Supply Chain Management Function Research Articles

Key Drivers for BIM-Enabled Materials Management: Insights for a Sustainable Environment

The value of Building Information Modelling (BIM) is widely discussed within all construction stages including the data-driven culture across building processes and sustainable impact in the long term. Yet, there is a need to explore the opportunities of BIM in improving construction materials management (CMM) as a core function of supply chain management. Due to the dearth of studies on BIM potential in improving CMM within the sustainability context, the authors examine the effectiveness and efficiency of BIM-enabled materials management, via three data streams: a literature review, an online survey, and interviews with subject matter experts in the field. This study aims to explore the drivers of BIM-enabled sustainable construction materials management. This is the preliminary study designed to test the initial hypotheses based on an online questionnaire application to derive tacit knowledge from industry and academic experts, followed by short interviews with respondents. Grounded in the comprehensive literature review, 24 indicators were defined for survey purposes. Preliminarily, 206 experts from 10 countries responded to the survey. The results show significant differences in the ranking of the indicators among the five factors. In developing countries, among two groups, industry sample awareness scales demonstrated lower understanding than among academic experts. Another finding relates to the significant agreement in scaling the importance of opportunities among industrial and academic sector experts. The research adds knowledge to deepen the understanding of opportunities of BIM-enabled materials management as a part of building project sustainable performance for industry policy and decision-makers. It also brings attention to the lack of sustainability awareness amongst industry experts in developing countries. Although materials constitute a solid part of any construction project cost, there is still a collaboration gap among designers, materials management, and, more broadly, supply chain management experts.

Logistics and supply chain management reorganisation via talent portfolio management to enhance human capital and resilience

ABSTRACT The reorganisation of logistics and supply chain management teams is critical for digital transformation. Decision quality for staff assignment will affect the organisation efficiency and supply chain resilience. Focusing on realistic needs, this study aims to develop a portfolio decision framework for staff assignment and reorganisation that considers different portfolio effects to enhance logistics and supply chain management functions. In particular, a nondominated sorting genetic algorithm for human resource portfolio (HRPNSGA) was developed to derive near-optimal alternatives. For validation, an empirical study was conducted on the reorganisation of the logistics and procurement division for supply chain management in a leading semiconductor manufacturing company. The results have shown practical viability of the proposed framework to generate near-optimal alternatives with better performance for skills matching, work loading balance and capability synergy among the team members of the units for effective reorganisation.

Impact of Track and Trace (T&T) in Industrial Revolution 4.0 of the Pharmaceutical Industry (Pharma 4.0)

Industrial revolution 4.0 is a challenge and opportunity for most industries, including the pharmaceutical industry, called Pharma 4.0. In order to bring adequate, agile, and adaptable pharmaceutical manufacturers that produce high-quality drugs with compliance consideration during the era, this sector focuses on strategic area technology development. Hence, pharmaceutical companies concern on ensuring pharmaceutical products’ traceability through managing Supply Chain Management (SCM) functions, such as Track and Trace (T&T). In the pharmaceutical industry, traceability systems’ are various, such as (1) management of inventory control and material; (2) monitoring of distribution and sales; and (3) prevention of counterfeit, deviation, and theft. T&T functionality needs particular embedded software and hardware in the IT architecture during implementation. To sum up, T&T, as one of the SCM systems, is an integrated system to ensure unique serial number management during the packaging process. It allows pharmaceutical companies to track and trace products information accurately and efficiently. The companies, therefore, would be able to take a fast and correct decision about inventory control; return and recall; and prevent illegal action regarding pharmaceutical products’ distribution. It is proven to guarantee security and people’s quality of life and increase private companies’ competitive advantages.

Black economic empowerment, development and seeking justice at South African municipalities: A closer look at two case studies

Although South African and international research has been enriched by a wide variety of empirical findings regarding supply chain management (SCM) corruption in South Africa, there is a significant gap in the literature, particularly in terms of the direct and indirect connections of black economic empowerment (BEE) entrepreneurs, local government and to processes of SCM at South African municipalities. This study is based on an inductive, qualitative and interpretative methodology aimed at analysing and dissecting relationships in the context of BEE entrepreneurs engaging in corruption. Within this realm of corruption, the article also looks at the role of supply chain and procurement at two South African municipalities. The municipalities selected were situated in both urban and rural areas in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. The eight interviewees represented the political, administrative and workers’ sections of the municipalities. The findings pinpoint the realities of aspects of BEE associated with the nature of corruption in public procurement in the municipalities and the influence of BEE entrepreneurs in processes of corruption, particularly in SCM functions and processes.Contribution: Corruption remains a key threat to South Africa’s young democracy. This is particularly true at the local level, the central pivot in our society building exercise. A multidisciplinary journal of this nature will benefit from the focus of this article, particularly in light of the fact that it also hopes to ignite thought around the moral ramifications of rampant corruption in South Africa.

