FORECASTING OF SOME KEY INDICATORS OF THE RFI AND RFP PROCESSES OF THE BULGARIAN MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATION OPERATORS

The present paper regards the opportunities of forecasting of some key indicators in the “Request for Information” (RFI) and “Request for Proposal” (RFP) processes in the supply chain at the Bulgarian mobile telecommunication operators. The presented hereby forecasting is based on the use of the Holt-Winters method for exponential smoothing in the presence of additive and multiplicative seasonality and is made or indicators: “number of contracts”, “number of contracts with savings” and “number of the issued purchase orders”. The lowest “Stationary R square”, “R square” and MAPE (Mean Absolute Percentage of Error) values are used as measurement of accuracy and for selection of the best fit models that are applied. It is also important to point out that the measurement is being done for the so-called “bottle necks” or “narrow places” in the RFI and RFP processes. The purpose of this bottle-neck forecasting is to provide timely point for “Go/Not Go” decisions point for these very same process and thus to result in an improved risk management in the form of risk aversion and risk minimization.

SCORE CARDS FOR EVALUATION OF RFI AND RFP PROCESSES WITHIN ONE OF THE BULGARIAN TELECOMMUNICATION OPERATORS

The present paper regards some the score cards as a possible tool for measurement and evaluation of the risk in the “Request for Information” (RFI) and “Request for Proposal” (RFP) processes in the supply chain at the Bulgarian mobile telecommunication operators. The presented hereby score cards use measurement and calculations of the risk based on the risk calculation equation in which the assumption is that each risk event or risk action “m” can be regarded as function of the likelihood of occurrence, the consequences and the imminence in regards to the time horizon for the occurrence of the very same risk event or risk action “m”. Further to these components, the risk equation in use also takes into account the space in which the risk occurs and itself, as well as the size of the actions for prevention and overcoming of the risks that can appear at a certain organizational level. The data collected for the score cards is being provided by an online survey through the staff dealing with the RFI and RFP processes within the regarded in particular Bulgarian telecommunication operator. The final information from both the survey and the score cards is being processed and turned into a specific set of numeric coefficients that represent the contribution and the value of the separate risk components. Methods for defining the thresholds for acceptance of the levels of the risks are also suggested.

The Strategic Benefit of Request for Proposal/Quotation

The Design of the Procurement Process

Measuring the gaps between shippers and logistics service providers on green logistics throughout the logistics purchasing process

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to measure the gaps between the engagements of shippers (i.e. logistics buyers) and logistics service providers (LSPs) in different green logistics practices (GLPs) throughout the key phases of the logistics purchasing process: request for proposal, negotiations, contracting and execution.Design/methodology/approachA large-scale survey of shippers and LSPs in Sweden was conducted. Respondents were 331 firms (169 shippers, 162 LSPs). Mean values of the actors' perceptions were analysed using independent- and paired sample t-tests.FindingsWhile this study supports previous research indicating that LSPs engage more extensively in selling GLPs than shippers do in buying them, it shows that this conclusion does not uniformly apply to all GLPs nor all purchasing phases. Three patterns emerged for the gaps between the actors' buying-selling engagements throughout the purchasing process: (1) steady and wide gaps, (2) steady and narrow gaps and (3) emergent gaps. Distinct GLPs were associated with each pattern. It is also shown that the prioritisation of GLPs is fairly aligned between shippers and LSPs.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to the green logistics purchasing literature by systematically and simultaneously creating three types of distinction, between (1) shippers and LSPs, (2) different GLPs and (3) different logistics purchasing phases. Future studies could replicate the analysis in countries other than Sweden.Practical implicationsManagers of shipper/LSP firms learn tips to spot the GLPs that their partners prioritise, enabling them to modify their purchasing/marketing strategies accordingly.Originality/valueThe three types of distinction represent a novel approach in the green logistics purchasing literature.

A Knowledge Based Approach to Support the Conceptual Design of ETO Products

The ever-increasing competitiveness, due to the market globalization, has forced the industries to modify their design and production strategies. A key point is the development of products that fulfil the individual customer needs as close as possible. ETO companies manufacture new products according to the customer technical requirements given in the request for proposal.Computational Design Synthesis is the research area focused on activities to automate the design phase in the production of products such ETO structures. In this context, Knowledge Based Engineering applications are usually applied to automate design routines and to implement a multidisciplinary product design. Knowledge should be elicited and formalized, so that it can allow the past cases retrieval and the connection between customer specifications and the product configuration tasks. This paper proposes an approach for the rapid definition of the product structure related to a ETO product, including the early cost evaluation in configurations. The research scope aims at defining a framework to support the knowledge repository, which is the Knowledge Based used to design new products and estimate their costs.