No / The intention of this paper is to promote the model of knowledge-based collaborative supply chain management (KBCSCM) system as an alternative strategy for organisations to resolve the problems in their current supply chain management (SCM) in the era of collaborative commerce (c-commerce).

No / In the construction industry, subcontractors are subject to tremendous pressures in terms of quality, service and cost. Subcontractors have responded to these challenges in a number of ways, foremost amongst these has been by working more closely with their suppliers. Originality/value: Although many issues that should be considered in the partnership development process have been identified in the extant literature, the researchers have found that they have not been fully transferred to subcontractors in the construction industry. Purpose: This paper explores the implementation of the partnership development process and evaluates the utility of a methodology/guide that can be used by practitioners and consultants in the construction industry to facilitate the development of effective partnerships. The researchers have been involved in the partnership development process with two subcontractors in the construction industry. Findings/practical implications: The effectiveness of using the proposed methodology/guide to improve the partnership development process and thence to gain competitiveness is demonstrated.

No / Reverse e-auctions are increasingly being used in business-to-business procurement and have been reported to yield significant price reductions for buyer firms. However, the adoption of online auction formats has raised many concerns among suppliers, often being criticized for damaging supplier-buyer relationships and for being antithetical to what is currently regarded as good supply chain management. Against this background this paper aims to examine the reverse auction phenomenon in the UK packaging sector. Data were collected from the direct experiences of one large food-packaging supplier, using case studies of reverse e-auctions, and from exploratory interviews with other suppliers in the sector. While buyers are reaping significant short-term price reductions, the benefits to suppliers are less obvious. In fact, little reference was detected to the often-quoted reductions in overall transaction costs for either buyers or suppliers. However, most respondents were not able to specify their transaction costs and associated risks and did not appear to have adequate costing systems to enable such quantification.

No / This paper presents issues associated with the needs of collaborative supply chain management (CSCM) and proposes a planning stage of a CSCM framework. The proposed planning stage of a CSCM framework incorporates issues of organisation profile, internal functional strategy and supplier-customer strategy. The gauging absence of prerequisites (GAP) analysis technique which embedded in the knowledge-based system is proposed in the planning stage to analyse the gap between the current and the desirable position (benchmark) for an effective implementation in organisation. The planning stage framework provides information specifically for designing a CSCM by focusing on the organisation capability and business processes and discussed the important issues in planning a CSCM for business organisations, specifically for a manufacturing environment. Further research could be carried out to capitalise the framework for improving the CSCM. Practical implications ¿ The proposed planning stage of a CSCM framework enables the chain members to identify key factors or issues for CSCM development.

Yes

The forest industry has become more complex due in part to increasing global competition. The highly fragmented nature of the forest industry supply chain and lack of interaction between industry segments can cause major supply/demand inequalities. This fragmented nature can lead to unnecessary lead time and costly inefficiencies for business transactions. The objective of this research project is to develop the concept of using an Internet-based, Geographic Information System (GIS)-supported, optimized wood supply chain management system to overcome some of the current inefficiency problems. Currently many different forms of relevant supply chain management information can be found on the World Wide Web. Through review of Internet-related material, this project identified three classes of existing web resources relevant to the development of a forest industry supply chain management system: resource, market, and e-commerce sites. Internet information provides many of the basic data attributes needed in a supply chain management system. This project demonstrated that linking this data with geographic/spatial location (georeferencing) could add an extra dimension in the planning and decision making processes and will be a key development to push the boundaries of supply chain optimization. Within the forest industry, georeferencing of supply chain business entities can easily be done with GIS. Using GIS, members of the forest industry supply chain can be visually and spatially allocated to form a grand forest industry supply chain overview and specific business opportunities using this geo-referenced data platform can be developed. Although the technology exists to produce a high quality Internet-based supply chain network system, there are challenges in producing a system that is truly integrated among all industry partners. Technology obstacles, anti-trust regulation, reluctance to use the online platforms, and inaccurate information input and dispersal are some of the major issues facing a supply chain management tool that are discussed in this report. To demonstrate how a GIS-based supply chain management system could be implemented, three case studies have been presented to show how the proposed system would benefit the current industry in realistic situations. These include (1) a simple location-based search of consulting foresters, (2) a trucking logistic optimization, and (3) a quantitative resource assessment within a manufacturing facility procurement area. Case 1 demonstrates how geocoded landowner and consulting forester information can add efficiency in communication and services provided. Case 2 demonstrates that GIS paired with geocoded information gives a logger increased decision-making power by choosing the most profitable option in a choice between sawmills that includes transportation costs. Lastly, case 3 shows that by analyzing geocoded resource information, a manufacturer can make the proper decision of whether to expand or contract operations. In each case, added value was given to market players that were able to have analysis power through geocoded information. This information is not readily used at the present time and could potentially add value along many steps of the forest industry supply chain. / Master of Science

Yes / The concept of waste and how it can be reduced, recycled, refurbished or reused in its current form has been widely discussed in industry. The importance of waste reduction from an environmental and economic perspective has also heightened in both industry and within the research arena. Thus said, stringent steps have been taken to facilitate the collection of and capture residual value in waste items. This article explores this premise in relation to medicines waste as part of the wider medicines optimisation agenda.

