Electronic Supply Chain Research Articles

The role of contemporary Web technologies in supply chain management

Ever changing market circumstances and globalization have caused electronic business (e-business) and supply chain management to integrate and virtual supply chains to emerge. E-business comprises all forms of business transactions and information sharing which is performed using information and communication technologies between companies, companies and their consumers, or companies and public administration. Supply chain is thus considered a unique and continuous business process, supported with goods and information flows throughout the entire distribution channel, where each company is part of the chain and boundaries between companies are non-existent. In times of economic uncertainty, cost reduction through rationalization and automatization of business processes, and improvement of productivity and quality of goods and services, become necessary for company's survival. In this context, the role of information and communication technologies in supply chain management is discussed, with particular attention to the contemporary web technologies such as extranet and Web 2.0.

Examining the impact of electronic supply chain management processes on customer satisfaction: A literature review

This paper aims to discuss a collection of empirical studies examining the impact of electronic supply chain management (e-SCM) processes on customer satisfaction. A review of the relevant literature has shown that a limited number of previous studies has attempted to identify the impact of e-SCM processes on customer satisfaction. Thus, the obtained data from the secondary source will be discussed and explained here. Findings of this study show the impact of e-SCM processes on customer satisfaction. This study has been based on a literature review and opens the door for future researchers to further expand this field.

The Impact of Electronic Supply Chain Management Usage on Firm’s Performance

This study investigates the status of e-SCM and performance among Jordanian manufacturing sector. The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of trust and communication on the e-SCM usage. Moreover, the study investigates the effect of the trust and communication on the firm’s performance while the e-SCM usage is used as a mediating factor on firm’s performance. The proposed research model was validated by distributing 250 survey questionnaires to the manufacturing sector in Jordan. Structural equation modelling (SEM) technique was used to analyze the results. One of the main limitations of this study was that the results could not be universal since the study was limited to Jordan. We discussed the implications of our results for research and practice.

Integrated supply, production and distribution scheduling under disruption risks

This paper presents a bi-objective stochastic mixed integer programming approach for a joint selection of suppliers and scheduling of production and distribution in a multi-echelon supply chain subject to local and regional disruption risks. Two conflicting problem objectives are minimization of cost and maximization of service level. The three shipping methods are considered for distribution of products: batch shipping with a single shipment of different customer orders, batch shipping with multiple shipments of different customer orders and individual shipping of each customer order immediately after its completion. The stochastic combinatorial optimization problem is formulated as a time-indexed mixed integer program with the weighted-sum aggregation of the two objective functions. The supply portfolio is determined by binary selection and fractional allocation variables while time-indexed assignment variables determine the production and distribution schedules. The problem formulation incorporates supply–production, production–distribution and supply–distribution coordinating constraints to efficiently coordinate supply, production and distribution schedules. Numerical examples modelled after an electronics supply chain and computational results are presented and some managerial insights are reported. The findings indicate that for all shipping methods, the service-oriented supply portfolio is more diversified than the cost-oriented portfolio and the more cost-oriented decision-making, the more delayed the expected supply, production and distribution schedules.

Modeling enablers of supply chain risk mitigation in electronic supply chains: A Grey–DEMATEL approach

Supply chains are becoming perpetually complex and potentially vulnerable due to increased globalization and vertical integration. Supply chain managers are conscious that the success of any supply chain lies in its proficiency to manage risks efficiently and effectively. Supply chain risk management (SCRM) signifies proactive practices of managing vulnerability of supply chains. Various firms espouse strategic level measures for risk mitigation and implement practices for enhancing supply chain resilience. In order to enhance supply chain resilience, the enablers of supply chain risk mitigation need to be acknowledged and implemented into practice. This research emphasizes on ascertaining the major enablers of supply chain risk mitigation with emblematic focus on electronic supply chains. A blend of Grey theory and DEMATEL approaches has been employed in this research to find out cause/effect relationships among the enablers of supply chain risk mitigation. This exercise helps to find which can be the driver to initiate the effects of other driven enablers. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted of the results to ensure reliability of solutions. The results show that that the enablers of supply chain risk mitigation are intertwined and one enabler can be the cause/effect of one or more enablers of supply chain risk mitigation. Dynamic assortment planning is found to be the decisive causal enabler, as it initiates the effects of many other enablers of supply chain risk mitigation, followed by accurate demand forecasting and flexible supply contracts. Cause–effect relationships plotted facilitate managers to ascertain primary causal enablers that need imperative attention in dealing with vulnerability issues of supply chain. Managers can take proactive steps to address and implement primary causal enables of risk mitigation into practice for reducing total risk impacts of the supply chain.

