scholarly journals Management and Logistics of Returnable Transport Items: A Review Analysis on the Pallet Supply Chain

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 12747
Author(s):  
Fabiana Tornese ◽  
Maria Grazia Gnoni ◽  
Brian K. Thorn ◽  
Andres L. Carrano ◽  
Jennifer A. Pazour
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Business Models ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Open Loop ◽  
Research Gaps ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Review Analysis ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

Pallets are among the most used returnable transport items (RTIs), and they are critical assets for a supply chain as they have significant environmental and economic impacts during their whole life cycle. Differently from other packaging products, pallets are specifically designed to be repeatably repaired and reinjected for use. While this environmentally is beneficial as it reduces waste, it can create complex interactions between the stakeholder-involved manufacturers, pallet providers, users and recyclers. Further, the number of different actors is usually high, and the flow of materials among them needs to be coordinated. In addition, different business models can be implemented (such as internal management versus outsourcing) as well as logistics alternatives (closed- versus open-loop). Thus, the aims of this study are first to propose a systematization of design and management decisions regarding the pallet supply chain; next, to review the state of the art models and tools adopted to support each decision process relying on an analysis of the archival literature published between 1978 and 2021 on pallet management, to summarize the main decision problems addressed by the different stakeholders involved in the pallet life cycle and the adopted methods, and, finally, to highlight potential existing research gaps. This effort helps to outline potential contributions towards more sustainable pallet supply chains and can support pallet operators and companies in evaluating solutions to increase the economic and environmental sustainability of their pallet management. Results show that the perspectives of the pallet provider and of the supply chain are the most widely addressed in the existing literature, while those of pallet manufacturers and repairers should be further analyzed.

Study on Evaluation Index System of Green Supply Chain for Automobile Products

2020 ◽  
pp. 231-240
Author(s):  
Rafia Khan
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Automobile Industry ◽  
Index System ◽  
Evaluation Index System ◽  
Evaluation Index ◽  
Green Supply Chain ◽  
Green Development ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

It is the focus of the automobile industry to guarantee the quality of automobiles and meet the requirements of green development. Based on the principle of sustainable development, according to the characteristics of green supply chain and the concept of the whole life cycle of the automobile, the evaluation index system of the green supply chain of the automobile is constructed from five links of design, purchase, production, sale, and recycling. The “green” runs through the whole life cycle of automobile products and evaluates the green supply of automobile products scientifically and accurately. Reference should be provided for the situation.

scholarly journals Adopting International Learnings to Improve the Performance of New Zealand’s Infrastructure Supply Chain

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 133
Author(s):  
Jarrod Richards ◽  
Mostafa Seifan
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Project Failures ◽  
Common Goals ◽  
End To End ◽  
Mature Organizations ◽  
Project Lifecycle

Growing interest in the productivity of the infrastructure sector has increased due to cost and time overruns in major projects. In this regard, many developed countries have failed to implement a framework to ensure that project success is met through newly available technologies and business initiatives to ensure the user is the most important beneficiary. This review paper provides a review of international research relating to the life cycle, firm-level operations, and collaborative business models of infrastructure projects. The review initially identified the importance that understanding key phases and procurement models has on the efficiency of a project’s life cycle. A key indicator of the likelihood of good performance across a supply chain lies with the ability to understand the efficiencies of the firm-level operations. The literature has noted that successful projects are able to perform well across an organizations end-to-end involvement and be able to share risks among mature organizations. This paper provides a review of how a collaborative business model can benefit a project lifecycle and firm-level operations. The global research currently has identified the need for a collaborative approach that reduces the risk within all organizations through common goals, effective end-to-end project systems and consideration of the entire project lifecycle. The paper provides a detailed review of international practices in an infrastructure supply chain that have the potential to address New Zealand’s infrastructure project failures.

scholarly journals Reverse supply chain practices in developing countries: the case of Morocco

