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Reducing loss and providing a secure power supply for customers have always been the main goal of distribution systems planners. Recently, the development of competitive electricity markets and responsive loads participation in such markets together with the integration of regional energy networks (RENs) have resulted in creating some challenges for RENs' owners to increase operating efficiency, and reduce investment costs. In this paper, to overcome these problems, a new modeling for coordinated planning of distribution networks and RENs in the presence of responsive loads is proposed and to achieve the optimal solution of the problem, the genetic algorithm is used. Operation uncertainties due to the installation of wind turbines and photovoltaic resources in RENs are considered. The probability‐tree method is used to generate and model operation scenarios and their variable production, respectively. To validate and confirm the efficiency of the proposed model, numerical studies were applied on a 25‐bus Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers standard distribution network, including two RENs equipped with responsive loads. The results show the fact that the flexibility of the demand side in the electrical sector due to the activity of responsive loads causes to increase in the installation capacity of energy resources and storages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Transportation Model (TM) in the application of Linear Programming (LP) is very useful in optimal distribution of goods. This paper focuses on finding Initial Basic Feasible Solutions (IBFS) to TMs hence, proposing a Demand-Based Allocation Method (DBAM) to solve the problem. This unprecedented proposal goes in contrast to the Cost-Based Resource Allocations (CBRA) associated with existing methods (including North-west Corner Rule, Least Cost Method and Vogel's Approximation Method) which select decision variable before choosing demand and supply constraints. The proposed 'DBAM' on page 66 is implemented in MATLAB and has the ability to solve large-scale transportation problems to meet industrial needs. A sample of five (5) examples are presented to evaluate efficiency of the method. Initial Basic Feasible Solutions drawn from the study are of higher accuracy and will rapidly converge to optima in less iterations. The comparative results also showed that the DBAM outperforms other methods under this study which qualifies it as one of the best methods to solve industrial TMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to discuss the last mile concept for the proposed Bydgoszcz Logistics Hub in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region, and thus to present the forecast distribution of goods within the last mile from and to the Hub, and to indicate the role that it could play in the region. Method: The development of the last mile concept for the Bydgoszcz Logistics Hub was based on secondary data. The first two stages of work, not discussed in this article, included case studies of 6 successfully operating foreign and domestic transhipment terminals and an analysis of the supply and demand for transport in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship. The third stage, the results of which are presented in this article, involved the identification of the most important national centres generating supply and demand for transport within a radius of 280 km from the Hub. Data, allowing to estimate the potential demand for the fright transport on the analysed routes and their costs depending on the mode of transport, came mainly from the Central Statistical Office, the Railway Transport Office, the General Board of National Roads, the National Bank of Poland and Port of Gdynia and Gdańsk Authorities. Results: The data show that in the period covered by the forecast (2019-2034), the most important change in the transport model of the Hub service area will be a significant increase in inland waterways transport of the Vistula River. Conclusions: The forecast operation of the last mile for the Bydgoszcz Logistics Hub justifies the reloading, storage and forwarding of goods in the area of the Bydgoszcz-Toruń agglomeration. The construction of the Bydgoszcz Logistic Hub will bring improvement to the already existing road links leading to the most important logistic centres, located, on the one hand, in the Tricity seaports, on the other hand, in large economic centres in Poznań, Łódź and Warsaw. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply and production uncertainties can affect the scheduling and inventory performance of final production systems. Facing such uncertainties, production managers normally choose to maintain the original production schedule, or follow the first-in-first-out policy. This paper develops a new, dynamic algorithm policy that considers scheduling and inventory problems, by taking advantage of real-time shipping information enabled by today’s advanced technology. Simulation models based on the industrial example of a chemical company and the Taguchi’s method are used to test these three policies under 81 experiments with varying supply and production lead times and uncertainties. Simulation results show that the proposed dynamic algorithm outperforms the other two policies for supply chain cost. Results from Taguchi’s method show that companies should focus their long-term effort on the reduction of supply lead times, which positively affects the mitigation of supply uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper investigates newsvendor problem for a dyadic supply chain in which both the supplier and the retailer have the preference of status-seeking with fairness concerns. Nash bargaining solution is introduced as the fairness reference point and equilibrium results are derived. The effects of fairness-concerned status-seeking behaviors on optimal decisions as well as channel efficiency are further analyzed. It is shown that the channel efficiency will decrease because of such behavioral preference. The retailer’s share will be larger when the supplier concerns fairness less, and the supplier’s sensitivity to fairness plays a relatively more important role for the channel efficiency. Additionally, another interesting managerial insight is concluded that fairness concerns will not change the status of channel coordination in certain conditions. More specifically, those contracts able (unable) to coordinate fairness-neutral supply chain, based on affine transformations with scale factors within certain ranges, still succeed (fail) to coordinate the fairness-concerned. Furthermore, several insights on bargaining powers are given as well. