scholarly journals Exploring Supply Chain Relationships and Information Exchange in UK Grocery Supply Chains: Some Preliminary Findings

Author(s):  
Mark Barratt
2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Bischoff ◽  
Stefan Seuring

PurposeBlockchain technology is provoking significant disruptions, thereby affecting supply chain management. This study endeavoured to advance research regarding blockchain-based supply chain traceability by identifying the opportunities and limitations that accompany the adoption of public blockchains. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to contribute to contemporary supply chain research by an assessment of blockchain technology and its linkages to traceability.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is conceptual. The authors summarised the relevant literature on the concepts of supply chain traceability, conceptualised key elements exclusive to the public blockchain and highlighted opportunities and limitations in implementing traceability using blockchains.FindingsIncompatibilities were identified between general traceability and the public blockchain. However, when embracing the blockchain's privacy model, the blockchains can support information exchange in supply chains where vulnerability towards third parties, the confidentiality of information, or the privacy of participants are concerns. Furthermore, the public blockchain can support areas of supply chains where institutional interest is lacking.Originality/valueThis is one of the first papers in an international supply chain management journal to critically analyse the intersection of specific blockchain characteristics and supply chain traceability requirements. The authors thereby add to the discussion of designs for a disintermediated, peer-to-peer models and guide researchers and practitioners alike in exploring the application of disruptive change from blockchain technologies. By setting focus on the privacy model, the paper identifies the potential application and future research approaches to exploit the elementary strength of the blockchain.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 173 ◽  
Author(s):  
May McMaster ◽  
Charlie Nettleton ◽  
Christeen Tom ◽  
Belanda Xu ◽  
Cheng Cao ◽  
...  

Through an international business risk management lens, the widespread and catalytic implications of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic on the supply chains (SCs) of fashion multinational corporations (MNC) are analyzed to contribute to existing research on supply chain management (SCM). While a movement towards agile, networked supply chain models had been in consideration for many firms prior to the outbreak, the pandemic highlights issues inherent in supply chains that employ concentrated production. We examined the current state of fashion supply chains, risks that have arisen historically and recently, and existing risk mitigation methods. We found that while lean supply chain management is primarily favored for its cost and waste reduction advantages, the structure is limited by the lack of supply chain transparency that results as well as the increasing demand volatility observed even before the COVID-19 outbreak. Although this problem might exist in the agile supply chain, agile supply chains combat this by focusing on enhancing communication and buyer-supplier relationships to improve information exchange. However, this structure also entails an associated increase in inventory and inventory costs. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused supply and demand disruptions which have resonating effects on supply chain activities and management, indicating a need to build flexibility to mitigate epidemic and demand risks. To address this, several strategies that firms can adopt to control for such risks are outlined and key areas for further research are identified which consider parties both upstream and downstream of the fashion supply chain.


Author(s):  
Alan D. Smith ◽  
Terry Stringer Damron ◽  
Susan Cockrell ◽  
Amye M. Melton

Managing supply chain relationships or working with suppliers to meet the goal of waste reduction are essential functions for successful businesses. There are several disruption risks associated in supply chains, of which few can argue that the disruption of communication, especially product identification and data capture, is the most important potential bottlenecks. It is important in a lean environment to identify potentially disruptive supply chain events for each node in the network. The use of RFID and related IT-intensive technologies can greatly aid management in its quest for more robust and agile supply chains, especially in an offshoring/outsourcing environment.


Author(s):  
Amber A. Smith-Ditizio ◽  
Alan D. Smith

Managing supply chain relationships and/or working with suppliers to meet the mutual goals of operational efficiency and profitably can be enhanced through the use of RFID and barcode technologies. It is important in a lean environment to use RFID and related IT-intensive technologies to manage more robust and agile supply chains. The areas of improvement, as demonstrated in a case study of NE Ohio regionally headquartered firms' involvement of positive outcomes from the strategic use of automatic identification and tracking technologies, included successfully implemented applications as well as technological advancements and development.


Author(s):  
Krishnamurty Muralidhar ◽  
Rathindra Sarathy

Simulation is often used as a tool to analyze and understand complex systems in supply chain management research. Supply chains involve complex relationships between different variables. Hence, it is necessary to simulate related non-normal distributions to simulate these systems. The simulation of related normal distributions is relatively easy and can be found in most simulation texts. However, when the marginal distributions under investigation do not have a normal distribution, it becomes very difficult to generate values from these related distributions. In this study, the authors illustrate a method based on copulas that allows for the generation of related distributions with arbitrary marginals. The procedure suggested in this study is simple and easy to implement. Using this procedure will enable researchers in supply chain management to more effectively simulate complex real-world scenarios resulting in better analysis and understanding of supply chains.