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 198-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamal El Baz ◽  
Regina Frei ◽  
Issam Laguir
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Reverse Supply Chain ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate reverse supply chain (RSC) practices and their obstacles using case studies of Moroccan companies. The authors present the main findings of case studies’ analysis along with a discussion of an RSC framework for further directions of research. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach was adopted and semi-structured interviews with Moroccan companies were conducted using an interview guide. Findings The authors present an RSC model that encompasses remanufacturing, refurbishing and disposal processes. The authors believe that this model would constitute a promising framework for further research. The findings show that the successful implementation of RSC depends on many factors, but the company’s attitude (proactive or conservative) is one of the most critical determinants in RSC initiatives. Furthermore, the results of the case studies indicate two types of inhibitors: external and internal. These findings confirm the results of previous research on environmental sustainability obstacles in general and RSC obstacles in particular. Research limitations/implications This study has some limitations that provide future research opportunities. Because this study is qualitative, further statistical support is needed to justify wider generalisation of its findings. Further studies might therefore investigate RSC practices in developing countries other than Morocco to increase the external validity of the results. Practical implications The findings can help firms to gain better understanding of their RSC and particularly the link between forward and RSCs. Consequently, companies can upgrade their business models to better control their RSC activities. Originality/value The relevant literature about RSC practices has mainly targeted manufacturing sectors in developed countries, and few studies have been conducted on developing countries. Research on RSC practices in developing countries in general and African countries in particular is sparse. This is one of the first articles written to address this gap by investigating RSC practices in Morocco.

scholarly journals A Deep Learning-Based Inventory Management and Demand Prediction Optimization Method for Anomaly Detection

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Chuning Deng ◽  
Yongji Liu
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Deep Learning ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Supply Chain Management ◽  
Inventory Management ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Chain Management ◽  
Demand Prediction ◽  
Whole Life Cycle ◽  
Core Part

The rapid development of emerging technologies such as machine learning and data mining promotes a lot of smart applications, e.g., Internet of things (IoT). The supply chain management and communication are a key research direction in the IoT environment, while the inventory management (IM) has increasingly become a core part of the whole life cycle management process of the supply chain. However, the current situations of a long supply chain life cycle, complex supply chain management, and frequently changing user demands all lead to a sharp rise in logistics and communication cost. Hence, as the core part of the supply chain, effective and predictable IM becomes particularly important. In this way, this work intends to reduce the cost during the life cycle of the supply chain by optimizing the IM process. Specifically, the IM process is firstly formulated as a mathematical model, in which the objective is to jointly minimize the logistic cost and maximize the profit. On this basis, a deep inventory management (DIM) method is proposed to address this model by using the long short-term memory (LSTM) theory of deep learning (DL). In particular, DIM transforms the time series problem into a supervised learning one and it is trained using the back propagation pattern, such that the training process can be finished efficiently. The experimental results show that the average inventory demand prediction accuracy of DIM exceeds about 80%, which can reduce the inventory cost by about 25% compared with the other state-of-the-art methods and detect the anomaly inventory actions quickly.

scholarly journals Using Ontologies in Autonomous Robots Engineering

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Aguado ◽  
Ricardo Sanz
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Autonomous Robots ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Human Engineering ◽  
Uncertain Environments ◽  
Life Cycle Engineering ◽  
Engineering Teams ◽  
Autonomous Operation ◽  
Future Activity ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

The construction and operation of autonomous robots is heavily based of systemic conceptualizations of the reality constituted by the robot, its controller and the environment where it performs. In this chapter we address the role that computer ontologies play in the whole life cycle—engineering and operation—of autonomous robots: from its conception and construction by human engineering teams to deployment and autonomous operation in dynamic and uncertain environments. This chapter summarizes the state of the art, gives some examples and establishes a roadmap for future activity in this domain to produce shareable ontologies that could streamline autonomous robot development and exploitation.

scholarly journals Towards a sustainable business model for smartphones: Combining product-service systems with modularity

10.29007/djcz ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Frantz Schneider ◽  
Sepideh Matinfar ◽  
Eoin Martino Grua ◽  
Diego Casado-Mansilla ◽  
Lars Cordewener
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Modular Design ◽  
Service Systems ◽  
Sustainable Business ◽  
Product Service ◽  
Extended Lifespan ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Whole Life Cycle ◽  
Product Service Systems

Based on the Sustainable Development Goals introduced by the United Nations and on the circular economy concept, ICT providers are adapting to become more sustainable. Some assess the CO2 emissions in the whole life cycle, while others propose to use renewable energies during manufacturing and assembling. In contrast with the current smartphone business models that rely on ongoing patterns of production and consumption, this paper proposes a more sustainable approach by combining product modularity, Product-Service Systems (PSS), and design for attachment. With a modular design, it becomes easier to repair the product or to replace parts, allowing for an extended lifespan. In combination with PSS, we propose that the modules, when no longer used by one customer, return to the market to be reused by another one. Lastly, we discuss the impact of the users’ behaviour through emotional bond, personalization, and technology appropriation as predictors of attachment to the product and consequently an extended lifespan. Through comparing case studies and using Life Cycle Assessment to calculate the CO2 equivalent emissions, we argue that our approach would directly reduce the environmental impact of the smartphone on the production phase, which accounts for most of the emissions throughout its life cycle.

