Improve Supply Chain Efficiency Research Articles

The Impact of Bankruptcy Reorganization on Operational Competitiveness and Supply Chain Performance

This paper examines how a firm's financial distress and the legal environment regarding the ease of bankruptcy reorganization can alter product market competition and supplier-buyer relationships. We identify three effects, predation, bail-out, and abetment, that can change firms' behavior from their actions in the absence of financial distress. The predation effect increases competition before potential bankruptcy as the non-distressed competitor behaves as if it has some first-mover advantage, which could benefit a supplier with price control. The bailout effect reflects the supplier's incentive to grant the distressed firm concessions to preserve competition, improving supply chain efficiency and providing support for the exclusivity rule in Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code when the supplier and the distressed firm are financially linked. The abetment effect is that the supplier may deliberately abet the competitor's predation, leading to increased operational disadvantages for the distressed firm before bankruptcy. Together these effects stress that a firm's bankruptcy potential can hurt its competitors and benefit its suppliers/customers. They also provide guidelines for firms' operational decisions in such situations, a rationale for observed firm actions surrounding bankruptcies, and motivation for policies supporting reorganization and relaxing broad enforcement of non-discriminatory pricing regulations.

Business Impact Analysis Based on Supply Chain's Knowledge Sharing ability

Abstract Supply Chain is not the material chain, but also knowledge of the supply chain on 21st Century.The article outlines the significance of supply chain knowledge sharing.By the Prisoner's Dilemma Model of game theory,the article analyses the affectial relationship between knowledge sharing among enterprises and corporate earnings in the supply chain. The article came to the conclusion that knowledge sharing among enterprises would help the whole supply chain to maximize total revenue and improve supply chain efficiency and knowledge sharing success rate.

Foreign Direct Investment in India’s Retail Bazaar: Opportunities and Challenges

AbstractDespite encouraging signs, India’s retail market remains largely off‐limits to large international retailers like Wal‐Mart and Carrefour. Opposition to liberalising foreign direct investment in this sector raises concerns about employment losses, unfair competition resulting in large‐scale exit of incumbent domestic retailers and infant industry arguments to protect the organised domestic retail sector that is at a nascent stage. Based on international evidence, we suggest that allowing entry by large international retailers into the Indian market may help tackle inflation especially in food prices. Moreover, technical know‐how from foreign firms, such as warehousing technologies and distribution systems, can improve supply chain efficiency in India, in particular for agricultural produce. Better linkages between demand and supply have the potential to improve the price signals that farmers receive and also serve to enhance agricultural and other exports.

Sales effort free riding and coordination with price match and channel rebate

This paper studies sales effort coordination for a supply chain with one manufacturer and two retail channels, where an online retailer offers a lower price and free-rides a brick-and-mortar retailer’s sales effort. The free riding effect reduces brick-and-mortar retailer’s desired effort level, and thus hurts the manufacturer’s profit and the overall supply chain performance. To achieve sales effort coordination, we designed a contract with price match and selective compensation rebate. We also examined other contracts, including the target rebate contract and the wholesale price discount contract, both with price match. The numerical analysis shows that the selective rebate outperforms other contracts in coordinating the brick-and-mortar retailer’s sales effort and improving supply chain efficiency.

Telematic platform for integral management of agricultural/perishable goods in terrestrial logistics

At the same time as the Global Positioning System (GPS) has been applied to vehicle tracking and fleet management, other Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have also been proposed to improve supply chain efficiency. Among them, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), and more recently wireless sensors, both currently dominate the research literature. However, many of these proposals lack realistic architecture, system integration in the supply chain, flexibility and cost-efficiency. In addition, several important research gaps need to be filled, such as driver identification, automatic management of journey schedule and security issues involved in wireless communications while collecting data. This paper copes with these issues by: proposing a telematic platform of an integral nature, enhancing tracking and tracing capabilities for vehicles and goods, giving a secure solution to the problem of installing wireless processing units in truck trailers and cabs, identifying drivers and journey itineraries, and assuring freight environmental parameters during the journey. Hardware and software prototypes have been successfully developed and tested in real vehicle case studies, including the transportation of agricultural products in the southeast of Spain.

