Forecasting Demand With Support Vector Regression Technique Incorporating Feature Selection in the Presence of Calendar Effect

Reliable prediction of future demand is needed to better manage and optimize supply chains. However, a difficulty of forecasting demand arises due to the fact that heterogeneous factors may affect it. Analyzing such data by using classical time series forecasting methods will fail to capture such dependency of factors. This chapter addresses these problems by examining the use of feature selection in forecasting using support vector regression while eliminating the calendar effect using X13-ARIMA-SEATS. The approach is investigated in three different case studies.

Event Studies in Logistics Research

The event study method allows researchers to examine the importance of an event to firms based on the magnitude and direction of abnormal returns, and then use these results in a cross-sectional regression to understand which managerial decisions may affect these outcomes. While the method has been heavily used in some disciplines, in-management research and logistics research, in particular, the method remains little used and is often used with little thought to key assumptions and design considerations. This chapter aims to provide an overview of the method for logistics and supply chain researchers with a focus on developing the capability to design an effective study and to evaluate research articles to determine possible weaknesses.

A Contemporary Approach to Plan Independent Logistics Actors

Companies are dependent on the resources and information of other members of the supply chains. To manage their resources, companies use coordination mechanisms. Despite the inter-dependency between logistics actors, they are independent units with conflicting objectives. These two characteristics can increase the complexity of planning in logistics networks. According to the literature of supply chain management, some mechanisms largely use the information shared by members to achieve an optimal solution and some others are based on minimum level of information sharing. This chapter addresses the coordination problem in a logistics networks with more than two partners, while the information is in a private element that is not exchanged with other partners.

Identification of Contextual Relationship Among Collaboration, Cooperation, Coordination, and Innovative Green Procurement Practices

Globally, every organization is focusing on minimizing the usage of scarce resources in production. The authors have used resource dependence theory (RDT) as the theoretical lens to develop the foundation of the chapter. RDT suggests that firms within the supply chain network should coordinate and collaborate to achieve superior performance. Under RDT, the most important assumption is that firms cannot be fully independent with regards to strategically critical resources for survival. The purpose of this chapter is to explain the contextual relationships between collaboration, coordination, cooperation, and innovative green procurement practices. Here, interpretive structural modeling (ISM) technique has been used to develop the SSIM matrix with the assistance from five experts based in the South African steel and engineering sectors. The ISM model depicts the contextual interrelationships that may help supply chain managers in quality decision making. The chapter concludes with managerial implications and directions of future research.

Align Hospital Drug Delivery With Supply Chain Management

In recent years, the European hospital sector has suffered the brunt of the economic crisis. This sector is now faced with a paradox, which is to reduce costs, related to the decline in government subsidies and an increase in the quality of care required by the regulatory bodies, while maintaining the level of care. This paradox can be resolved through the optimization of the hospital supply chain. Despite hospital supply chains having a great impact on hospital budgets, many opportunities for optimization exist to improve the healthcare quality. This chapter aims to analyze the distribution of drugs within a hospital in the line of supply chain management. The SCOR model was selected as the framework for this analysis. Then, potential failures that can arise in logistics processes are identified. After reviewing the literature regarding the hospital supply chain and the performance measurement, a framework is proposed with key performance indicators that can be applied in hospital supply chains to measure and monitor their performance.

Modeling Enablers of Flexible Supply Networks Using Total Interpretive Structural Modeling

The chapter aims to identify the contextual interrelationships among flexible supply network enablers for achieving supply chain sustainability. The authors have identified the enablers through a review of extant literature and further applied the popular total interpretive structural modeling (TISM)-based methodology. TISM is a well-articulated mental model interpreting both the nodes (indicating “what”) and links (indicating “how” and “why”). The mental model of the group is not well structured and is loosely defined, which serves as the basis for the theory building process. The authors finally obtained a hierarchy of enablers and findings show that innovation culture is the driving element in developing flexible systems in supplier networks. Supply chain practitioners must focus on developing an innovation culture within the boundaries of the organization and then integrate with specialist suppliers to ultimately build additional capacity for managing the fluctuations in customer demand and further manage supply risks. The chapter ends with conclusions drawn from study and directions for future research studies.

The Effect of Supply Chain Sustainability Management in the Perspective of Suppliers

This chapter investigates the suppliers' economic performance when their buyers force supply chain sustainability management (SCSM) on them. While generally a negative impact is proposed, this chapter identifies mediating and moderating factors fluctuating the negative performance. These factors are governance mechanisms, SCSM dimensions, economic bond, and operational slack. According to the findings, a conceptual framework is provided for supplier managers analyzing SCSM-performance link and for affecting the decision making of buyer managers and policy makers by accommodating suppliers perspectives.

The Evaluation of Environmental Capital Projects

Traditional capital investment appraisal models are, in many cases, biased against environmental projects. What is required is a multi-attribute approach that includes an assessment of the environmental benefits. The financial appraisal profile (FAP) model seeks to address this issue. By making the correct investment decision in the first place and by involving senior managers in the appraisal process, the organization is better placed to achieve project success. Adopting the FAP model with the inclusion of an environmental assessment in the form the “environmental score index” will help focus top management on an increasingly important corporate strategy issue. An illustrative case study is used to outline the important aspects of this new approach. The FAP approach, which is presented in this chapter, will help to fill a gap in the environmental investment literature, where there is a paucity of comprehensive, structured, and transparent methodologies that can prove acceptable to management decision makers from a variety of functions and viewpoints.

Innovative Port Logistics Through Coupled Optimization/Simulation Approaches

This chapter addresses different optimization/simulation approaches for the innovative logistics in Le Havre port in France. These approaches are applied to various decisional problems raised in the maritime terminals (MT) and in the multimodal terminal (MMT). The first problem concerns container transfer by rail between the maritime terminals and the multimodal terminal. The second aims to optimize trains/shuttles parking in the rail yard of the multimodal terminal. The third and the fourth are about rail-rail transshipment of containers. The goal is to elaborate a dashboard for decision makers to analyze and evaluate performance indicators of port logistics chain (costs, resource occupancy rate, service rate) and to test several management strategies.

The Value of Information Sharing

This chapter proposes a model to study the effects of inventory policy, pricing decision, and product substitution on the value of information sharing. The value of information sharing has been studied widely in the literature. To simplify models, prior research usually studies a supply chain with one product. However, modern supply chain models often produce and distribute ranges of products. Moreover, manufacturers and retailers define prices for products based on demand forecast and inventory levels or they even compete by using pricing decisions. Carefully reading the extant literature, the authors found that no existing articles considers the inter-relationship of inventory policy, pricing decision, and product substitution when studying the value of information sharing. The proposed model in this chapter will help to provide insights on the value of information sharing and fill the gap in the literature.