Usability Demonstration of the G.EN.ESI Eco-Design Platform: The Cooker Hood Case Study

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Germani ◽  
Marco Mandolini ◽  
Marco Marconi ◽  
Marta Rossi
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Design Process ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Design Tools ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Design Concepts ◽  
Traditional Design ◽  
Design And Manufacture ◽  
Whole Life Cycle

Due to the increasing pressure of legislations and market, the environmental sustainability is becoming a key competitive factor for companies. In specific markets, as the Northern Europe one, customers are very careful on the quality and sustainability of products, thus companies has to design and manufacture green goods. In this context, there is a strong need of effective design tools and platform which allows to configure products applying the life cycle paradigm and with the “environment on mind”. Currently in the market there are only few examples of products designed taking into account the eco-design concepts. In particular, for mechatronic or energy using products only the use phase is usually considered and all the re-design strategies aim to reduce the energy consumption. This is essentially due to the fact that there is a lack of tools and design platforms, which are easy to use and well integrated with the traditional design tools and with the design processes of companies. This paper wants to demonstrate the usefulness of a set of interoperable eco-design tools, the G.EN.ESI platform, in supporting the re-design of a mechatronic product. The proposed case study, realized in collaboration with an Italian leading company in the sector of household appliances, focuses on the improvement of a domestic cooker hood with the final objective to obtain a more sustainable product. The in-depth experimentation, for the duration of more than 3 months, involved different stakeholders within the company (designers, environmental expert, etc.), with the aim to validate the G.EN.ESI platform tools in different phases of the re-design process. The case study showed that the use of the platform has supported the company in the identification of the environmental hot-spots and during the product re-design phase, considering the whole life cycle. The re-engineered cooker hood exhibits relevant improvements in the most important environmental and economic indicators (environmental impact, energy efficiency, disassemblability, recyclability, etc.). Also a detailed analysis of the platform usability has been performed in order to measure if the tools completely fulfil the expectations of the final users. Finally, the level of integration within the company processes has been evaluated with a dedicated questionnaire. The results of these last analyses showed that the G.EN.ESI platform is appropriate to support a company to improve the sustainability of their products without the needs to heavily alter the traditional design process.

scholarly journals Sustainable Development of Prefabricated Buildings from the Perspective of Green Supply Chain Management

CONVERTER ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 37-44
Author(s):  
Yanli Chen
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Supply Chain ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Evaluation Model ◽  
Chain Structure ◽  
Evaluation Index System ◽  
Green Supply Chain ◽  
Whole Life Cycle ◽  
Prefabricated Building

As a green, environment-friendly, energy-saving and efficient building, prefabricated building has become an important way for the development of building industrialization in China. In this paper, the green supply chain structure model of prefabricated building is constructed from the perspective of green supply chain life cycle, and the evaluation index system of sustainable development of prefabricated building is established. This paper analyzes the whole life of assembly green supply chain and applies hierarchical clustering TOPSIS comprehensive evaluation model to evaluate and identify the key nodes of assembly green supply chain. This provides theoretical support and decision-making basis for green supply chain optimization management of prefabricated buildings. At the same time, this paper puts forward some suggestions for the operation of the key links of the prefabricated green supply chain, and realizes the green sustainable management of the whole life cycle of the prefabricated building supply chain. The test results show that this method can promote the sustainable development of prefabricated buildings.

scholarly journals Coevolution of environmental sustainability orientation and strategic alliance learning in green supply chain management

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuo-Ming Chu
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Strategic Alliance ◽  
Global Market ◽  
Green Supply Chain ◽  
Sustainable Competitive Advantage ◽  
Learning Capacity ◽  
Environmental Requirements

Abstract The main aim of this paper is to show how green supply chain (SC) environmental sustainability orientation and strategic alliance learning coevolve over time. Our position is that the level of interfirm learning is a determinant of the formations and mastery mechanisms evolving in a green SC. Therefore, this study discusses the environmental sustainability of the learning processes of firms’ alliances during the life cycle of the alliances. This is done in order to encourage firms to follow green innovation and green SCs through enhancing their environmental performance and increasing their competitive advantage in the global market. In addition, this study develops a research structure and test hypotheses on the basis of survey data from 342 Taiwanese firms listed on the stock market. The results indicate that green knowledge acquisition plays a prominent role in the performance of firms’ alliances, especially when implemented in a green SC management (SCM) context. Moreover, according to one of the main findings, as companies evolve through the different phases of the alliance life cycle, their situation shows high potential for creating knowledge sharing through their exploration capabilities. Finally, when firms focus their internal organizations on learning and environmental requirements, they become better able to expand their learning capacity as well as to build and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document