Supply chain innovation and organizational performance in the healthcare industry

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine supply chain (SC) innovation for improving organisational performance in the healthcare industry.Design/methodology/approachA research model is proposed which describes the impact of SC innovation, supplier cooperation, SC efficiency, and quality management (QM) practices on organisational performance. The proposed research model and hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling based on data collected from 243 hospitals.FindingsThe results of the study support that organisational performance is positively associated with constructs of each SC innovation factor. Innovative design of SC has a significant impact on selection of and cooperation with excellent suppliers, improved SC efficiency, and encouragement of QM practices.Research limitations/implicationsThe data used in this study were collected from relatively large hospitals with more than 100 beds in South Korea. The generalization of the study results may be limited by the size of sample hospitals.Originality/valueThis study provides useful planning information in the healthcare industry. The results suggest successful implementation of SC management is attained through continuous SC innovation with supplier cooperation, which in turn improves organisational performance.

A review of RFID technology and its managerial applications in different industries

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is an emerging technology that is increasingly being used in supply chain management. RFID technology plays an important role in supporting logistics and supply chain processes because of their ability to identify, trace and track information throughout the supply chain. The technology can provide suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers precise real time information about the products. This accurate knowledge of the inventory would result in lower labor cost, simplified business processes and improved supply chain efficiency. If properly used, it has the potential to cut ordering lead time and cost on inventory control, increase the accuracy of inventory information, help avoid stockouts and boost the number of inventory turns. In this paper, we provide an overview of the current state of RFID applications in different industries and its impact on business operations. We provide extensive literature survey and develop a framework for future research areas in this field.

Multi-Period Modeling of Two-Way Price Commitment Under Price-Dependent Demand

This paper examines the use of linear-pricing contracts as well as price-commitment policies in dynamic contracting of multiple-period, finite-time horizons. Two specific forms of price commitment are considered: one on the part of the retailer through retail-fixed-markup contracts and one on the part of the manufacturer through price-protection contracts. Optimal policies for each form of price commitment are analytically derived as are optimal policies for the traditional price-only and centralized supply chain scenarios. We prove that under non-increasing price-dependent demand, there are unique optimal solutions in each period for retail price and order size. We show that the existence of retailer inventories between periods causes the supply chain performance to differ from a static single-period model. Further, we show that a supplier offers a price-protection policy as a signal to the retailer to resolve the gaming that naturally occurs under price-only and effectively decouples the multi-period dynamic contracting setting into repeated single-period scenarios. However, this can actually inhibit supply chain performance. On the retail commitment side, we find that retail-fixed-markup policies are quite effective in improving supply chain efficiency. We show that such policies can lead to Pareto-improvement over price-only and can even coordinate the supply chain in some situations.

Management Insights

Management Insights

The Indian dry ports sector, pricing policies and opportunities for public-private partnerships

At the time of writing (2010), the world is witnessing the aftermath of the most severe financial sector meltdown in modern economic history caused by the real estate bubble in the United States. Its consequences on the real economy, especially in Europe, are yet to be fathomed, and this of course includes the longer-term impacts on international ocean transportation, ports and the distribution of global production. The economic recession has left the international shipping and port sectors with substantial overcapacity. This has resulted in drastic cost cutting measures on the one hand, and voluntary, often consensual, and coordinated reduction of supply on the other. These measures, together with a noticeable recovery in demand, are gradually leading again to improvement in prices charged by carriers and other transport service providers. In view of the country’s expanse; size of population; and regional inequalities, India’s dry ports (inland cargo consolidation and distribution centres) are seen by the government as a pivot of export-led growth and economic development ( Haralambides & Gujar, 2011). Moreover, public and private sectors alike see the coordinated development of dry ports as the only way forward in terms of easing pressures at congested coastal ports, thus improving supply chain efficiency. In spite of this, dry port development and operations are still dominated by the public sector, under prices, capacity, land acquisition policies and other conditions that make private sector participation risky and comparatively unattractive. In order to rationalize dry port capacity and prices, this paper argues in favour of greater devolution through competition-enhancing Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). The paper puts forward recommendations for the necessary legal, regulatory and general economic policy interventions based on international best practice, while keeping Indian specificities in the right perspective.

A Hybrid Meta-heuristic Approach For Integrated Capacitated Multi-Commodity Logistics Optimization Over Planning Horizon

Associated with a strategic optimization of logistics network design to improve supply chain efficiency, we proposed a method termed hybrid tabu search, and applied it to various real-life problems through imposing additionally practical conditions on the basic model according to situations. Since multi-commodity delivery is popular in practice, we can make a more reliable and operational decision by simultaneously taking into accounts dynamic circumstances. In this study, therefore, we have extended the previous method to cope with this aspect that has scarcely considered so far, i.e., dynamic integrated capacitated multi-commodity. Numerical experiments revealed the role of inventory management over planning horizon and the validity of the proposed method through comparison with the results from commercial software.

