Balancing Accuracy of Promised Ship Data and IT Costs

2009 ◽  
pp. 620-634
Author(s):  
Young M. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Service Level ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Order Fulfillment ◽  
Business Decision ◽  
Customer Order ◽  
Customer Dissatisfaction ◽  
Time Availability ◽  
Static View

In an ideal e-business environment, when a customer order is scheduled and a ship date is computed, the availability should immediately be reserved and not be available for future orders. However, in reality the availability data that are used for the scheduling the orders are not real time availability (physical availability), but they are availability information stored in an IT system (system availability). The availability data in the IT system (static view of availability) is typically refreshed (synchronized with real time availability) only periodically since it is very expensive to update the database in real time. Due to this potentially inaccurate view of the availability, some orders cannot be shipped on the promised ship date. Therefore, for certain customer orders, products are shipped later than the promised ship date resulting in customer dissatisfaction. Therefore, one of key decisions in order fulfillment process is to properly balance IT system (e.g., IT expense) and accuracy of promised ship date. In this work, we study how availability fresh rate (IT system) impacts customer service level. The simulation model we develop helps making critical business decision on refresh rate of availability, and avoiding expensive IT investment.

scholarly journals LOGISTICS IN ESTONIAN BUSINESS COMPANIES

Transport ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 356-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ain Kiisler
Keyword(s):  
Customer Service ◽  
Inventory Management ◽  
Cash Flows ◽  
Service Level ◽  
Order Fulfillment ◽  
Customer Order ◽  
It Systems ◽  
Customer Service Level ◽  
Considerable Impact ◽  
Freight Forwarding

The article describes logistics survey in Estonia carried out in 2007 as a part of the LogOnBaltic project. The level of logistics in Estonian manufacturing, trading and logistics companies is explored through logistics costs, performance indicators, outsourcing, ICT use and logistics self‐estimation of the companies responded. Responses from 186 Estonian companies were gathered through a web‐based survey (38% of manufacturing, 38% of trading and 24% of logistics sector). Logistics costs as the percentage of turnover make in average 13.8% in manufacturing and 13.3% in trading. Transportation and inventory carrying cost form around 70% of overall logistics costs. Considering the logistics indicators surveyed, Estonian companies show up with relatively low perfect order fulfillment rates, short customer order fulfillment cycles and effective management of cash flows. The most widely outsourced logistics function is international transportation followed by domestic transportation, freight forwarding and reverse logistics. By 2010, the outsourcing of IT systems in logistics followed by inventory management, warehousing and product customization is expected to increase more substantially. The awareness of logistics importance is still low among Estonian companies. Only 27–44% of those agree that logistics has a considerable impact on profitability, competitive advantage, top management or customer service level.

scholarly journals An Algorithm for Customer Order Fulfillment in a Make-to-Stock Manufacturing System

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 783 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danica Lečić-Cvetković ◽  
Nikola Atanasov ◽  
Sladan Babarogić
Keyword(s):  
Customer Service ◽  
Production Model ◽  
Order Fulfillment ◽  
Dynamic Allocation ◽  
Order Allocation ◽  
Customer Order ◽  
Customer Service Level ◽  
Manufacturing Company ◽  
Order Promising ◽  
Make To Stock

<p>In the competitive environment, many manufacturers are increasingly focusing on designing the systems that help them to manage variable demand and supply situations. Dynamic allocation of demands is very important in case of customer order allocations. Order promising and allocation can be based on the simple sequence that enables a manufacturing company to receive orders unless there are some other priority orders. Manufacturing company can also manage allocations of supply to key customers and channels, thereby ensuring that they can meet contractual agreements and service levels in the priority that yields better profit. This paper will focus on a Maketo- Stock order fulfillment system facing random demand with random orders from different classes of customers. Available-to-promise (ATP) calculating from master production schedule (MPS) exhibits availability of finished goods that can be used to support customer order allocation. This order allocation system is adapted in MTS (make-to-stock) production model and all orders are treated according to maximization of customer service policy. It allows incoming purchase orders as well as existing inventory on hand to be selected and allocated to customer sale orders and back orders. The system then automatically allocates the available stock to the selected sales orders. We developed an integrated system for allocation of inventory in anticipation of customer service of high priority customers and for order promising in real-time. Our research exhibits three distinct features:<br />(1) We explicitly classified customers in groups based on target customer service level;<br />(2) We defined higher level of customer selection directly defined according to company strategy to develop small and medium customers;<br />(3) We considered backorders that manufacturing company has to fulfill in order to maximize overall customer service for certain customers.</p>

Modeling Accuracy of Promised Ship Date and IT Costs in a Supply Chain

2010 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Young M. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Service Level ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Management Process ◽  
Refresh Rate ◽  
It Systems ◽  
Availability Management ◽  
Customer Service Level ◽  
Modeling Accuracy

