Supply Chain Flow Research Articles

Deployment of RFID sensors in supply chain management – a review

Supply chain is a seamless network of activities and stakeholders involved in any business. It ensures a smooth flow of goods, products and services. In the modern global setting, supply chains have become more complex and inclusion of technology is providing great benefits. Robust technology is needed for identification, tracking and monitoring of the various goods and assets during the supply chain. One such emerging technology for this is RFID sensors. RFID is a popular wireless technology capable of collecting, storing and transmitting data and thus identifying, tracking and communicating. The two main components of RFID systems are tags and readers each of which perform a crucial and specific function. Tags are basically the memory, storing data received by the reader. Readers retrieve the data and transmit it to tags using an antenna. RFID technology has greatly replaced its counterpart and competitive technology- barcodes, in supply chains. It provides various benefits as compared to barcodes due to which it has got increased attention in various fields such as supply chains, healthcare, agriculture, food industry, manufacturing, libraries, security etc. Supply chain management deals with the flow of activities or processes included in any business, production activities. During this entire journey from raw material procurement to final dispatch a number of smaller supply chains are included each of which are critical. RFID technology has been largely deployed in supply chain management in order to identify, track and store information. These RFID systems enable real time monitoring of the supply chain and gives an upper-hand as compared to barcodes. RFID systems are not only used for storing and retrieving product data but also to monitor and track the flow of the entire supply chain. In the case of cold chains, RFID systems are used for maintaining the environment needed for ensuring quality of food products. Various such applications of these sensors in supply chains have been identified and deployed, However, still this technology remains to be dormant to some extent in supply chain industry. This review paper is aimed at doing a thorough literature review of RFID technology, its deployment in the supply chain domain, and challenges faced.

Managing supply chains during COVID-19 outbreak: a case of Hong Kong toy manufacturing company

PurposeThis study aims to identify key supply chain challenges and opportunities of the case of Hong Kong toy manufacturing company during the COVID-19 outbreak and develop a comprehensive structural relationship to rank them.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, a toy model company in Hong Kong is considered to discuss about what challenges and opportunities have the biggest impacts on non-necessary goods companies and how to deal with different impacts on entire supply chain flow disruption during COVID-19. A semi-structured interview with five decision-makers from the company was made to give key challenges and opportunities scores. The Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) technique is used to establish the model and rank them afterward to overcome the challenges.FindingsFrom the data analysis and results, “salary of employee” and “inconvenient transportation” have emerged as top and bottom key challenges respectively. The sequence of organized challenges in the list needs to mitigate one by one in this order to improve the supply chain performance. The “client's orders’ frequency, customer management” and “supplier/partner relationship management” are identified as the top and bottom respectively to develop the opportunities.Research limitations/implicationsThese key challenges and opportunities are identified as contributing attributes and provide the way to measure to improve production, profits and sustainable growth of the toy manufacturing company during a pandemic. Moreover, it helps to improve the distribution level and good planning with appropriate decision making to manage the supply chain performance considering humanitarian aspects during a pandemic outbreak.Originality/valueThe novelty of this study is to identify the key supply chain challenges and opportunities measured by the TOPSIS method to rank them and consider the case of a Hong Kong toy manufacturing company as a case-based approach to measuring its performance during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Environmental benefits of circular economy approach to use of cobalt

Cobalt is an important critical material and a constituent of a broad range of products such as batteries, electronics, superalloys, and hard metals. Effective recycling of cobalt is considered one of the most pivotal processes in alleviating its criticality. In this paper, using the dynamic modelling of material, energy, and water flows in cobalt supply chain, we show that by 2050 around 25% of the total demand for cobalt could be supplied by recycling. Our results indicate that, compared to the primary production of cobalt, its recycling might lead to a reduction of energy consumption by 46% associated with the global cobalt supply chain and the corresponding fall in the use of water by 40%. In addition, recycling of cobalt is estimated to mitigate around 59% of the total emissions of greenhouse gases and 98% of the total emissions of sulfur oxides. Finally, we present the regionally distributed projections of cobalt-related energy and water use from 2020 to 2050.

