Current Issue : January - March Volume : 2015 Issue Number : 1 Articles : 7 Articles
Due to the emergence of e-commerce and the\nproliferation of liberal return policies, product returns\nhave become daily routines for many companies.\nConsidering the significant impact of product returns on\nthe company�s bottom line, a growing number of\ncompanies have attempted to streamline the reverse\nlogistics process. Products are usually returned to initial\ncollection points (ICPs) in small quantities and thus\nincrease the unit shipping cost due to lack of freight\ndiscount opportunities. One way to address this issue is\nto aggregate the returned products into a larger\nshipment. However, such aggregation increases the\nholding time at the ICP, which in turn increases the\ninventory carrying costs. Considering this logistics\ndilemma, the main objectives of this research are to\nminimize the total cost by determining the optimal\nlocation and collection period of holding time of ICPs;\ndetermining the optimal location of a centralized return\ncentre; transforming the nonlinear objective function of\nthe proposed model formulation by Min et al. (2006a) into\na linear form; and conducting a sensitivity analysis to the\nmodel solutions according to varying parameters such as\nshipping volume. Existing models and solution\nprocedures are too complicated to solve real-world\nproblems. Through a series of computational\nexperiments, we discovered that the linearization model\nobtained the optimal solution at a fraction of the time\nused by the traditional nonlinear model and solution\nprocedure, as well as the ability to handle up to 150\ncustomers as compared to 30 in the conventional\nnonlinear model. As such, the proposed linear model is\nmore suitable for actual industry applications than the\nexisting models....
This study aimed to examine the situation, general management and\nperformance of international private transportation services of passengers\nbetween Thailand and the Laos PDR at the Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge. Other\nobjectives were to analyze the market structure, competition behavior and the\nresults of passenger transportation industry�s performance. This study also aimed\nto propose policy recommendations in order to enhance efficiency and\nperformance development. Both primary and secondary data were obtained by\ninterviewing two entrepreneurs chosen by purposive sampling and analyzing\nmonthly data obtained from related public and private organizations over the\nperiod July 2007 to June 2010. Entrepreneurs provided international bus services\nfrom cities within Thailand (Khon Kaen and Udon Thani) and the Lao PDR,\nregular shuttle buses at the bridge, and private hire vans and buses.\n The results showed two companies operating in an oligopolistic market\nstructure. The performance of both companies is nearly the same. The efficiency\nindex measurement utilized for both companies were the same; however the\nresults were slightly different. The levels of technology application within both\norgainisations were also similar. Policy recommendations for efficiency and\nperformance development are as follows. Entrepreneurs should increase the\nfrequency of services as well as the number and variety of vehicles available to\npassengers and each vehicle should run at full capacity. Improving the services to\nbe more convenient in terms of the speed, safety and efficiency is also necessary....
Total Innovation Management (TIM) is the system of forming an innovative synergy between\ntechnology, organization and culture to build innovation competence in organizations. Supply\nChain (SC) is a global network used to deliver products and services from raw materials to\nend-customers via an engineered flow of information, physical distribution and cash. This\npaper appraised TIM on SC in the automobile industry in Nigeria using structured\nquestionnaire and interview. The upshot indicated 40% of SC executives are more concerned\nwith risk associated with supply and thus invest in insurance policies. 80% of trained SC staff\napplies ICT tools in visibility (trackability). All SC staff was receptive to innovative ideas,\nindicating sustainability of TIM ideology in the sector....
Pharmaceutical industries are continuously\nseeking out new strategies to improve their operations\nand gain a competitive advantage. Maintenance tends to\nbe a key management issue for many pharmaceutical\ncompanies. Proper maintenance management requires\ninformation about maintenance performance for the\nplanning and controlling of maintenance processes.\nHowever, it is generally difficult to reconcile production\nand maintenance goals. This work presents an integrated\nmanagement system that can help in finding optimal\nmaintenance strategies via a multi-object approach. The\navailability of an integrated system allows for detecting\npotential management problems and optimizing costs.\nFurthermore, the proposed method offers significant\nadditional input data that can be useful to analysts for\nimproving maintenance management....
The purpose is to introduce the demand for statistical quality control practice in the supply chain environment. We show both the need and application of these measures, especially the need for multivariate quality concepts to reduce the costs of operating supply chains, to control the flow throughout the supply chain and in the dynamic behavior of supply chains to utilize concepts associated with multivariate methods and auto correlated variables. We note that the quality output is as important as the ââ?¬Å?bull whipââ?¬Â efficiency in the supply chain....
Due to the economic crisis and the\npredominance of drug expenditure in healthcare costs,\nthe cooperation of groups of hospitals to negotiate with\nsuppliers and centralize warehouses has been a recent\ntrend in the pharmaceutical supply chain.\nThis paper shows the economic convenience of\ncentralizing the hospitals� inventory decisions (how\nmuch/when to order) based on the sharing of medical\nprescriptions of patients along the supply chain.\nThe logistic network under investigation (TO BE model)\nintegrates: a central pharmacy negotiating with suppliers,\ncollecting hospital orders, storing and distributing\nmaterials; a number of hospitals feeding their medical\nunits with materials; and a number of medical units\ntaking care of their patients.\nThe study is carried out comparing the cost performances\nof the proposed model with a non-cooperative one(in\nwhich hospitals manage their stocks individually) by\nmeans of simulation....
This paper is aimed at introducing the concept\nof reverse logistics (RL) and its implications for supply\nchain management (SCM). RL is a research area focused\non the management of the recovery of products once they\nare no longer desired (end-of-use products, EoU) or can\nno longer be used (end-of-life products) by the consumers,\nin order to obtain an economic value from the recovered\nproducts. This way, RL has become a matter of strategic\nimportance, an element that companies are considering in\ntheir decision-making processes related to the design and\ndevelopment of their supply chains. In addition, a\ndescription of the implications of RL for SCM will be\ndiscussed and, finally, an analysis of some of the\nopportunities and challenges that RL implies for SCM\nwill be presented....
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