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes an integer linear programming model conceived as an alternative to a traditional material requirements planning (MRP) system for extending the concept of supply chain synchronisation upstream in a multi-tier supply chain. In this model, we assume there is an incumbent application for transmitting original equipment manufacturer (OEM) requirements to first-, second- and third-tier suppliers. The proposed model is regarded as being embedded within a web-enabled, multi-tier, supply chain information system that provides the application for transmitting the production requirements. The principal motivation for having second- and third-tier suppliers that are synchronised with OEM and first-tier activity is the significant inventory, lead time and responsiveness gains that can potentially be achieved. Here, inventory is considered as a whole across a supply chain, and stock-outs are prohibited for the first-tier supplier. For illustration purposes, an example based on a real, automotive case study is provided. The model results proved better in terms of inventory and bullwhip reduction than those found in a previous simulation-based approach. Also, a comparison of the proposed case results with those of a conventional MRP application is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to map the causal relations among various supply chain flexibility (SCF) dimensions having significant impact on the Indian personal hygiene industry. Design/methodology/approach: The author(s) have gone through extensive literature review and extracted 22 SCF dimensions. After conducting field visits and expert interaction in the firm related to case industry, 11 major SCF dimensions that seem to have a significant amount of influence on supply chain performance of the firms were retained for further consideration. The author(s) have used decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) to establish initial causality and structural equation model (SEM) to investigate the contribution of different flexibility dimensions on overall SCF. Findings: After DEMATEL analysis, three major SCF dimensions were considered for SEM modeling. The result shows that product flexibility and physical distribution flexibility have favorable influence on the SCF, while the demand management flexibility adversely impacts overall SCF. Practical implications: The approach adopted in the study can help firms to determine and exercise the flexibility dimensions of a particular supply chain. The DEMATEL and SEM offer a facilitation to explain the causal relationship between the different dimensions to take long-term decisions and address the uncertainty in the demand and supply side. Originality/value: This paper has made an attempt to evaluate the supply chain flexibilities, prioritize them and evaluate the relationship amongst these flexibilities and the degree to which they affect or are affected by one another in the Indian personal hygiene industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study a simple reverse supply chain consisting of a remanufacturing facility and a number of independent locations where used products are returned by the end-users. At the collection locations, the returned products are graded and classified based on a list of nominal quality metrics provided by the remanufacturer. It is assumed that this classification is subject to errors; specifically, the returns condition is overestimated because of a stochastic proportion of returned units which are classified in classes corresponding to better quality than the actual. The scope of the paper is to study how these classification errors affect the optimal procurement decisions of the remanufacturer as well as the associated profit for the cases of both constant and stochastic demand in a single-period context. Moreover, in the former case we study the impact of these classification errors on profit variability. The quantification of the impact of quality overestimation provides intuition on the value of reliable classification and on the extent of the necessary investments and initiatives to improve classification accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the supply chain order management decision making models proposed in the literature are based mainly on the material flow and capacity constraints without any consideration to the profitability factor. In this paper, we develop a multi-objective mixed-integer programming (MIP) model which considers profitability in order to effectively manage order acceptance decisions in supply chains, subject to capacity constraints by using activity-based costing (ABC). While there are a numbers of decision-making models in literature integrating ABC in supply chains, this study expands the previous models with a more customer-oriented approach. The proposed model fulfils a desirable amount of orders completely and accepts selective number of orders partially with an objective of minimising the amount of residual capacity and increasing the profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is intended to provide a critical literature review on supply chain performance measurement. The study aims at revealing the basic research methodologies/approaches followed, problem areas and requirements for the performance management of the new supply chain era. The review study covers articles coming