Assessing Green Supply Chain OperationReference with Life Cycle Inventory: The Case ofGamboeng Green Tea, Indonesia

This study aims to assess the performance of the Gamboeng green tea production system using the Green Supply Chain Operation Reference (GreenSCOR). Fifteen environmental performance indicators were incorporated in the five main processes in the supply chain: planning, sourcing, production, delivery and return. The data were collected from field observations of the supply chain structure and flow process inventory, then validated through in-depth interview with key informants. Data inventory of processes was utilized for measuring several indicators especially in the planning process and the realization of the plan in the production process. Gamboeng tea has an advantage score in indicator of realization (15%) for use of clean energy source (i.e., wood pellet) to substitute liquified petroleum gas as well as for using environmentally friendly packaging, zero waste disposal and total recyclable waste. Further improvements are recommended for the five performance indicators, particularly in the planning process, such as providing training and education for personnel about environmental awareness and management, planning for minimizing water usage, planning in minimizing inorganic fertilizer usage, screening suppliers, and using larger portions of wood pellets.

Forecasting Pada Rantai Pasok Pabrik Penggilingan Daging Menggunakan Metode Time Series

Meat is one of the livestock products that can hardly be separated from human life because of its nutritional content and can lead to satisfaction or enjoyment for those who consume it, but this is less desirable in consuming meat because of its tough nature, so it is not easy to chew or swallow. Then it will be processed first before finally being consumed. One way of processing, namely by grinding. Meat milling is one of the businesses that aims to meet consumer needs and provide convenience for business actors selling snacks, especially processed meat. The purpose of this study is to determine the supply chain flow of the meat mill and its marketing efficiency and to find out the best forecasting method for planning future production sales. The research method used in this research is the method of forecasting or forecasting. Forecasting is determined using the time series method and the error rate is analyzed using MAD, MSE, and MAPE. The results showed that the supply chain (product flow, flow, and information flow) at the meat mill and its marketing was efficient with a value of 7.12%. As for the results of the best forecasting method, namely least square with the smallest MAPE which is worth 3.3 for consumers and for milled meat processing entrepreneurs of 3.44. With this research, it is hoped that the problems that exist in the field can be identified so that further efforts are made to improve the meat milling supply chain

Identification of Waste Supply Chain Flow to Improve Performance

Semarang city has the amount of waste that piled up in the Landfill as much as 850 tons/day with the amount of unmanaged waste as is 100 tons/day. This phenomenon needs to be identified and evaluated for the flow of waste disposal from upstream to downstream. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the flow of the waste supply chain and simulate it to determine the performance of waste handling in an area. The research method begins with a supply chain questionnaire which will then be statistically tested to be used as input for supply chain flow generation and simulation using Arena software. Based on the identification of the supply chain, the flow of the waste supply chain in the Wonosari area of Semarang is from households to the garbage dump to be taken to the landfill as far as 10 km. From the landfill, it is further processed into a selling value product. In this study, waste from the landfill is also the input material for the paving block production workshop (WPBP FT) at the Faculty of Engineering, Dian Nuswantoro University. Plastic waste will be used as a mixed material for making paving blocks. The supply chain simulation results using Arena show that the performance is good.

An agent-based modeling framework for the design of a dynamic closed-loop supply chain network

The supply chain is a dynamic and uncertain system consisting of material, information, and fund flows between different organizations, from the acquisition of the raw materials to the delivery of the finished products to the end customers. Closed-loop supply chains do not end with the delivery of the finished products to the end customers, the process continues until economic value is obtained from the returned products or they are disposed properly in landfills. Incorporating reverse flows in supply chains increases the uncertainty and complexity, as well as complicating the management of supply chains that are already composed of different actors and have a dynamic structure. Since agent-based modeling and simulation is a more efficient method of handling the dynamic and complex nature of supply chains than the traditional analytical methods, in this study agent-based modeling methodology has been used to model a generic closed-loop supply chain network design problem with the aims of integrating customer behavior into the network, coping with the dynamism, and obtaining a more realistic structure by eliminating the required assumptions for solving the model with analytical methods. The actors in the CLSC network have been defined as agents with goals, properties and behaviors. In the proposed model dynamic customer arrivals, the changing aspects of customers' purchasing preferences for new and refurbished products and the time, quantity and quality uncertainties of returns have been handled via the proposed agent-based architecture. To observe the behavior of the supply chain in several conditions various scenarios have been developed according to different parameter settings for the supplier capacities, the rate of customers being affected by advertising, the market incentive threshold values, and the environmental awareness of customers. From the scenarios, it has been concluded that the system should be fed in the right amounts for the new and refurbished products to increase the effectiveness of factors such as advertising, incentives, and environmental awareness for achieving the desired sales amounts and cost targets.

