Supply Chain Management Issues Research Articles

Volume allocation in multi-sourcing: effects of the quantity\u2013quality trade-off

The network of suppliers and, in particular, the allocation of a buyer’s procurement volumes is one of the key issues in supply chain management when following a multiple-sourcing strategy. This paper proposes a buyer–supplier model which considers a supplier quantity–quality trade-off reflecting the responsiveness of quality to changes in volume. The trade-off is based on the assumption that suppliers are not able to maintain the same level of quality, if quantity increases and vice versa. In order to model the relation between quantity and quality, a generalized logistic function is used. Considering heterogeneous suppliers in terms of the quantity–quality trade-off, we analyze, how different procurement volumes for a product affect the supplier structure of a buyer in a multiple-sourcing buyer–supplier network. An agent-based simulation is applied which is an appropriate approach to study systems of heterogeneous and interacting agents (e.g., buyer and suppliers, interactions between suppliers, mutual effects of parameters). The results show that in such a network not only the procurement volume remarkably shapes the supplier structure and, eventually, may lead to instability. Moreover, the results suggest that less advanced quality management systems on the buyer’s side may increase the stability of the supplier structure.

Investigating Supply Chain issues in the Food Processing Industry

With the recent increase in the complexity of food industries, numerous issues including rapid changes in taste and demand for food supplies are on the rise, particularly in developing countries. Aim: This research study was aimed at investigating supply chain management issues in food processing industries and influence of these factors on business performances. Methods: Research data from respondents was collected using online social platforms and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was employed to analyses the data. Results: Research findings indicated that factors including human resource management, technology, facility issues, and customer relations negatively influence business performance. Conclusion: Findings also reflect that human resource management issues represent a significant driver for improving performance of the food industries. This research study offers insight regarding barriers and drivers influencing the operations of food processing industries and what measures should be taken accordingly.

Exploring the Emerging Trends and Issues in Supply Chain Management: A Case of Pakistan

Exploring the Emerging Trends and Issues in Supply Chain Management: A Case of Pakistan

Strategic issues in supply chain management of Indian SMEs due to globalization: an empirical study

PurposeIn globalized market, organizations of all sizes are having huge opportunities for growth. However, due to various resource constraints, it has become challenging for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of growing economies to survive in this global competition. Effective supply chain management (SCM) can be a major driving factor for success of Indian SMEs in dynamic world economy. SMEs face many operational challenges while implementing effective SCM. The purpose of this paper is to study different strategic issues for successful implementation of SCM in Indian SMEs.Design/methodology/approachA survey has been conducted in Indian SMEs of different sectors. Major constructs of survey instrument are motivations, hindrances, investment priorities, supply chain practices and performance. In total, 1,500 Indian SMEs have been approached for collecting response through survey instrument. 257 complete responses were finalized. Statistical analysis of data acquired from survey is performed by using SPSS software.FindingsIt is observed that managing customers, organization resources, and inventory are main SCM practices. Major investment areas are systems for developing quick response and quality management. Currently, human resource and knowledge management have been found to be less priority areas for SMEs. The major focus of Indian SMEs is on cost and lead time reduction by having effective SCM.Originality/valueNovelty of this study is that strategic issues for effective SCM in context to Indian SMEs have been analyzed. The findings of the study will help Indian SMEs in doing strategic planning for being competitive in the global market.

Reliable blood supply chain network design with facility disruption: A real-world application

The blood supply of hospitals in disasters is a crucial issue in supply chain management. In this paper, a dynamic robust location–allocation model is presented for designing a blood supply chain network under facility disruption risks and uncertainty in a disaster situation. A scenario-based robust approach is adapted to the model to tackle the inherent uncertainty of the problem, such as a great deal of a periodic variation in demands and facilities disruptions. It is considered that the effect of disruption in facilities depends on the initial investment level for opening them, which are affected by the allocated budget. The usage of the model is implemented by a real-world case example that addresses the demand and disruption probability as uncertain parameters. For large-scale problems, two meta-heuristic algorithms, namely the self-adaptive imperialist competitive algorithm and invasive weed optimization, are presented to solve the model. Furthermore, several numerical examples of managerial insights are evaluated.

