A Virtual Supply Chain Architecture to Grant Product Transparency in Agribusiness

2017 ◽  
pp. 20-38
Author(s):  
Giulia Bruno
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Information Services ◽  
Food Sector ◽  
Chain Architecture ◽  
Electronic Product ◽  
Nosql Database ◽  
Available Information

Especially in the food sector, fraud and counterfeiting are affecting the trust of consumers, who are more and more oriented to chose products basing on quality and traceability attributes rather than the price. Recently, the Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS) standard was introduced to provide specifications for the representation of product traceability information. The collection and analysis of such information allows supply chains to be monitored and controlled through virtualization. Several applications of EPCIS were presented in literature, even if most of them are mainly focused on enabling technologies, with less emphasis on assessing how the available information can be used for a control at a higher level. This chapter review the relevant literature available on this topic, and present an architecture allowing the traceability of information about products throughout the entire supply chain by exploiting both the EPCIS standard and a NoSQL database. An application showing the potentiality of the proposed system in a case study is also reported.

A Virtual Supply Chain Architecture to Grant Product Transparency in Agribusiness

2020 ◽  
pp. 89-107
Author(s):  
Giulia Bruno
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Information Services ◽  
Food Sector ◽  
Chain Architecture ◽  
Electronic Product ◽  
Nosql Database ◽  
Available Information

Especially in the food sector, fraud and counterfeiting are affecting the trust of consumers, who are more and more oriented to chose products basing on quality and traceability attributes rather than the price. Recently, the Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS) standard was introduced to provide specifications for the representation of product traceability information. The collection and analysis of such information allows supply chains to be monitored and controlled through virtualization. Several applications of EPCIS were presented in literature, even if most of them are mainly focused on enabling technologies, with less emphasis on assessing how the available information can be used for a control at a higher level. This chapter review the relevant literature available on this topic, and present an architecture allowing the traceability of information about products throughout the entire supply chain by exploiting both the EPCIS standard and a NoSQL database. An application showing the potentiality of the proposed system in a case study is also reported.

scholarly journals The idea of transport independence in the Russian Arctic

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (9) ◽  
pp. 913-930 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonina Tsvetkova ◽  
Britta Gammelgaard
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Core Competencies ◽  
Strategy Implementation ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Russian Arctic ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Supply Chain Strategy

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how supply chain strategies emerge and evolve in response to contextual influence.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative single-case study presents the journey of a supply chain strategy, conceptualised as the idea of transport independence in the Russian Arctic context. Data from 18 semi-structured interviews, personal observations and archival materials are interpreted through the institutional concepts of translation and editing effects.FindingsThe study reveals how supply chain strategies evolve over time and can affect institutional factors. The case study further reveals how contextual conditions make a company reconsider its core competencies as well as the role of supply chain management practices. The findings show that strategy implementation through purposeful actions can represent a powerful resistance to contextual pressures and constraints, as well as being a facilitator of change in actual supply chains and their context. During the translation of the idea of transport independence into actions, the supply chain strategy transformed itself into a form of strategic collaboration and thereby made supply chains in the Russian Arctic more integrated than before.Research limitations/implicationsMore empirical studies on strategy implementation in interaction with contextual and institutional factors are suggested. An institutional process perspective is applied in this study but the authors suggest that future research should include a human dimension by an exploration of day-to-day routines and challenges that employees face when strategising and the actions they take.Originality/valueThe study provides an understanding of how a new supply chain strategy emerges and how it changes during implementation. In this process-oriented study – merging context, process and strategy content – it is further shown that a supply chain strategy may affect the context by responding to contextual and institutional challenges.

scholarly journals The Active Customer in Logistics Services

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Joanna Alicja Dyczkowska
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Food Sector ◽  
Logistics Service Providers ◽  
Business Market ◽  
Logistics Services