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGY AND TECHNOLOGY CHANGES

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant problems in supply chain system worldwide. Shifts in supply and demand caused by the pandemic have put pressure on manufacturing, production, and service. Companies have struggled to maintain a steady flow of supply chain. They were not prepared to face a situation like this as it was unprecedented. They do not have proper strategies to deal with either. Currently, many organizations are still facing difficulties to create a sustainable supply chain system. This paper explores the impact of COVID-19 on supply chains strategy and technology changes. This paper also explores the issues related to the difficulty that COVID-19 had on manufacturing and information on what companies are doing to get back on track. This paper offers solutions and strategy for the next step to companies to manage their supply chain system properly in order to avoid and prevent the same issues that may happen again. Keywords The COVID-19, Strategy of Process, Digital Supply Chain, Diversifying of Supply Chain

Technology innovation and business model of palm oil miniplant for food and energy

Palm oil is Indonesia’s main export commodity and has many contributions to the economy. Palm Oil Mill is built by private or state-owned company with the minimum capacity of 30 tph and far from smallholder plantations. Transportation costs and delays have caused the quality of fresh fruit bunch decrease and prices have dropped in the farmer level. This study aimed to design a palm oil mini plant by evaluating existing technology, innovating process, and equipment design, also analyzing financial aspect. The methods used in this research were literature study, laboratory test, interview, and observation. The selected process technology was sterilization using steam (t = 90 minutes, T = 130°C, P = 300 kPa), threshing with rotating speed of 21 rpm, heating method in the digester (t = 14 minutes, T = 90°C, v = 23 rpm), extraction of oil palm fruit with a screw press machine (P = 4500 kPa, v = 11 rpm). The process of refining Crude Palm Oil (CPO) gone through 3 stages, namely degumming with water degumming, neutralization using deacidification, and fractionation using the dry method to produce Refined Palm Oil (RPO). Technological innovations were carried out in vertical sterilizers with the addition of water to the sterilizer when loading the fruits, the use of augers and improvements to the sterilization system. The value propositions of palm oil miniplant business model are the ease of bureaucracy, flexibility of small-scale industry, high quality (FFA<5%), and competitive prices. The supply chain flow starts from independent smallholder plantations to oil palm miniplants without going through collectors. The products are CPO, RPO which high antioxidants activity because of tocopherols and carotenoids content, and Palm Kernel (PK). The financial feasibility analysis of palm oil mini plant resulted in an NPV of IDR 15,068,339,048, IRR of 28%, BCR of 11,7 and PBP of 2,8 years. This study showed that the palm oil mill mini plant is financially feasible to build.

Green drivers and green enablers in pharmaceuticals supply chain: in the context of an emerging economy

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to comprehend the current state of green supply chain management (GSCM) and its drivers and enablers in the pharmaceutical supply chains (PSCs).Design/methodology/approachThis study developed a model consisting of the factors green drivers, green enablers and green practices. For this study, data were collected from 166 supply chain heads from 124 pharmaceutical companies operating in India. The data was empirically analysed using SmartPLS3 software.FindingsThe study revealed that in Indian PSCs, public pressure, supplier pressure and competitor pressure were the major drivers for GSCM practices and coercive pressures such as pressure from government and regulatory bodies were insignificant drivers. The results indicated that the influence of green drivers and green enablers altered with supply chain flow. Green drivers indicated higher influence at the upstream of PSCs whereas the influence of green enablers was higher at the downstream of PSCs. Furthermore, the study revealed that the factor “green enablers” was a good mediator for the relationship between “green drivers” and “GSCM practices” in PSCs.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was an extension work with the addition of external green drivers to the self-induced organizational activities. Further investigations can be done by including the “green barriers” construct in the conceptual model.Practical implicationsThis research connected the institutional theory with the resource-based view to understanding the role of green drivers and green enablers in greening PSC. For managers and regulators, this study provided clear insights on how to approach different supply chain drivers and enablers to maximize the impact of GSCM practices. Moreover, the findings of this study helped in incorporating knowledge about GSCM into a framework that can be used for defining strategies for setting up a sustainable PSC for pharmaceutical products leading to the development and growth of the pharmaceuticals industry.Originality/valueMost of the earlier studies on GSCM were at the firm level and some studies were at the supply chain level. To further enhance the scope of GSCM theory, this study was conducted at two different levels, first at the complete supply chain level and second at three different levels: upstream, firm-level and downstream.

