policy to dynamically assign the servers to the stations such that the …

Integrating Anticipative Replenishment-Allocation With Reactive Fulfillment For Online Retailing Using Robust Optimization, Yun Fong Lim, Song Jiu, Marcus Ang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Problem definition: In each period of a planning horizon, an online retailer decides on how much to replenish each product and how to allocate its inventory to fulfillment centers (FCs) before demand is known. After the demand in the period is realized, the retailer decides on which FCs to fulfill it. It is crucial to optimize the replenishment, allocation, and fulfillment decisions jointly such that the expected total operating cost is minimized. The problem is challenging because the replenishment-allocation is done in an anticipative manner under a “push” strategy, but the fulfillment is executed in a reactive way under a …

21st Century Supply Chain Innovations In The Fast Food Industry, Saitoti Meekisho

University Honors Theses

In the last 20 years, attending to consumer demand for at-home delivery has been an area of concern for supply chain specialists in the restaurant industry. Applying logistically-sound processes for food delivery to its final destination (Also called last-mile delivery) has become a necessity for restaurants to gain and sustain competitive advantages. This research seeks to catalog the dynamic last-mile delivery innovations by restaurants per consumer demand, assess the competitive sustainability of four current food delivery methods (takeout, restaurant delivery, 3^rd party company delivery, & monthly meal delivery) using the VRIN framework, and suggest collaborative delivery strategies for future …

Homeless Veterans In San Francisco / Housing Our Heroes, Raymond Gray

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

This paper will review the homeless population, including homeless veterans, in San Francisco, ways the city has tried to handle the situations with the homeless and project a path forward with ideas to help end homelessness for good. Before the COVID-19 Pandemic, San Francisco had an increase of homeless veterans of 8%, but the pandemic has caused these numbers to increase.

San Francisco has lined a path forward to house the homeless during these difficult times, by placing them into hotels. Creating an endless game of hiding the homeless will only create other issues; this must end. With partnerships …

Food Insecurity And Socially Responsible For-Profit Entities, Maison Dewalt

Honors Projects

This paper explores the viability of a for-profit entity being dedicated to addressing food insecurity. Through examination of challenges associated with food insecurity, as well as through review of current, effective for-profit food distributors in the U.S. food system, this paper identifies the need for an alternative approach to resolving food insecurity. The paper posits that such an approach may exist through business model integration in establishing a new, socially responsible for-profit entity.

Faculty Focus: Professor Lauded For Humanitarian Supply Chain Research

Business Exchange

Professor of Management Nezih Altay credits an earthquake in his native Turkey as a game-changing event that led him to learn more about the supply chain of disaster management. Today, Altay is lauded for being one of the first U.S. academics to recognize the importance of applying supply chain theory and research to disaster relief. He was named a Fulbright Scholar and researhed the logistics of aid delivery in conflict zones for six months the visiting Fulbright-Hanken Distinguished Chair in Business and Economics at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki, Finland.

Mitigating Global Supply Chain Risk In The Fashion Industry, Danielle Nikosey

Honors Projects in Global Supply Chain Management

Purpose – Many supply chains offshore manufacturing to countries such as China to take advantage of low-cost labor, substantial capacity, and expertise. Such low-cost country strategies create supply chain complexity and therefore increase risk potential. Using the fashion industry as a context, this study examines criteria that the fashion industry considers to mitigate risk when selecting their international suppliers.

Methodology – The primary data collection for this paper consisted of an extensive literature review and in-depth qualitative interviews with supply chain professionals of fashion companies. A variety of different businesses and professionals were studied for this research.

Findings – Examples …

Covid-19 And The Future Of Chinese Manufacturing, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

China is expected to maintain a prominent role in global supply chains despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which has renewed discussions about whether countries around the world have become too reliant on Chinese manufacturing, according to one of The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s (CUHK) leading researchers on global economic networks

Simulation Modeling Of Cross-Dock And Distribution Center Based Supply Chains, Ghewa Al Chall

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Companies are implementing new strategies to meet the customer requirements in terms of quality, timing, and cost. One of these strategies is cross-docking, which can be defined as the process of consolidating the products coming from different suppliers, but having the same destination, with minimal handling and almost no storage between loading and unloading of the goods. The purpose of this research is to investigate the benefits of having a cross-docking facility in a supply chain. In this research, we focus on developing discrete event simulation models using the opensource Java Simulation Library (JSL). Also, we work on augmenting an …

Essays On Agricultural Commodity Processing, Bin Li

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation investigates two important issues in agricultural commodity processing: (i) biomass commercialization; that is, converting organic waste into a saleable product, from economic and environmental perspectives, and (ii) optimal procurement portfolio design using multiple suppliers and spot market, and the impact of by-product introduction on this optimal portfolio.

