Application of Value Stream Mapping in E-Commerce: A Case Study on an Amazon Retailer

In recent years, the e-commerce market has grown significantly, and the online retail market has become very competitive. Online retailers strive to improve their supply chain operations to reduce costs and to improve customer satisfaction. Value stream mapping (VSM), a tool created by the lean production movement to identify and reduce errors, losses, and lead time and to improve value-added activities, has been proven to be effective in many manufacturing processes. In this study, we investigate the application of value stream mapping (VSM) in the supply chain of an e-commerce retailer on Amazon. By visualizing the entire supply chain with VSM, the waste that is produced during the delivery process from the retailer to the customer was identified. The five whys method was then applied to find the root cause of the waste. Furthermore, a scoring method was developed to evaluate and compare two different supply chain logistic models to identify a strategy for improvement. This study provides a systematic methodology to understand, evaluate, and improve the entire e-commerce supply chain process utilizing VSM. It was demonstrated that the methodology could improve supply chain management efficiency, customer satisfaction, and cost reduction.

An Intelligent Shopping System based on UHF RFID

In the context of COVID-19, in order to solve the problems that customers need to spend more energy to find products in the supermarket, long checkout queue time, and cumbersome product management, optimize the shopping route of customers, accelerate the shopping process, and reduce the risk of infection; providers exceed Supplier’s sales of goods, and then timely and purposeful selection of goods, simplifying the supply chain process between supermarkets and suppliers. This article designs a multi-terminal interactive intelligent shopping system based on UHF RFID to construct The shopping cart terminal, mobile phone APP terminal, data management system terminal, and three-terminal interactive system with RFID technology as the core are developed. The design uses the UHF RFID system to identify the information in the electronic tags of the goods, and through the navigation function, helps customers locate the desired goods, and realizes the functions of identification, information display, navigation and positioning, and settlement.

Blockchain-Based Model to Improve the Performance of the Next-Generation Digital Supply Chain

In the era of the fourth industrial revolution, all aspects of the industrial domain are being affected by emerging technologies. Digitalization of every process is taking place or under process. One of the most important components common to every domain is the supply chain process. Organizations employ a digital supply chain to track the delivery of their products or materials. The digital supply chain is still suffering from a few issues such as no provenance, less transparency, and a trust issue. Blockchain technology, one of the emerging technologies, can be integrated with the supply chain to deal with the existing issues and to improve its performance. In this paper, a model is proposed to integrate blockchain technology with the supply chain to improve performance. The proposed model uses the combination of the Ethereum blockchain and the interplanetary file system to maintain the traceability, transparency, and trustworthiness of the supply chain.

The complexity of barriers to biogas digester dissemination in Indonesia: challenges for agriculture waste management

In the global south, the use of firewood and LPG as dominant energy sources for cooking contributes to socio-ecological issues. Alternatively, biogas is considered a clean energy source generated from organic waste. However, in Indonesia, until 2018, only less than 2% of households utilized biogas for cooking fuel. This research aims to explore the landscape of biogas governance in Indonesia, its fragmentation, and its relation with biodigester dissemination. This study found that there is fragmentation within small-medium scale national biogas programs in Indonesia. Seven national government biogas programs have similar governance arrangements and characteristics; scattered in different departments within the ministry, using the grant approach with two main vendors, often overlapping with local government programs, and not providing proper monitoring and evaluation mechanism, as well as proper training for users. Meanwhile, the biogas program by a non-government organization utilizes a semi-commercial approach; collaborating with multiple stakeholders (governments, local construction partner organizations, cooperatives, and private sectors-companies and banks); and has standardized training and after-sale services. Within those biogas programs, there are multiple barriers along the supply chain process of biodigester dissemination. These barriers relate to the governance aspect of biogas programs. Fragmented governance affected the capability of each program to tackle barriers in biogas digester dissemination. Besides, heavy subsidy on LPG by the government reduced attraction to biogas. This study shows technology adoption barriers beyond the user/individual aspects. It shows interaction among different factors such as policy, the governance of technology transfer, technical production issues, and socio-cultural problems.

Value Co-Creation Model of Halal Logistics Services

Increasing consumer awareness to provide halal assurance in the supply chain process happens in Muslim countries and non-Muslim countries. Kosher products become a symbol for food safety, quality assurance, and lifestyle choice due to the strict requirements, thereby reducing the risk of contamination of the disease. This led to the increase of demands of halal logistics services to implement the halal concepts in logistics processes. One of the obstacles faced by the companies is a lack of understanding of how the halal concept is applied in accordance with the role of each company in the supply chain. This paper illustrates the value co-creation model using several supply chains for Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), cosmetics, fashion, and pharmaceuticals to provide value for customers and all parties that guarantee halal concepts throughout the activities of the supply chains. Business model and the adaptation in operational planning for a transportation company as halal logistics services are also developed in this paper by including segregation process, packaging, cleaning process, halal labeling, and halal documentation to ensure standard halal assurance are distinguished from activities in the general logistics process.

How novice analysts understand supply chain process models: an experimental study of using diagrams and texts

PurposeProcess models specific to the supply chain domain are an important tool for the analysis of interorganizational interfaces and requirements of information technology (IT) systems supporting supply chain decision-making. The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of supply chain process models for novice analysts in conveying domain semantics compared to alternative textual representations.Design/methodology/approachA laboratory experiment with graduate students as proxies for novice analysts was conducted. Participants were randomly assigned to either the diagram group, which worked with “thread diagrams” created from the modeling grammar “Supply Chain Operation Reference (SCOR) model”, or the text group, which worked with semantically equivalent textual representations. Domain understanding was measured using cognitively demanding information acquisition for two different domains.FindingsDiagram users were more accurate in identifying product-related information and organizing this information in a graph compared to those using the textual representation. The authors found considerable improvements in domain understanding, and using the diagrams was perceived as easy as using the texts.Originality/valueThe study's findings are unique in providing empirical evidence for supply chain process models being an effective representation for novice analysts. Such evidence is lacking in prior research because of the evaluation methods used, which are limited to scenario, case study and informed argument. This study adds the diagram user's perspective to that literature and provides a rigorous empirical evaluation by contrasting diagrammatic and textual representations.