An Exploration of Contemporary Issues of Supply Chain Management: A Case on Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing Industry in Sri Lanka

Supply Chain Management (SCM) has a crucial role in facilitating the production, marketing, logistics and purchasing processes of an organization since it may focus on the management’s attempts to maintain or build competitiveness in changing environment. This study was carried out as qualitative cross-sectional multiple case studies using semi-structured interviews to collect data. Case studies were chosen on the judgmental non-probability sampling method to explore contemporary issues and the reasons for SCM in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry of Sri Lanka. It further tried to recommend solutions to mitigate those issues to increase the effectiveness of the pharmaceutical supply chains. Interviews were conducted with the employees who are responsible for SCM from each case study. A thematic analysis was carried out to achieve the purpose of the study using Nvivo 12. Unpredictable lead time, no proper guideline or standards in custom for pharmaceutical product regulations, lack of temperature control in warehouses at custom, underutilization of human resources consuming, delaying duty waiver and other regulatory approval from the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA), frequent changes of the NMRA guidelines without any grace period, technical knowledge gap of employees for R&D, and challenge from generic competitor products from other countries were identified as the major drawbacks in SCM process of pharmaceutical supply chains in Sri Lanka. Further, failure to identify correct raw materials suppliers, issue of Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ), buffer stock maintenance issues, no proper reverse logistics management procedures, shortage of approved vehicles for transportation, finding of trustworthy local packing materials suppliers, forecasting errors, and communication gap or language barrier of employees also slower the effectiveness of supply chains.

Reinvigorating the Study of Opportunism in Supply Chain Management

Opportunism is a core issue in supply chain management. However, assumption‐omitted testing and a focus on general opportunism as opposed to specific forms of opportunism have stubbornly limited our understanding of this construct. Grounded in a review of empirical studies of opportunism, we identify empirical challenges that perpetuate conceptual limitations in the study of opportunism in supply chains. Hence, we provide suggestions about research designs and data sources that support an agenda that steers research to refine and develop the theory about opportunism. Our call for a reinvigoration of the study of opportunism supports rigor—by discussing research design and data sources—and relevance—by identifying topics for future supply chain research.

Supply chain management and management science: A successful marriage

The last century has witnessed extant studies on the applications of Management Science (MS) to a diverse set of Supply Chain Management (SCM) issues. This paper provides an overview of the contribution of MS within SCM. A framework is developed in this paper with a sampling of MS contributions to major SCM dimensions. Future research directions are presented.

Smart Supply Chain Management Issues and Challenges

Smart Supply Chain Management Issues and Challenges

Examination Corporate Social Responsibility Factors for Supply Chain Management Implementation using GREY-DEMATEL Method

The main purpose of this article is to analyze corporate social responsibility issues in supply chain management implementation. Corporate Social Responsibility is an important activity for organizations to enhance their names socially, economically and environmentally. Analyzing CSR factors in industries is a key and critical factor. This paper aims to present a GREY-DEMATEL approach to identify CSR factors for supply chain management implementation. Nineteen CSR factors were considered from literature surveys and Industry expert’s opinions. A direct relationship matrix among factors was arrived at from two different experts with a sound knowledge of social, environmental and economic backgrounds in the auto components manufacturing sector. GREY-DEMATEL approach was used to examine pivotal relationships among factors of CSR issues in successful supply chain management. Based on the relationship matrix, Industrial Relations, Corporate governance, Feminist labour issues, Discrimination and Energy conservation play a major role among factors. Finally, the study concludes with the limitations and the future work of CSR factors in the supply chain implementation process.

Environmental Issues in Supply Chain Management using MCDM Tool - An Example from Mining Industry

Green supply chain management is being concerned for both development and eminent difficulties are observed through supply chain mining activities. In Mining Industry, All the exercises engaged with extraction, generation, circulation add to ecological concerns. The ecological and health problem are still now prevailing due to uncaring in green supply chain activities. In our thesis the environmental problems are categorized as main factors and sub factors by collecting opinion from industrial experts & reputed literature survey. The main factors and sub- factors are rated and evaluated by one of the multi criteria decision making tool (MCDM) i.e Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (ANP). According to AHP, the main factors and sub factors are rated and arranged as more affecting factor to environment based on global value attained. As the result, it was found that the most influencing factors are Impact on land and its sub factors.

Issues of Halal Supply Chain Management: Suggestion for Korean Traders

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to suggest countermeasures to reduce the damage of manufacturers in halal industries and to increase the transparency of the halal market along with raising some problems of halal supply chain management (HSCM). Design/methodology/approach - To achieve to the aim of this research, halal supply chain is categorized as a green zone or a red zone according to the possibility of cross-contamination, and the study introduces 2 examples in Malaysia and Indonesia regarding cross-contamination. Findings - More than 70% of the companies producing halal-certified products are, ironically, non- Muslim suppliers under the halal certificate system and by using halal supply chain. Most Muslim countries do not exercise control over the completed halal supply chain. In most Muslim countries which do not exercise control over halal supply chain properly, there is always a possibility of crosscontamination of products during the processes of distribution. Research limitations/implications - This research has been conducted by accessing cases in halal supply chain. These cases are found in some Muslim countries, not all Muslim countries. Nevertheless, the authors found the possibility of these cross-contaminations in all Muslim countries, and it will damage the halal market. Originality/value - While existing studies have focused on protecting Muslim consumers by ensuring the integrity of halal products in halal supply chain, there is no research on how to protect halal product manufacturers as another important axis of halal SCM.

