Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [95]-102).

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rand Graduate School, 1996. / "RGSD-128." "Dissertation." Includes bibliographical references (p. 156-158).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Maryland at College Park, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-103).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rand Graduate School, 1996. / "RGSD-128." "Dissertation." Includes bibliographical references (p. 156-158).

The "Physical Distribution Concept" is being increasingly recognised as a vitally important business philosophy for those firms for which efficient physical distribution is critical to marketing success. Manufacturers of products which are perishable, easily substitutable; and/or quickly obsolescent are some which fall into this category. In a competitive business environment, factors such as the " availability" of the product, and not simply its price or quality, begin to exert a significant influence on the purchasing decision. The "Physical Distribution Concept" comprises three elements, namely, consumer orientation; organizational integration and profit orientation. "Physical Distribution Orientation" refers to the predisposition of the firm and its employees to these three elements. For the Physical Distribution Concept to serve as an effective guide to management action, a physical distribution orientation on the part of all those concerned with marketing and physical distribution-related activities in a firm, is a pre-requisite. The chief executive, in particular, should adhere to this business philosophy, regardless of the functional route he followed to his position. In his leadership role, theory holds that he exerts considerable influence on his subordinates, and consequently on his firm's way of doing business. This thesis is concerned with an analysis of the Physical Distribution Concept. It focuses on the chief executives of firms manufacturing consumer convenience goods, as well as consumer shopping goods. As such, it is primarily concerned with determining the extent to which the chief executives are physical distribution oriented and whether there is a statistically significant relationship between their extent of physical distribution orientation and their companies' performance. The thesis is also concerned with the extent to which any pattern of organizational arr angements for physical distribution exists.

M.Phil. / Remote monitoring is a process, which involves the gathering of information remotely from a customer's site, a production process or the location of a transport vehicle to reduce the operating costs and improve operational efficiency. In this research document, an investigation into the various remote monitoring options available in the market as well as the viability of using remote monitoring systems in the gases distribution industry will be done.

M.B.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to test, via a GPSS simulation, a heuristic developed by B.A. Rosenbaum. The heuristic determines the level of service a customer receives in a multi-echelon inventory system. The system consists of one central Distribution Centre (DC) which is the source of supply for eight Regional Distribution Centres (RDC's), which themselves are the source of supply for customer demand. Service is defined to be the fraction of demand met from on-hand stock at the location where the order is placed. Two distinct sets of tests on the heuristic are performed in this thesis. First, a wide range of parameter values are used in the simulations to test the sensitivity of the assumptions essential in the development of the heuristic. Second, the robustness of the heuristic is examined when different assumptions are substituted in the inventory system analysed. The analysis indicates the heuristic performs fairly well under various conditions. In particular, increasing the order size or reducing the number of warehouses in the system yield calculated values predictive of the simulated results. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

The three essays in this thesis address various problems in the general area of supply chain management. In general, supply chain management is concerned with management of the flow of goods, information, and funds among supply chain members, such as suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and consumers. As such, its scope includes timing and quantity of material flow, logistics, improving efficiencies in problems with several decision makers, etc. The first essay in this thesis considers the problem of improving coordination in a decentralized system of retailers, while the second one addresses stability and profitability of Internet-based supply exchange alliances. The third essay analyzes a logistics problem, of finding an optimal route for a capacitated vehicle which travels on a graph and which can perform pickups and deliveries. In the first essay, we study a three-stage model of a decentralized distribution system with n retailers who each faces a stochastic demand for an identical product. In the first stage, before the demand is realized, each retailer independently orders her initial inventory. In the second stage, after the realization of the demand, each retailer decides what portion of her residual supply/demand she wants to share with the other retailers. In the third stage, residual inventories are transshipped in order to possibly meet residual demands, and an additional profit is allocated among the retailers. We study the effect of implementing various allocations rules in the third stage on the levels of the residual supply/demand the retailers are willing to share with others in the second stage, and the tradeoff involved in achieving a solution which is also optimal for the corresponding centralized system. The second essay is concerned with the formation of Internet-based supply exchange alliances among three or fewer retailers of possibly substitutable products. We provide some conditions, in terms of product substitutability and quality of suppliers, which would lead to the formation of a three member alliance, or a two member alliance, or no alliance at all. We also study the effect of alliance structure and quality of suppliers on the profit of a retailer. The third essay considers a vehicle routing problem with pickups and deliveries (VRPD problem) on some special graphs. Some vertices on the graph represent delivery customers, and other vertices represent pickup customers. The objective is to find a minimum length tour for a capacitated vehicle, which starts at a depot and travels on the graph while satisfying all the requests by the customers without violating the vehicle capacity constraint, and returns to a depot. We have developed linear time algorithms for the VRPD problem on a path and on tree graphs, linear and O (|V| log |V|) algorithm for a VRPD problem defined on a path with parametric initial capacity, and quadratic and O (|V|² log |V|) algorithms for a VRPD problem defined over a cycle graph. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate