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Retail warehouses, also known as distribution centers or fulfillment centers, are facilities used by retailers for storing and distributing goods to their stores or directly to customers. These warehouses play a crucial role in the supply chain, ensuring that products are available when and where they are needed. This paper explores, through a literature review, the significant role played by deep learning in modern retail warehouses, primarily in optimizing various aspects of warehouse operations. Some real-life case studies have also been examined to understand the benefits, prospects and challenges. The paper will be of use for academicians, industrialists and policymakers as it provides insights into real-time implementation of deep learning applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been a growing global concern over food loss, with studies indicating that anywhere from 20% to 60% of total production is lost within the food supply chain. Consequently, both researchers and practitioners have increasingly turned their focus toward maximizing the availability of food products for society. As a result, researchers have utilized various operations research tools to optimize the food supply chain and aid decision-making processes. This paper presents a literature review of modeling and optimization approaches in perishable supply chain management, with a specific emphasis on minimizing losses throughout the supply chain. The main focus is on perishable foods, and selected research papers are examined based on their objectives, models employed, and solution approaches. The analysis helps identify potential areas for future research in the field of perishable product supply chains, with the overarching objective of reducing losses along the entire supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of green supply chain practices is a crucial part of most manufacturing industries in developed and developing countries, many of which are yet to adopt the concept to fulfill supplier demand and market trends. This paper aims to identify the drivers behind the adoption of green practices by medium-scale manufacturing companies in the FMCG sector of Rajasthan. Data were collected from 323 respondents and analyzed using SPSS software. Confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory analysis were carried out to identify the drivers, which are: green demand, financial performance, green operational practices, environmental performance, and reverse logistics. This study found that the identified factors play a vital role in the adoption of green supply chain practices by medium-scale manufacturing companies in FMCG sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply chains are the lifeline of businesses and economies. Today, with increased globalization and outsourcing, supply chains have become prone to many risks. The management of supply chain risks is a major area of research. It is important to understand the various risks inherent in a supply chain and the interactions between them before trying to manage/mitigate them. This paper seeks to understand the risks inherent in a fertilizer supply chain and model the risks using interpretive structural modeling. The dependence power and driving power of each risk is also calculated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bullwhip is a well-known phenomenon in supply chain management. Whereas past research has focused on factors like supply rationing, batchsize, lead-time, etc., mainly from an analytical perspective, this paper broadens the research by specifically examining the impact of inventory constraints not only on demand (order size) but also on inventory levels and supply chain cost. The results confirm the findings of past research and bring new insights on the impact on component and compound bullwhip effect behavior across supply chain echelons by showing that inventory acts as a damper on bullwhip effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply chains generate huge amounts of data (i.e., Big Data) that companies can turn into intelligence through analytics. Big Data usage and Big Data Analytics (BDA) deployment can deliver competitive advantages across various supply chain decisions as it builds multiple capabilities for supply chain networks. This paper explains how Big Data usage and BDA capabilities contribute to improving supply chain performance, based on the Dynamic Capabilities View (DCV). The BDA is a type of dynamic capability of an organization, and its deployment in supply chain operations effectively manages demand volatility, efficiently handles cost fluctuations, and improves the visibility, flexibility, and integration of supply chain processes across the networks. BDA as a dynamic capability enables firms to respond to changing external environment by reconfiguring resources and capabilities of supply chain networks. The paper develops various frameworks to understand and study the impact of BDA on supply chain performance through the lens of DCV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The handloom sector in India is one of the oldest, primarily rural-based, non-farm sectors that is the second largest employment generator in the country after agriculture. The sector is slowly losing its competitiveness due to several external forces. More importantly, the handloom supply chain that depended on traditional methods has not been able to match with changing times, resulting in declining market share, impacting weaver incomes. Research in this sector suggests that in order to survive, the sector needs immediate attention that revolves around the adoption of modern technology and new-age marketing practices. Businesses of today are surviving and expanding due to technology adoption, which is not the case with the handloom sector. Although e-commerce adoption has diffused quite rapidly in other sectors of the economy, in the handloom sector it is still at a very nascent stage. This paper makes an attempt to discuss the problems faced by the handloom sector in India and analyzes the possibilities and challenges of adopting technology. Doing so, the weavers would benefit and get the true value for their products. The paper also elaborates the factors that affect the adoption of technology (e-commerce) by weavers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bullwhip effect is a well-known phenomenon in supply chain management. Whereas past research has focused on factors like supply rationing, batchsize, lead time, etc., mainly