<p>This article describes the notion of “customer activity” in logistics services as an interaction with providers. We reviewed concepts of customer activity in services offered by logistics service providers (LSPs) in the food sector. We then analysed customer activity in transport, storage and management of services. We used a direct diagnostic survey for comparative analysis of groups of customers. The roles of LSPs in the supply chain and within the framework of cooperation in the business-to-business market are presented. Basic customer activities were examined by studying the supply chain, within which LSPs adapted their processes to the activities of their customers. The research results present the degree of customer activity in supply chains.</p><p><strong>Theoretical background:</strong> Customer activity in logistics services is mainly understood as part of interaction with providers. This study goes beyond this view by focusing on the independent activity of the customer in solutions related to transport, storage and the management of logistics services.</p><p><strong>Purpose of the article:</strong> The purpose of the article was to review concepts of customer activity in services offered by LSPs in food-sector supply chains; customer activity was characterised and applied in exploratory research.</p><p><strong>Research methods:</strong> A literature review, comparison of groups of customers, and a direct diagnostic survey method were all used.</p><p><strong>Main findings:</strong> The perspective of customer activity predominating among customers allows LSPs to pursue different activities on behalf of different groups of customers. This article contributes to research on logistics services while focusing on the concept of customer activity.</p>

Supply chain, geographical indicator and blockchain: provenance model for commodity

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohita Gangwar Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Value Distribution ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
The Right ◽  
Theory Framework

PurposeMany commodity supply chains suffer from an unfair value distribution across the supply chain like “Coffee Paradox.” This study explores the coffee supply chain to determine how the country of origin–geographical indicator can be used as a method of fair distribution of value and provenance across the supply chain effectuated by the blockchain technology. By looking at an exemplar case study for India, this study provides insights into diverse research streams and practice.Design/methodology/approachBased on the case method, analyzing the implementation of blockchain in the coffee industry by a leading Indian software implementation of the logic, dynamics and forces for a provenance model has been devised. It further adopts a stakeholder cum institutional theory framework to understand the logical implementation of a blockchain project embedded in a territorial logic for a commodity supply chain.FindingsThis study specifically looks at coffee which is representative of a commodity supply chain. It also explores how the malaise of unfair value distribution gets addressed by bringing farmers and the consumers on a common platform facilitated by blockchain technology. This study contributes to the literature on blockchain, territory, commodity and supply chain. Using stakeholder cum institutional theory, this study helps to explore how the implementation is successful by different actors in the supply chain through collaboration.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides a new stream of multi-disciplinary study at the interface of supply chain, technology, international trade and geography.Practical implicationsBlockchains are embedded in the supply chain, and supply chains are embedded in territories. This linkage is paramount and the ability to make these blockchain projects successful requires the deep study of the interaction of territory, technology and actors from the provenance angle. De-commodification of coffee can be actualized through blockchain.Social implicationsThe coffee paradox and skewed value distribution is also a social problem wherein the farmers do not get the right price of their produce and are exploited. This case also highlights how this social malaise can be addressed and rightful and equitable distribution of value happens across the value chain.Originality/valueThis linkage between territory, blockchain, commodity supply chain and institutions has not been discussed in the literature. Adopting the territorial design approach, this study is an attempt to stimulate inter-disciplinary conversations and thereby create a provenance framework for commodity and research questions for scholars from different disciplines and divergent disciplinary perspectives.

scholarly journals Transparency for Multi-Tier Sustainable Supply Chain Management: A Case Study of a Multi-tier Transparency Approach for SSCM in the Automotive Industry

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain J. Fraser ◽  
Martin Müller ◽  
Julia Schwarzkopf
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chain Management ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Automotive Industry ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Sustainable Supply Chain ◽  
Chain Management ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Sustainability Problems

Sustainability in supply chain management (SSCM) has become established in both academia and increasingly in practice. As stakeholders continue to require focal companies (FCs) to take more responsibility for their entire supply chains (SCs), this has led to the development of multi-tier SSCM (MT-SSCM). Much extant research has focused on simple supply chains from certain industries. Recently, a comprehensive traceability for sustainability (TfS) framework has been proposed, which outlines how companies could achieve MT-SSCM through traceability. Our research builds on this and responds to calls for cases from the automotive industry by abductively analysing a multi-tier supply chain (MT-SC) transparency case study. This research analyses a raw material SC that is particularly renowned for sustainability problems—the cobalt supply chain for electric vehicles—and finds that the extant literature has oversimplified the operationalisation of transparency in MT-SSCM. We compare the supply chain maps of the MT-SC before and after an auditing and mapping project to demonstrate the transparency achieved. Our findings identify challenges to the operationalisation of SC transparency and we outline how FCs might set to increase MT-SC transparency for sustainability.

