Supply Chain Components Research Articles

INDUSTRY 4.0, DIGITALIZATION, AND BIG DATA: PERSPECTIVE OF LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Logistics and supply chain management has been affected by the developments in systems that are being digitized day by day. Along with digitalization, big data obtained from various sources allows logistics and supply chain components to exchange information throughout the process. The information exchange can provide data collection, and the collected data can be analyzed to enhance the logistics and supply chain processes. The purpose of this paper is to cover digital developments, their applications, and their impacts on logistics and supply chain management. Based on this objective, first, the literature review on digitalization, internet of things, big data, data mining is presented. Second, the theoretical explanation on how these concepts are utilized and also impact upon the traditional supply chain processes is provided.

Green Supply Chain Management and Competitive Advantage of Jordanian Pharmaceutical Industry

This research aims to investigate the effect of green supply chain management (GSCM) on the competitive advantage (CA) of Jordanian pharmaceutical manufacturing (JPM) organizations. Data were collected by questionnaires from managers who were working in JPM organizations, then checked and coded against SPSS. After confirming the tool validity, reliability, and relationship between variables, the hypotheses were tested by multiple regressions. The results show that JPM organizations implement green purchasing and green selling, while weakly implementing green operations. At the same time, for CA dimensions, the results show that JPM organizations are more concerned with quality, speed (time), and reliability than cost reduction and innovation. Moreover, the results show that the relationship between GSCM and CA is very strong. The results also show that green supply chain components affect the CA of JPM organizations, where green operations have the highest effect on total CA, followed by green purchasing and finally, green selling. Additionally, the green supply chain affects CA dimensions of JPM organizations, where GSCM has the highest effect on quality, followed by innovation, then time, while GSCM does not have any significant effect on reliability and cost.

Performance Assessment of Oil Supply Chain Infrastructure Subjected to Hurricanes

The petroleum industry in the United States relies heavily on facilities in hurricane-prone regions, such as the Gulf Coast. Past hurricanes have demonstrated the vulnerability of petroleum supply chains to these extreme events; however, models are lacking for hurricane performance assessment of petroleum supply chain infrastructure. In this study, a probabilistic framework is presented for the performance assessment of oil supply chain infrastructure (OSCI) subjected to hurricane events, spanning from a methodological definition to implementation to opportunities and needs. The framework leverages Bayesian networks for probabilistic analysis of connectivity and flow within the oil supply chain, alongside fragility functions for physical damage and functionality assessment of supply chain components. A literature survey is conducted to identify the tools enabling the proposed framework. Application of the method for probabilistic assessment of tightly interrelated oil supply chains subjected to hurricane events is demonstrated with a representative OSCI comprised of platforms, ports, pipelines, refineries, storage facilities, power, and transportation infrastructure. In addition to investigating the impact of alternative levels of hazard exposure and the effectiveness of different mitigation actions, the framework affords the potential for Bayesian updating as new data come online regarding the component performance or product availability/flow. The proposed framework can provide a foundation to support risk mitigation and resilience enhancement efforts in the petroleum industry.

Performance evaluation model and algorithm of green supply chain management based on sustainable computing

Abstract How to facilitate collaborative development between the enterprise and the environment under the dual constraints of resources and the environment is the focus of today's green supply chain management system research. Through the performance evaluation of the green supply chain, we can understand the operation of the whole supply chain and its shortcomings, provide a basis for improving related processes, and have important practical significance for improving the competitiveness and protection of its products. First of all, by summarising and analysing the research status of sustainable supply chain management in different countries, the research idea and overall background of this paper are proposed. It discusses the theory of sustainable supply chain management and the performance evaluation system and calculation types of sustainable supply chain management. Finally, the relative weight of each index is determined based on the sustainability calculation method, and then the decentralisation degree of the index is constructed. During this period, the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is used to evaluate the performance of sustainable supply chain, conduct case analysis and summary, and evaluate the performance of green supply chain component in economic, social, environmental and other aspects. In this paper, representative companies are selected as examples to evaluate their green supply chain management performance, and the evaluation algorithm is studied based on sustainable calculation method. The results show that a reasonable and effective evaluation of the enterprise performance of green supply chain management and a sustainable algorithm study can effectively identify potential problems in the operation of the company and improve the overall operation of the company at this stage.