Cost-effectiveness and gain-sharing scenarios for purchasing a blockchain-based application in the maritime supply chain

Maritime supply chain (MarSC) stakeholders interact with third parties (e.g. freight forwarders, 3PLs, financial institutes, custom authorities) to facilitate the cargo flow and exchange of information, documents, or financials. Hence, MarSC stakeholders are increasingly interested in innovative technological solutions that vouch for the authenticity and/or the ownership of digital assets without the control of a central third party. Extended research is carried out to prove how applications based on the distributed ledger technology or blockchain address these requirements, yet limited research investigates their purchasing process and economic implications. This paper uses the phytosanitary certificate in an international supply chain flow as a case study where interaction between multiple stakeholders is fundamental and analyses the purchase scenarios of a blockchain-based tool. To do so, it uses a theoretical model that identifies and quantifies the costs and benefits incurred by MarSC stakeholders, formulates gain-sharing scenarios and presents the results of a sensitivity analysis to show the dependence between the data-use and the potential economic gains it generates. The results show that freight forwarders could share economic benefits with shippers or consignees to anticipate purchasing a blockchain-based tool.

An Artificial-Immune-System-Based Algorithm Enhanced with Deep Reinforcement Learning for Solving Returnable Transport Item Problems

This paper proposes a new approach, i.e., virtual pooling, for optimising returnable transport item (RTI) flows in a two-level closed-loop supply chain. The supply chain comprises a set of suppliers delivering their products loaded on RTIs to a set of customers. RTIs are of various types. The objective is to model a deterministic, multi-supplier, multi-customer inventory routing problem with pickup and delivery of multi-RTI. The model includes inventory-level constraints, the availability of empty RTIs to suppliers, and the minimisation of the total cost, including inventory holding, screening, maintenance, transportation, sharing, and purchasing costs for new RTIs. Furthermore, suppliers with common customers coordinate to virtually pool their inventory of empty RTIs held by customers so that, when loaded RTIs are delivered to customers, each may benefit from this visit to pick up the empty RTI, regardless of the ownership. To handle the combinatorial complexity of the model, a new artificial-immune-system-based algorithm coupled with deep reinforcement learning is proposed. The algorithm combines artificial immune systems’ strong global search ability and a strong self-adaptability ability into a goal-driven performance enhanced by deep reinforcement learning, all tailored to the suggested mathematical model. Computational experiments on randomly generated instances highlight the performance of the proposed approach. From a managerial point of view, the results stress that this new approach allows for economies of scale and cost reduction at the level of all involved parties to about 40%. In addition, a sensitivity analysis on the unit cost of transportation and the procurement of new RTIs is conducted, highlighting the benefits and limits of the proposed model compared to dedicated and physical pooling modes.

Investigation of the nitrogen flows of the food supply chain in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, China during 1978–2017