Impacts of Sustainability on Supply Chain Management

Nowadays, environmental strategies are critical for improving organizational operations. Therefore, sustainable supply chain management plays a key role in supporting organizations improve their overall performance. This paper seeks to determine the level of correlation between sustainability practices and supply chain management within diverse organizational contexts. The research study was facilitated through a systematic review approach. It was based on a data pool consisting of 13 secondary sources that were obtained from online research databases such as Web of Science and Scopus. The sources were subsequently subjected to the exclusion and inclusion criteria. The results obtained indicated that sustainability practices can have a can have a direct and statistically significant impact on organizational operations such as procurement, manufacturing, and logistics, which fall under supply chain management functions. However, it is unclear, whether sustainability practices impacts procurement or logistics processes more. The findings further implied that the implementation of sustainability practices at an organizational level can result in the establishment of novel linkages with partners in the supply chain. The linkages result from the necessity of forming relationships with additional suppliers to obtain relevant resources.

The application of digital twin technology in operations and supply chain management: a bibliometric review

PurposeThe application of digital twins to optimise operations and supply chain management functions is a bourgeoning practice. Scholars have attempted to keep pace with this development initiating a fast-evolving research agenda. The purpose of this paper is to take stock of the emerging research stream identifying trends and capture the value potential of digital twins to the field of operations and supply chain management.Design/methodology/approachIn this work we employ a bibliometric literature review supported by bibliographic coupling and keyword co-occurrence network analysis to examine current trends in the research field regarding the value-added potential of digital twin in operations and supply chain management.FindingsThe main findings of this work are the identification of four value clusters and one enabler cluster. Value clusters are comprised of articles that describe how the application of digital twin can enhance supply chain activities at the level of business processes as well as the level of supply chain capabilities. Value clusters of production flow management and product development operate at the business processes level and are maturing communities. The supply chain resilience and risk management value cluster operates at the capability level, it is just emerging, and is positioned at the periphery of the main network.Originality/valueThis is the first study that attempts to conceptualise digital twin as a dynamic capability and employs bibliometric and network analysis on the research stream of digital twin in operations and supply chain management to capture evolutionary trends, literature communities and value-creation dynamics in a digital-twin-enabled supply chain.

Implication of Ethics in Supply Chain Function

This research study examines the importance of ethics in supply chain management functions. The data sample consisted of 30 respondents collected using a questionnaire administered randomly to firms’ employees or representatives. Results show, there is no strong and sufficient evidence to infer the existence of unethical behaviours and the significance of ethics in a supply chain function within the players or parties in a supply chain relationship. Thus, this study recommends that parties in a supply chain relationship should act ethically right for long lasting relationship within the supply chain functions in firms or companies. Essentially all businesses to including banking and non-banking firms have needs that require the use of supply chains. have responsibilities that require the use of supply chains. Therefore, the outcome of this study is useful applicable to all sorts of business entities.

Strategic Supplier Partnership and Responsive Supply Chain in Covid-19: The Mediating Role of E-Procurement

Nowadays the covid-19 has created number of problem for effectives of global supply chain and in this situation only the strategic supplier partnership can help to address this global issue especially in context of developing country. In the present study primary data is collected through adopted questionnaire from previous studies. There are 200 respondents are considered from manufacturing companies of Sindh, Pakistan, who directly involve the supply chain management functions including procurement, operation and logistics management. Results of this study confirmed the partial mediation between strategic supplier partnership and responsive supply chain in the presence of e-procurement as a mediating variable. In previous studies research scholars find out the direct relationship between strategic supplier partnership and responsive supply chain. However, in this study mediating effect has been checked in presence of mediator e-procurement.