Distribution Systems as a Component of Supply Chain at Hypermarket: Does It Matter?

Distribution is generally a marketing channel for goods that will be determined by companies in distributing or providing related services to agents, intermediaries, wholesalers, and consumers. Distribution channels are very significant in the company's retail activities because this will affect the decisions made by the company managers. The purpose of this study is to produce a study of: distribution channels operated by hypermarts in Sidoarjo. The research is qualitative in nature. The data collection technique is literature study and field study which employs observation and interviews. The sampling technique used is purposive random sampling. The results show that the companies use direct distribution channels because the goods are sold directly to consumers.

From Farm to Fork: Early Impacts of COVID-19 on Food Supply Chain

COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread global disruptions. While much is being discussed about the health and economic impacts, there has been a limited focus on the immediate food sector shocks and their related social implications in developing countries, especially when the farmer surveys cannot be conducted due to mobility restrictions in many countries. To overcome these challenges, this study uses news mining and content analysis of media articles published from February to April 2020, to assess the early impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food supply chain and farm distress in India. It also presents the media perception of the impact of the pandemic and resulting policy measures using sentiment analysis, in addition to the cross-tabulation of results that show differential impacts across food supply chain components among different commodity groups and regions. The results show wide-scale impacts across different components of the food supply chain ranging from crop harvesting and processing, distribution and logistics to disruptions across food markets, as represented by 22, 11 and 30% of total articles, respectively. The impacts are also differentiated by commodity groups, with animal products having more trade and demand-side issues, logistic bottlenecks in fruits and vegetables and crops showing problems in labor availability and harvesting. Sentiment analysis of news items shows a spike in the negative sentiment immediately post the national lockdown, with relatively less negativity in subsequent weeks due to large-scale policy and community action. Sentiment classification along different indicators shows the highest negative sentiment for animal products (85%) in commodity groups, western states of India (78%) among different regions, and food supply (85%) and markets (83%) among supply chain components. Further, extreme weather analysis (using excess rainfall events) shows that farmers faced compound risks from the COVID-19 pandemic and extreme weather events in many parts of the country. The results highlight the importance of building resilient food systems, especially when the biotic and abiotic shocks are projected to increase globally due to many drivers including biodiversity loss and climate change.

The aquaculture supply chain in the time of covid-19 pandemic: Vulnerability, resilience, solutions and priorities at the global scale

The COVID-19 global pandemic has had severe, unpredictable and synchronous impacts on all levels of perishable food supply chains (PFSC), across multiple sectors and spatial scales. Aquaculture plays a vital and rapidly expanding role in food security, in some cases overtaking wild caught fisheries in the production of high-quality animal protein in this PFSC. We performed a rapid global assessment to evaluate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and related emerging control measures on the aquaculture supply chain. Socio-economic effects of the pandemic were analysed by surveying the perceptions of stakeholders, who were asked to describe potential supply-side disruption, vulnerabilities and resilience patterns along the production pipeline with four main supply chain components: a) hatchery, b) production/processing, c) distribution/logistics and d) market. We also assessed different farming strategies, comparing land- vs. sea-based systems; extensive vs. intensive methods; and with and without integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, IMTA. In addition to evaluating levels and sources of economic distress, interviewees were asked to identify mitigation solutions adopted at local / internal (i.e., farm-site) scales, and to express their preference on national / external scale mitigation measures among a set of a priori options. Survey responses identified the potential causes of disruption, ripple effects, sources of food insecurity, and socio-economic conflicts. They also pointed to various levels of mitigation strategies. The collated evidence represents a first baseline useful to address future disaster-driven responses, to reinforce the resilience of the sector and to facilitate the design reconstruction plans and mitigation measures, such as financial aid strategies.