from an analytical perspective, this paper broadens the research by specifically examining the impact from end customer demand volatility not only on demand (order size) but also on inventory levels and supply chain cost. The results confirm the findings of past research and bring new insights on the impact of component and compound bullwhip effect behavior across supply chain echelons by showing that end customer demand volatility acts as an amplifier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to determine cause-and-effect relationships that include information technology and sustainability-related enablers to enhance the supply-chain performance of the Indian automobile industry. A systematic literature review was conducted to investigate 12 enablers related to IT and sustainability. A DEMATEL analysis was used to determine the cause-and-effect relationship between these enablers. Data were collected from the respondent’s case organization, and a diagraph was developed. The diagraph represents the cause-and-effect relationship between enablers that will help improve supply chain performance. It shows the direct and indirect effects of various enablers on each other. It is up to the decision-maker whether he wants to set up the threshold value to identify all the enablers that have negligible effects on other enablers. The analysis shows that a total of nine enablers are the most important parameters to improve supply-chain performance out of the 12 identified enablers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides a practical approach to prioritizing the most critical success factors influencing the supply chain performance in manufacturing industries by using RIDIT and Grey analysis. We compare these two approaches to find the most influential enablers. Our findings show that agility, responsiveness, trust and commitment, and flexibility are the major factors influencing supply chain performance. The findings can be useful for supply chain managers, policymakers, and practitioners in the process of establishing strategies and policies for the effective implementation of supply chain implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is a country with varied terrains, climatic conditions, and soil configurations that provide the best possible environment to produce almost all varieties of fruits and vegetables throughout the year. Wastage cannot be avoided as farm produce is seasonal and perishable that requires specialized processing, storage, and transportation to ensure longevity. However, post-harvest waste of farm produce in India is substantially higher than in many developing countries in the world. Various reasons can be attributed to it: strategic and operational supply chain inefficiencies arising due to ineffective and outdated processing methods, lack of cold chain infrastructure; inadequate knowledge and application of appropriate storage and transportation systems; and a lack of coordination and integration in the supply chain. The paper identifies the challenges associated with the export of fresh fruits with an illustrative case of grape exports from India. It provides innovative supply chain solutions that can help mitigate these challenges as there is a growing demand for fruits and vegetables throughout the world. India has the potential to seize the opportunity and become a major player in the global market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply chains lack global resilience and break down in the face of multi-country disruptions due to crises. The impact of Supply Chain Disruptions (SCD) has become all too familiar across the world: shortages, inflation, factory closures, goods waiting at ports to be unloaded, etc. They weaken macroeconomic indicators, hamper economic growth, and impact national security. Over the past five years, the world has seen many crises that have rattled global markets, beginning with the US-China trade war in 2018. This was followed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the blockage of the Suez Canal, environmental issues, and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. The combination of these events has abruptly frozen global economic activities by restricting and hindering the Global Supply Chain Networks (GSCN). This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the causes of these disruptions and their widespread global economic consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to extend previous Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) research by developing and empirically testing a conceptual framework that investigates the relationship between three dimensions of integrated GSCM (iGSCM) and multiple dimensions of operational performance. The study is based on survey data collected from 126 automotive manufacturers in India. The relationship between theoretical constructs is analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings show significant and positive relationship between iGSCM (internal GSCM, GSCM with customers, and GSCM with suppliers) and operational performance in terms of flexibility, delivery, quality, and cost. It is important for managers to simultaneously consider internal GSCM and GSCM with customers and suppliers when implementing environmental sustainability in the supply chains. Overlooking either internal GSCM or external GSCM may hinder their efforts to improve operational performance. This study contributes to the literature by defining iGSCM and empirically testing its impact on multiple operational performance dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Logistics Service Providers (LSPs) play an important role in the national and global supply chains by contributing to the promotion and development of export economies, including Vietnam. Vietnamese logistics firms face very strong competition from foreign entities, which requires them to constantly improve and enhance their competitiveness. To that end, LSPs have evolved from basic service providers such as freight transportation to integrated services to meet all customer needs. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relationship between the capability to integrate resources with the flexibility of the LSP in the context of supply chain integration. Data collected from 151 managers of Vietnamese LSPs show that there is a positive impact of informational integration capability and relational integration capability on their flexibility in providing services to customers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology is dynamically transforming the supply chain landscape, triggering various demands on managerial competence to meet the requirements. The global boom in warehouse technology is attributed to the surge in e-commerce. Rapid innovations in hardware and software promote automation. This study underscores the importance of these technologies in enhancing warehouse operations, acknowledging the critical decisions managers make in selecting appropriate technologies. While automation in warehousing has flooded the market with customized offerings, there is a dearth of standardized guidelines. This study evaluates proven technology, providing a guideline for its assessment. It aims to provide handy lessons that are helpful throughout a tech upgrade project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this digital age, extensive research has explored blockchain technology (BT) applications across various domains, including agriculture supply chain (ASC). The application of BT in ASC can overcome the challenges of a highly fragmented supply chain, such as significant inefficiencies, wastage and product loss, and also offer information exchange, market coordination, and data visibility. This study employs bibliometric analysis of 412 studies from Scopus and Web of Science (WOS) databases, using PRISMA model, to get a broader perspective on blockchain-based ASC. Bibliographic data is mapped through descriptive analysis, cooccurrence, citation, co-authorship, and bibliometric coupling. The study tracks publication trends, keyword themes, and leading journals, authors, organizations, and countries using Total Link Strength (TLS). Three themes, namely, knowledge synthesis, potential, implementation, and future direction, are identified through thematic clustering. The study will provide valuable ideas for both researchers and supply chain practitioners for undertaking further research in this domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The case describes PepsiCo's sustainability-related initiatives that encompassed its operations, products, and supply chain partners. PepsiCo's sustainability strategy targeted every stage of the value chain. It first touches upon the early initiative taken by the company in 2006 through the establishment of its 'Performance with Purpose' program. It also mentions the company's ambitious commitments to science-based climate goals made in 2016. The case then describes the various initiatives, including PepsiCo's Sustainable Farming Program and its water strategy, renewable electricity, and recyclable packaging initiatives. It then focuses on PepsiCo's renewed pledge and its recent initiatives, Pep Positive, the "Sustainable from the Start" program for supply chain partners and the PepsiCo Supplier Code of Conduct. Amid these developments, it remains to be seen whether PepsiCo has put in place the key components essential for building a successful roadmap to achieve its climate change targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for global supply chains to assure delivery of needed goods across the world at reasonable rates is well recognized. To achieve their goals, these behemoths navigate through a myriad of countries, organizations, processes, cultures, regulations, and expectations. Many advanced technologies offer their assistance. Operating in an environmentally conscious world that is increasingly protective of its depleting resources and concerned about its deteriorating climate, natural resources, and landfills, global supply chains must embrace many sustainability concepts. This study gives an overview of the impact of advanced technologies and environmental sustainability on managing global supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to demonstrate the link between Supply Chain Integration (SCI) and organizational performance. The data was collected using survey method from 70 small and medium enterprises in Belgaum district, state of Karnataka, India. Utilizing Pearson's correlation coefficient, the link between independent and dependent variables was examined. To find variables in SCI dimensions that predict organizational performance variables, linear regression analysis was used. The results show a positive correlation between dimensions of SCI and organizational performance. Internal and customer integration show a moderate correlation with operational performance. Customer Integration (CI) with business performance also shows a moderate correlation. While there is no link between Internal Integration (II) and Operational Performance (OP), Supplier Integration (SI) exhibits a minimal correlation with both operational and Business Performance (BP). Customer integration is the SCI component that most strongly predicts both organizational performance aspects. Operational performance is predicted by internal integration; however, supplier integration does not predict any aspect of organizational performance. The findings of this study will advance the body of knowledge in the field of supply chain management with regard to organizational performance and SCI variables, both of which have previously been examined by many researchers from an Indian viewpoint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fish are highly perishable food items that must be delivered to consumers quickly and efficiently. For commercially significant fish, it is required to ensure that they are provided to consumers at the proper time and place. The current study seeks to examine two economically important marine fish species’ value chains and marketing channels in the Chattogram region of Bangladesh. The species examined were sea bass (Lates calcarifer) and Bombay duck, (Harpodon numerous). In the study, primary, secondary, and retail markets— in their combined forms—were examined. Bombay duck and sea bass had 38% and 35% marketing margins, respectively. In the primary, secondary, and retail markets, the proportion of fishermen to sales price for Bombay duck and sea bass was 86%, 73%, and 62%, respectively. Sustainable and profitable fish marketing systems require government involvement in the marine species’ marketing channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to assess the factors that influence the choice of cold chain transportation modes for seafood exports from Vietnam to China. We propose a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) framework using three different modes of transportation as alternatives and seven criteria for competitive evaluation. A Best-Worst Method (BWM) is utilized to evaluate the most and the least important criteria in seafood exports and the