Successful Supply Chain Management Research Articles

ПРИНЦИПИ РОЗВИТКУ ІНФОРМАЦІЙНОГО ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ ЛОГІСТИЧНИХ ПРОЦЕСІВ У ТОРГІВЛІ

he development of information support for logistical processes in trade encompasses various aspects aimed at optimizing and improving their efficiency. However, issues such as system instability or obsolescence, software deficiencies, and limited compatibility among them can complicate the implementation of new technologies. The increasing volume of digital information requires security measures to preserve data confidentiality and integrity. Based on a thorough analysis of the key principles of developing information support for logistical processes in trade, it has been demonstrated that the integration of technologies, digital transformation, openness, standardization, analytics, forecasting, flexibility, scalability, security provision, mobility, as well as collaboration and data exchange are crucial principles for successful supply chain management. These principles are interrelated and complementary creating a solid foundation for enhancing efficiency, optimizing costs, and improving customer satisfaction. It is argued that implementing these principles enables companies to quickly adapt to changes in market conditions, effectively respond to challenges in the modern business environment, and ensure a high level of competitiveness. This is made possible by optimizing logistical processes, reducing order processing time, improving demand forecasting accuracy, and ensuring supply continuity. It is argued that the successful implementation of these principles requires companies not only to adopt advanced technologies but also to be prepared for cultural changes, including openness to innovation, willingness to collaborate, and data exchange among all participants in the logistics chain. Through this, companies can create an efficient, flexible, and secure logistics system capable of meeting the needs of the modern market and ensuring high customer satisfaction. The development of information support for logistical processes in trade, based on the principles of technology integration, digital transformation, flexibility, and other key aspects, forms the basis for increasing efficiency, reducing costs, and improving service. Collaboration and data exchange provide companies with the ability to quickly adapt to market changes, optimize supply chains, and ensure competitiveness. The use of modern technologies and approaches, including mobility and data security provision, plays a crucial role in creating an effective and reliable logistics system.

The importance of supply chain integration in the performance nexus: A case from developing country

Effective supply chain management (SCM) hinges on seamless integration among stakeholders, a concept extensively explored in literature. This involves efficient coordination, collaboration, and swift information sharing to align everyone toward common goals, ultimately reducing costs and inefficiencies. Integration enhances communication decision-making and standardizes processes, reducing errors and waste. Organizations must continually assess and monitor integration processes, emphasizing effective communication and collaboration in areas such as vendor management, procurement, and distribution. Success in SCM depends on vigilant monitoring and assessment of integration strategies, ensuring optimized outcomes. The study conducted a quantitative data analysis with survey questionnaires. The study found that for sustainable supply chains, it is essential to consider the competitive priorities of networked firms, industry type, and stakeholder collaboration. Different industries require varying levels of supply chain integration, necessitating exploration of integration-related topics for a comprehensive understanding. Sustainable supply chains depend on member collaboration, ethical practices, and a balance of economic and environmental considerations. Specifically, the agricultural food sector's focus on sustainability drives the demand for better integration. The lack of integration results in inefficiencies, higher costs, and a lack of collaboration, preventing the realization of potential benefits. Current research aims to explore the reliability of adopting SCM integration methods in the Asian agricultural food industry. This research explored the practical aspects of integrating supply chains in this sector that was neglected in the Asian agricultural food industries, hindering efficiency and cost reduction.

Research on the Walmarts Successful Application of Supply Chain Management

Walmart's success in supply chain management and its specific technologies for its application, and its business has been greatly benefited by supply chain management. The research method of this article uses literature reference hair, that is, the search and review of related literature. This article proposes that Walmart's successful application of supply chain management has improved its own development. Even Walmart played a role in promoting the supply chain managements evolution. This article's founding proves that the reasonable application of supply chain management is one of the important reasons for Walmart's success. In the future business development, other companies should learn from Walmart's experience in supply chain management to help their economic development.