Electronic Markets Selection in Supply Chain with Uncertain Demand and Uncertain Price

In recent years, more and more companies start online operation. Electronic market becomes a key component of some companies’ strategy. Supply chain management is another key component of the strategy as being adopted by an increasing number of companies. There are many interactions between electronic market and supply chain. One of the key questions is to select one type of electronic market from the view of supply chain. This paper develops some models to explore the issue of selection between public electronic market and private electronic market in three scenarios where electronic market is used for buying, for selling, and for both selling and buying, respectively. In a public electronic market, neither the supplier nor the retailer is the owner of the electronic market. However, in a private electronic market, there is an owner that is either the supplier or the retailer. Besides demand uncertainty, we take into account the price uncertainty in electronic market. We explore the conditions under which the agent of supply chain selects one certain type of electronic market by comparing expected profits of supply chain members in different scenarios. Some sensitivity analyses are conducted to explore the impact of the customer demand, electronic market retail price, and e-market use fee on the selection of electronic market. Finally, some interesting managerial and academic insights are obtained.

An Efficient Anti-collision Algorithm for the EPCglobal Class-1 Generation-2 System under the Dynamic Environment

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is an emerging wireless communication technology which allows objects to be identified automatically. The tag anti-collision is a significant issue for fast identifying tags due to the shared wireless channel between tags and the reader during communication. The EPCglobal Class-1 Generation-2 which uses Q algorithm for the anti-collision is widely used in many applications such as consumer electronic device and supply chain. However, the increasing application of EPCglobal Class-1 Generation-2 which requires the dynamic environment makes the efficiency decrease critically. Furthermore, its frame length (size) determination and frame termination lead to the suboptimal efficiency. A new anti-collision algorithm is proposed to deal with the two problems for large-scale RFID systems. The algorithm has higher performance than the Q algorithm in the dynamic environment. Some simulations are given to illustrate the performance.

Guest Editorial

Guest Editorial

Selection of risk mitigation strategy in electronic supply chains using grey theory and digraph-matrix approaches

Supply chains are becoming more lengthy and complex due to globalisation and vertical integrations. In this context, adopting proactive approaches is needed for dealing with changing risks and vulnerabilities for securing supply chain systems. Supply chain risks are interlinked and thus, one mitigation strategy can reduce many of other supply chain risks. For example, aggregate or pooling demand reduces forecast risks, capacity risks and inventory risks. Also, some of the risk mitigation strategies have negative influences over certain supply chain risks as adding capacity has a negative influence on capacity risks. Twelve major supply chain risk categories and 21 risk mitigation strategies with typical focus on electronics manufacturing supply chains have been identified. A combination of grey theory and digraph-matrix methodologies has been used for quantifying various supply chain risk mitigation strategies and this approach is not seen in literature till date. The proposed model was also tested taking a case study of an Indian electronics manufacturing company. Obtained results were also subject to sensitivity analysis. The net positive influence values of risk mitigation strategies proposed in this research could effectively be used by top management for ascertaining their risk mitigation strategies for better management of supply chains as a whole.

Supplier selection in resilient supply chains: a grey relational analysis approach

Suppliers can be considered as inevitable sources of external risks in modern supply chains. In this context, resilience that stands for the adaptive capability to respond to disruptions and recovering from it needs to be considered in supplier selection. But selection of suppliers is a challenging issue that involves the evaluation of both qualitative and quantitative attributes, in usual have imprecise and limited information. Grey relational analysis based on linguistic assessment of supplier rating and attribute weightings could judiciously be used under these situations to obtain a set of possibility values for prioritizing supplier selection. In this research, a supplier to be selected in the context of a resilient supply chain is termed as a resilient supplier. Taking electronic supply chain as a case study, with six alternative suppliers, grey possibility values for supplier selection were calculated and the suppliers were prioritized. Sensitivity analysis was also conducted to identify how far the selection priorities of suppliers change by varying the weightings given to each of the resilience attributes. This helps us in identifying the attributes of resilience where a particular supplier performs well. A comparison of proposed grey methodology with analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and analytic network process (ANP) was also conducted to comprehend extent of out-performance. The results of the proposed research could help top management in taking strategic level decision making with respect to selection of suppliers in a resilient supply chain.