In the current dynamic, competitive business environment, customers expect to see products they purchase to be shipped on the date it is promised. However, accurate calculation of promised ship date by suppliers can only be obtained at expense of corporate IT systems that provide accurate availability data. Our study indicates that refresh frequency of availability data in IT system substantially impacts accuracy of the ship date that is promised to customer. The value of customer service level corresponding to accuracy of promised ship date needs to be estimated against the costs of having necessary IT system. The estimation requires a simulation model of availability management process. In this paper, we describe how to model and simulate the availability management process, and quantify the customer service level resulting from various availability refresh rate.

scholarly journals Conversational marketing as a framework for interaction with the customer: Development & validation of the conversational agent's usage scale

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 533-546
Author(s):  
Khalil Israfilzade
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Scale Validation ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Conversational Agent ◽  
Conversational Agents ◽  
Pilot Studies ◽  
The Common ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
Customer Development

Conversational agents are becoming an essential part of a growing number of personal and commercial encounters, bringing the issue of Conversational Marketing to a broader audience. A conversational agent is a developing technology that will be used in various fields throughout life, including e-commerce. The common characteristics of any conversational agent in whatever area are their capacity to engage in one-to-one personalised real-time dialogue with a human user and their availability 24 hours a day. Scale items for conversational agent phenomena have not been created scientifically or managerially in a business environment. The primary goal of this study was to develop and validate a new scale for conversational agents that could be used to quantify individual interactions in conversational marketing. As a result, the creation of a new scale for conversational agents with the objective of measuring individual customer interactions in conversational marketing was separated into two phases: Scale Development and Scale Validation. The Conversational Agent Usage Scale was developed and validated as a consequence of pilot studies. Additionally, this article discusses the practical consequences of conversational marketing, which can now be accomplished through the use of the Conversational Agent Usage Scale, which may be used by Customer Service & Support, Marketing, and Sales departments.

Entrepreneurial Education - a New Challenge for Universities in Romania

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-68
Author(s):  
Gabriel Croitoru ◽  
Mircea Constantin Duica ◽  
Dorin Claudiu Manolache ◽  
Mihaela Ancuta Banu
Keyword(s):  
Social Role ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Positive Contribution ◽  
Business Decision ◽  
Entrepreneurial Spirit ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Thinking ◽  
High Degree

Abstract Entrepreneurial spirit plays an increasingly important role in the economic sphere, and universities are meant to play a central role in this process, where the main objective is the continuous development and mediation of the knowledge increasingly geared to the applications through innovation and patenting a secure platform for employment and well-being growth. The Universities have to take a position in if/and how they want to grow into a so-called “University of Entrepreneurship” which is characterized by a high degree of openness to the surrounding society and here we are talking, especially, about, the business sector in Romania. This evolution of expectations for the social role of universities has resulted from increased and recent interest in entrepreneurship and innovation of areas as research and theory of the business environment. The experience gained as teachers indicates that education and entrepreneurship education should include different theories and methodology than those applied in the usual way. The theory of traditional management and microeconomic models could even be a barrier to new thinking and change and, therefore, to the implementation of modern entrepreneurial actions. We want this article to be a source of inspiration for educational institutions and to have a positive contribution to research in business education and to be applicable in business decision-making.

scholarly journals Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach for Online Food Delivery (OFD) Companies Evaluation and Selection: A Case Study in Vietnam

Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 1274
Author(s):  
Ngoc Bao Tu Nguyen ◽  
Gu-Hong Lin ◽  
Thanh-Tuan Dang
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Safety Information ◽  
Web Design ◽  
Service Level ◽  
Food Delivery ◽  
Multi Criteria Decision Making ◽  
Management Service ◽  
Order Fulfillment ◽  
Delivery Cost

The COVID-19 pandemic has boosted the growth of the online food delivery (OFD) market in every corner of the world. In Vietnam, the food delivery service is rising rapidly and opening a large gateway of opportunities for numerous OFD platforms, also making it a competing business market in this country. Thus, to keep up with the ever-changing market dynamics, there are numerous measures and dimensions for the OFD entrepreneurs to take into consideration towards sustainable development. This paper’s objective is to evaluate major OFD companies in Vietnam based on a comprehensive set of criteria, which are social and environmental criteria (healthy and safety, information security, and environmental impact), economic criteria (delivery cost, operational capability, and risk management), service quality (order fulfillment, delivery speed, convenience of payment, online/offline service level, and customer feedback), and technology (web design, real-time tracking systems, and marketing techniques). To achieve this objective, this work proposes a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM)-based framework combining the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) and the weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS). The FAHP is used to generate criteria weights in which fuzzy set theory is applied to translate the linguistic evaluation statements of experts. Then, WASPAS is used to rank the OFD companies against the selected criteria. The evaluation criteria that have obtained maximum weight priority in the FAHP analysis are “convenience of payment”, “delivery speed”, “online service level”, “order fulfillment”, and “delivery cost”. From the final ranking of WASPAS, Foody is today the best performing OFD player in Vietnam regarding the selected criteria, followed by GrabFood and Now. The proposed methodology can be an accurate and robust evaluation model for the industry, while the managerial implications of this study provide significant materials for decision-makers in the OFD market in improving their businesses towards sustainable development.