An assessment of the banking industry performance based on Intuitionistic fuzzy Best-Worst Method and fuzzy inference system

COVID-19’s impact on individuals, enterprises, and organizations is undeniable. Many markets, in particular, financial markets, have experienced considerable shock and suffered massive losses. Supply chain networks have encountered significant problems, especially in terms of financing. Supply chain finance (SCF), responsible for financing the supply chain components and improving supply chain performance, received a significant impact of COVID-19 consequences. Financial providers are the leading resource for supply chain finance. The banking sector is known as the main element of financing among financial providers. Any disruption in the banking system procedures can have a significant impact on the financing process. In this paper, we have tried to understand the essential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the banking sector. A hybrid approach consists of a novel and extended intuitionistic fuzzy best-worst method (IFBWM) to determine the critical factors’ weights, and a fuzzy inference system to get the performance index of the banking sector is utilized. The proposed method investigates the banking sector’s role in supply chain finance, specifies the principal risks of this sector in emergencies such as pandemics. The Turkish banking sector’s performance in three different periods is considered to demonstrate the validity and applicability of the proposed approach. The results depict that credit risk, loss of income, and liquidity were the most critical factors of the COVID-19 outbreak in the banking sector. Also, the Turkish banking sector’s performance has worsened with the spread and continuation of the COVID-19. Moreover, the cogency of the proposed method is verified through a brief comparative analysis.

Prediction of lead concentration in random daytime (RDT) samples of high rise buildings by coupled 3D-1D modeling

The drinking water supply system in many high rise buildings in densely populated cities consists of a complex labyrinth of copper pipes and brass fixtures (valves, meters, couplings). Lead contamination in these non-lead pipe systems can occur due to the presence of lead-soldered connections, and lead containing brass fixtures. The prediction of lead concentration characteristics of random daytime (RDT) samples in these high rise buildings has hitherto not been studied. The stochastic variation of lead concentration of RDT samples is studied by a coupling of 3-D and 1-D models and the Monte-Carlo Method. A 3-dimensional CFD model based on an equilibrium concentration (E0) approach is used to simulate the leaching process from different lead sources. With the calibrated E0 for different materials obtained from leaching experiments, the lead source strengths of leaded components in a water supply chain can be predicted by the 3D model as a function of stagnation time. Using the predicted distributed lead sources, the transport and mixing of lead in the turbulent pipe flow can be accurately simulated by a 1D advection–diffusion model. Using the Monte-Carlo method, a large number of simulations of consumer tap water Pb concentrations is performed using randomly sampled stagnation time, inter-use time, and flushing time. The computations are performed for two representative prototypes: (i) a full scale lead contaminated water supply chain; and (ii) a chain with only clean pipes and brass fixtures. The effect of stagnation time and flushing time before water use on tap Pb levels are investigated. The predicted range and distribution of RDT sample concentrations are validated by a three-year field data set (2017–2020) of the Hong Kong Water Supplies Department.

Dynamic relationships among phosphate rock, fertilisers and agricultural commodity markets: Evidence from a vector error correction model and Directed Acyclic Graphs

The finite supply of phosphate rock, as well as rising fertiliser prices, are key topics in the discussion around global food system resilience. Our paper contributes to this discussion by conducting an analysis of the dynamic causal relationships between phosphate rock, fertilisers, and wheat prices to provide insights on how farmers and policymakers might respond to phosphate rock supply shocks for sustainable and resilient food systems. The linkages between 147 monthly price observations spanning from March 2007 to April 2019 were analysed by combining Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAG), a recently developed modelling technique, and a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). The findings suggest that there are five long-run cointegrating relationships between these three key components of the food supply chain. Price shocks to the phosphate rock market, over a two-year period had a knock-on positive impact on phosphorus fertiliser prices and to a lesser extent on wheat prices. Interestingly, an increase in wheat price had a sizeable impact on both fertiliser and phosphate rock prices, providing empirical evidence that increases in the price of phosphate rock are driven by demand factors, as well as supply factors.

