Resilience Decoded: The Role of Firms, Global Value Chains, and the State in COVID-19 Medical Supplies

This article examines the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on resilience. Resilience is not a one-dimensional concept but has different meanings at the levels of the firm (operational efficiency), the global value chain (appropriate governance), and the nation-state (national security). It illustrates resilience dynamics through lessons from case studies of four medical supply products—rubber gloves, face masks, ventilators, and vaccines. It explores how each adjusted to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and presents key strategies that can guide managers and policymakers in building resilience for future supply chain disruptions.

Enhancing a SCRM Curriculum With Cybersecurity

Supply chain-related curricula exist across many universities, with many including risk management as an important or focal element. With the rise of software-driven technology across the supply chain, how can firms manage the inherent risks associated with software as part of a procurement process? This article examines how to provide context appropriate cybersecurity exemplars in a model supply chain education program, bringing to light the issue of embedded risk in software acquisition. Through a series of specifically placed educational elements that provide targeted cybersecurity knowledge to students, the objective is to provide additional skill sets for future supply chain professionals to assist firms in including software related cybersecurity risk as a component in SCRM.

RESSEARCH OF VARIANTS FOR ORGANIZING THE SUPPLY CHAIN OF AVIONIC EQUIPMENT TO MAINTAIN THE SERVICEABILITY OF AVIONICS OBJECTS

The presented study deals with the organization of supply chains for spare serviceable avionics equipment from the perspective of decision makers, heads of instrument-making enterprises. An extremely important issue is the determination of key parameters of avionics spares objects. On the basis of the conducted research, the element base of the serviceable avionics equipment facilities and conditions of operation, recovery of serviceability are considered. Due to the complexity of approaches to avionics objects, the article provides a fixation of key parameters, defines the distinctive features of exactly the avionics spare serviceable avionics equipment, which will determine new requirements and conditions of building the future supply chain. As a result of the conducted research, the article presents a classification of methods for calculating serviceable avionics equipment, based also on the theory of recovery processes. On the basis of the performed system approach to the objects of avionics inventory and spare parts management, examples of supply chain organization variants are given. The presented research is of practical significance both when designing a new chain of supply of spares, and when modernizing the existing supply chains for spare serviceable avionics equipment.

Deep-sea polymetallic nodules as opportunity for future supply with critical raw materials

The renewed importance of polymetallic nodules in the context of forecasted increasing demands for metals are discussed. Based on the Interoceanmetal Joint Organization’s (IOM) site-specific data obtained during the exploration activity in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone, a total of 272.5 Mt of nodules were estimated as economically reasonable for future mining for Ni, Cu, Co, and Mn. Additionally, data for REE and other critical elements in nodules as potential by-products are presented.

Weaving the Knowledge Capabilities and Supply Chain Management Skills into the Fabric of Supply Chain Decision Makers: Coexist of Coping Capacity

The recent global outbreak of COVID-19 has created a huge global crisis, breaking down many global supply chains. Decision makers in the supply chain are faced with very challenging situation as the application of supply chain resilience mechanisms are questionable and unreliable during the post pandemic. Hence, leaving them to continue learning new ways to cope, adapt and mitigate the risk to navigate through the uncertainties. This imply that knowledge, skills, abilities and competencies of decision makers have become the centre stage for organizations' survival and sustainability.The purpose of this paper is to identify the key factors that influence decision making competency in the supply chain of the Malaysian manufacturing firms. This is a conceptual paper focusing on developing a theoretical framework through the integration of the behavioural decisional theory and competency model. The theoretical framework with respect to the construct of decision making competency are elaborated. This paper hopes to provide a valuable pragmatic framework and roadmap for managerial decision-making in the context of supply chain. By understanding the supply chain decision-making in operations, this can help to contribute to de-risking of supply chain beyond the usual risk response into the proactive reduction of risks for future supply chain sustainability.

Pricing and Optimization in Shared Vehicle Systems: An Approximation Framework

The optimal management of shared vehicle systems, such as bike-, scooter-, car-, or ride-sharing, is more challenging compared with traditional resource allocation settings because of the presence of spatial externalities—changes in the demand/supply at any location affect future supply throughout the system within short timescales. These externalities are well captured by steady-state Markovian models, which are therefore widely used to analyze such systems. However, using Markovian models to design pricing and other control policies is computationally difficult because the resulting optimization problems are high dimensional and nonconvex. In our work, we design a framework that provides near-optimal policies, for a range of possible controls, that are based on applying the possible controls to achieve spatial balance on average. The optimality gap of these policies improves as the ratio between supply and the number of locations increases and asymptotically goes to zero.

