Supply Chain Agility of International Trade: A Case Study of China Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone

LISS 2014 ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 323-331
Author(s):  
Hao Sun
Author(s):  
Cécile L'Hermitte ◽  
Peter Tatham ◽  
Ben Brooks ◽  
Marcus Bowles

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to extend the concept of agility in humanitarian logistics beyond emergency operations. Since the humanitarian logistics literature focuses primarily on emergencies and sees longer term and regular operations as being conducted in relatively stable and predictable environments, agile practices are usually not associated with humanitarian protracted operations. Therefore, this paper explores the logistics and supply chain environment in such operations in order to identify their basic features and determine if agility is an important requirement. Design/methodology/approach – Using a case study of the United Nations World Food Programme, the authors collected and analysed qualitative and quantitative data on the characteristics of protracted operations, the risks and uncertainties most frequently encountered, their impact, and the ways that field logisticians manage contingencies. Findings – The research demonstrates that unpredictability and disruptions exist in protracted operations. Therefore, short-term operational adjustments and agile practices are needed in order to support the continuity of humanitarian deliveries. Research limitations/implications – Future research should focus on a wider range of humanitarian organisations and move from a descriptive to a prescriptive approach in order to inform practice. Notwithstanding these limitations, the study highlights the need for academics to broaden the scope of their research beyond emergencies and to address the specific needs of humanitarian organisations involved in longer term operations. Originality/value – This paper is the first empirical research focusing exclusively on the logistics features of humanitarian protracted operations. It provides a more concrete and complete understanding of these operations.


Author(s):  
Chang-Hwan Yu ◽  
Byung-Sam Yoon ◽  
Myagmarsuren Ukhnaa ◽  
Shun-Bo Yao

China is showing trends of increase in international trade due to worldwide economic growth. Furthermore, the annual increases in trade value of its bonded area, Bonded logistics complex, etc. are greatly contributing to the development of China’s commerce as result of rising demands from foreign markets. Bonded area is favorable to trade environment and it is typically installed in a port relatively advanced in technology and economy. It differs from other areas due to government’s implementation of favoritism and special policies in that area. Such efficacy is economic like other foreign nations’ “Free Trade Zone”, “Export Processing Zone”, and others that all possess the four functionalities of international trade, modern logistics, entry processing, and commodity marketing.The biggest advantage of bonded area is drastically simplified export-import customs clearance and favorable customs process, and includes other advantages including inspection of goods, tax investigations, foreign exchanges, financial management, etc. that are administered at once. These factors provide accelerated administration of customs procedure and effective business affairs, form ideal investment environment for internationalization of companies, and reduce distribution costs.The Chinese government, following the successful management of bonded area and BLP, is now focusing on establishing the final directing point of the Free Trade Zone. On September 29th, 2013 the “Shanghai Free Trade demonstration borough” was officially launched to form the progressive economic system more efficient than the traditional system. Likewise, we should take advantage of such BLP to export agricultural processed goods, equipment and materials to solidify Korea’s agricultural position there. The trade that utilizes BLP is still mostly conducted by focusing large corporations’ products, and in practice, there have been little discussions of agriculture on the surface aside from the manufacturing industry. However, this venue should serve as appropriate consideration for the sixth industry of agricultural companies, small and medium-sized businesses to take part and form an export path to China’s market.


Author(s):  
Murat Ozemre ◽  
Ozgur Kabadurmus

As the supply chains become more global, the operations (such as procurement, production, warehousing, sales, and forecasting) must be managed with consideration of the global factors. International trade is one of these factors affecting the global supply chain operations. Estimating the future trade volumes of certain products for specific markets can help companies to adjust their own global supply chain operations and strategies. However, in today's competitive and complex global supply chain environments, making accurate forecasts has become significantly difficult. In this chapter, the authors present a novel big data analytics methodology to accurately forecast international trade volumes between countries for specific products. The methodology uses various open data sources and employs random forest and artificial neural networks. To demonstrate the effectiveness of their proposed methodology, the authors present a case study of forecasting the export volume of refrigerators and freezers from Turkey to United Kingdom. The results showed that the proposed methodology provides effective forecasts.


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