Assessing the life-cycle environmental impacts of the wood pallet sector in the United States

Wood pallets play a critical role in the movement and storage of goods worldwide. They are an important component in the complex global supply chain and used by almost every industry. It is therefore important to assess the environmental implications of the wood pallet supply chain and identify optimization strategies that can be implemented. In this paper, primary 2018 annual production data collected from U.S. pallet manufacturers were used to develop the first industry-average life-cycle inventory (LCI). A new functional unit was proposed to perform a more refined and accurate environmental life-cycle assessment of the wood pallet supply chain. Using the LCI data developed, a cradle-to-grave industry-average life-cycle impact assessment was performed. This novel approach quantifies environmental impacts of a generic multi-use pallet, including repair and remanufacturing. The total global warming impact was 10.4 kg CO2e per 45.4 t of pallet loads of product delivered using wood pallets. The manufacturing stage contributed the most, about 35%, followed by the raw material supply stage. About 41% of total primary energy consumption was from renewable sources, with most sourced from biomass. Fossil fuels comprised about 52% of the total (225 MJ per functional unit) primary energy consumption. Total environmental impact was significantly affected by two main parameters: reference service life and load-bearing capacity. Pallet repair was also found to be an important component of the wood pallet supply chain, which has a low environmental footprint compared with the overall impact of a pallet and enables mitigation of overall impact by extending the reference service life. At end-of-life, common industry practices demonstrated substantial potential environmental benefits that can minimize overall environmental impact.

A New Zealand Perspective on Hydrogen as an Export Commodity: Timing of Market Development and an Energy Assessment of Hydrogen Carriers

Hydrogen is currently receiving significant attention and investment as a key enabler of defossilised global energy systems. Many believe this will eventually result in the international trade of hydrogen as a commodity from countries with significant renewable energy resources, for example New Zealand and Australia, to net energy importing countries including Japan and Korea. Japan has, since 2014, been actively exploring the components of the necessary supply chains, including the assessment of different hydrogen carriers. Public/private partnerships have invested in demonstration projects to assess the comparative merits of liquid hydrogen, ammonia, and organic carriers. On the supply side, significant projects have been proposed in Australia while the impending closure of New Zealand’s Tiwai Point aluminium smelter at the end of 2024 may provide an opportunity for green hydrogen production. However, it is also evident that the transition to a hydrogen economy will take some years and confidence around the timing of supply and demand capacity is essential for new energy infrastructure investment. This paper reviews the expected development of an export market to Japan and concludes that large scale imports are unlikely before the late 2020s. Comparative evaluation of the energy efficiency of various hydrogen carriers concludes that it is too early to call a winner, but that ammonia has key advantages as a fungible commodity today, while liquid hydrogen has the potential to be a more efficient energy carrier. Ultimately it will be the delivered cost of hydrogen that will determine which carriers are used, and while energy efficiency is a key metric, there are other considerations such as infrastructure availability, and capital and operating costs.

An integrated model of supply chain resilience and its impact on supply chain performance under disruption

PurposeThis study aims to explore the relationships among the five components of supply chain (SC) resilience (SCRES): visibility, velocity, flexibility, robustness and collaboration and their impacts on the SC performance under disruption (SCPUD).Design/methodology/approachFive SCRES components are identified from the literature review and data are collected using an web survey from 113 manufacturing companies in Taiwan. The data are analyzed by structured equation modeling with the partial least square solution. Two-stage least-squares (2SLS) regression was used to test the potential endogeneity of SC collaboration (SCC).FindingsThe results reveal that SCC is an exogenous driver of SCRES; it directly affects visibility, velocity, flexibility, robustness and SCPUD. Furthermore, SC flexibility is the only component of SC agility that directly affects SCPUD; it is influenced directly by SC velocity and indirectly by SC visibility through SC velocity. SC visibility is a vital agility component that positively influences SC velocity and SC robustness.Research limitations/implicationsThe data in this study are cross-sectional and the sample size of 113 is relatively small. The relationship between SC robustness and SCPUD needs a longer observation period to reveal. The logistic issue in the shortage of carriers caused by the pandemic has been overlooked.Practical implicationsA firm should enhance its collaboration and flexibility in the SC as they both are the critical antecedents of SC performance (SCP) during the disruption period.Originality/valueThis study integrates visibility, velocity, flexibility, robustness and collaboration into a complete framework of SCRES. The dependent variable, SCPUD, measures SC performance (SCP) under the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the first study to investigate the associations of the six constructs in a research model.