Identifying the drivers of environmental risk through a model integrating substance flow and input–output analysis

In addition to risk assessment, effective environmental risk management requires information indicating sources and driving forces of risks. Systematic substance flow analysis can indicate critical emissions and potential strategies of risk reduction by mapping the flows of toxic substances throughout the economic system. This research developed an integrated modeling framework for examining the connections between driving forces and environmental risk. Three methodologies, including substance flow modeling, input–output model, and environmental risk assessment, were integrated into the framework. We built a model of lead flow system integrating four risk chain modules, which are corresponding to the Driver, Presser, State, and Impact component of DPSIR environmental management framework. Thus, risk can be backtraced to its exposure pathways, emission sources, and driving forces. In the results, Sankey diagrams are presented to highlight the sources and driving forces of the lead flow system. Among the driving forces, unit change in the demand on computer products is associated with the most significant change in risk of lead. Backtracing the contributions of the causes along the risk chain, the sectors of electronic product and computer product had driven the electronic supply chain which contributes the greatest to risk of lead by discharging into water body.

Counterfeit Integrated Circuits: A Rising Threat in the Global Semiconductor Supply Chain

As the electronic component supply chain grows more complex due to globalization, with parts coming from a diverse set of suppliers, counterfeit electronics have become a major challenge that calls for immediate solutions. Currently, there are a few standards and programs available that address the testing for such counterfeit parts. However, not enough research has yet addressed the detection and avoidance of all counterfeit partsVrecycled, remarked, overproduced, cloned, out-of-spec/defective, and forged documentationVcurrently infiltrating the electronic component supply chain. Even if they work initially, all these parts may have reduced lifetime and pose reliability risks. In this tutorial, we will provide a review of some of the existing counterfeit detection and avoidance methods. We will also discuss the challenges ahead for im- plementing these methods, as well as the development of new detection and avoidance mechanisms.

Inventory Information Management of Logistics Supply Chain

The supply chain information management of logistics has become an important method to enhance its competitiveness. The inventory information management and application of the logistics supply is researched based on grey clustering decision-making methods. The inventory theory and methods are studied firstly, and the fuzzy mathematics and grey system theory are used to solve the classification problem. The electronic industry logistics supply chain is taken as the example, the inventory information management problem is solved. The inventory information management theory is improved in this paper, and it can more accurately reflect the market situation, it provides the reference for the classification of inventory information management in logistics supply chain.

Influence of power and trust on the intention to adopt electronic supply chain management in China

Electronic supply chain management (eSCM) has become a popular Web-based seamless supply chain process. Given that Chinese firms are important parts of global supply chains, it is imperative to investigate factors that would affect eSCM adoption in China. In this study, we examine the impact of three power sources – non-mediated, coercive-mediated and reward-mediated power – on the three dimensions of trust – competence, goodwill and contractual – and their influence in turn on a firm’s eSCM adoption intention in China. We collected data through a survey of 131 manufacturing and service firms in China. Our results show that non-mediated power is positively associated with competence and goodwill trust but negatively related to contractual trust. Coercive-mediated power only negatively affects competence and goodwill trust. Reward-mediated power does not affect any type of trust significantly. The results also provide empirical support for the positive effects of competence and contractual trust on the intention to adopt eSCM. This paper contributes knowledge about the power–trust relationship in China from a supply chain perspective and presents a multi-dimensional explanation of the relationships between power, trust and intention to adopt eSCM.

Influence of Power and Trust on the Intention to Adopt Electronic Supply Chain Management in China

Electronic supply chain management (eSCM) has become a popular Web-based seamless supply chain process. Given that Chinese firms are important parts of global supply chains, it is imperative to investigate factors that would affect eSCM adoption in China. In this study, we examine the impact of three power sources – non-mediated, coercive-mediated, and reward-mediated power – on the three dimensions of trust – competence, goodwill, and contractual – and their influence in turn on a firm’s eSCM adoption intention in China. We collected data through a survey of 131 manufacturing and service firms in China. Our results show that non-mediated power is positively associated with competence and goodwill trust but negatively related to contractual trust. Coercive-mediated power only negatively affects competence and goodwill trust. Reward-mediated power does not affect any type of trust significantly. The results also provide empirical support for the positive effects of competence and contractual trust on the intention to adopt eSCM. This paper contributes knowledge about the power-trust relationship in China from a supply chain perspective and presents a multidimensional explanation of the relationships between power, trust, and intention to adopt eSCM.