Supply Chain Management Process of Textile Industry: A Case Study on Bangladesh

This research examines a descriptive analysis of Bangladesh's textile industry's process of export, import, and logistic system for yarn dyeing. Bangladesh's industrial sector, which includes the textile industry, is vital to the country's economic growth. In addition to meeting a significant portion of Bangladesh's foreign demand for clothes and apparel, the textile industry provides for about 100% of the country's internal demand. The textile industry is a complex supply chain that manufactures garments, complements, raw materials, and other items. As a traditional management tool, SCM enables manufacturers to work toward increasing the quality of their products, lowering the cost of their products and services, and speeding up product delivery and reaction times in a highly competitive market. Based on primary data of an organization which is Union Limited, a well-reputed and big textile base organization as well as secondary data from internet databases, journals, review articles, etc., this study was constructed. reduced stocks, reduced costs, increased productivity, more agility, shorter lead times, higher profitability, and increased customer loyalty are all aspects of the textile industry's successful supply chain management. This study discusses the overall processing of how a textile industry imports yarn, and how they deliver the final product to the consumer. This research paper will give the concept of the overall processing of the textile industry of Bangladesh.

Reverse Logistics Practices In Humanitarian Supply Chain Management: A Content Analysis

In recent years, natural disasters associated with human-induced factors and climate changes have increased. The humanitarian supply chain (HSC) provides a practical and rapid response to these disasters and deals with the destruction that may occur due to disasters. The use of reverse logistics, one of the key supply chain processes for successful supply chain management, is becoming widespread in the supply chain. Its use in HSC is limited. Considering the aim of HSC to create positive effects on the population affected by disasters, it is essential for the sustainability of resources and processes that they adopt reverse logistics practices. In this context, the study aims to analyze the usage area of reverse logistics in HSC operations and show where it can be applied in the future. In line with the purpose of the study, the annual reports and publications of aid organizations operating in Turkey were analyzed using the content analysis method, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts in humanitarian aid organizations. It has been concluded that humanitarian aid organizations know reverse logistics processes and have areas of use in their applications.

An overview of the SWOT analysis in India's pharmaceutical supply chain

PurposeThe Indian pharmaceutical industry has contributed significantly to global healthcare by securing superior-quality, inexpensive and reachable medicines worldwide. However, supply chain management (SCM) has been challenging due to constantly shifting requirements for short lifecycles of products, the convergence of industry and changeable realities on the ground. This study aims to identify, assess and prioritize the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of the pharmaceutical SCM environment in India.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs a Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat (SWOT) analysis and recognizes strategies to utilize the advantages of the strengths and opportunities, rectify weaknesses and resolve threats.FindingsA variety of strategies that could have a positive effect on the Indian pharmaceutical business are presented. Findings and suggested strategies can significantly advance knowledge, enhance understanding and contribute to the growth of a successful SCM for the Indian pharmaceutical sector.Originality/valueThis paper would act as a roadmap to greater comprehension of the market leaders and market leaders' operating climate. The findings from this study will offer academic scholars and business practitioners deeper insights into the environment of SCM.

