scholarly journals Additive Manufacturing: Application Perspectives in Small and Medium Enterprises

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjam Beltrami ◽  
Guido Orzes
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Manufacturing Plants ◽  
Geographically Dispersed ◽  
Medium Enterprises

Changes in customer expectations, markets and organisations are creating an increasing need for customised products and calling for reactive supply chains. New technologies might help organisations to deal with these challenges in a flexible and cost-effective way. One of these technologies is Additive Manufacturing (AM). The object of this paper is to outline the potential of AM in production, to identify possible supply chain developments and to determine the role that SMEs might play in this scenario. In detail, we pose the question whether AM might lead to geographically dispersed manufacturing plants and might replace physical material flow with information flow and how SMEs can act in this development process. Based on an exploratory literature review, we highlight the market requirements addressed by AM, the supply chain characteristics for AM and the role of SMEs. Implementing AM can cause shifts in the decoupling point as well as changes in the global supply chain configuration (relocation of production closer to the final customer). We then conduct some expert interviews, which confirm some of the results of the literature review, but emphasise that AM will not replace conventional manufacturing processes on a large scale, at least in the medium term.

scholarly journals Identifying Effective Factors on Technological Entrepreneurship in Iranian Nanotechnology SMEs

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
pp. 461-466
Author(s):  
Mahdi Pakrad ◽  
Reza Mohammad Kazemi .
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Simple Random Sampling ◽  
Nano Technology ◽  
Statistical Population ◽  
Effective Factors ◽  
Technology Industry ◽  
Technological Entrepreneurship ◽  
Medium Enterprises

Technological entrepreneurship is the latest issue in the field of entrepreneurship and fostering competitive advantages in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) which has been received special attention. Given the lack of coherent literature review to apply technological strategies in SMEs, and also because of the role of technology based firms which are active in industries with new technologies, such as Nano-Technology industry, while the technological entrepreneurship literature review has been investigated, this article is principally intended to identify effective factors on technological entrepreneurship in Iranian Nanotechnology SMEs. The research methodology of the current article is a mixed one; in the qualitative stage, semi-structured and open interviews and investigation of related documents have been used, and in the quantitative stage, the questionnaire has been applied to gather data. In the research’s quantitative stage, a statistical population consisted of managers, expert employees of the case study have been considered, and the simple random sampling method has been used. In addition, in this stage, the questionnaires have been used as the data collection tool and the experts in the qualitative stage measured the research’s validity, and the questionnaire’s reliability has been approved through Cronbach’s alpha of 0.81. The mean analysis has been applied in this stage for the data analysis. The findings of this paper shows that the effective factors on technological entrepreneurship in Iranian Nanotechnology SMEs are categorizes in the four issues of “Internal Processes”, “Individual Factors”, “Institutions” and “External Networks”.

scholarly journals mRNA-Based Vaccines

Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 390
Author(s):  
Frank Kowalzik ◽  
Daniel Schreiner ◽  
Christian Jensen ◽  
Daniel Teschner ◽  
Stephan Gehring ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Clinical Applications ◽  
Cell Mediated Immunity ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Emerging Pathogens ◽  
Cell Genome

Increases in the world’s population and population density promote the spread of emerging pathogens. Vaccines are the most cost-effective means of preventing this spread. Traditional methods used to identify and produce new vaccines are not adequate, in most instances, to ensure global protection. New technologies are urgently needed to expedite large scale vaccine development. mRNA-based vaccines promise to meet this need. mRNA-based vaccines exhibit a number of potential advantages relative to conventional vaccines, namely they (1) involve neither infectious elements nor a risk of stable integration into the host cell genome; (2) generate humoral and cell-mediated immunity; (3) are well-tolerated by healthy individuals; and (4) are less expensive and produced more rapidly by processes that are readily standardized and scaled-up, improving responsiveness to large emerging outbreaks. Multiple mRNA vaccine platforms have demonstrated efficacy in preventing infectious diseases and treating several types of cancers in humans as well as animal models. This review describes the factors that contribute to maximizing the production of effective mRNA vaccine transcripts and delivery systems, and the clinical applications are discussed in detail.