from major journals related with the topic, including a taxonomy study and detailed investigation as to the methodologies, approaches and findings of these works. The methodology followed during the conduct of this research includes starting with a broad base of articles lying at the intersection of supply chain, information technology (IT), performance measurement and business process management topics and then screening the list to have a focus on supply chain performance measurement. Findings reveal that performance measurement in the new supply era is still an open area of research. Further need of research is identified regarding framework development, empirical cross-industry research and adoption of performance measurement systems for the requirements of the new era, to include the development of partnership, collaboration, agility, flexibility, information productivity and business excellence metrics. The contribution of this study lies in the taxonomy study, detailed description and treatment of methodologies followed and in shedding light on future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work examines the bullwhip effect generated and suffered by each level of a four-stage beer game supply chain when different demand scenarios are considered. The paper shows that the actors who generate lower bullwhip are those who suffer more from its effects. Moreover, a new definition of an inventory oscillations measure based on bullwhip definition is introduced. Finally the paper verifies that the new measure of inventory oscillations provides more information on supply chain performance than the bullwhip measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are a variety of analytical models for supplier selection ranging from simple weighted techniques to complex mathematical programming approaches. However, these models are specifically aimed at supporting a decision maker in a single phase, especially in the final selection phase and they have failed to consider the supplier selection process from a holistic point of view. Although the methodology presented in this paper primarily focused on the prequalification of potential suppliers, the outputs of the previous phases, namely problem definition and formulation of criteria, are used as inputs in this methodology. The methodology utilises a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method to determine the weights of the pre-selected decision criteria, a max-min approach to maximise and minimise the supplier performances against these weighted criteria, and a non-parametric statistical test to identify an effective supplier set. This information supports decision makers in making the final selection with effective alternative choices. Potential application of the proposed methodology is demonstrated in Audio Electronics in Turkey's electronics industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the antecedents and consequences of supply chain activities and empirically tests many of the assumptions in the extant buyer-supplier relationship literature. To analyse the validity of the research model and the hypotheses, data was gathered from 271 manufacturing organisations in South Korea through the administration of structured questionnaires. The results suggest that trust, interdependency, and rate of technological change are major factors that influence the level of operational and strategic information sharing and collaboration, and that the higher the degree of strategic information sharing and collaboration is, the greater the level of effectiveness becomes. However, there is no significant relationship between the length of relationship and information sharing and collaboration. Research and practical implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years automakers have paid considerable attention to synchronizing supply chain material flow. Potential benefits associated with synchronization include stability in both demand and supply patterns, inventory reduction, elimination of demand amplification and better long-term planning. In major European production sites, the geographic proximity of suppliers to the vehicle assembly plants provided the motivation for examining the feasibility of extending the synchronized sequenced delivery of components upstream in the vehicle supply chain. The value stream used in the research concerned the seating systems at two major European production sites. The results of extending synchronized sequencing from the first to the second tier showed a reduction in demand amplification to negligible levels, achieved overall synchronization levels of 99-100% and considerably reduced overall pipeline inventory between the vehicle assembly plant and the second tier component supplier. The findings suggest how the geographic proximity of suppliers can be used to implement multi tier synchronized sequencing of components to improve supply chain performance. Based on the results of the study a series of recommendations are provided concerning the supply chain implications of multi tier synchronized sequencing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many firms, using their supply chains as competitive weapons has become a central element of the strategic management process in recent years. Drawing on the resource-based view and theory from the organizational learning and information-processing literatures, this study uses a sample of 201 firms to examine the influence of a culture of competitiveness and knowledge development on supply chain performance in varied market turbulence conditions. We found that synergies exist between a culture of competitiveness and knowledge development: their interaction has a positive association with performance. In addition, based on behavioral and contingency theories, we found that market turbulence moderates these relationships, having a positive influence on the knowledge development–performance link and a negative influence on the culture of competitiveness–performance link. Managers who are confident about the level of market turbulence they will face can use this sense to decide whether to emphasize developing either a culture of competitiveness or knowledge development in their supply chains. For those firms whose managers are unlikely to be able to predict the degree of turbulence they will face over time, a focus on both a culture of competitiveness and knowledge development is critical to ensuring success. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the size, complexity and dynamic nature of many supply chains, there is a need to understand the impact of disruptions on the operation of the system. This paper presents a network-based modelling methodology to determine how changes or disruptions propagate in supply chains and how those changes or disruptions affect the supply chain system. Understanding the propagation of disruptions and gaining insight into the operational performance of a supply chain system under the duress of an unexpected change can lead to a better understanding of supply chain disruptions and how to lessen their effects. The modelling approach presented, Disruption Analysis Network (DA_NET), models how changes disseminate through a supply chain system and calculates the impact of the attributes by determining the states that are reachable from a given initial marking in a supply chain network. This ability will permit better management of the supply chain and thus will allow an organization to offer quicker response times to the customer, lower costs throughout the chain, and to the end customer higher levels of flexibility and agility, lower inventories throughout the chain (both with work-in-process and inventories), lower levels of obsolescence and a reduced bullwhip effect throughout the chain. This is of particular benefit in large-scale systems, since it can give the user the ability to perform detailed analysis of a dynamic system without the computational burden of a full-scale execution of the model. Consequently, the model may then be segmented to evaluate only the portions or sub-networks that are affected by changes in an initial marking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a conceptual foundation for understanding the impact of supply uncertainty on the value of information sharing when it co-exists with demand volatility under various scenarios. Specifically, we consider a two echelon supply chain in which a manufacturer distributes a single product through a number of independent retailers. The retailers consistently share their replenishment policy and inventory level to the manufacturer. We define operational measures of the value of information with a cost structure which captures inventory holding cost, backorder cost, and ordering/setup cost. Accordingly, a simulation model is developed to experimentally generalize a number of qualitative insights. In general, we find that information sharing is more beneficial for the manufacturer than for the retailers in the presence of supply uncertainty and demand volatility. Our results indicate that, interestingly, the value of information sharing for the manufacturer can increase or decrease with production yield variability with different cost structures and demand patterns. We also find that while supply uncertainty has significant impact on the value of information sharing for the upstream supply chain members, the impact is relatively insignificant for the downstream supply chain members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a computational intelligence approach, which addresses the bullwhip effect in supply chains (SCs). A genetic algorithm (GA) is employed to reduce the bullwhip effect and cost in the MIT beer distribution game. The GA is used to determine the optimal ordering policy for members of the SC. The paper shows that the GA can reduce the bullwhip effect when facing deterministic and random customer demand combined with deterministic and random lead times. The paper then examines the effect of sales promotion on the ordering policies and shows that the bullwhip effect can be reduced, even when sales promotions occur in the SC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The benefits of coordinating activities and consolidating distribution points in supply chains are well highlighted and intuitively logical. However, the impact of these decisions on the overall performance of a complex supply chain may not be as obvious as usually perceived. This study models a relatively complex supply chain and evaluates the impact of simplifying demand and lead time assumptions under various supply chain configurations. Of particular interest is the investigation of the effect of risk pooling and the synchronization of production cycles in a multi-level multi-retailer supply chain under the influence of various parameters such as batch size, delivery frequency and ordering cycle. This study highlights the extent of complicated interaction effects among various factors exist in a complex supply chain and shows that that the intricacy of these effects can be better understood with a simulation model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply chain networks are formed from complex interactions between several companies whose aim is to produce and deliver goods to the customers at specified times and places. Computing the total lead time for customer orders entering such a complex network of companies is an important exercise. In this paper we present analytical models for evaluating the average lead times of make-to-order supply chains. In particular, we illustrate the use of generalized queueing networks to compute the mean and variance of the lead time. We present four interesting examples and develop queueing network models for them. The first two examples consider pipeline supply chains and compute the variance of lead time using queueing network approximations available in the literature. This analysis indicates that for the same percentage increase in variance, an increase at the downstream facility has a far more disastrous effect than the same increase at an upstream