Development of integrated supply chain system in manufacturing industry

This paper presents the model of integrated halal supply chain in food manufacturing industries. There is global increase in the demand for halal products by Islamic countries as well as by non-Islamic countries. Halal food consumers are presently more alert and concern about the integrity of Halal status. Furthermore, they also curious about all the activities involved along the supply chain whether the products that they purchased were truly halal from the beginning to the end. The need of halal supply chain is crucial in ensuring that the concept of halal is not only applicable for the food itself but also for the whole supply chain starting from the farm to the customer. This project attempts to develop an integrated halal supply chain system that can be used by food manufacturers that are developing halal products for better productivity and quality. The identified supply chain components are human resources, process, environment, accreditations, logistics and traceability.

An Analysis of Pesticide Handler Wages in the United States

AbstractPesticide handling is a critical component of many food supply chains yet labor markets for pesticide handlers are little studied. This study uses data from the U.S. national survey to show that relative to other farmworkers, pesticide handlers get paid 15% more. To understand this premium, matching techniques are used to identify workers who are observationally equivalent in every way except pesticide handling. Using these methods, approximately half of the wage premium can be related back to observable characteristics, including crop type, geographic location, legal work authorization, education, experience, and other personal characteristics.

Financial Assessment on Designing Inventory Policy by Considering Demand, Lead Time, and Defective Product Uncertainties: A Monte Carlo Simulation

Inventory is one of the main components in supply chain. However, it is not easy to design inventory policy under uncertainties. The frequent occurrence of overstocks increases the company's financial expenditure. Otherwise, stockout decreases customer satisfaction and damage the company's image. This study aims to provide monte carlo model to design inventory policy with the aim of maximizing net income with a variety of uncertainties, one of the uncertainties is defective product because of the travel from suppliers. To handle the complexity and uncertainty of problem, a Monte Carlo simulation is used with spreadsheet-based representation. To test the reliability of the model, guitar company is used as relevant use case with uncertainty adhered ‘the greater number of order quantity, the greater likely the defective guitar will be’. The verification & validation process, experimental design, and alternative selection are also done with statistical tests. Based on the simulation result, it is known that changing the reorder point to 80 and the order quantity to 90 gives the best result which can increase net income by 0.44% compared to the initial net income. In addition, the number of stockouts has decreased.

Supply Chain Decision Model Based on Blockchain: A Case Study of Fresh Food E-Commerce Supply Chain Performance Improvement

Aiming at the problems in the performance improvement of the fresh food e-commerce supply chain, in this article, the author defines the constraints on the performance improvement of the fresh food e-commerce supply chain and determines the demand to improve performance in quality and safety, logistics traceability, resource integration, and benefit distribution. In addition, this article conducts coupling analysis on the characteristics of blockchain technology, such as intelligent contract, information sharing, traceability, and performance improvement requirements. The author embeds the alliance chain in the fresh food e-commerce supply chain and designs the blockchain information platform model from four levels: application layer, contract layer, network layer, and data layer, with the purpose of optimizing and improving the performance of the fresh food e-commerce supply chain. What is more, the Stackelberg game model between the supplier and the e-commerce platform was constructed to study and compare the profit changes of the fresh food e-commerce supply chain before and after the application of the blockchain information platform. Finally, the result of Stackelberg game is numerically simulated by Matlab software. The results show that blockchain technology is a booster for the development of the fresh food e-commerce supply chain to a higher stage of the whole industry chain management, coordination, and integration. Investing in the blockchain system within a certain budget range can not only improve the reliability of products, but also improve the performance of each main component of the fresh food e-commerce supply chain, as well as the overall performance. Results can offer a theoretical guidance for producer and retailer in investing in BIP, pricing decision, and supply chain coordination after applying BIP.