most suitable mode of transport of seafood from Vietnam to China, considering a period in which supply chain disruptions, port congestion, and low reliability of the transport network seem to be the new normal. The findings reveal that, among the three modes of transport (air, sea, and land), land transport is prioritized for exporting seafood from Vietnam to China. Furthermore, in terms of transport seafood via road, it is found that 'equipment' and 'facility' are prioritized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the broken agriculture supply chain caused by a lack of storage facilities, lack of transportation, and manifold intermediaries and lack of transparency and traceability, Thirukumaran Nagarajan launched Ninjacart, a leading agritech firm in India, in 2015, along with Sharath Babu Loganathan, Ashutosh Vikram, Kartheeswaran K K and Vasudevan Chinnathambi. After exploring the issues in the agriculture sector, Ninjacart shifted its operations from B2C to B2B, to leverage the profitable business opportunity. Ninjacart used advanced level supply chain algorithms that it developed in-house, predictive analytics, Big Data, IoT technology, and mobile applications to help farmers overcome the various issues they were grappling with. As of early 2020, Ninjacart became one of the largest fresh produce supply chain companies in India. With the Covid-19 pandemic leaving millions of farmers across India in the lurch, Ninjacart launched many initiatives. As part of its future plans, Ninjacart was banking on Machine Learning to improve operations. However, it faced several challenges. Having established itself as a prominent player, Ninjacart's next challenge was scaling up its operations while improving efficiency and profitability at the same time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the relationship between supply chain management (SCM) practices and operational efficiency among selected Public Health Centers (PHCs) in Kampala, Uganda. It was guided by four specific objectives: to establish the relationship between; lean supply chain and operational efficiency; agile supply chain and operational efficiency; agile supply chain and operational efficiency; Just-In-Time (JIT) and operational efficiency; and SCM practices and operational efficiency. The Resource-Dependence Theory by Pfeffer and Salancik (1978) guided the study. The study involved five PHCs and employed a descriptive survey design and correlational research design; guided by both qualitative and quantitative data approaches. The study concludes that SCM practices have a very strong, positive and statistically significant relationship with operational efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The highly competitive retail business environment requires ever-increasing customer orientation for retailers to deliver value as customers are constantly seeking more choice, better quality, and service, as well as quick and reliable delivery. This study undertakes a qualitative approach and explores various competitive priorities that could enhance customer value. It signifies the important role of the retail supply chain, investigates various competitive priorities of such customer-focused retail supply chains, and develops various propositions and a conceptual framework. The study sheds light on different dimensions of the highly complex retail supply chain. Retailers who successfully deploy a customer-focused supply chain approach enhance the customer value proposition and thus are far more likely to achieve higher sales, profitability, market share, and also amplify customer satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current competitive global scenario, developing a successful supply chain strategy which ensures a distinct competitive advantage is critical to an organization's long-term success. Creating a competitive advantage requires numerous factors (i.e., competitive priorities of quality, delivery, flexibility, and cost) that may put a firm's supply chain in a better position in relation to its competitors. The supply chain effectiveness and efficiency improvements require access to data from different functional areas of an organization and different supply chain partners. Data is enabling new ways of organizing and analyzing supply chain processes and leveraging this data drives supply chain performance. Big Data usage and Big Data Analytics (BDA) in supply chains leverage various competitive priorities. The research develops various frameworks to emphasize the digital transformation of the supply chain on Big Data usage and BDA and analyzes how competitive priorities of Big Data-enabled supply chain drive customer value creation and ultimately help in building competitive advantages. The research also illustrates how Walmart has achieved remarkable success in the supply chain with the use of Big Data and BDA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agility is the sense of being able to rapidly respond and adapt to changing situations and circumstances. For people, organizations and communities, new challenges and opportunities can be a requirement for remaining relevant. Different forms of executive, corporate, board and network or supply chain agility can be required for a variety of reasons. Agility may not be easy to achieve and may or may not be desirable, depending upon its purpose and the situation and circumstances. Agility has its technology and human enablers, can have costs and consequences, and may also have limits. Crises and existential threats in the contemporary business environment may require new forms of agility and relationships. They present challenges and create opportunities for individuals, organizations, communities and societies and give rise to aligned and shared interests, a requirement for collaboration and collective responses, and a need to consider agility from different perspectives and rethink what is possible. Our understanding and expectations of agility may need to change. Being quick, clever, adroit and dexterous at an individual or organizational level in navigating a succession of incidents and events may no longer be enough to cope with current and interrelated challenges. We may need to take a wider and more balanced, collective and inclusive view of agility and move on from agility to adaptation, and the systemic thinking, shared purpose, collaboration and collective transition and transformation journeys over a longer time horizon that are required to address an existential threat such as climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]