facility. Through another example, we illustrate the point that coordinated improvements at all the facilities is important and improvements at individual facilities may not always lead to improvements in the supply chain performance. The existing literature on approximate methods of analysis of forkjoin queueing systems assumes heavy traffic and requires tedious computations. We present here two tractable approximate analytical methods for lead time computation in a class of fork-join queueing systems. Our method is based on the results presented by Clarke in 1961. For the case where the 'joining' servers of the queueing system are of the type D/N/1, we present an easy to use approximate method and illustrate its use in evaluating decisions regarding logistics (for instance, who should own the logistics fleet-the manufacturer or the vendor?) and computing simple upper bounds for delivery reliability, that is the probability that customer desired due dates are met. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the relationships between the power of suppliers and buyers and the profitability of sellers who are situated in supply chains between both sets of firms. A review of the literature on power in exchange relations shows there are several power concepts which may have a different impact on seller profitability and whose impact possibly can offset each other. This may be the source of the conflicting evidence on this topic. A failure to distinguish among the concepts may also lead to an underestimation of industry effects relative to resource effects as drivers of firm profitability. The paper uses a new data base of the Banque de France on French manufacturing industry. The analyses examine whether different power concepts may be empirically identified and what their relationships are with seller profitability. The findings point to the existence of multiple power concepts and indicate that, in the sample, industry effects are more important than firm effects (as measured by relative market share) in explaining seller profitability. The findings also suggest that buyer power explains a much larger percentage of the variance in seller profitability than supplier power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the physical and social factors that influenced the distribution of raw materials in developing and industrialized countries such as the U.S. The author notes that the unequal distribution of natural resources is one physical factor that influence access to raw materials while social factors stem from the uneven economic development that resulted to the need for raw materials. Other factors are derived from the demand of developing countries for primary metals such as iron ore and cooper. Information about the available oil reserves and world steel production are discussed.

The article discusses the author's view regarding on the consequences of attempting to increase the life expectancy of people in nonindustrialized countries without regard for the resulting population growth. According to him, human needs depends on the volume of the production achieved between now and then. He also cites problem on the rapidly growth population, that since good health can be shown to require higher levels of living, it is a question that if a larger world population can facilitate an increase in per capita production. He also added, that there might be a inappropriate distribution of people in relation to sources.

Spatial concepts of system design have outlived their usefulness, says the author of this article. He holds that a more useful framework for future analysis can be based on temporal measures—that it offers the opportunity to develop an analytic approach devoid of crippling assumptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the functions of wholesaling in an economy of SCARCITY, the Turkish economy, in contrast to the functions of wholesaling in an economy of ABUNDANCE, the United States. The author compares the two systems, based on first-hand knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organization changes for more effective management of physical distribution are currently taking place in many of our nation's industrial firms. This article answers the following questions: • What is physical distribution? • What is the scope of its management in terms of the modern day marketing environment? • What types of firms are most likely to realign managerial responsibilities to unify control over physical distribution? • What are the implications of the trend for marketing managers, marketers of physical distribution services, and teachers of marketing and transportation? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses consumer goods shortages, which are the results of wartime production demands, and how they have been managed. A discussion of shortages, inequities in distribution and the incorrect distribution of unrationed goods is provided. Reports from the Survey of Distribution in Wartime state that the southern and western parts of the United States received higher rates of maldistribution than the rest of the country. Small businesses report higher rates of shortages than larger businesses and chain stores. A chart is presented which tracks sales and inventory changes in stores between 1941 and 1943.

The article presents a study of the distribution problems facing the red cedar shingle industry in the United States. The article outlines the problem, with most of the production centered in the Pacific Northwest. Production issues such as packing, conditioning, and grading, issues around logging and shingle production, and overproduction are outlined. The article discusses marketing factors such as location and scope of market, geographical distribution, costs of transportation and insurance, demand, distribution channels, marketing functions, poor merchandising, pricing policies, and the competition of substitutes to red cedar shingles. The article proposes some suggestions and next steps for the cedar shingle industry in addressing the current situation.