Study of Adoption and Absorption of Emerging Technologies for Smart Supply Chain Management

The world has been witnessing the advent of a wide range of emerging technologies like machine learning, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, internet of things, and others. In supply chain management (SCM) functions, these technologies have increasingly been playing a decisive role in improving the overall success of an organization. So, the purpose of this article was to understand the strategic imperative of adopting smart SCM utilizing these emerging technologies by Indian firms. Thus, the context was of an emerging economy like India from a dynamic capabilities' perspective. The authors undertook a qualitative research with a positivist approach by undertaking expert interviews with 14 respondents. The respondents were interviewed with a semi-structured open-ended questionnaire. The responses were content analyzed for themes. The SCM experts were engaged in the adoption of emerging technologies to transform SCM. The adoption of emerging technologies helped SCM functions of Indian firms to cater to the increased expectations of customers.

Exploratory Study of the Role of Emerging Technologies in Outsourcing of Supply Chain Functions

Emerging technologies (ETs) like blockchain technologies (BCT), internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and others offered promising new avenues to improve productivity, efficiency, and convenience in supply chain management (SCM) functions. The authors conducted a structured literature review to identify the researchable gaps. Subsequently, in-depth semi-structured interviews with 23 SCM experts from Indian organizations who were implementing ETs were conducted to secure expert insights. The authors then conducted thematic content analysis of the expert interview responses and presented the findings. The authors presented an integrated framework by incorporating process, activities, and resource-based considerations while making sourcing decisions involving emerging technologies in SCM functions.

Managing raw and starting materials for viral vector manufacture: managing risk and staying flexible

<div class="authors authors-lg"><div class="author"><div class="author-img"><img src="https://cdn.insights.bio/uploads/Eric Hacherlsq.jpg" data-image="1"></div><div class="author-det"> Eric Hacherl holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Rutgers University. As the Head of Manufacturing, he is responsible for Internal and External Manufacturing, Materials Management, Shipping &amp; Receiving and Manufacturing Science &amp; Technology. Eric joined Spark in September 2020 with over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. His functional expertise lies in Operations, Supply Chain and Manufacturing Science &amp; Technology. His focus has been primarily on vaccines and large molecule manufacturing. Prior to joining Spark, he was the Site General Manager and VP of Operations for Catalent Gene Therapy in Baltimore, MD. </div></div></div><div class="authors authors-lg"><div class="author"><div class="author-img"><img src="https://cdn.insights.bio/uploads/Klem photo 200x200.jpg" data-image="1"></div><div class="author-det"> Christopher Klem is an experienced professional specializing in technical and logistical oversight of external/contract manufacturing operations in the emerging gene therapy space. Effectively managed external manufacturing projects for over 15 years, specializing in relationship building and execution of program deliverables. Current experience in oversight of all aspects of outsourced supply chain partnerships: drug substance, drug product, secondary packaging and specialty distribution of commercial and clinical gene therapy products. Also have managed and directed internal Primary and Secondary operations in both pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical manufacturing, directing large multi-tiered teams to meet internal manufacturing objectives. </div></div></div><div class="authors authors-lg"><div class="author"><div class="author-img"><img src="https://cdn.insights.bio/uploads/Galbraith photo 200x200.jpg" data-image="1"></div><div class="author-det"> Mark Galbraith has worked in the biopharmaceutical industry for 20 years, where he has gained diverse experience and knowledge in all phases of product development from preclinical to commercial. Mark began his career at Merck &amp; Co, where he held positions of increasing responsibility in several functional areas related to vaccine clinical development and vaccine commercial manufacturing including analytical R&amp;D, regulatory sciences, commercial analytical support, and quality control operations. Mark continued to develop his career in quality control management and analytical development by directing the quality control activities at Celldex Therapeutics, Bristol Myers-Squibb, and Gilead Sciences. Mark has gained a broad knowledge of vaccines, biotechnology products, sterile pharmaceuticals, and now gene therapy. Mark is currently serving as Head of Quality Control and Analytical Sciences for Spark Therapeutics Inc. in Philadelphia, PA. Spark is a leader in the field of gene therapy, seeking to transform the lives of patients by developing potential one-time, life-altering treatments for debilitating genetic diseases. </div></div></div><div class="authors authors-lg"><div class="author"><div class="author-img"><img src="https://cdn.insights.bio/uploads/Ryan Bartock sq.jpg" data-image="1"></div><div class="author-det"> Ryan Bartock is Vice President and Head of Technical Strategy &amp; Operations at Spark Therapeutics, a fully integrated gene therapy company and member of the Roche family of companies. Ryan joined Spark Therapeutics as Head of Supply Chain and Network Strategy in 2017 where he established the Supply Chain function and launched the first ever FDA approved Gene therapy. His current responsibilities include leading the Supply Chain and CMC Program Management functions, as well as strategic initiatives across Research, Technical and Commercial organizations. He is also interim Head of Technical Development, overseeing Process and Analytical development, Automation and Pre-Clinical Operations. Ryan holds BSc in Engineering and Business from Drexel University. His 18 years of industry experience spans pre-clinical and clinical development, manufacturing operations, supply chain, CMC, corporate strategy and new product launches at both GSK and Merck. </div></div></div>