Digital transformation of supply chain management in retail and e-commerce

PurposeThe purpose of studying digitization transformation of the supply chain is to understand how digital technologies and processes are changing the way supply chains operate and to identify the opportunities and challenges associated with this transformation. Studying digitization transformation of the supply chain is important because it can help global businesses in identifying the best practices in supply chain management (SCM) systems and enhance supply chain performance. Hence, this research study is contributing in revealing the outcomes of digital inclusiveness in overall SCM for the growth of retail and e-commerce based platforms.Design/methodology/approachThis research is using both descriptive and explanatory research designs to provide a comprehensive understanding of the problems in SCM. Descriptive research provides a detailed description of the characteristics of the population under study, while explanatory research identifies the causal relationships between the variables. Descriptive research has helped us to develop hypotheses about the relationships between variables that can be tested using explanatory research. Explanatory research has been used to validate the findings of descriptive research. By using both descriptive and explanatory research designs, our research design has increased the generalizability of our findings.FindingsAccording to this study, businesses intend to change their supply chain strategies after the wake of competitive era to make them more robust, sustainable and collaborative with suppliers, customers and stakeholders by investing more in SCM technology like Blockchain, AI, analytics, robotic process automation and data control centers. This study evaluates the impact of digitization on supply chain systems. This includes assessing the benefits of digitization and identifying the factors that contribute to successful implementation. This research is studying the role of data analytics in SCM and how it can be leveraged to improve efficiency, reduce costs and increase transparency.Research limitations/implicationsThe study highlights the importance of adopting digitization in supply chain systems to improve supply chain robustness, sustainability and collaboration with stakeholders. This study's emphasis on data analytics in SCM presents an opportunity for businesses to gain insights into their supply chain systems and make data-driven decisions. This can enhance efficiency, reduce costs and improve overall supply chain performance. The study's focus on SCM technology and data analytics may overlook other factors that contribute to successful SCM, such as organizational culture, human resources and supply chain governance.Originality/valueThis study will complement to the existing body of information, management theory and practice and will benefit all. The research work is original and can be implemented worldwide to promote digitization in SCM for smooth transactions in the entire chain of wholesalers, retail distributors and customers.

Quantitative evaluation of an information network in a supply chain

Effective supply chain management can be performed by utilizing information owned by each entity in a supply chain. Namely, it is critical for successful supply chain management to build an adequate information network to acquire necessary information among entities. This paper presents a method for quantitatively evaluating the adequacy of an information network in a supply chain. The method divides the information network into several sub-networks based on the types of information, such as demand, and inventory. Each sub-network i is evaluated using a sub-network evaluation index, calculated as the L1 distance between the vectors RIi and RVi, divided by the maximum sum of the ranking differences determined by the number of supply chain entities. RIi denotes the rank of the rate of each entity's information referred to by other entities, while RVi denotes the rank of information value each entity owns. The information network is then evaluated comprehensively as the evaluation index SCV, obtained by summing the weighted values of each sub-network evaluation index. We examined the proposed method through numerical examples using a supply chain model during a recovery process from disruption by a natural disaster, such as a tsunami. Results demonstrate that the method can quantitatively evaluate a supply chain information network based on its structure and the information value each entity owns, providing value for planning and designing information networks.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) Breakdowns and SCM Strategy Selection during the COVID-19 Pandemic Using the Novel Rough MCDM Model

Supply chain management (SCM) is deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic besides breakdowns occurred in all sectors. Nowadays, managers need techniques for protecting supply chains from serious and costly disruptions, establishing permanent relationships with the customers and partners and preventing breakdowns throughout the process. Each firm needs to determine SCM strategies to be prepared for breakdowns in an intense competitive environment. With COVID-19, the change in business and trade environments has taken a different dimension, and it has revealed a new relationship between the efforts to perpetuate supply chains and strategies for supply chain management and enabled new models. In this study, it is aimed to prioritize the factors that lead to SCM breaks needed in project management and the realization of projects, and to choose the most successful SCM strategy considering COVID-19. For this purpose, rough SWARA was used for weighting factors and rough MARCOS was used for the alternative selection. According to the findings, the transportation capacity factor was found to be the most important factor leading to SCM breakdowns. The most ideal supply chain management strategy has been the “collaborative supply chain management strategy.” In the food manufacturing sector, the study can be considered as a roadmap in terms of preventing supply chain management breaks during the COVID-19 process and helping to ensure a sustainable production. As another theoretical and practical importance of the study, it is aimed to propose a robust, powerful, and practical decision-making model that can cope with the current uncertainties.

