Physical Distribution Problems of Textile Companies in Turkey

The purpose of this study is to discover what sort of similar and different problems textile companies face in physical distribution process and provide suggestions. The research includes only six textile companies operating in the Thrace region, Tekirdag province, Çorlu and Çerkezköy districts. This research is an exploratory study. The interview guide used in the paper includes open-ended questions focusing on certain issues. The data are coded systematically and direct quotations were provided in the descriptive analysis. The participants' own words were the units for analysis. Data triangulation and a chain of evidence can be mentioned in this regard. These points ensure the reliability and construct validity of the research. Findings indicate that companies make mistakes and errors in product stacking, product codification, and product description. In addition, storage spaces of companies are insufficient; warehouses cannot be managed well. Companies face many problems such as the imbalance arising from working on minimum-maximum stock, faulty orders, and packaging materials.

Structure Development for Effective Medical Waste and Hazardous Waste Management System

Management of medical and hazardous wastes is a serious problem especially for developing countries. People are not aware of possible threats and/or they are afraid of the cost of application. Rapid population growth leads municipalities towards proper solid waste management applications. In this study, data were collected from the Turkish Statistical Institute and a general framework was drawn for medical and hazardous waste amounts and disposal methods. Starting from this point of view, the authors analyzed both the Regulation on Control of Hazardous Waste and the Regulation on Control of Medical Waste applied in Turkey. Taking into account all of these factors, this chapter is intended to develop the medical and hazardous waste management system economically and environmentally including waste generation, collection, transportation, disposal and treatment activities. Additionally, it investigates the reasons for lack of proper application of the regulations in light of the statistical data.

SCOR Model and the Green Supply Chain

Supply chain management (SCM) is a continually evolving field, relying on breaking down internal and external organizational barriers to gain efficiencies, improve customer support and increase flexibility, thereby resulting in lower costs and increased market share. An emerging area in supply chain practice is green SCM, which integrates environmental management with traditional SCM. Green supply chain management is seen as an important step companies need to take on the road to sustainable practices. SCOR Model (Supply Chain Operations Reference) has been developed by the Supply Chain Council (SCC now merged with APICS) in order to guide companies applying SCM principles. The GreenSCOR model was also developed as an integrated green SCM tool that allows companies to manage their supply chain's environmental impacts, resulting in more efficient operations which have minimal impact on the environment. This chapter will talk about how SCM principles can be modified to reduce the adverse effects of company operations on the environment, especially using the GreenSCOR model.

Municipal Solid Waste Management

The rapid increase in urban population has resulted in poor environmental conditions in urban and peri-urban settlements. In most developing countries, the problem of inefficient municipal solid waste management (MSWM) is endemic. The problem manifests in heaps of uncollected solid waste or ubiquitous illegal dumps on open areas and by the street sides. This paper examines issues of solid waste management practices in the City of Kwekwe in Zimbabwe. It highlights types of waste, its generation, transfer and disposal. A mixed methodological approach including field observations, structured questionnaire survey and face-to-face interviews were employed in the gathering of data for the study. The key findings established to be the factors affecting effective solid waste management in the City are irregular solid waste collection, inadequate operational funding, inappropriate technologies, inadequate staffing, lack of knowledge cooperation and knowledge on the part of the residents. Based on the research findings, principles of environmental stewardship need to be promoted in the City.

Determination of Rate of Medical Waste Generation Using RVM, MARS and MPMR

The prediction of medical waste generation is an important task in hospital waste management. This article uses Relevance Vector Machine (RVM), Multivariate Adaptive Regression Spline (MARS) and Minimax Probability Machine Regression (MPMR) for prediction of rate of medical waste generation. Type of hospital, Capacity and Bed Occupancy has been used as inputs of RVM, MARS and MPMR. RVM is a probabilistic bayesian learning framework. MARS builds flexible model by using piecewise linear regressions. MPMR maximizes the minimum probability that future predicted outputs of the regression model will be within some bound of the true regression function. MARS, RVM and MPMR have been used as regression techniques. The results show that the developed RVM, MPMR and MARS give excellent models for determination of rate of medical waste generation.