Contracting in Supply Chains: A Laboratory Investigation

The coordination of supply chains by means of contracting mechanisms has been extensively explored theoretically but not tested empirically. We investigate the performance of three commonly studied supply chain contracting mechanisms: the wholesale price contract, the buyback contract, and the revenue-sharing contract. The simplified setting we consider utilizes a two-echelon supply chain in which the retailer faces the newsvendor problem, the supplier has no capacity constraints, and delivery occurs instantaneously. We compare the three mechanisms in a laboratory setting using a novel design that fully controls for strategic interactions between the retailer and the supplier. Results indicate that although the buyback and revenue-sharing contracts improve supply chain efficiency relative to the wholesale price contract, the improvement is smaller than the theory predicts. We also find that although the buyback and revenue-sharing contracts are mathematically equivalent, they do not generally result in equivalent supply chain performance.

Retailer-Supplier Relationship in Hong Kong: Asymmetry, Power Play, and the Need for Supply Chain Management

This study investigates the characteristics of retailer-supplier relationship in Hong Kong, identify problems in it, and suggest ways to remedy them. We will demonstrate that Hong Kong’s retail industry was and is dominated by small and medium sized retailers. However, small retailers in Hong Kong have not adopted new retail technologies to manage their supply chains. This situation is undermining the efficiency of Hong Kong’s retail industry as a whole. We suggest information system providers, the management of small retailers, and suppliers to take steps to improve supply chain efficiency for small retailers. Information system providers could help through designing affordable implementation and common modules. We recommend suppliers in Hong Kong to actively build network, cultivate trust, and equip them with advance information system. Small and medium sized retailers in Hong Kong need to invest in the required resources to implement retail information systems. The government of Hong Kong can play a supportive role as well through non-profit organizations and programs that target retail technology for small businesses.

Random yield and uncertain demand in decentralised supply chains under the traditional and VMI arrangements

Both random yield and uncertain demand are common occurrences in the semiconductor industry. This paper studies a decentralised supply chain comprised of a single manufacturer and a single distributor for a short life-cycle product with random yield and uncertain demand. We analyse two alternatives for doing business. One alternative is the traditional supply chain arrangement, where the distributor is fully responsible for the inventory decision whereas the manufacturer is fully responsible for the production decision. The other alternative is the vendor-managed-inventory (VMI) arrangement, where the manufacturer (vendor) is fully responsible for the entire production and inventory decisions in the supply chain. We characterise the optimal production and inventory decisions under both arrangements. We also compare the individual firms and supply chain performance under the traditional and VMI arrangements. Our results provide insights into how firms can choose the right supply chain arrangement to improve supply chain efficiency.

RFID‐enabled systems: a brief review

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the most important engineering and prominent technology of the day, radio frequency identification (RFID), and the RFID‐enabled systems from the current literature.Design/methodology/approach – Provides a general review of RFID systems.Findings – RFID technologies and information systems can be used to develop new systems on of off the web. RFID is an emerging technology with full benefits to be emerged in several years to all industries worldwide. It will bring a good opportunity for improving supply chain efficiency and hence the safety of the public in return.Research limitations/implications – RFID has the potential to change the way the business is done today.Practical implications – Some years down the road, new ways can be introduced for the entire world to do their business within the framework of a supply chain system.Originality/value – Reviews the current state‐of‐the‐art on the RFID‐enabled systems and its future opportunities.

RFID/USN 기술을 이용한 전력설비관리 서비스 구현

무선 통신 기술이 발달함에 따라 유비쿼터스 환경에 대한 많은 연구가 진행되고 있다. 초기 물류분야에서 활용되었던 RFID기술은 점차적으로 센싱 기능을 추가하면서 발전하고 있고, 추후에는 이 센서들 간의 네트워크가 구축되어 USN (Ubiquitous Sensor Network) 형태로 발전해나갈 것이다. 본 연구에서는 전력설비에 대한 감시 감독을 위해 RFID를 이용하여 전력 설비에 대한 자산 관리나 감시 및 순시에 대한 정보를 기록, 관리하며, 다양한 센서를 이용하여 전력 설비에 대한 실시간 정보를 수집할 수 있도록 USN을 활용하는 전력설비관리 서비스 프레임워크를 구현하였다. 안정적인 전력 공급을 위해서는 전력 선로에 대한 안전성 확보가 중요한 요소이며, 이를 위해 실시간 감시는 매우 중요한 요소 중 하나이다. 현재는 중요 설비에 대하여 광케이블이나 PLC 등과 같은 유선 통신망을 설치하여 감시 정보를 수집하고 있다. 본 연구에서는 고가의 유선망을 설치하지 않고 무선 통신 기반의 저가형 센서를 이용하여 데이터를 수집하고 전송할 수 있도록 무선센서노드를 개발하였다. 또한 각 장비로부터 실시간으로 전송되는 데이터를 안정적으로 수집하고 필터링 및 요약을 통해 응용 프로그램에 정보를 제공할 수 있도록 서비스 프레임워크를 설계하였으며, 이를 바탕으로 전력설비관리 서비스를 개발하였다. Research of ubiquitous computing becomes more popular topic along with the rapid development of wireless technologies. Firstly, research and development on RFID focuses on manufacturing and retail sectors, because it can improve supply chain efficiency. But, it changes to USN (Ubiquitous Sensor Network) by adding a sensor and wireless network technologies on it. In this research, we design and implement the electric facility management service framework to collect real time information of electric facility using RFID/USN. In electric power industry, it is important the supply of energy must be guaranteed. So many power utilities control and supervise the transmission line to avoid power failures. Utilities install many types of sensor to monitor important facilities by wired network such as optical cable and PLC. In this research, we develop the sensor node which is small, easy to install and using wired network. We design the service framework for electric facility management to collect data using RFID tag, reader and wireless sensor nodes and implement the electric facility management service.