Reactive nitrogen (Nr) is an indispensable material for food production. However, it may cause serious environmental problems. The enhancement of nitrogen management in the food supply chain is an effective way to reduce Nr loss and increase Nr use efficiency. While Nr flows in association with the food chain have synergy in a mega-region, in-depth investigations at a cross-regional scale have remained relatively undocumented. This study developed a food-related Nr flow model based on a material flow analysis for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region (BTH) during the years 1978–2017. A multi-regional input-output method was applied to investigate the Nr emissions embodied in the transboundary food supply. The results showed that the total Nr emissions from the food system during the years 1978–2017 in the BTH region increased until 2004 and subsequently decreased gradually. In 2017, Beijing exhibited the lowest Nr emissions per capita (2.3 kg N/cap) and per land use (3089 kg N/km2), while Hebei and Tianjin demonstrated the greatest Nr emissions intensity by capita (13.6 kg N/cap) and by land use (6392 kg N/km2), respectively. While farming and livestock husbandry dominated the regional Nr emissions (i.e., responsible for 90% of the total in 2017), food consumption and waste management have had an increasingly substantial role, as their shared percentage in the total increased by 22% over the study period. Nr emissions resulting from the inner-transboundary food supply chain decreased by 81% between 2012 and 2015 but dramatically increased by 231% between 2015 and 2017. This rebound effect partially resulted from the implementation of coordinated development planning for the BTH region in 2015. This study can facilitate the efficient regulation of regional nitrogen flows and the desired transition of food supply chain.

Bibliometric Analysis of Publication Trends in Supply Chain Finance

Supply chain finance has received global concern as a research focus in recent years, which plays an important role in alleviating capital shortage of SMEs and optimizing capital flow in supply chain. Although the existing literature has explored supply chain finance from a variety of theories and subject perspectives, the vigorous development of supply chain finance practice has provided a numerous topic to be studied for the academic community. Therefore, the paper is to investigate the research direction and classification in the field of supply chain finance and bride this gap in the literature. R software was adopted as bibliometric analysis tools in this paper to obtain a comprehensive overview of supply chain finance and grasp the current research emphases. The Web of Science core collection database was used as the primary source for data collection. The data were collected from 380 articles published from 1997 to 2021. Finally, the paper draw conclusions based on publication years, authors, sources, countries, topics and keywords, and finds out the development status and research hotspots of the supply chain finance research field. It is expected that the conclusions from this study provide a better perspective on the future research direction and mining the underling opportunities for applying the theory to the practical financial management.

A supply chain flow model to assess agility in supply chains

This paper addresses the relevant topic of supply chain agility. Our work proposes a quantitative approach to evaluate and improve agility, in the context of a serial end-to-end supply chain. We define a metric to assess the agility of a supply chain. Then, we develop a supply chain flow model that integrates various parameters related to physical and information/decision flows such as production and logistics/transportation capacities and lead times, frozen planning horizons, target stocks … This flow model is then used to simulate the supply chain information and physical flows in the nominal mode and when a situation needing agility happens. The model enables to calculate the agility metric when no action is done as well as in situations where the use of some agility levers is considered. A numerical study is presented allowing to illustrate the model developed in this work. We also discuss some interesting insights we have obtained from real-life applications of our model.

Modelling and optimization of material flows in the wood pellet supply chain

To reduce the use of fossil fuels, forest-based biomass appears as an engaging source of energy. Nevertheless, logistics costs represent one of the main barriers in the use of forestry residues and wood waste for bioenergy and biofuels production. The relatively low energy density of biomass contributes to a higher transportation cost per unit of energy content compared with fossil fuels. Other issues, such as raw material availability, seasonality, production and storage capacity constraints, and transportation distances for product distribution also are critical in the management of biomass supply chain. The interconnectedness of these factors directly impacts into the movement of materials along the logistics chain. In this way, this paper researches the alternative of using forest residues and wood waste as raw material sources for wood pellet production through the modelling and optimization of all logistics activities performed in the supply chain. The objective is the minimization of the total operative cost, which in turn allows determining the minimum profitable selling price of produced pellets. Besides production and inventory decisions, the proposal determines the more profitable routes for biomass collection and pellets distribution. A standard decomposition technique, consisting in designing routes first and later computing products and raw material flows, is employed to solve the optimization problem. The proposal is tested on a large-size case study designed with real data from the forest industry in the Argentinean Mesopotamia. Due to the close interaction between all logistics decisions in the supply chain, several scenarios are assessed to estimate the impact on the solutions of some changes in the problem configuration.