The first chapter examines the economic implications of biomass commercialization from the perspective of an agri-processor that uses a commodity input to produce both a commodity output and biomass. We characterize the value of biomass commercialization and perform sensitivity analysis to investigate how spot price uncertainty (input and output spot price …

Dealing With Global Supply Chain Breaks, Shantanu Bhattacharya

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Businesses need to adopt appropriate strategies to deal with the unprecedented impact of Covid-19 on global supply chains.

The Dynamics And Effects Of Supply Network Structure, Marat Davletshin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The rising interest in network theory among supply chain scholars reflects an emerging shift in perspective. To deliver global speed, efficiency, and responsiveness, modern firms’ supply chains are becoming increasingly complex. The patterns of interactions and interdependencies among hundreds of firms interconnected by these complex supply chains cannot be adequately explored from the dyadic perspective, which has dominated supply chain research for decades. Many supply chain scholars agree that the language of networks can provide a syntax and structure to describe and explore this complex reality. The actual application of network theory in supply chain research, however, has been limited. …

Firm Characteristics, Capabilities And Productivities: A Study Of Malaysian Food Manufacturing Sector, Tien Hong Lim

Student Works (2020-2029)

This research establishes and examines a set of firm productivity measures for the Malaysian food manufacturing industry. The research further examines the differences in productivity based on the firm’s characteristics and consequently examines the empirical relationship between firm capabilities namely marketing, ICT, R&D and human capital on labour productivity. The research uses cross sectional data comprising 1020 firms. Various methods were used in the research. Non-parametric analysis was undertaken to compare the productivity levels across firm characteristics while in examining the impact of capabilities on labour productivity the research uses quantile regression analysis. The finding shows that productivity differs based …

Markets And Supply Chains: An Investigation Of The Institutions Influencing The Farm-Supply Chain Interface, Jessica L. Darby

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Farm-level operations have lasting and amplified impacts that promulgate the entire supply chain, and the farm is increasingly in the forefront of today’s headlines on topics such as social responsibility, environmental sustainability, traceability, and food safety. Despite its significance, however, the farm remains a ‘black box’ and has traditionally operated independently with little information-sharing, trust, or collaboration with buyers downstream. This dissertation begins to unpack this ‘black box’ by employing different methodologies to identify the factors influencing exchange in the farm-supply chain interface. In Essay 1, I examine why the farm continues to be a challenge for ‘traditional’ collaborative approaches …

Fundamentals Of Business - Introduction To Information Technology, Joy Goldschmidt

Honors Theses

This chapter will discuss the relevance and importance of information technology and its integration into several business models. The term Information Technology encompasses all types of technology used to create, store, exchange, and utilize data and information in all shapes and forms. This chapter will primarily focus on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) technology, which refers to a type of software that organizations use to manage day-to-day busy-ness activities such as accounting, procurement, project management, risk management, and supply chain management. In more simpler terms, ERP systems tie together a variety of business operations, enabling a smooth flow of data and …

Demand Forecasting In Wholesale Alcohol Distribution: An Ensemble Approach, Tanvi Arora, Rajat Chandna, Stacy Conant, Bivin Sadler, Robert Slater

SMU Data Science Review

In this paper, historical data from a wholesale alcoholic beverage distributor was used to forecast sales demand. Demand forecasting is a vital part of the sale and distribution of many goods. Accurate forecasting can be used to optimize inventory, improve cash ow, and enhance customer service. However, demand forecasting is a challenging task due to the many unknowns that can impact sales, such as the weather and the state of the economy. While many studies focus effort on modeling consumer demand and endpoint retail sales, this study focused on demand forecasting from the distributor perspective. An ensemble approach was applied …

Demand Forecasting For Alcoholic Beverage Distribution, Lei Jiang, Kristen M. Rollins, Meredith Ludlow, Bivin Sadler

SMU Data Science Review

Forecasting demand is one of the biggest challenges in any business, and the ability to make such predictions is an invaluable resource to a company. While difficult, predicting demand for products should be increasingly accessible due to the volume of data collected in businesses and the continuing advancements of machine learning models. This paper presents forecasting models for two vodka products for an alcoholic beverage distributing company located in the United States with the purpose of improving the company’s ability to forecast demand for those products. The results contain exploratory data analysis to determine the most important variables impacting demand, …

Antecedents To Buyer-Supplier Coordination In The Pharmaceutical Supply Chain, Thanigavelan Jambulingam, Ravi Kathuria

Business Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to understand the antecedents that influence supply chain coordination in the pharmaceutical supply chain using the transaction cost analysis framework.

Design/methodology/approach

Data from 156 retail pharmacies on their relationship with the pharmaceutical wholesalers are used to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The findings of this paper show the importance of antecedents that are based on the transactional cost theory, such as asset specificity and environmental uncertainty. These antecedents impact the supply chain process coordination at different levels – transactional, operational and strategic.

