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Supply chain uncertainty is a key issue that affects firm competitiveness (1993; Yang et al., 2004); and, therefore, identifying the major sources of uncertainty within supply chains and developing strategies to manage them is an important challenge (Sabri & Beamon, 2000). There is an emerging literature on supply chain uncertainty but additional empirical research is required to further develop understanding of this phenomenon. This leads to an important research question to explore what sources of uncertainty can be identified in practice, what are the dimensions of these sources, and how can they be managed. To address this research question, this thesis has developed a theoretical model of supply chain uncertainty. Using this theoretical model to structure the investigation, an empirical study has been conducted in the food industry in Indonesia with twelve inter-related companies (4 suppliers, 4 iv manufacturers, and 4 retailers). Twenty three semi-structured interviews with thirty two senior representatives from the twelve companies have been conducted; interviews were audio and video recorded, and analysed using Atlas.ti. A comprehensive approach, which goes beyond previous studies, has been undertaken. Fourteen sources of uncertainty, including those internal to the firm (e.g., manufacturing process), internal to the supply chain (e.g., supplier) and external (e.g., environment) have been explored and twenty two management strategies for reducing or coping with the relevant dimensions have been identified Other research contributions are also identified such as the dynamic and multi dimensional process of managing sources of uncertainty. The findings of the thesis have implications for managers. For example, reducing uncertainty strategies such as collaboration are generally preferred over coping with uncertainty strategies but are difficult to implement when sources of uncertainty span beyond the boundaries of the firm. Future research should explore issues emerging from this study, such as ethical issues affecting supply chain uncertainty. Keywords: Supply chain uncertainty; uncertainty management; case study research.

New product development (NPD) is a process that requires the capability to obtain, process and interpret large amounts of market, technical, financial and other information, in order to develop product ideas and evaluate their technical soundness, manufacturability and economic (market) feasibility. This requires organisations and individuals to be able to overcome internal differences and barriers built during the process of differentiation (Lawrence and Lorsch, 1967), and implement an NPD process based on collaboration of structurally separated, yet interdependent, functional units (especially marketing and R&D). Studies have shown that functional integration is a critical aspect of today's NPD's activities (e.g. Song, Montoya-Weiss and Schmidt, 1997), while the introduction of structured models of product development -e.g. stagegate systems- have contributed to increase linking and collaboration in the process (Cooper, 1990; Clark and Wheelwright, 1993). Recent research, however, suggests that high integration is not always desirable or achievable, and that its relationship with other variables might depend on factors such as the stage of the project and product innovativeness (Griffin and Hauser, 1996; Weerd-Nederhof, 1998). Furthermore, there is a need to understand how companies and managers involved in NPD activities can actively promote and encourage integration of functional units during a particular project. The objective of the present thesis is twofold. First it describes and explores the means through which functional integration can be achieved in an NPD context. Second, it explores the relationship between performance in NPD and functional integration under different conditions of project uncertainty and project stage. This work used a mixed-method design to guide the collection of qualitative and quantitative data. Qualitative data is based on 84 semi-structured interviews with people involved in NPD activities in 30 companies in the UK and the Netherlands. Other sources of qualitative data included internal company documentation, observation, computer databases, and companies' web sites. Quantitative data is based on 107 questionnaires completed by project managers working in 47 companies/BUs in the UK and the Netherlands.

This thesis describes the implementation of a Just-in-Time (JIT) cell on a greenfield site. It concentrates on a before and after implementation situation. Various production parameters are analysed to compare flowline performance before and after the implementation of JIT. The study is primarily concerned with the philosophies behind the Japanese management style of JIT and the practical use of JIT in a relatively small production line. Each area of JIT and its associated components are studied and, where practical, executed into practice within the production line. The study includes an investigation of the present manufacturing system and recommends improvements to aid manufacturing output. Total Quality Control, Set-up Reduction, Group Technology, Kanban, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis and Value Analysis are tools used to assist the formation of the JIT cell. Results taken after implementation revealed that stock levels reduced by 25%. Shop floor area was reduced by 205 square metres and lead time reduced by 33%. Large arrears in orders were virtually eliminated six weeks after implementation. Warranty claims were greatly reduced. Quality Management greatly enhanced the product and cross-training of operatives was achieved.