What should be lean buffer threshold for the forward-reserve warehouse?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhavin Shah
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Model ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Service Level ◽  
Buffer Size ◽  
Value Stream Mapping ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Customer Service Level ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Just Right

PurposeThe assorted piece-wise retail orders in a cosmetics warehouse are fulfilled through a separate fast-picking area called Forward Buffer (FB). This study determines “just-right” size of FB to ensure desired Customer Service Level (CSL) at least storage wastages. It also investigates the impact of FB capacity and demand variations on FB leanness.Design/methodology/approachA Value Stream Mapping (VSM) tool is applied to analyse the warehouse activities and mathematical model is implemented in MATLAB to quantify the leanness at desired CSL. A comprehensive framework is developed to determine lean FB buffer size for a Retail Distribution Centre (RDC) of a cosmetics industry.FindingsThe CSL increases monotonically; however, the results concerning spent efforts towards CSL improvement gets diminished with raised demand variances. The desired CSL can be achieved at least FB capacity and fewer Storage Waste (SW) as it shifts towards more lean system regime. It is not possible to improve Value Added (VA) time beyond certain constraints and therefore, it is recommended to reduce Non-Value Added (NVA) order processing activities to improve leanness.Research limitations/implicationsThis study determines “just-right” capacity and investigates the impact of buffer and demand variations on leanness. It helps managers to analyse warehouse processes and design customized distribution policies in food, beverage and retail grocery warehouse.Practical implicationsProposed buffering model offers customized strategies beyond pre-set CSL by varying it dynamically to reduce wastages. The mathematical model deriving lean sizing and mitigation guidelines are constructive development for managers.Originality/valueThis research provides an inventive approach of VSM model and Mathematical algorithm endorsing lean thinking to design effective buffering policies in a forward warehouse.

scholarly journals A literature review on multi-echelon inventory management: the case of pharmaceutical supply chain

2018 ◽  
Vol 200 ◽  
pp. 00013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nouçaiba Sbai ◽  
Abdelaziz Berrado
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Inventory Management ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Service Level ◽  
Pharmaceutical Products ◽  
Management Problem ◽  
Pharmaceutical Supply Chain ◽  
Customer Service Level

Inventory management remains a key challenge in supply chain management. Many companies recognize the benefits of a good inventory management system. An effective inventory management helps reaching a high customer service level while dealing with demand variability. In a complex supply chain network where inventories are found across the entire system as raw materials or finished products, the need for an integrated approach for managing inventory had become crucial. Modelling the system as a multi-echelon inventory system allows to consider all the factors related to inventory optimization. On the other hand, the high criticality of the pharmaceutical products makes the need for a sophisticated supply chain inventory management essential. The implementation of the multi-echelon inventory management in such supply chains helps keeping the stock of pharmaceutical products available at the different installations. This paper provides an insight into the multi-echelon inventory management problem, especially in the pharmaceutical supply chain. A classification of several multi-echelon inventory systems according to a set of criteria is provided. A synthesis of multiple multi-echelon pharmaceutical supply chain problems is elaborated.

scholarly journals “Impact of Training on Employees Performance” (Evidence from Pharmaceutical Companies in Karachi, Pakistan)

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uzma Hafeez ◽  
Waqar Akbar
Keyword(s):  
Customer Service ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Employee Performance ◽  
Interpersonal Relationship ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Team Work ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Pharmaceutical Companies ◽  
The Impact

Employees are major assets of every organization. The accomplishment of the industry depends on its employee performance. Therefore, upper management knows the significance of expense in training for the advantage of improving employee performance and also places them to get the challenges of the today’s competitive business environment. This research also aims to see the “Impact of Training on Employee Performance in Pharmaceutical Industry in Karachi Pakistan”, in which Training consider as independent whereas dependent variable ‘Employee Performance‘ having its Performance areas i.e.; demonstrating team work, communication skill, customer service, interpersonal relationship and reduced absenteeism and its Developments areas i.e.; job-satisfaction, employee motivation, new technologies, efficiencies in process and innovation in strategies as its levers. The paper presents a concise summary of the literature on the value of training in improving the performance of the employees. Four pharmaceutical companies are selected. A survey of 356 employees via self administrated questionnaire with the help of random sampling technique is conducted with the response rate of 96%. Two sets of hypothesis are developed which relate directly to the research questions. SPSS 19 is used to perform reliability, descriptive, correlation and regression analysis. The analysis shows a positive significant relationship between them and the results reveal that the more the employee gets training, the more efficient their level of performance would be. The last section of the paper concludes along with recommendation to give guidelines for future research.

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