Incorporating the risk of knowledge loss in supply chain risk management

PurposeThe literature on supply chain risk management (SCRM) has investigated a multitude of supply chain risks. This paper aims to make a case for the importance of managing the risk of knowledge loss in the supply chain management (SCM) function and incorporating knowledge loss as a critical risk within the SCRM process.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a knowledge-based view of the SCRM process and attempts to bring to light insights based on a synthesis of the relevant literature. The authors conducted a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed articles published between 1998 and 2019. Further, a case study was conducted to illustrate the significance of the risk of knowledge loss in the SCM function in terms of how it operates and why it has such a significant impact on performance.FindingsKnowledge loss is a relatively neglected type of supply chain risk that can be added to the existing typologies. This paper argues that knowledge loss in the SCM function has the propensity to significantly impact the performance of the focal firm, exacerbate other types of supply chain risk and impede risk mitigation efforts. We put forth several strategies that supply chain managers can adopt to mitigate the risk of knowledge loss in their function.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper generates an exploratory opening that could pave the way for a systematic theory of knowledge loss as a supply chain risk and future empirical research. The study culminates in a number of important insights and initiatives for supply chain managers to recognize and manage the risk of knowledge loss.Originality/valueThis paper argues for the importance of incorporating the risk of knowledge loss in SCRM research and practice. It also provides an examination of some promising angles for future research in SCRM from a knowledge-based perspective.

Supply market orientation: a dynamic capability of the purchasing and supply management function

PurposeThis paper aims to conceptualize supply market orientation (SMO) for the purchasing and supply chain management function and discusses how SMO capabilities are developed and how their application differs within and across firms. This research can thus be used as a blueprint for the development of a SMO capability that accommodates a firm’s unique contextual antecedents’ profile.Design/methodology/approachThe qualitative research design comprises five in-depth case studies with 43 semi-structured interviews with large manufacturing and service firms.FindingsSMO is defined as the capability to exploit market intelligence to assess, integrate and reconfigure the heterogeneously dispersed resources in purchasing and supply chain management in a way that best reflects the peculiarities of a firm’s supply environment. The empirical analysis shows that although SMO capabilities are configured similarly, their application varies across and within firms depending on the characteristics of a firm’s purchasing categories and tasks. Hence, reactive versus proactive SMO application is contingent upon firm-level and purchasing category–level characteristics.Originality/valueThe study uses the dynamic capabilities view as a theoretical background and provides empirical evidence and theoretical reasoning to elaborate and endorse SMO as a dynamic capability that firms need to have to compete in a complex and dynamic environment. The study provides guidance for supply chain managers on how to successfully develop and deploy a SMO capability.

A note on big data analytics capability development in supply chain

Big data analytics (BDA) are gaining importance in all aspects of business management. This is driven by both the presence of large-scale data and management's desire to root decisions in data. Extant research demonstrates that supply chain and operations management functions are among the biggest sources and users of data in the company. Therefore, their decision-making processes would benefit from increased use of BDA technologies. However, there is still a lack of understanding of what determines a company's ability to build BDA capability to gain a competitive advantage. In this study, we attempt to answer this fundamental question by identifying the factors that assist a company in or inhibit it from building its BDA capability and maximizing its gains through BDA technologies. We base our findings on a qualitative analysis of data collected from field visits, interviews with senior management, and secondary resources. We find that, in addition to technical capacity, competitive landscape and intra-firm power dynamics play an important role in building BDA capability and using BDA technologies.

Supply chain management in hospitality and its impact on competitive advantage, hotel, and supply chain performance

In this study, the relationship between supply chain management functions, supply chain performance, competitive advantage, and organizational performance in the hospitality were investigated. The objective of this study was to assess the performance of supply chains and management in the hospitality. For this purpose, a model consisting of 4 variables and 5 hypotheses was created. The statistical population of this study included all administrative staff of the 4 and 5-star hotels in Tehran. Sampling among senior and middle managers was done randomly. A total of 199 samples were collected and the designed model was tested using a structural equation approach. All study hypotheses were approved. The results indicated that using the dimensions of the supply chain management function, we can observe the positive and comprehensive impact of these factors on organizational performance, supply chain performance, and competitive advantage. In addition, supply chain performance and competitive advantage were found to have a positive and significant effect on organizational performance.