Research limitations/implications

Future research may investigate additional antecedents using other theoretical lenses. …

An Overview Of Supply-Chain Logistics In International Humanitarian Aid: Finding Challenges And Solutions, Arjun Ganga

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Humanitarian supply chain logistics concern the flow of goods and services in public health delivery. Such supply chains operate in both general development contexts and in acute crisis situations. In this paper, I give an overview of supply chains and then explore some of the challenges and potential solutions in delivering goods and services effectively and efficiently. Specifically, I analyze procurement, maintaining quality goods, incentivizing countries to act, collaboration, verification, possible losses in the supply chain, and ensuring appropriate use of product. I conclude that although humanitarian supply chains pose unique challenges, there is surprising efficiency in the system. This …

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 …

The Supply Chain Of Digital Music: Empowering Independent Artists Through Availability And Accessibility, Justin Reed

Senior Theses

The process of creating and sharing digital music can be viewed from the “supply chain” perspective: identifying the resources and value-adding tools that ultimately result in a final audio product. By researching and documenting the steps involved in this process, I identify this supply chain as a series of steps, an itinerary, or process model of digital music creation. Moreover, I found that each step in the process can be assess for its accessibility and usability by independent artists. I conclude by exploring how this democratizes the music industry by affording independent artists the necessary tools and empowerment to create …

Primary Care Comprehensiveness And Care Coordination In Robust Specialist Networks Results In Lower Emergency Department Utilization: A Network Analysis Of Medicaid Physician Networks, Zhaowei She, Anne H. Gaglioti, Peter Baltrus, Chaohua Li, Miranda A. Moore, Lilly C. Immergluck, Arthi Rao, Turgay Ayer

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Background: Care coordination is an essential and difficult to measure function of primary care. Objective: Our objective was to assess the impact of network characteristics in primary/specialty physician networks on emergency department (ED) visits for patients with chronic ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs). Subjects and Measures: This cross-sectional social network analysis of primary care and specialty physicians caring for adult Medicaid beneficiaries with ACSCs was conducted using 2009 Texas Medicaid Analytic eXtract (MAX) files. Network characteristic measures were the main exposure variables. A negative binomial regression model analyzed the impact of network characteristics on the ED visits per patient in …

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.

Sortie-Based Aircraft Component Demand Rate To Predict Requirements, Thomas R. O'Neal

Theses and Dissertations

Weapon System Sustainment (WSS) costs are growing at an increasing rate despite the vast efforts to reduce them. Researchers have attributed much of the cost increase to inaccurate demand forecasts for weapon system spare parts. In 2011, the forecast to sustain all United States Air Force (USAF) aircraft was 19% accurate and WSS costs per year have continuously increased. The purpose of this study is to explore a parsimonious change to aircraft component forecasting to reduce costly forecast error. This study substitutes flying hours with sorties for the purpose of demand forecasting. Many F-16 and B-52 spare parts are evaluated …

Strategic Sourcing Of Air Force Contingency Pharmaceuticals: A Cost-Benefit Analysis Approach, Adam J. Brubakken

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to identify and explore effective supply chain management principles as mitigating measures to improve contingency pharmaceutical item shortfalls in the Air Force Medical Service Contingency Pharmaceutical Program. Analysis of current pharmaceutical shortages demonstrates a significant trend of insufficient demand signals for various pharmaceutical items, resulting in instances of non-fulfillment by private sector suppliers. Through the scope of transaction cost economics, a cost-benefit analysis for various alternatives was conducted. The proposed alternatives evaluated in this thesis include continuation of the status quo, centralized procurement models from a single site, and procurement from regionally designated ordering …

Resilient Aircraft Sustainment: Quantifying Resilience Through Asset And Capacity Allocation, Zachary B. Shannon

Theses and Dissertations

Decision makers lack a clear, generalizable method to quantify how additional investment in inventory and capacity equates to additional levels of resilience. This research facilitates a deeper understanding of the intricacies and complex interconnectedness of organizational supply chains by monetarily quantifying changes in network resilience. The developed Area under the Curve metric (AUC) is used to quantify the level of demand that each asset allocation can meet during a disruptive event. Due to its applicability across multiple domains, the USAF F-16 repair network in the Pacific theater (PACAF) is modeled utilizing discrete event simulation and used as the illustrating example. …

Parent/Guardian Experience: How Schools Can Improve The Parent Experience And How That Leads To Positive Outcomes., Wesley H. Walters

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Parent/Guardian eXperience: How creating an awesome Parent/guardian experience can lead to increased parent participation, and how parent participation leads to success of the student & the overall success of the school. The goal of this presentation is to engage parents in their child’s school experience by building a genuine connection with the school and a positive parent experience.