Energy costs will squeeze Greek firms’ profitability

Significance During the coming winter months October-March, rising electricity and heating prices will reduce household disposable income, dampening domestic demand. The low profitability of Greek corporates makes them particularly vulnerable to an additional squeeze on profit margins due to rising energy costs. Impacts The European energy crisis could dampen popular support for greater use of renewable energy sources. Privatisation of DEPA Commercial might be put on hold to offer the government more control over price setting. New investments in gas storage facilities could hedge against future supply shocks. The rising prices of fertilisers will push up costs in agriculture and could undermine future output if less fertiliser is used.

Estimation of Long-Term River Discharge and Its Changes in Ungauged Watersheds in Pamir Plateau

The Pamir Plateau is an extremely important water resource area for over 60 million people in Central Asia. With the increasingly significant response of water resources to climate change, timely hydrological predictions for the future supply are necessary. In the plateau, accessing and monitoring the glaciers and their melt outflow are challenging due to the harsh geographic environments. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) combined with remote sensing technologies offer great potential for providing information to improve water resources management and decision-making. In this study, we integrated UAV and satellite remote sensing data, and applied a water balance model to estimate monthly and annual river discharges for the ten river sections in the Eastern Pamir Plateau, China from 1999 to 2020. We found that the glacier area in the controlled basins of these sections has decreased by approximately 63% from 1999 to 2020. Basins with smaller glacier areas are more sensitive to climate change. The ten river sections are characterized by decreasing trends in monthly river discharge, with an average reduction of −21.05%. The annual variation of total runoff and glacial meltwater discharge is consistent with the monthly variation of discharge, and the average discharge from glacier meltwater accounts for 83% of the total runoff. We conclude that the overall decreasing trend of discharge is closely related to the recession of glaciers. Under the background of climate warming in the region, glaciers are no longer sufficient to support the increase in river discharge, which has passed its peak value and shows a decreasing trend.

Envisioning alternative futures of cultural ecosystem services supply in the coastal landscapes of Southwestern Ghana, West Africa

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) in Southwestern Ghana evoke a strong sense of attachment of local land users to the landscape. Hence, their supply is necessary for a balanced socio-ecological system. This study explored the potential supply of cultural ecosystem services (science/education, spiritual, tourism, health and recreation benefits) under different land use planning (LUP) scenarios in Southwestern Ghana. Future LUP scenarios were developed and articulated with a diverse group of land-use planning actors (LUPAs) such as regional land use planners, environmental experts, researchers, farmers and landowners. The scenarios covered business-as-usual, mangrove ecosystem restoration, market-driven growth, and the establishment of an “eco-corridor” as green network. A spatially explicit modeling platform, GISCAME, which combines Geographic Information System and Cellular Automaton modules and multicriteria evaluation was used to evaluate the developed scenarios. Outcomes of the study revealed that in the coastal landscape of Southwestern Ghana, values, perceptions and preferences of LUPAs underpin socio-ecological interactions aimed at maintaining and enhancing CES supply. In addition, it indicated that future supply of CES is characterized by an interplay between multiple and diverse perspectives about plausible land-use futures. Perceptions of, and preferences for, CES align with land-use visions related to afforestation, infrastructure development, agriculture expansion and tourism. In the study area and similar contexts where an array and diversity of individual and societal values exist, effective negotiation and facilitation are essential for harnessing and optimizing land-use planning for CES supply.

Application of Analytics in Supply Chain Management from Industry and Academic Perspective

Information and communication technology (ICT) has been the backbone of businesses for some time now. ICT adoption has rendered data availability in vertically connected organizations. In recent times, the rise of analytics has paved the way to rethink the structure and working of vertically connected firms within a supply chain. Big data analytics (BDA) for instance, has become a prominent tool to analyse unstructured data. This study explores the application and benefit of various types of analytics such as descriptive analytics, predictive analytics and prescriptive analytics in the process of supply chain management (SCM). Additionally, the study also looks at ways by which analytics could integrally be included within the SCM curriculum in higher education to prepare future supply chain analyst. Notably, the article is positioned for bridging the gap between the use of analytics in SCM, both from academia and the industry perspective.