scholarly journals Optimizing Resource Utilization in Biomass Supply Chains by Creating Integrated Biomass Logistics Centers

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 6153
Author(s):  
Xuezhen Guo ◽  
Juliën Voogt ◽  
Bert Annevelink ◽  
Joost Snels ◽  
Argyris Kanellopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Resource Utilization ◽  
Optimization Model ◽  
Biobased Products ◽  
Knowledge Gap ◽  
Supply Chain Optimization ◽  
Biomass Logistics ◽  
Idle Capacity

Bio-based supply chains are by nature complex to optimize. The new logistic concept of integrated biomass logistical center (IBLC) provides us the opportunity to make full use of the idle capacity for a food/feed plant to produce biobased products so that the entire chain efficiency can be improved. Although research has been conducted to analyze the IBLC concept, is yet to be an optimization model that can optimally arrange the activities in the supply chain where an IBLC stands in the middle. To fill the knowledge gap in the literature, this paper makes the first step to develop a MILP model that enables biobased supply chain optimization with the IBLC concept, which supports logistic and processing decisions in the chain. The model is applied in a case study for a feed and fodder plant in Spain where managerial insights have been derived for transferring the plant to a profitable IBLC.

On data and connectivity in complete supply chains

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 1145-1163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Engelseth ◽  
Judith Molka-Danielsen ◽  
Brian E. White
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chain Management ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Process Development ◽  
Chain Management ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Management Discourse ◽  
End To End ◽  
Chain Organization

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to question the applicability of recent industry-derived terms such as “Big Data” (BD) and the “Internet of things” (IoT) in a supply chain managerial context. Is this labeling useful in managing the operations found in supply chains? Design/methodology/approach BD and IoT are critically discussed in the context of a complete supply chain organization. A case study of banana supply from Costa Rica to Norway is provided to empirically ground this research. Thompson’s contingency theory, Alderson’s functionalistic end-to-end “marketing channels” model, Penrose’s view of supply purpose associated with service provision, and particularities of banana supply reveal how end-to-end supply chains are complex systems, even though the product distributed is fairly simple. Findings Results indicate that the usefulness of BD in supply chain management discourse is limited. Instead its connectivity is facilitated by what is now becoming commonly labeled as IoT, people, devices and documents that are useful when taking an end-to-end supply chain perspective. Connectivity is critical to efficient contemporary supply chain management. Originality/value BD and IoT have emerged as a part of contemporary supply chain management discourse. This study directs attention to the importance of scrutinizing emergent and actual discourse in managing supply chains, that it is not irrelevant which words are applied, e.g., in research on information-enabled supply process development. Often the old words of professional terminology may be sufficient or even better to help manage supply.

An environmental balanced scorecard for supply chain performance measurement (Env_BSC_4_SCPM)

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 1398-1422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luís Miguel D. F. Ferreira ◽  
Cristóvão Silva ◽  
Susana Garrido Azevedo
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Performance Management ◽  
Balanced Scorecard ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Supply Chain Performance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Novel Model

Purpose – Companies need to excel in many areas to achieve a competitive advantage. This, together with pressure imposed by regulators and customers regarding sustainability concerns, leads companies to address sustainability in an integrated fashion across all management processes. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a model for the assessment of the environmental performance of a supply chain, based on four perspectives used in the balanced scorecard. Performance indicators are proposed based on the literature, as well as on the ISO 14031 and GRI standards, and were validated by a panel of experts. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a literature review on models for environmental performance management a novel model to assess the environmental performance of the supply chains (Env_BSC_4_SCPM) is proposed. Data collected from the first tier suppliers of an automotive industry case study are used to test the proposed model. Findings – The model developed was tested in a case study company, showing it ability to benchmark the company first tiers suppliers and products. The model is also useful as a decision support tool to define actions to be taken in order to improve the global environment performance of the supply chain. Research limitations/implications – The proposed model was developed to evaluate the environmental performance of supply chains. Nevertheless, the case study only takes account of the first tier suppliers, due to difficulties associated to data collecting for the other elements in the supply chain. Widening the frontiers, the next phase may include the application of this model to second, third and lower tier suppliers, as well as the final customer. Improvements in the model could also include the construction of a composite index to measure the environmental supply chain performance. Practical implications – The paper provides a model that can be used by practitioners to evaluate the environmental performance of their supply chain and to decide on actions to be taken to improve it. Originality/value – As stated by several authors, there has been limited research conducted in the field of environmental evaluation of supply chains. This paper proposes a novel model for the environmental performance of the supply chain and tests it using industrial empirical data.