Remanufacturing, an Added Value Product Recovery Strategy

Organizations offer a variety of products to the market with affordable prices. The popularity of a product rapidly disappears with the introduction of a new one and consequently end-of-life products and waste disposal rates increase. In the past, there were not strict regulations and sufficient public awareness about the disposal of products. Companies had limited concern for the consequences of their products sold. Nowadays there are economical and environmental motivations for organizations to look for alternative ways to value their end-of-life products. For that reason, alternative means of disposals of these products such as recycling, direct reuse, repair, refurbishing, and remanufacturing have growing attention. Among these only in remanufacturing used products are brought at least to the original equipment manufacturer performance specification. Worn-out parts are removed and replaced. It conserves the product identity and seeks to bring the product back into like-new condition. In this chapter the features of remanufacturing is presented.

The Effect of Working Capital Management on Firm's Profitability

Working capital management is an extremely essential issue for the healthy conduct of the sustainability of a business. The active and day-to-day nature of the short term business emporium, the ongoing necessity to substitute current assets and in the meantime to liquidate current liabilities clearly demonstrates the significance of working capital management and therefore the essential duty the financial executives carry. While an optimal strategy of working capital management is expected to positively contribute not only to the profitability of a firm but also its value; there is a trade-off between the liquidity level the firm is carrying and its profitability. The direct effect of working capital management on profitability and liquidity of firms clearly demonstrates the significance working capital management has in a firm and consequently the objective of this chapter is to find whether or not working capital management, i.e. cash conversion cycle has an effect on profitability for the publicly listed companies in Turkey using panel regression analysis.

Green Information Systems for Sustainability

Green Information Systems (IS) refers to the use of IS to achieve environmental objectives, whereas green Information Technology (IT) refers to the practice and study of using IT and computer resources in a more environmentally responsible and effective manner (Dedrick, 2010). Information Systems, computers and computing in general consume an immense amount of natural resources, the energy used to power them, and the problems that arise in the disposing of obsolete hardware. Mark O'Neill, the author of Green IT for Sustainable Business Practice defines green IT as, “a collection of strategic and tactical initiatives that directly reduces the carbon footprint of an organization's computing operation” (O'Neill, 2010). Issues of sustainability have started to become a significant topic of discussion in the information systems community. IT practitioners are focused more now than ever on reducing the direct impact that IT use has on the environment (Dedrick, 2010).

Life Cycle Costing for Sustainability

Life cycle costing supports sustainability by stressing the costs not only in the production and selling phases but also considering the costs which are incurred after the sale of the products. This chapter reveals main characteristics of life cycle costing as follows: Life cycle costing also includes production costs which are; (a) research and development costs, (b) marketing, selling, distribution and design costs, (c) and also user costs. User costs have three dimensions: transaction costs, maintenance costs, and disposal costs. Therefore one can simply assert that life cycle costing has a broader approach in the calculation of the costs compared to other conventional costing systems. After introducing the main characteristics and basic definitions of life cycle costing, this chapter will discuss the implementation of life cycle costing in comparison with other conventional costing systems. Following this, we will analyze the link between life cycle costing, waste management and sustainability. Overall review will be done in the conclusion.

A Paradigm Shift

The growing population in Turkey as well as in the rest of world is focusing their attention on the availability of main resources for now and for future generations. As the clock ticks by, this focus is intensifying at an exponential rate. Depleting resources, dependency on fossil fuels, high costs of energy, water quality, food cultivation and food safety present themselves as expected issues of our generation. Waste in the form of electricity and fresh water in agricultural practices can be reduced by using Reduction, Recovery, Reuse, Recycle and efficient Technologies in order to come to a sustainable management of waste starting with small-scale farming implementations. This generation must act to implement these changes, and they must act now.