Identifying Desirable Competencies for Supply Chain Management Professionals

As the human dimension becomes increasingly critical to overall success of supply chain management (SCM), practitioners, researchers, and educators face the daunting task of identifying requisite competencies for SCM professionals. By using a large, frequently-updated, publicly-available archive – O*NET, this research contrasts SCM and other business professionals to highlight the unique competencies that define the SCM profession. We find that SCM professionals need greater functional knowledge about operations (e.g., transportation, production), higher general knowledge in geography and foreign language, extensive interpersonal skills, and a person-oriented management style. Furthermore, while limited differences exist between purchasing and logistic managers in the SCM profession, they exhibit certain competencies that distinguish them from operation managers. Such results inform efforts at curriculum design, recruitment, career development, and corporate training by suggesting areas where it may well be advantageous to customize efforts toward ensuring that requisite competencies are addressed.

Identifying Desirable Competencies for Supply Chain Management Professionals

As the human dimension becomes increasingly critical to overall success of supply chain management (SCM), practitioners, researchers, and educators face the daunting task of identifying requisite competencies for SCM professionals. By using a large, frequently-updated, publicly-available archive – O*NET, this research contrasts SCM and other business professionals to highlight the unique competencies that define the SCM profession. We find that SCM professionals need greater functional knowledge about operations (e.g., transportation, production), higher general knowledge in geography and foreign language, extensive interpersonal skills, and a person-oriented management style. Furthermore, while limited differences exist between purchasing and logistic managers in the SCM profession, they exhibit certain competencies that distinguish them from operation managers. Such results inform efforts at curriculum design, recruitment, career development, and corporate training by suggesting areas where it may well be advantageous to customize efforts toward ensuring that requisite competencies are addressed.

Multicriteria negotiation model for selecting sustainable suppliers’ problem in the agribusiness

Paper aims The objective of this research is to propose a multicriteria negotiation model for selecting a sustainable packaging supplier in the food industry. The model aims to minimize the environmental, social and economic impacts of the production process of plastic while ensuring the operational criteria of packaging. Originality Despite the high number of scientific research using multicriteria decision-making suggested to select a supplier, the proposed negotiation model is innovative as it includes green manufacturing as a criterion for negotiation, alongside price and delivery time, to promote sustainable supply chain management. Research method The research method involves three stages: pre-negotiation, negotiation (based on FITradeoff), and post-agreement. The proposed model is illustrated using a case study of a Colombian slaughterhouse that needs to select a sustainable packaging supplier for the next two years. Main findings The main findings indicate that the proposed model that uses the FITradeoff for negotiation solves the problem of selecting sustainable packaging suppliers while promoting sustainable supply chain management in the agribusiness sector. Implications for theory and practice The model has implications for both theory and practice. It encourages interdependent companies to collaborate and enhances efficiency in greener terms for supply chains, buyer and seller firms. The proposition of an original integrative negotiation protocol for selecting sustainable suppliers in agribusiness can provide enterprises with a set of negotiation parameters to achieve successful sustainable supply chain management.

Small Business and the Supply Chain: The Influence of Social Intelligence on Relationship Resilience

The need for SME owner/managers to engage in building and maintaining collaborative business relationships is paramount for their success and the resilience of these relationships can be viewed as a crucial factor in successful supply chain management for SMEs. The present study investigates the relationship between the social intelligence of the SME owner/manager and relationship resilience between firms with which they do business. The objective of this study is to explore the relationship between four components of social intelligence (situational awareness, situational response, cognitive empathy, and social skills) of small to medium sized business owners/managers on the resilience of their supply chain relationships. A survey was conducted, and responses gathered from small business owner/managers and the data was analyzed using structural equation modeling. The study provided evidence that the four components of social intelligence are positively associated with relationship resilience.

Big Data in Supply Chain Management: A Systematic Literature Review

Big data analytics (BDA) have the potential to improve upon and change conventional supply chain management (SCM) techniques. Using BDA, organisations need to build the necessary skills to use big data effectively. Since BDA is relatively new and has few practical applications in SCM and logistics, a systematic review is needed to emphasise the most significant advancements in current research. The objectives are to evaluate and categorise the literature that addresses the big data potential in SCM and the current practises of big data in SCM. The Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was conducted to analyse several published papers between 2017 and 2022. It follows four steps: the literature collection, descriptive analysis, category selection, and material evaluation in a systematic review. The finding reveals that BDA has been applied in many supply chain functions. Furthermore, integrating BDA in SCM has several advantages, including improved data analytics capabilities, logistical operation efficiency, supply chain and logistics sustainability, and agility. Finally, the study emphasises the importance of using BDA to support the success of SCM in businesses.

The effect of supply chain learning on flexibility performance: an empirical study

Today’s intensely competitive business is undergoing significant shifts, which render it a challenging environment to compete in. Production processes are evolving as customer demands change, which leads to greater variability. Firms must respond to changing environmental conditions to remain sustainable. Companies today look for ways to overcome their problems not only on their own but also with their supply chains. Reduced cost and improved performance are two significant benefits of supply chain management. Because companies can work together in the face of challenging market conditions throughout their supply chains, it makes sense for them to collaborate. When companies work together, they can collaborate to produce better-designed products and more efficient manufacturing processes. Learning, supply chain integration, and flexibility throughout the supply chain are critical to successful supply chain management. In this study, the effect of supply chain learning on supply chain integration and production flexibility has been investigated. The mediating role of supply chain integration on the impact of supply-chain learning on production flexibility has been tested. For this purpose, survey data was collected from the 144 companies selected out of Turkey's largest exporting companies. The data were analyzed via structural equation modeling and process macro methods. As a result of the structural equation model analysis, it was found that supply chain learning significantly affects the chain’s integration and its production flexibility. As a result of the intermediation test, it was determined that the integration of the supply chain has a vital intermediary role regarding the effect of supply chain learning on the flexibility of production.

An Innovative Risk Matrix Model for Warehousing Productivity Performance

In today’s era of industrial economics, warehousing is a complex process with many moving parts and is required to contribute productively to the success of supply chain management. Therefore, risk management in warehouses is a crucial point of contention to ensure sustainability with global supply chain processes to accommodate good productivity performance. Therefore, this study aims to analyse risks factors that affect warehouse productivity performance towards a systematic identification of critical factors that managers should target to sustain and grow warehouse productivity. This study utilised a traditional risk matrix framework, integrating it with the Borda method and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique to produce an innovative risk matrix model. The results indicate that from the constructed ten warehouse operation risk categories and 32 risk factors, seven risk categories, namely operational, human, market, resource, financial, security and regulatory, including 13 risk factors were prioritised as the most critical risks impacting warehouse productivity performance. The developed risks analysis model guides warehouse managers in targeting critical risks factors that have a higher influence on warehouse productivity performance. This would be extremely helpful for companies with limited resources but seek productivity improvement and risks mitigation. Considering the increasing interest in sustainable development goals (economic, environmental, and social), arguably, this work support managers in boosting these goals within their organisation. This study is expected to benefit warehouse managers in understanding how to manage risk, handle unexpected disruptions, and improve performance in ever-changing uncertain business environments. It often has a profound effect on the productivity level of an organisation. This study proposes an innovative risks analysis model that aims to analyse risks, frame them, and rate them according to their importance, particularly for warehousing productivity performance.

Evaluation and selection of green suppliers for papermaking enterprises using the interval basic probability assignment-based intuitionistic fuzzy set

With the vigorous development of the global economy, modern enterprises have agreed to implement green supply chain management. The evaluation and selection of green suppliers plays a vital role in successful green supply chain management. As a multi-attribute group decision-making green supplier selection problem, it is difficult to fully describe the evaluation factors using precise numerical values and classical fuzzy sets, so it cannot assist enterprise managers in making completely reasonable decisions. Therefore, this paper proposes a green supplier evaluation and selection method based on interval BPA-based intuitionistic fuzzy sets. First, build a green supplier evaluation index system based on the characteristics of the papermaking enterprise's suppliers. Then, the intuitionistic fuzzy number is used to express the indicators of the evaluator for each supplier, and the intuitionistic fuzzy information is integrated through the organic combination of the IIFWA integration operator and the structural entropy weight to obtain the comprehensive evaluation value of the evaluator. Finally, the interval BPA-based intuitionistic fuzzy set method ranks the candidate suppliers and determines the best green supplier. Applying this method to the field of green supplier evaluation and selection can provide an effective method for enterprises to select suppliers scientifically and reasonably, which has practical reference value and practical significance.