Enhancing healthcare supply chain resilience: decision-making in a fuzzy environment

PurposeResilience is a fundamental component of healthcare supply chains, as the quality and endurance of human life are dependent on them. However, there are numerous resilience-building measures, and there is a need for prioritization of those strategies. This research study aims to prioritize resilience strategies for healthcare supply chains while considering the risks that most severe, probable to occur and have the lengthiest periods of recovery.Design/methodology/approachThis research study has used multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques for analysis. Initially, the criteria for prioritization of risks, i.e. severity, probability of occurrence and recovery time were assigned with importance weights through the fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Then, these weights were used in the fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPIS) analysis for prioritization of risks. Subsequently, the identified risks were used for highlighting the appropriate resilience strategies through the fuzzy quality function deployment (QFD) technique.FindingsResults indicate that Industry 4.0, multiple sourcing, risk awareness, agility and global diversification of suppliers, markets and operations are the most significant resilience strategies.Research limitations/implicationsThis study's limitation is that it is conducted in a general perspective, rather than reducing the context to a developing or developed country. Different areas have variable market factors, due to which potential risks occur in a different form. Moreover, resilience strategies work differently in different environments. Therefore, for future endeavors, the studies should be carried out in a limited context.Originality/valueThis research study proposes a novel MCDM-based approach for ranking resilience strategies, in light of the most probable, severe and long-lasting risks. In addition, this approach has been employed for the enhancement of resilience in healthcare supply chains.

English

In Kenya, meat value chain (MVC) is an important component of the food supply chain serving as a source of nutrients and income. However, information regarding processing practices, hygiene and equipment use as affecting meat quality still remains unclear despite its relevance for data and for assessment for development of meat quality in the meat trade. Therefore, a cross sectional survey of selected slaughterhouses and butcheries in Eastern region of Kenya was carried out to assess the postharvest handling practices and meat quality. Forty meat samples were collected from rump, neck, stomach and hind legs cuts of the carcass and analyzed for total viable counts, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogenes. The findings indicate that over 50% of the meat handlers in slaughterhouses and butcheries have not received any formal training in good hygiene practices for meat handling. Total viable counts ranged from 2.159 to 2.736 log CFU/g, Staphylococcus aureus ranged from 1.112 to 1.324 log CFU/g, Escherichia coli ranged from 1.211 to 1.320 log CFU/g and Listeria monocytogenes ranged from 0.101 to 0.193 log CFU/g in the meat cuts. In conclusion, the study showed poor handling of meat which poses risks to consumers.   Key words:  Meat quality, post-harvest practices, meat value chain.

Investigating the Sustainable Impact of Seaport Infrastructure Provision on Maritime Component of Supply Chain

The aim of the research is to identify and quantify the direct economic effects resulting from the improved seaport nautical access and capacity expansion. This case study considers a regional port located in the Baltic sea and relates to port users, i.e., shipping operators and shippers. The effects were identified for maritime transport by comparing transport performance in two scenarios: with-the-investment and without-the-investment. Incremental calculus addresses freights (containers, dry bulk, and cereals) traded to and from the given port, changes in size of vessels, and the shipping route alternatives vis-a-vis adjacent ports in the range. Sustainable impact concerns generalized maritime transport cost, i.e., shipping operating costs and port-to-port transit time, as well as energy consumption and external costs of maritime shipping. To capture effects, daily and unit dry bulk, as well as container shipping cost, values of time, and marginal external costs were revealed in freight sea transport. As investigated, shipping operators and shippers will benefit from the reduction in ships’ operating (including ships’ fuel cost savings) and time cost, while the community will enjoy the reduction in externalities. However, the main economic effect is the reduction in shipping operating cost resulting from the increased vessel size (economies of scale).