Robust Food Supply Chain Traceability System based on HACCP using Federated Blockchain

In this fast growing world, everything needs to change and upgrade with the technology to survive in this rapidly changing environment. The Food Supply Chain system is one of them. In traditional supply chain management functions, it is hard to manage the flow of traceability information of products timely and effectively among upstream to downstream stakeholders.This gap in the flow of information and untrusted traceability of product causes to generate food contamination hazards and also increasing the network of modern FSC systems is still challenging to provide quality, privacy, and integrity of traceability mechanism. HACCP and Blockchain-based FSC provide various functions to enhance the FSC process such as traceability,transparency, security among all stakeholders. In these functions, some most important functions of the Food Supply Chain system are traceability, amount of data sharing, and privacy of data of products among stakeholders.&#x0D; In this paper, we are going to provide an Enhanced Food Supply Chain Traceability system based on Federated Blockchain with HACCP using smart contracts. This model will manage by pre- selected leaders’ nodes. These leaders’ nodes have the right to control the action of middle nodes and lower nodes. The amount of data sharing can also be controlled by the leaders’ nodes.So, any particular transaction is restricted to perform by middle and lower nodes because the Federated Blockchain is partially decentralized. This model overcomes the issue of privacy concern which remains unsolved by blockchain-based FSC and makes a better and enhanced Federated Blockchain-based FSC traceability system.

Design and implementation path of intelligent transportation information system based on artificial intelligence technology

By using the concept, guiding ideology and design idea of artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Thing, this study puts forward the logistics intelligent transportation system (ITS) model, structure design and function design based on AI, focusing on the time value and information value of the intelligent logistics information system. The results show that the design of ITS model based on AI includes three modules: input, transformation and output of ITS. The ITS supply chain management platform and function design of freight vehicles with AI is feasible and prospective. The application of AI technology in ITS has great value and development prospect.

Preliminary Study of Web Based Decision Support System to Select Manufacturing Industry Suppliers

Industry 4.0 is an integration between automation and manufacturing industry which requires the use of information technology to implement it. In the operational management framework, there is a supply chain management function that is strongly influenced by quality suppliers. Because choosing a quality new supplier is not an easy thing, we need a reliable application tool and utilizing web-based artificial intelligence technology for the selection of suppliers in the manufacturing industry. The selection of new suppliers is a complex problem because it involves multiple criteria, therefore it is necessary to make a decision support system that is able to complete supplier selection properly. Although the selection of suppliers in the manufacturing industry is not new, in the era of Industry 4.0, a decision support system that is used to choose an absolute supplier based online that must be accessible via the web or mobile application. Therefore the writer's idea in this paper is very relevant to be implemented in the manufacturing industry in all fields in the industrial era 4.0.

Systematic literature review on application of business analytics &amp; information technology in supply chain performances

Supply chain management (SCM) functions are having applications of business analytics (BA). Supply chain managers' uses BA as competitive tool. Application of BA in key SCM functions, with information technology (IT) innovations has been a topic of tremendous interest to both practitioners and researchers. We identified more than 200 articles (over two decade) and classified them by year of publication, functional discipline, publication source, research methodology and application for the purpose of comprehensive literature review. Study identifies relationship between analytical tools and IT in supply chain decision making and supply chain performances. It explores research trends and patterns across disciplines and suggestions of potential areas for future research in BA, IT and supply chain decision making and performances.

Sustainable Supply Chain Management Strategy Influence on Supply Chain Management Functions in the Oil and Gas Distribution Industry

This paper analyses the influence of Sustainable Supply Chain Management strategies—Supplier Selection, Product Stewardship and Logistics Management—on Supply Chain Management functions—Planning, Execution, Coordination and Collaboration in the oil and gas distribution industry. Using multiple regression analyses, we performed the study on 79 companies from Romania and the Republic of Moldova operating in the oil and gas distribution industry. We concluded that Sustainable Supply Chain Management strategies have a positive and significant influence on Supply Chain Management functions, both overall and on each of the functions considered in the study. Overall, the findings of this study can be used by companies operating in oil and gas distribution to design Sustainable Supply Chain Management strategies to better address the requirements for more environmentally and socially responsible activities in their supply chains and to optimize their Supply Chain Management to better cope with Sustainable Supply Chain Management requirements and expectations.