APPLICATION OF LEAN SIX SIGMA IN THE TRANSPORT SECTOR OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN OF A LEADING FMCG IN THE UAE

Supply chain management helps improvise the goods, procedures, and operations of the business chain involved in distributing products and services, optimizing consumer loyalty and achieving a competitive edge in the marketplace. The logistics sector plays a significant role in its management. Six Sigma helps the organization identify and define problems, test hypotheses, brainstorm ideas, and schedule improvised plan execution to avoid unintended effects. This article provides a brief ideology and framework of how Six Sigma can be successfully implemented in the transportation sector of the supply chain of an FMCG company in the UAE to mitigate the issues faced in the sector, thereby helping to achieve successful supply chain management. The concept of DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control), which is the core tool in Six Sigma, is also discussed in this paper. The transportation industry is becoming more innovative and introducing Lean Six Sigma to transport goods from supplier to market. This has shown the results of process improvement with success. Trucking and transportation industries are doing less manufacturing on a per-diem using Lean Six Sigma methodology to improve their operations. Organizations' transportation departments have started using Lean tools to review preventive maintenance schedules with a team, including regional managers. As a result, they have a new preventative maintenance schedule. Logistics companies claim the principles of Lean are solid. Techniques such as "The Five" typically gain the job done and lead to discovering the cause of the issue with the least time, logically, and hint at appropriate solutions to fix the issues. Application of Six Sigma in the transport sector, bringing revolutionary output like increasing handling of container arrival by crane, reducing load and unloading with time spent around container arrival, helps make the handling more efficient. It could further improvements to the customs house agents' processes by using data to improve accuracy and shorten the time for preparing entry and shipping bills. The rates of use of incorrect entries made can be eliminated.

Review and analysis of artificial intelligence methods for demand forecasting in supply chain management

The proper selection of a demand forecasting method is directly linked to the success of supply chain management (SCM). However, today’s manufacturing companies are confronted with uncertain and dynamic markets. Consequently, classical statistical methods are not always appropriate for accurate and reliable forecasting. Algorithms of Artificial intelligence (AI) are currently used to improve statistical methods. Existing literature only gives a very general overview of the AI methods used in combination with demand forecasting. This paper provides an analysis of the AI methods published in the last five years (2017-2021). Furthermore, a classification is presented by clustering the AI methods in order to define the trend of the methods applied. Finally, a classification of the different AI methods according to the dimensionality of data, volume of data, and time horizon of the forecast is presented. The goal is to support the selection of the appropriate AI method to optimize demand forecasting.

Location selection of a manufacturing unit using BWM and ELECTRE III

One of the most essential factors in a company's overall supply chain management success is the location of its manufacturing facilities. Due to the emerging energy crisis, the demand for insulation materials is rising, which increases the competition for insulation material companies. To stay competitive, the companies might consider expanding to different locations. This decision entails the consideration of various factors and alternatives, which could be formulated as a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. This paper contributes to the problem of location selection in the chemical industry, by implementing two MCDM methods, Best-Worst Method (BWM) and ELECTRE III, in a real-world case company. Based on a thorough literature study and data from interviews with the decision-makers, seven criteria and nine countries as alternatives were chosen. The BWM was used to elicit the weights of all the criteria from a group of decision-makers. Then, ELECTREE III was used to generate a ranking of the alternative countries. Based on the results, the main recommendation to the case company was to choose France as the most appropriate location for the new manufacturing unit. The findings of this research have insights for other companies in the chemical industry deciding on new locations for their manufacturing.