Waste Management 4.0: An Application of a Machine Learning Model to Identify and Measure Household Waste Contamination—A Case Study in Australia

Waste management directly and indirectly contributes to all sustainable development goals. Hence, the modernisation of the current ineffective management system through Industry 4.0-compatible technologies is urgently needed. Inspired by the fourth industrial revaluation, this study explores the potential application of waste management 4.0 in a local government area in Perth, Western Australia. The study considers a systematic literature review as part of an exploratory investigation of the current applications and practices of Industry 4.0 in the waste industry. Moreover, the study develops and tests a machine learning model to identify and measure household waste contamination as a waste management 4.0 case study application. The study reveals that waste management 4.0 offers various opportunities and sustainability benefits in reducing costs, improving efficiency in the supply chain and material flow, and reducing as well as eliminating waste by achieving holistic circular economy goals. The significant barriers and challenges involve initial investments in developing and maintaining waste management 4.0 technology, platform and data acquisition. The proof-of-concept case study on the machine learning model detects selected waste with considerable precision (over 70% for selected items). The number and quality of the labelled data significantly influences the model’s accuracy. The data on waste contamination are essential for local governments to explore household waste recycling practices besides developing effective waste education and communication methods. The study concludes that waste management 4.0 can be an effective tool for acquiring real-time data; however, overcoming the current limitations needs to be addressed before applying waste management 4.0 into practice.

The Influence of Supply Chain Flows on Improving Food Security: A Case Study of Maize Supply Chain in Zimbabwe

The Influence of Supply Chain Flows on Improving Food Security: A Case Study of Maize Supply Chain in Zimbabwe

Analisis Rantai Pasok Alpukat di Kecamatan Bandungan, Kabupaten Semarang

The research aims to analyze supply chain conditions and measure avocado marketing efficiency in Bandungan District, Semarang Regency. The research began in March ₋ June 2020. Methods of research used survey methods. The method of sampling farmers using the purposive sampling method, as much as 40 people. The sampling of marketing agencies was conducted by snowball sampling techniques. A total of 14 people consisted of Pegepul, wholesalers, and retailers. Primary data collection is done by interviews with respondents based on a prepared questionnaire. Data analysis methods used qualitative and quantitative descriptive methods and computation of marketing efficiency. The results showed that the condition of the avocado supply chain in Bandungan district was quite good. The target supply chain is clear, good supply chain structure, resources are adequate, although the implementation of management has not been said to be good, one of them because there is no contractual agreement between marketing institutions so that the amount of avocado sold can not be predicted. The supply chain business process indicates that the product flow in the avocado supply chain moves from the farmer to the consumer, the flow of information goes two-way, i.e. from farmer to consumer or vice versa and the financial flow is moving from consumer to farmer. In the business process, there is a slight obstacle because on the flow of avocado products and information is not yet well integrated, there is no definite cycle so that the delivery time or volume of production can not be predicted well. Marketing activities in the supply chain of the Bandungan district are quite efficient judging from the value of farmer's share (≥ 40%) And the value of the marketing margin of channels 1 Rp 11,800,-, Channel 2 Rp 11,374,-and channel 3 Rp 14,674,-.&#x0D;

The relationship between international trade and logistics performance: A focus on the South Korean industrial sector

Recent research highlights the complexity of the relationship between logistics performance and international trade; the efficiency of logistics plays an important role in international trade. In terms of global supply chain, logistics efficiency is the determinant of international trade flow and logistics cost reduction, is which measured by logistics performance. In general, logistics is an important measure of trade flows in the global supply chain, and it is necessary to analyze countermeasures at regional or country level, given the fundamental pillars of a country's economic development.Therefore, this study analyzes the impact of logistics performance on international trade, focusing on Korea. In addition, it identifies the factors of logistics performance that affect each commodity item from an industrial perspective. The analysis focused on Korea owing to its export-dependent economic structure and the special nature of the overseas markets. At a time when the problem of export dependence is becoming serious due to the global crisis, it is necessary to provide policy responses and insight to policy makers to improve logistics efficiency. To investigate logistics performance determinants affecting international trade, this study used logistics performance index (LPI) in gravity equation model, the basic models for analyzing trade flows.The results indicated that components of the Logistic Performance Index (LPI) are significantly relevant to international trade. In particular, the components of the LPI illustrate different influences by international trade commodity. It was also confirmed that the priorities of logistics performance factors have different effects depending on import and export items. Consequently, the estimation results suggest that to promote international trade in the global economy, improving logistics services such as international transportation, tracking and tracing, and timeliness should be prioritized.