The article focuses on the role of warehouses in wholesale distribution systems. In order to take full advantage of distribution systems, manufacturers require methods of supplying merchandise to retailers and industrial customers at a reasonable cost. An overview of the use of the public warehouse industry, the industry's adaptation to business's changing needs, and its place in manufacturers' distribution systems are presented. Manufacturers' use of consignment selling through public warehouses and problems associated with such methods are also discussed.

In this paper, performance evaluation of a two-stage supply chain which consists of a supplier and a retailer under uncertainty environment is examined. In the literature; many studies have been investigated on supply chain performance analysis in uncertainty environment and demand parameter is an essential data on these analyses. When there is sufficient data about demand, it is easy to construct probability distribution of demand. However, in the absence of enough historical data, it is impossible to construct the probability distribution. The demand parameter is intuitively determined and shown by a fuzzy distribution in such situations. This paper intends to find closed form solutions in order to maximize the performance of a two-stage supply chain with coordination under fuzzy environment. The coordination of the supply chain is maintained by contracts. The contracts analysed in this study are revenue sharing contract and buy back contract. Numerical examples are presented to show the validity of the proposed models and to investigate the effect of contract parameters on the total performance of the supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past 40 years the intermodal transportation has dramatically increased and this trend will continue much faster in the 21st century. Nowadays, the intermodal transportation presents the backbone of world trade. The efficiency of distribution processes is improved by integrating different modes and services of transport. Shippers, who generate the demand for transportations, carriers who supply the transportation services for the demand and also intermodal network determine the performance of the system. Transportation of dangerous goods also reaches upward trend. However, the dangerous transportations have negative effects on the environment and, if an accident occurs, can cause injuries or death. This threat presents very important reason for focusing on improving the security and efficiency for dangerous transports and avoiding of potential accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Port as one of the key hubs of international logistics, which has become the main part and the base of global logistics management. The port enterprises, plays an important role in the global supply chain. However, due to the lack of understanding in port supply chain management, coordination between the port enterprises, the integration of business process is not perfect, the lack of information sharing between various organizations, ports enterprises usually failed to fully play its positive role. Based on this, the paper makes the port enterprises as the research object, and introduces the excellent performance mode into the port enterprises. In order to study the port enterprises how to carry out effective quality management, and formation the coordination and integration of upstream and downstream of enterprises, so as to realize the competitive advantage in port logistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article considers the design that locates and connects production, warehousing, distribution, and sales as well as planning and execution that forms the plans, orders, and replenishment mechanisms utilized for communicating between supply and demand. Topics covered include four ways for additive manufacturing-enabled supply chains to enhance sustainability, reduction of transportation via localizing production, and reduction of material use via reduced overproduction.

Relief distribution has received considerable attention in the disaster operations management literature. However, the majority of this literature assumes that supply is always available. In reality, a significant portion of the materials that flow through the humanitarian relief chain are donations, which represent an uncertain supply source in terms of both quantity and timing. This paper investigates a two-stage relief chain consisting of a single staging area (SA) where donations arrive over time in uncertain quantities, which are periodically distributed to random numbers of disaster survivors located at a point of distribution (POD). A single vehicle travels back and forth between the SA and POD transporting relief supplies during a finite horizon. The goal of this study is to identify dispatching policies for the vehicle with the sole purpose of minimizing unsatisfied demand at the POD. To this end, we examine the effectiveness of two common-sense heuristic policies relative to the optimal dispatching policy, the latter of which is determined via stochastic dynamic programming. Our findings indicate that although continuously dispatching the vehicle between the SA and POD is not an optimal policy, it is either optimal or close to optimal in most situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a supply chain, the importance of information elicitation from the supply chain players is vital to design supply chain network. The rationality and self-centredness of these players causes the information asymmetry in the supply chain and thus situation of conflict and non-participation of the players in the network design process. In such situations, it is required to analyse the supply chain players' behaviour in order to explore potential for coordination through incentives. In this paper, a novel approach of social utility analysis is proposed to elicit the information for supply chain coordination among the supply chain players