An integrated weighting and ranking model based on entropy, DEA and PCA considering two aggregation approaches for resilient supplier selection problem

Choosing a suitable supplier is one of the crucial issues in supply chain management, gaining much attention in the light of disrupted balances between cost-time-quality interactions in developed/developing countries in these past years. In the meantime, the supplier selection with considering resilient criteria is the new topic in this area. Resilient may be defined as sufficient flexibility in counteracting fluctuations. This study presents a new integrated efficiency measurement model combining statistical techniques, decision making, and mathematical programming for resilient supplier analysis. Also, a new combination of two methods of first aggregation and last aggregation is developed to take advantage of both. Methodologically, this paper applies principal components analysis (PCA) to reduce the dimensions and the correlation between the criteria. The PCA method is utilized to decrease the dimensions and the correlation between the criteria. Besides, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is employed to determine the weights of the criteria and ranking the suppliers. Weights of the criteria are established using the DEA method, the entropy, and judgments of decision-makers (DMs) simultaneously. A case study of resilient supplier selection problems is resolved and compared with existing methods to prove the performance of the proposed model. As a way of calculating the weight of the criteria, this study analyzes the performance of the proposed method and compare it with the first and last aggregation approaches. Then, the results of the study are reported.

Addressing Supply Chain Management Issues in Cost-effective Maternal and Pediatric Global Surgery: A Call to Action.

Persistent global disparities in maternal and neonatal outcomes exist, in part, due to a lack of access to safe surgery. This commentary examines the relative need for increased focus on access to safe maternal and pediatric surgery globally, starting with a focus on cost-effective surgeries. There is a need to understand context-specific surgeries for regions, including understanding regional versus tertiary development. Most important is a need to understand the crucial role of supply chain management (SCM) in developing better access to maternal and pediatric surgery in limited resource settings. We evaluate the role of SCM in global surgery and global health, and the current landscape of inefficiency. We outline specific findings and takeaways from recent solutions developed in pediatric and maternal surgery to address SCM inefficiencies. We then examine the applicability to other settings and look at the future. Our goal is to summarize the challenges that exist today in a global setting to provide better access to maternal and pediatric surgery and outline solutions relying on structural, SCM-related framework.

Optimal procurement strategy of fresh produce retailer under stochastic product qualification and market demand

Consider an optimal procurement strategy for fresh produce, which is a type of perishable product. Due to the different quality provided by each manufacturer, the fresh produce qualification rates are dissimilar. Simultaneously, consumers demand is influenced by the freshness and price of products, as a result, the demand in the market is not fixed. In this scenario, how a particular retailer should develop an optimal procurement strategy will be a core issue in supply chain management. In order to address the above questions, the Bayesian approach is adopted to explore retailer optimal procurement strategies with uncertainty about product supply and market demand. Finally, simulation data are used to analyse the results of the proposed model and expected non-random model to illustrate the validity and feasibility of the proposed model.

Evaluation and selection of third party logistics provider under sustainability perspectives: an interval valued fuzzy-rough approach

In today’s world, industries are facing massive pressure to integrate sustainability issues for efficient and successful supply chain management (SCM). Hence, worldwide it has become critically important to make economic operational balance satisfying environment protection norms and social welfare perspectives. Consequently, the industries are investigating their SCM structures in association with a third party logistics (3PL) service provider adopting the triple bottom line framework for improving the overall supply chain performance. Therefore, selection of the right 3PL provider for the sustainable alliance is supremely important for broader perspective of greater business value. Thus, the main objective of this research work is the selection of most appropriate 3PL provider for a food manufacturing company (FMC) after systematic evaluation of six different feasible logistic providers serving over a decade in India. Selection of optimal alternative 3PL provider is very complex and challenging because of the qualitative description of service provider performances and the inherent uncertainty due to subjectivity. The concept of interval-valued fuzzy-rough number (IVFRN) offers perfect treatment of such uncertainty. In this paper, we develop a multi criteria decision making (MCDM) model combining the factor relationship (FARE) and multi-attributive border approximation area comparison (MABAC) models based on IVFRN. The proposed model is tested and validated on a case study where the optimal selection of 3PL providers is performed for an Indian FMC. Based on the results obtained in sensitivity analysis, it was shown that the proposed IVFRN based FARE-MABAC model produces stable/consistent solutions. Through the research presented in this paper, it is shown that the new hybrid MCDM method is a useful and reliable tool for rational decision-making.

