No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis aims to explore the strategic roles of integrated logistics and supply chain management and global sourcing strategy for firms' performance, and to examine the direct and indirect relationships between integrated logistics and supply chain management, logistics performance, global sourcing performance, and further sustainable competitive advantage. This thesis adopts resource based theory to explore the relationships between a firm's specific capability and its performance and employs structural equation modelling in order to rigorously test the validation of the measurement models and examine the relationships between the construct variables. The data used were collected by postal questionnaire survey from logistics managers of 195 firms from the automobile and electronics industries based in Korea. The empirical research shows that (1) there exists a significant positive relationship between information & planning formality and strategic planning (2) strategic planning has a significant positive influence upon integrated logistics and SCM capability (3) internal integration & customer relationship has a significant effect on logistics performance (4) supplier integration and logistics integration & customer service exert significant impacts upon global sourcing performance (5) supplier integration has a significant effect on the firm's competitive market position (6) a superior logistics capability exerts a significant impact upon global sourcing performance and sustainable competitive advantage (7) global sourcing capability has a significant influence on sustainable competitive advantage and competitive position in the market and (8) competitive position in the market is significantly predicted by sustainable competitive advantage. In addition, this research presents many significant indirect effects between the constructs. Overall, this thesis suggests that a firm should develop an integrated logistics and SCM capability in balance and make efforts to build superior logistics and/or global sourcing capabilities in order to effectively obtain and/or reinforce its competitive market position and long-term survival and success.

The UK housebuilding industry has been subject for the past decade or more, to many government initiatives and pressures to improve output, quality and innovation specifically in supply chain management. However the industry is still failing to meet customer and market demands and is in need of improvement. This work studies the UK private housebuilding industry and assesses its current practice regarding supply chain management. It identifies best practice in UK private housebuilding supply chain management, and current levels of competence. It goes on to determine major causes of waste and successfully applies improvement techniques. In order to achieve this, the work first locates and appraises secondary data to understand supply chain management, value and waste within the industry and determine best practice. The thesis then adopts a multi-methodology approach using three distinct stages of empirical research consisting of a government funded case study research project, a national survey of UK housebuilders and finally, collaborative fieldwork involving semi-structured interviews and an improvement workshop with a major UK private housebuilder/developer. The work establishes that there is considerable room for improvement in many areas of the housebuilding supply chain and that material availability and final product quality are key problems. Using a number of improvement techniques, including cause and effect and failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA), the causes of major waste areas are identified and evaluated and corrective actions proposed. The work demonstrates that a majority of UK private housebuilding can be treated in the same way as other manufacturing industries for process and supply chain improvement and can successfully adopt techniques prevalent in other industries.

Ports are playing an ever pivotal role in the development and operation of industrial supply chains. Port management has historically been reactive to legislative and customer pressures. Such a reactive approach has resulted in ad hoc infrastructure development including physical facilities and information technology. Ports may thus be viewed as large scale complex systems where there is a need to define a more holistic perspective of their design and operations. Recent developments in the construct of port clusters and maritime clusters have led to increased complexity. The advantage in these developments is that greater integration between the port and associated services and users in the supply chain in port should be realised. However, there is a need to apply appropriate industrial engineering tools and techniques in order to visualise such clusters as whole systems without the need for excessively complex models. Such visualisations will help in developing our understanding of the interrelationships between the various parts and aid in the development of structured design methods. The thesis presents a structured analysis and design technique (SADT) in order to visualise a port cluster as a system of systems wherein hierarchy lies. This research identifies a port cluster and within that a port logistics process. SADT has been chosen as there are readily available software tools to aid in the visualisation and it provides a robust structured method by which to model hierarchical systems. This study applies SADT to the port cluster system that has distributed around the Port of Busan in Korea but has not been organised systematically. This dissertation shows that SADT does provide an opportunity to define and analyse the cluster in terms of the port logistics process, port activities and actors. In conjunction with the calculation of the industrial productivity of the cluster, it will be able to distinguish who could be the leading industry or leading company in the cluster. Finally, the results of the industrial productivity analysis also will be express using SADT diagram, so that it could provide the clear picture which industry/business should be the leader in each port logistics process.

Product proliferation as a result of meeting ever increasing customer demand preferences is well documented. In addition, customisation has been promoted as a source of competitive advantage. Despite these factors, most of the published research in operations and supply chain management has neglected the needs of the engineer-to-order (ETO) sector, where each product, or project, is designed for the needs of a specific customer. This thesis investigates definitions, models, concepts and strategies for the ETO supply chain structure. In particular, it ETO supply chains are researched within the specific context of the construction sector. The high levels of uncertainty associated with such supply chains presents an array of challenges for organisations in the sector. This thesis focuses on methods to identify and categorize uncertainty, and the types of flexibility that can be developed to mitigate such uncertainties. The importance of good 'pipeline management' is also highlighted, which is an area that is lacking in the construction management literature. Initially, the ETO supply chain is defined in relation to five other 'structures', which describe the flow and control mechanisms of products throughout different supply chains. A key defining characteristic is that the 'decoupling point' is located before the design stage. A structured literature review is then undertaken, which integrates construction supply chain research with wider ETO research. Construction and ETO bodies of knowledge have largely evolved in isolation, within different disciplines, academic communities and journals. This thesis integrates these bodies of knowledge. A critical realist stance is adopted in the thesis, and a range of research methods are utilised within a multiple case design. The empirical research is structured in two phases. Firstly, case studies are undertaken in the construction industry. Three units of analysis are specified in the case research: network co-ordinators, projects and supplier pipelines. In total, the case investigation involves two 'network co-ordinators', five projects and twelve 'supplier pipelines', across two ETO construction systems. Secondly, six evaluation interviews are undertaken, using participants from a range of ETO construction industries. Flexibility is identified as an important strategic capability for ETO supply chains, and a conceptual model for supply chain flexibility is developed and investigated. A four step route map, which brings together different elements of the thesis, is a key output from the research, and provides a practical guide for practitioners to follow when considering flexibility strategies. The overall findings suggest that by becoming more flexible ETO construction supply chains can mitigate some of the uncertainties experienced, but this requires due consideration of supply chain uncertainties, pipeline management, and the correct types of flexibilities vis-a-vis collaborative arrangements. A contribution is made to the fields of uncertainty and flexibility within the context of ETO construction.