Improving Supply Chain Efficiency Through Wholesale Price Renegotiation

In a decentralized supply chain, double marginalization is an important source of inefficiency. We suggest in this paper a simple mechanism to reduce it that uses a wholesale price contract and renegotiation. Our mechanism only requires repeated interaction, and rational behavior from the players. Specifically, over T rounds of negotiation, the supplier proposes different prices in each round, and the buyer places orders at the quoted price. Even though prices are decreasing in time, the buyer places a positive order, to force the supplier to reduce its price in the following round. This interaction results in higher profits for both supplier and buyer. We solve the buyer and supplier problems and show that, as T increases, supply chain efficiency tends to 100%, and the sub-optimality gap decreases with 1/T. Finally, we discuss how these results can be applied to design negotiation processes.

An Empirical Assessment of the Impact of SCM Practices on Quality Performance: A Case in the Indian Automobile Industry

Many Indian firms striving to improve their competitive potential have adopted supply chain management (SCM) practices because they consider them to be the next source of opportunity to improve operational efficiency. The automobile industry, in particular, has taken the lead in this mind-set. Indian vehicle manufacturers, who can be considered a focal point in the automobile supply chain, have been struggling to deal with the difficult task of achieving high customer satisfaction while maintaining cost competitiveness. As the Indian automobile industry prepares to make its mark globally, the need to improve supply chain efficiency is being given high priority.

Two-Wholesale-Price Contracts: Push, Pull, and Advance-Purchase Discount Contracts

The allocation of inventory ownership affects the inventory availability in a supply chain, which in turn determines the supply chain performance. In this paper, we consider a supplier-retailer supply chain in which the supplier starts production well in advance of the selling season, and the retailer is offered two ordering opportunities at different points in time. An early order is allowed before the supplier’s production decision, and a late order is allowed after the completion of production and after observing the demand. When the two wholesale prices change, we illustrate how the inventory decision rights and ownership are shifted and/or shared between the two firms, resulting in push, pull, or advance-purchase discount contracts. We then characterize the complete set of Pareto-dominant contracts for any given two-wholesale-price contract. We find that Pareto improvement can be achieved when inventory ownership is shifted from individual to shared and sometimes vice versa. In the latter case, push contracts not only are more likely to offer Pareto improvement, but also can achieve higher supply chain efficiency than pull contracts. We also identify conditions that enable Pareto improvement by introducing a new ordering opportunity to firms that had been bound by a single ordering opportunity without renegotiating the existing wholesale price, and we demonstrate through a numerical study that the adoption of the new ordering opportunity can significantly improve supply chain efficiency. We show that such Pareto improvement is more likely to happen when demand is more volatile.

Improving logistics visibility in a supply chain: an integrated approach with radio frequency identification technology

Third Party Logistics (3PL) becomes more important nowadays as it aims to improve supply chain efficiency through reducing cycle time and inventory level for both upstream suppliers and downstream retailers. However, many small to medium-sized 3PL providers in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region still highly rely on manual processes, which make them difficult to achieve the role of supply chain facilitators. In this study, a logistics information hub named Integrated Logistics Information Management System (ILIMS) adopting Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is presented to suit this need. With ILIMS, 3PL companies are provided with unified business processes with enhanced tracking capability. A case study is discussed in applying ILIMS to a medium-sized 3PL company. Through using this generic system, the logistics visibility in the supply chain is improved with significant reduction of delivery time, supply cost, inventory and out-of-stock frequency that lead to increase of revenue and operations volume.