Author(s):  
Herwig Winkler ◽  
Clemens Kuss

Because of the reduced vertical range of manufacturing in recent decades, the complexity of supply chain relationships has increased dramatically. To address this complexity, and with the current pressure of competition in today's business environment, improving process efficiency has become an objective for companies and supply chains. Currently, there are no concepts available that enable evaluating and improving efficiency along entire supply chains. Based on this deficit, the authors developed the Supply Chain Improvement System (SCIS). This chapter will present the theoretical concept of the SCIS and provide the reader with two case studies that consider how to apply it in entrepreneurial practice. Beginning with offering some background information, current deficits in evaluating the efficiency of supply chains will be noted. Proceeding with the principles, the chapter will give a deeper insight into the structure of the concept.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Amanor-Boadu ◽  
S. Starbird

Enforcing compliance standards in supply chains using inspection and other traditional mechanisms may exacerbate the non-compliance effort by those who see these mechanisms as evidence of power imbalance in the relationship. The easier it is for anonymity to exist in supply chain relationships, the greater the incentive for non-compliance, thus creating value for anonymity. We argue that total chain performance can be enhanced by designing and operating supply chains in ways that provided enduring positive signals from the environment to minimize adverse perceptions of powerlessness, coercion and unfairness and increase members' perception of their identity with the organisation. We also explore the interaction between these perception factors and the human factors of opportunism, bounded rationality and risk aversion on the one hand and the environmental factors on the other.


2020 ◽  
pp. 3-15
Author(s):  
O. V. Posilkina ◽  
E. V. Litvinova ◽  
A. G. Lisna

The global economic crisis, which is linked to the coronavirus pandemic, has also affected pharmaceutical logistics. Therefore, the improvement of logistics processes within the pharmaceutical supply chain to increase the access to health care to the population in a pandemic becomes especially important. The aim of the work is to study and summarize the main problems of pharmaceutical logistics in a coronavirus pandemic and substantiate the reserves to improve the functioning of pharmaceutical supply chains. To achieve the goal of the study, an analysis of the domestic scientific literature and the current regulatory framework of Ukraine was conducted. It has used abstract-logical, monographic research methods and system analysis, as well as the method of expert survey. Realizing the importance of providing the population with necessary medicines during the pandemic in Ukraine on October 14, 2020, the Law «Changes to the article 19 of the Law of Ukraine "On Medicinal Products" on Electronic Retail Trade in Medicines» of September 17, 2020 № 904-IX has enforced. It has been evaluated the factors influencing the efficiency and coordination of the activities of pharmaceutical supply chain participants. A risk management algorithm for pharmaceutical supply chains has been developed, its structural elements and relationships have been identified. The presented algorithm will allow analyzing and estimating any deviations from the planned parameters in pharmaceutical supply chains on the basis of establishment of system of the corresponding indicators and on the basis of this information to define effective methods to counter the risks. The urgency of the problem of increasing the reliability and safety of domestic pharmaceutical supply chains in a pandemic has proved. It is justified that the introduction of digital technologies will increase the reliability, transparency and quality of business processes in the pharmaceutical supply chains during a pandemic, drastic changes in the pharmaceutical market and low predictability of demand for medicines and medical devices. The main problems of logistics in a pandemic in the domestic pharmaceutical industry are studied. It has established that the narrowest places in the organization of pharmaceutical supply chains are the improper organization of information exchange between pharmaceutical supply chain participants and the insufficient professional level of production interaction of managers. It has established the priority directions of increase of stability and reliability of functioning of pharmaceutical supply chains which is a necessary condition of accessibility of pharmaceutical provision of the population, especially in the conditions of a pandemic.


Author(s):  
Amber A. Smith-Ditizio ◽  
Alan D. Smith

Managing supply chain relationships and/or working with suppliers to meet the mutual goals of operational efficiency and profitably can be enhanced through the use of RFID and barcode technologies. It is important in a lean environment to use RFID and related IT-intensive technologies to management more robust and agile supply chains. The areas of improvement, as demonstrated in a case study of NE Ohio regionally headquartered firms' involvement of positive outcomes from the strategic use of automatic identification and tracking technologies included successfully implemented applications as well as technological advancements and development.


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