Fenntarthatóság, fenntartható ellátási lánc menedzsment

With the rapid development of the world economy, the growing scarcity of natural resources and the degradation caused by pollution, environmental protection has become a major concern for countries and regions of the world. Sustainability is a common subject in many parts of the world and the various research areas among policy makers, journalists, scientists, universities and social debate. It is generally accepted, that companies also play an important role in addressing the challenges of sustainable development. In this role, making a key challenge to balance often conflicting pressures caused by sustainable development, that is, the level of corporate economic performance against environmental deterioration and social disruption. Effective integration of sustainability principles into companies requires action beyond the borders of organizations. The issue of sustainability is becoming more and more prominent in corporate governance. One of the most important area of supply chain management is for companies to gain a competitive edge in the market. This has a significant impact on the natural environment, and there is a growing need to integrate environmental thinking in supply chain management and processes, which is why companies are increasingly focusing on sustainable development, taking on more CSR initiatives and achieving a greener supply chain. Sustainable and green supply chain management practices have been developed over the past decades, trying to integrate environmental considerations into organizations by reducing unwanted negative consequences for the environment of production and consumption processes. In this article, I have examined the issues of sustainability and sustainable supply chain management, mainly based on descriptive secondary literature.

Supply chain management and Industry 4.0: conducting research in the digital age

Purpose – Industry 4.0 is bringing fundamental changes to how business operates, including how the supply chains are managed. The purpose of this paper is to compile a set of recent articles focusing on emerging topics on supply chain management (SCM) in the digital age and to highlight a future research agenda for supply chain digitalization. Design/methodology/approach – The accepted articles in the Special Issue used a variety of methodologies to answer research questions related to SCM in the digital age. Findings – The findings in the accepted articles provides interesting perspectives at different levels – from a holistic supply chain view to specific aspects of digital supply chains. These findings are valuable and applicable in various research contexts. Along with the accompanying editorial, these articles offer directions for a future research on studying the pressing issues in SCM. Research limitations/implications – All of the four articles have significant implications to researchers who intend to understand and study emerging supply chain phenomenon related to the digital transformation with a proactive approach. Practical implications – From a practical standpoint, these articles offer helpful thoughts and ideas about digital supply chain transformation. Specifically, effective data analytics is a core factor that will reshape future supply chains. Originality/value – Each of the articles takes a different approach to address an important aspect of digital supply chain management research and provides unique perspectives.

Materiality analysis of SCM issues for Competitive Advantage: Study of an Indian FMEG Organization

Fast Moving Electrical Goods (FMEG) products represent the basic needs of its consumers in the modern society, influencing their life style in every way from living room to drawing room, from kitchen to the bedroom. Globalization has resulted in fierce competition among the players of this fast growing sector. The only way therefore to sustain a profitable growth is to stay competitive in local and global market. However, given the legacies of past practices and old mindsets of Indian FMEG players, it is not easy for any organization to stay competitive unless it applies a systematic and scientific approach of supply chain management (SCM).This work attempts to analyse the issues of supply chain for competitive advantage of an Indian FMEG organization. The company under study has adopted a unique approach of materiality analysis that complemented seamlessly with the SWOT analysis to evolve its supply chain strategies and priorities. The process thus built around them has been evaluated against the performance in line with customer expectations. The case study offers an excellent framework to follow for any FMEG organization seeking competitive advantage in the face of current global challenges.

Justification of synergistic implementation of TQM-SCM using fuzzy-based simulation model

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate the contribution of significant factors in the success of supply chain management (SCM) implementation and in synergistic approach (SCM-TQM) terms of business performance of Indian medium- and large-scale manufacturing industry.Design/methodology/approachThis research paper deploys the fuzzy inference system (fuzzy logic tool box) to evaluate the success of SCM and synergistic approach’s implementation. For this purpose, significant factors for each SCM approach as well as synergistic approach are identified from relevant literature and validated by industry experts.FindingsThe results of fuzzy rule viewer and surface view tool of fuzzy tool box in MATLAB have highlighted that synergistic approach is better as compared to SCM approach. Furthermore, top management support and leadership role, SCM issues and total quality management (TQM) issues have emerged as significant predictor variables for successful synergistic implementation of TQM-SCM in Indian industries.Originality/valueTQM and SCM are considered as performance improvement techniques by the manufacturing organizations. The present research work establishes that combined (TQM-SCM) initiatives have contributed more as compared to only SCM approach in the business performance of Indian manufacturing industry. So, the study stresses upon the need for improving coordination between various manufacturing parameters as well as competitive dimensions of TQM and SCM paradigms to enjoy higher potential of business performance.