Effects of cloud computing assimilation on supply chain financing risks of SMEs

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Lu ◽  
Jinliang Chen ◽  
Hua Song ◽  
Xiangyu Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Cloud Computing ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Supply Chain Integration ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Supply Chain Financing ◽  
Medium Enterprises ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Moderating Role

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how cloud computing assimilation reduces supply chain financing (SCF) risks of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This study also investigated the mediating roles of internal and external supply chain integration between cloud computing assimilation and the SCF risks of SMEs, as well as the moderating role of environmental competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach Data was collected from surveys of SMEs located in China. Multiple regression analysis was used to validate the proposed theoretical model and research hypotheses. Findings The findings show that cloud computing assimilation could reduce the SCF risks of SMEs directly. The results also indicate that both internal and external supply chain integration mediate the relationship between cloud computing assimilation and SCF risks. Furthermore, environmental competitiveness inhibits the effects of cloud computing assimilation on SCF risks. Originality/value To our best knowledge, this is the preliminary study to explore the role of cloud computing assimilation in reducing the SCF risks of SMEs. Also, this study attempted to investigate the process by which cloud computing assimilation affects the SCF risks of SMEs.

Performance of supply chain management and digitalization of human resource information in SMEs

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ansa Savad Salim ◽  
M. M. Sulphey
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chain Management ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
It Infrastructure ◽  
Chain Management ◽  
Resource Information ◽  
Vernacular Language ◽  
Information Practices ◽  
Medium Enterprises

The aim of this study is to determine the influencing factors of Supply Chain Management and digitalization of human resource information practices in the small and medium enterprises of Oman. Digitalization of human resource information is the adoption of electronic means to the human resource activities of Supply Chain Management. In this system, the whole human resource activities are implemented through electronic means with the support of information technology (IT) infrastructure. To measure the Digitalizationof Human Resource Information Practices and the performance level of Supply Chain Management, two adopted constructs from two different studies were used. The study samples were taken from the SMEs of Oman. Almost 180 employees of different provinces responded to the questionnaires translated into vernacular language through google forms and a few hardcopy surveys were distributed to different locations with the support of SMEs and few entrepreneurs. The study found a significant positive relationship between the Performance of SCM and the Digitalization of Human Resource Information of a prominent variable electronic communication and other variables were found with no significant relationship. The finding of the study acts as a significant contributor to the existing literature on SCM as well as human resource management.

Big data-driven supply chain and performance: a resource-based view

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shampy Kamboj ◽  
Shruti Rana
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Firm Age ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sustainable Performance ◽  
Medium Enterprises

PurposeThe main objective of this paper is to study the role of supply chain performance (SCP) as a mediator between big data-driven supply chain (BDDSC) and firm sustainable performance. In addition, the role of firm age as a moderator between BDDSC and SCP as well as between SCP and firm sustainable performance has also been explored.Design/methodology/approachThe 200 managers of medium or senior level positions in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) located at Delhi-NCR have been contacted. Further, collected data have been confirmed with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). In this paper, structure equation modeling (SEM) has been employed to empirically check the proposed hypotheses and their relationships.FindingsThe findings confirmed that SCP mediates the link between BDDSC and firm sustainable performance. Additionally, firm age moderates the association between BDDSC and SCP as well as between SCP and firm sustainable performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe role of SCP and firm age between BDDSC and sustainable performance have been examined in the context of MSMEs in Delhi-NCR and thereby limit the generalization of results to other industries and country contexts.Originality/valueThe present study adds to the existing literature via recognizing the blackbox using SCP and firm age to comprehend BDDSC and firm sustainable performance relationship.

Pollution optimisation study of logistics in SMEs

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 731-750 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anand Jaiswal ◽  
Cherian Samuel ◽  
G. Abhishek Ganesh
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Small And Medium Enterprises ◽  
Pollutant Emission ◽  
Vehicular Pollution ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Logistics Network ◽  
Pollution Emission ◽  
Optimisation Model ◽  
Medium Enterprises

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a solution for greening the supply chain of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by minimising the vehicular pollutant emission in the logistics network. Design/methodology/approach The paper proposes an optimisation model to reduce the pollution emission in the logistics of supply chain network in SMEs. The work considers vehicle routing and selection of suppliers, manufacturers and assemblers according to the availability of various Bharat Stage Emission Standards type vehicles. Introsort sorting based selection algorithm is used to solve the problem. The proposed solution is implemented using C++ on an experimental data set for analysing the model. Findings The outcome of the study is a pollution optimisation model for logistics of SMEs. The finding shows an approach to reduce total vehicular pollution emission in the logistics network in meeting the demand. The model is tested over an experimental study, and the result findings show which supply chain entities, type of environmental standard vehicles and vehicle routes are selected for the specific demand. Research limitations/implications The proposed model is confined to pollution optimisation with limited parameters only and does not consider cost and other factors that can be included in future work. Practical implications The work can be used for limiting pollution in logistics system as the corporate social responsibility of enterprises. Originality/value Proposed work presents a sustainable and green solution for pollution control in logistics activities of the SMEs.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document