Supply chain typology for configuring cost-efficient tracking in fashion logistics

2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ville Hinkka ◽  
Maiju Häkkinen ◽  
Jan Holmström ◽  
Kary Främling
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Radio Frequency Identification ◽  
Design Theory ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Fashion Industry ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
And Function

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a typology of radio frequency identification (RFID)-based tracking solution designs to fit differing fashion supply chains. The typology is presented as principles of form and function contributing toward a design theory of configurable RFID tracking for fashion logistics. Design/methodology/approach – The typology is developed based on a case study of a logistics service provider (LSP) interested in designing a tracking solution for different customers in fashion logistics. In addition to the LSP, four fashion retailers were involved in the study. The case study was carried out using a review of existing RFID tracking implementations in the fashion industry, analysis of an RFID tracking pilot conducted by the case company, and interviews with representatives of the retailers. Findings – By varying three design parameters (place of tagging, place of tracking start and place of tracking end) a tracking solution can be configured to fit the requirements and constraints of different fashion supply chains. In the fashion logistics context under investigation, such parameterization addresses retailer requirements, brings concrete and quantifiable benefits to both LSP and its customers, and enables incremental adoption of RFID tracking. Research limitations/implications – Although the typology is developed in the specific setting of a case company developing RFID tracking solutions for fashion logistics, the design parameters identified in the study can be used when considering configurable tracking solutions also in other domains and settings. However, further research is needed to evaluate the proposed typology in those settings. Practical implications – The proposed typology enables fashion companies to consider which configuration of RFID tracking best fits the requirements and constraints imposed by their particular supply chain. For fashion companies, who find adoption of RFID tracking difficult despite the obvious benefits, the proposed typology enables incremental implementation of supply chain-wide tracking. Originality/value – The developed typology, describing how RFID-based tracking solutions can be adjusted to fit the needs of fashion companies with differing supply chains and requirements, is novel. The typology is generalizable to most fashion logistics settings and probably to numerous other logistics domains.

scholarly journals Recovering Supply Chain Disruptions in Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Through Transport Intelligence and Logistics Systems: India's Experiences and Policy Options

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tapas Sudan ◽  
Rashi Taggar
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Transportation Systems ◽  
General Context ◽  
Policy Options ◽  
Supply Chain Disruptions ◽  
New Model ◽  
Logistics Services ◽  
The Rich

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Indian firms have focused on interconnected and lean supply chains to ameliorate the gaps through increased efficiency of supply chains. However, the pandemic has exposed most Indian firms to severe supply chain disruptions (SCDs) due to undiscovered supply chain vulnerabilities. Against this background, we reviewed the existing relevant literature on SCDs and transportation disruption in general context and pandemic specific context and identified that there exists very little research on this issue especially in the context of Indian firms, and offered policy options by developing a new model of robust transport and advanced logistics system (ALS) for speedier supply chains recovery (SCR). We have utilized and analyzed the rich available literature on SCDs, transport intelligence (TI), and ALS using gray literature. The study revealed that many Indian firms have experienced major disruptions in transportation and logistics services, including impact on transportation and logistics data, time delays, and cargo cancellations due to cramped freight capacity, restricted circulation, closure of ports, and slow customs clearances. This has also impacted adversely the production and transport consignments including logistics services and led to delays and rerouting to final consumers. With the gradual removal of restrictions, firms are making concerted efforts to recover from SCDs; however, with weak applications of robust TI and ALS, the SCR is relatively very slow. This called for a review of current transport and ALS used by priority firms. Therefore, we offered a new model for addressing the SCDs using robust intelligence transportation systems and ALS.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document