in a dyadic relationship - supplier and buyer. In principal, we consider a monopsony situation where buyer is a dominant player. With the objective of maximizing the social utility, efforts have been made to value behavioural issues in supply chain. On the other hand, the reluctance of player due to the information asymmetry is measured in the form of inertia - an offset to the supply chain profit. The suppliers' behaviour is analysed with three distinct level of risk for two types of the product in procurement process. The useful insight from this paper is in supplier selection process where the reluctance of supplier offsets supply chain profit. The paper provides recommendations to supply chain managers for efficient decision-making ability in supplier selection process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author presents his assessment of changes in Post-World War II appliance marketing channels. He predicts a large upswing of new business owners in the appliance industry. He says the newcomers are expected to disregard established channels of distribution. He contends that the traditional methods used by the distribution channels will prevail due to a tremendous backlog of consumer demand.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study how variations in weather affect demand and supply chain performance in sport goods. The study includes several brands differing in supply chain structure, product variety and seasonality. Design/methodology/approach – Longitudinal data on supply chain transactions and customer weather conditions are analysed. The underlying hypothesis is that changes in weather affect demand, which in turn impacts supply chain performance. Findings – In general, an increase in temperature in winter and spring decreases order volumes in resorts, while for larger customers in urban locations order volumes increase. Further, an increase in volumes of non-seasonal products reduces delays in deliveries, but for seasonal products the effect is opposite. In all, weather affects demand, lower volumes do not generally improve supply chain performance, but larger volumes can make it worse. The analysis shows that the dependence structure between demand and delay is time varying and is affected by weather conditions. Research limitations/implications – The study concerns one country and leisure goods, which can limit its generalizability. Practical/implications – Well-managed supply chains should prepare for demand fluctuations caused by weather changes. Weekly weather forecasts could be used when planning operations for product families to improve supply chain performance. Originality/value – The study focuses on supply chain vulnerability in normal weather conditions while most of the existing research studies major events or catastrophes. The results open new opportunities for supply chain managers to reduce weather dependence and improve profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to understand the national cultural antecedents that may help explain differences in supply chain disruptions mitigation abilities of companies from different countries. An analysis of survey data on disruption planning and response collected from various organizations worldwide was performed using weighted least square regression and factor analysis. We find that culture influences disruption planning and response. Statistical findings suggest that differences in disruption planning and response abilities between companies from different countries could be partly attributed to national culture. All five Hofstede's dimensions of national culture, i.e., Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity, Uncertainty Avoidance, and Long-term Orientation were shown to have a significant positive effect on disruption planning and response. National cultural dimensions and economic status of a country could be effectively used to predict disruption planning and response abilities of companies in various countries. Managers could benefit from our research as it could help them assess disruptions mitigation abilities of their partners located in other countries. Increasing international trade and globalization of supply chains accentuate the importance of our research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketing promotions are pervasive in industry, yet too often they are introduced without regard to their potential impact on the whole supply chain. This paper considers a cooperative business environment where a manufacturer and a retailer work interactively in determining their independent sales promotional actions. We use a newsvendor-modelling framework to study coordinating issues when the manufacturer provides mail-in rebates directly to consumers while the retailer exerts promotional effort to further spur consumer demand. We find that quantity discount contracts in conjunction with buy-back achieve supply chain coordination. Successful coordination can result in significant supply chain improvement, which leads the retailer to order more units and exert higher promotional effort level. With numerical examples, we provide additional insights on the conditions for the manufacturer to offer rebates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of modular plants in the chemical industry is expected to make the structure of supply chains more dynamic. The models currently used to get insight in supply chains assume a predefined supply chain structure, as orders are exogenously defined. Consequently, those models cannot grasp the dynamic nature of supply chains with modular plants. In this paper a market conceptualization based on agent-based computational economics is presented that includes transport costs in the negotiations and enables the modeling of supply chains as structures that emerge from market dynamics. It is shown that this conceptualization can capture the market dynamics that are needed to simulate a dynamic supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]