Counterfeit Integrated Circuits: Detection, Avoidance, and the Challenges Ahead

The counterfeiting of electronic components has become a major challenge in the 21st century. The electronic component supply chain has been greatly affected by widespread counterfeit incidents. A specialized service of testing, detection, and avoidance must be created to tackle the worldwide outbreak of counterfeit integrated circuits (ICs). So far, there are standards and programs in place for outlining the testing, documenting, and reporting procedures. However, there is not yet enough research addressing the detection and avoidance of such counterfeit parts. In this paper we will present, in detail, all types of counterfeits, the defects present in them, and their detection methods. We will then describe the challenges to implementing these test methods and to their effectiveness. We will present several anti-counterfeit measures to prevent this widespread counterfeiting, and we also consider the effectiveness and limitations of these anti-counterfeiting techniques.

Adoption of Electronic Supply Chain Management and E-Commerce by Small and Medium Enterprises and Their Performance: A Survey of SMEs in Pakistan

Adoption of E-Commerce and Electronic Supply Chain Management (E-SCM) by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has developed a tremendous performance in business process. SMEs in Pakistan are trying to enhance their competences by adopting a new technology to enter into the global market. The survey was aimed to investigate the current status and future direction of the adoption and benefits of E-Commerce and E-SCM by small and medium enterprises in Pakistan. A mailed questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from 210 SMEs as samples located in Karachi, Gujranwala and Faisalabad, Pakistan. The results suggest that E-Commerce and E-SCM adoption has a significant, positive influence on SMEs, who have significantly higher average sales growth rate, on-time order management and delivery process than non-adopters. The findings of this study can be useful for SMEs in general as a means of understanding how E-Commerce and E-SCM adoption positively affects the firm’s performance.

A Hybrid Approach using AHP-TOPSIS for Analyzing e-SCM Performance

To sustain in this competitive environment, it is required for organizations to implement information technology (IT) based functions with their supply chain management (SCM) system. The objective of this research is to select a best alternative with an aim to improve electronic supply chain management (e-SCM) performance of Indian automobile industry located at Delhi region. To accomplish the aim, a hierarchy based model has been developed through considering eight criteria and five alternatives. The considered alternatives namely are: investment in web based technologies, investment in advanced manufacturing technologies, role of top management, role of supplier and supply chain integration. The developed model has been analyzed to select a best alternative using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) as a hybrid approach. Analysis reveals that the alternative, ‘investment in web based technologies’ holds first rank among all considered alternatives and can play a vital role in improving the e-SCM performance of an organization. The outcomes of this research enable mangers to make better decisions during framing strategies in improving e-SCM performance of an organization effectively.

Implementation of e-Supply Chain Management

The development and evolution of the Internet and information technology have transformed the traditional way of working into electronic management and operation, opening new opportunities and strategic possibilities. This paper offers deep understanding of the electronic supply chain management concept, by giving insight into the nature of e-SCM and the opportunities that the information technologies are providing. Also, through analysis of real world examples of organizations that have implemented e-SCM, this paper exploits and examines the benefits and advantages to these organizations in building a sustainable competitive advantage.

Infrared analysis for counterfeit electronic parts detection and supply chain validation

Within the electronics industry, counterfeit electronic components entering the supply chain have steadily become an increasing threat accounting for more than 8 % of global merchandise trade and an annual $600 billion enterprise. Currently, there are not many cost-effective and nonintrusive solutions for counterfeit detection of electronic parts. In this paper, the authors present a statistical approach for detecting counterfeit components based on infrared (IR) analysis by the use of independent component analysis (ICA). As a prominent higher-order statistical analysis technique, ICA is capable of extracting relevant features from IR data. The latest applications and the extended algorithms of ICA have been elucidated for the purposes of classification and identification of counterfeit electronic parts. The theoretical framework of ICA is presented along with extensive experimental results to illustrate its feature extraction function in counterfeit electronic parts detection.