Yes / This study explores the downstream Pharmaceutical Supply Chain (PSC) and provides insight to the delivery process of medicines and associated operational inefficiencies. Design/methodology/approach: An exploratory, qualitative approach was adopted to examine PSC inefficiency within two European contexts: the UK and Greece. Data was gathered through interviews and a thematic analysis conducted to analyse the data and identify challenges faced by both supply chains. Findings: The medicines delivery system needs to be enhanced in terms of quality, visibility, speed and cost in order to perform effectively. The findings demonstrated that although the healthcare supply chains in the two European contexts have different operational structures, the results are in concordance with each other. Financial, communication, waste and complexity issues were the major concerns. Research limitations/implications: To our knowledge this is the first study to examine aspects of the medicines supply chain via a cross-case analysis in the UK and Greece and extends the body of knowledge. A broader sample of responses is warranted to further validate these findings. Practical implications: The study outputs can inform pharmacies’ strategic to instigate targeted improvement interventions. The implications of which may be extrapolated further to other European healthcare organisations. Originality/value: This research contributes to the academic literature by adding further theoretical insights to supply chain strategy development, especially those that have been characterised as highly complex. The study identifies 4 key areas of intervention needed within this supply chain (in both countries) to promote higher level efficiencies and effectiveness.

Services and service-based business are a major part of any economy. However, service-based supply chains require a greater level of interaction between provider and consumer than the traditional manufacturing or product-based supply chain. Therefore, they require optimization and resiliency models that acknowledge the constraints and goals unique to service-based industries. Value co-creation and service-dominant logistics (SDL) are relatively new to operations research. Existing literature in management science provides a framework for value co-creation but does not provide a model for optimizing value cocreation and resiliency in a complex or dynamic systems such as education supply chains (ESC). This dissertation addresses these knowledge gaps through 3 essays. The first essay establishes a method for optimizing investment in resiliency measures when utilizing parallel supply chains. The essay examines the intersection of value co-creation theory between higher education and service-dominant logistics (SDL) to understand the role of supply chain elements in value cocreation. The second essay provides a theoretical approach to incorporating resilience planning into the customer relationship management model. The final essay establishes a method for optimizing investment in resiliency measures when utilizing parallel service supply chains.

The poor trust culture in the construction sector is often considered an inhibiting factor to collaboration success in the United Kingdom (UK) despite reform efforts. Numerous reform initiatives tend to have focused on improvements in client and main contractor aspects of construction supply chain relationships, prompting claims that failure to integrate subcontractors, suppliers and consultants into collaborative arrangements remains a major shortcoming. Main contractor and subcontractor relationships therefore continue to be typified by such problems as late payments, charging fees to tender for work, award of contracts based on cheapest price rather than best value, negative margins and demand of retrospective discounts and cash rebates; all of which negatively impact on trust. Some main contractor organisations however, continue to embed supply chain management practices as a strategy for levering value from subcontractors. Such collaborative practices and their implications for inter-organisational trust development, and indeed overall project outcomes, have nonetheless received limited attention in construction management research, raising significant questions on the empirical basis for their implementation. This research was thus undertaken to investigate strategic supply chain management practices adopted by UK main contractors and its implications for inter-organisational trust development during projects. The study adopts a multiple case study design so as to unravel complex subtleties of inter-organisational trust development in the main contractors’ supply chain during projects. With four purposefully selected UK main contractor organisations that had implemented strategic supply chain management, data was gathered through a supply chain workshop, semi-structured interviews, passive observations and documentary analysis. From analysis of the data, it was revealed that strategic supply chain management practices of the main contractors were instrumental for trust manifestation across cognition, system and relational based dimensions. These practices served as constitutive elements of face-to-face interactions through which inter-organisational trust developed, whilst providing the institutional framework to which respective supply chain parties directed their psychological expectations. These findings highlight the importance of maintaining a core of subcontractors from which the main contractor can leverage long-term value irrespective of economic climate. This can be achieved by adequately prioritizing relationally trusted subcontractors for sensitive and high risk work packages whilst ensuring that strategic supply chain management principles can be used to engender impersonal (cognition and system-based) trust dimensions amongst other subcontractors used on a project. Accordingly, a supply chain management oriented framework for engendering inter-organisational trust during projects has been developed based on the study findings and evaluated through semi-structured interviews with selected target participants. This framework does not only provide a systematic and coherent approach for implementing or benchmarking strategic supply chain management in a main contractor’s organisation, but can also be used to prioritize and promote different trust dimensions and their associated behavioural consequences on projects, depending on perceived work package risks.