It has long been recognised that, in the military sector, the Integrated Logistics Support ILS can significantly enhance system effectiveness and add value to their competitiveness. Hence, it is not surprising that many organisations outside to the military support the ILS adoption to increase their competence level. Even though the ILS underlying theory is general, there is a lack of suitable methodology that facilitates ILS implementation in other industries such as Oil & Gas industry. In particular when considering complex systems with long life-span, the optimisation of maintenance-related activities is important to fulfil system readiness, safety and whole life cost requirements. Modern petroleum equipment like gas turbines and drilling rigs are dependent on readily available maintenance supports in order to maximise their operational ability. Therefore, it has been identified that the study should be conducted to an effective use of ILS with the petroleum industry. In doing so, the usage of the ILS framework as a decision tool for maintenance optimisation is outlined. This framework embraces ILS concepts to support asset managers in developing their maintenance strategies. Level of repair analysis and spare parts management have been identified as potential areas for enhancing the use of ILS. In particular, maintenance optimisation is approached as a trade-off between investment in spare parts level and repair capacity. The developed framework delivers cost-effective support strategies obtained with iterative optimisation algorithm built on heuristics and genetic algorithm techniques. Finally, this algorithm has been implemented into computational algorithms. The framework can be employed to identify the optimum level of spare parts and the optimum amount of repair capacity for multi echelon repair network and multi-indenture systems. The framework has been used to carry out optimisations intended to maximise the availability of gas turbines by varying logistics support parameters. Typical results have shown that a joint optimisation of spare parts and level of repair analysis leads to better results than optimising them separately and emphasises the need for the developed framework. As part of this research, an expert panel validation method has been used to both refine the design of the developed framework and also evaluate its functionality from experienced practitioners within the Algerian petroleum industry. The results of this validation have demonstrated the advantages of integrating spare part management and level of repair analysis LORA to the problem of maintenance optimisation and shown that the framework is able to deliver optimal maintenance supportability decisions. The generic framework developed in this thesis can be seen a novel and comprehensive model for integrating two ILS elements into the operating tool in a manner that improves maintenance support provision, while remaining both flexible and usable; and therefore as a contribution to a better adoption of ILS technique within Algerian Petroleum Industry.

The successful introduction of new products is argued to be the lifeblood of most organisations in the pertinent literature. In current dynamic competitive situation, product innovation is intensely becoming an important strategic goal for firms, mainly as a result of three co-emerging trends: intense international competition, fragmented and demanding markets, and diverse and rapidly changing technologies. Dealing with this situation has obliged entrepreneurs and researchers to examine and employ different mechanisms and strategies that can facilitate successful achievement of innovations characterised with high levels of novelty. Despite extensive body of literature on product innovation, concerns exist related to inconsistent results regarding the impact of different factors such as market orientation dimensions, supplier involvement, absorptive capacity, and environmental turbulence elements on firms' new product performance. Such limitations in the existing knowledge and literature of the subject are partly associated with the adopted measures for new product performance. New emerging theories suggest that such measures should be extended to include other intermediate and innovation and agility related measures in order to accommodate for uncertainties in the firm's business environment. Such necessities call for adoption of new theories and perspectives to address the problems and inform the body of the knowledge. This research is an original attempt to fill this gap to some degrees. Adopting the agility concept and consequently agile supply chain framework, this research attempts to address the gap first by developing a multidimensional perspective on product innovation, and second by introducing multiple and two dimensional measure for new product performance (i.e. general and agility), which is termed as Agile Product Innovation (API). In this scenario, a firm's agility in product innovation is entered as one dimension of the product performance to accommodate a multidimensional perspective. The main purpose of this research therefore is to employ agility concept to develop a contingency perspective of relationships between market orientation dimensions (i.e. responsive and proactive), supplier involvement, absorptive capacity, environmental turbulence factors and agile product innovation performance. By adopting a quantitative research method, a survey of manufacturing sector companies with innovation characteristics was conducted. The results while reaffirm some of the existing theories of the subject, provide some differing views on the issues·. allowing projection of new insight on the approach to product innovation. The key findings and contributions of this research are three-fold: Firstly, this study examined the impact of environmental turbulence factors (technological turbulence and competitive intensity). In particular, market turbulence was introduced as a new addition to the study of market orientation-product performance relationships stemming from agility theory. The results reveal a complex set of relationships between the two dimensions of market orientation and API depending on the intensity of the environmental turbulence factors. The results show that in turbulent environment proactive market orientation strategy should not exceed some levels as it begins to fall into a negative effect. Also a fixed strategy for market orientation is proven ineffective and instead firms should develop their market orientation strategy based on environmental turbulence factors. Secondly, the research also examined the relationship between absorptive capacity and agile product innovation performance. Research findings suggest absorptive capacity as a competitive factor that can provide the grounds for proactively winning in the product innovation game through increasing agility capabilities. Thirdly, the study further investigated the contingent relationship between supplier involvement and API performance. As a result the research suggests that complex relationship between supplier involvement and product innovation performance is varied depending on factors such as innovation life-cycle, teclmological turbulence, and absorptive capacity. Generally the results from the research support the proposition of product innovation performance multidimensionality where achievements beyond financial and market related factors playa critical role. The results also shows that any approach to study the strategy and process of innovation in firms and the effects of collaboration with suppliers and other external sources of knowledge should regard the strategies adopted by the frrm regarding their business environment particularly the market in terms of agile capabilities.

This dissertation explores the limitations and impact on performance of applying formalised NPD processes in service innovation. Hypotheses build on a structural framework of organisational factors, which have been linked to successful product innovation but have not been consistently supported in a service context. Evidence is presented for a moderating influence of service complexity on the relationship between factors relating to NSD process organisation and new service performance. The findings create a link between product and service innovation and demonstrate that whereas complex new services benefit from formalised development processes and structure, services with lower complexity do not.