Supply chain leaders in the information technology industry face challenges regarding their ability to mitigate amplified demand and supply variability in a supply chain network--the bullwhip effect--and reduce adverse implications on their component supply chain networks. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies supply chain leaders in the United States used to reduce the bullwhip effect. Bullwhip effect theory served as the conceptual framework. Participants in the study were 5 purposefully selected supply chain leaders in the state of Texas who successfully implemented strategies to reduce the bullwhip effect on their networks. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and analysis of documents from the participants' websites. The data were analyzed using the 5 data analysis steps consistent with Yin's approach: collection, stratification, reassembly, interpretation, and conclusion. Four themes emerged from data analysis: (a) collaboration strategy, (b) communication strategy, (c) component shortage reduction strategy, and (d) resource management strategy. Supply chain leaders might use the findings of this study to reduce the bullwhip effect within their networks and improve their profitability. The implications for positive social change include the potential for leaders to improve environmental sustainability by using effective supply chain strategies to reduce the accumulation of excess inventories, reduce transportation fuel usage, and lessen the consumption of natural resources.

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Manufacturing leaders seek strategies to improve cross-cultural business relationships because of the increasing demand for outsourcing, which requires strong partnerships among manufacturing supply chain members. The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore successful strategies that manufacturing business leaders use to improve cross-cultural business relationships within their manufacturing supply chain. The targeted population included business leaders, fluent in English, within 1 company located at 2 different manufacturing sites in the Midwest region of the United States and the Northeast region of Mexico. The capability-based view theory was used to support knowledge sharing, trust, and strategic management. Methodological triangulation of the data from interviews, direct observations during site visits, and production documentation led to 4 themes. The 4 themes that emerged from thematic analysis were: information sharing, which was key to form a strong partnerships between the 2 manufacturing sites; the development of common business tools, which facilitates the development of common technical language that both sites understood and could translate into common expectations; training of business tools and processes, which expands knowledge sharing and best practices among the 2 sites; and understanding differences of people rather than culture. The implication for positive social change includes the potential to provide strategies to business leaders within various manufacturing industries on how to overcome the challenges of trust, information sharing, and resource management and provide successful cross-cultural business relationships and profitability.

Inefficient supply chains result in unsold inventory and unfilled customer orders, posing a significant risk to company profitability and consumer satisfaction. The purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies supply chain managers in the manufacturing industry used to match the level of unsold inventory in the supply chain with customer demand consistently. Porter's value chain provided the conceptual framework for the study. A sample of 5 experienced supply chain managers from a global manufacturing company headquartered in the midwestern United States participated in semistructured interviews. Each participant provided company supply chain documentation for triangulation. Data analysis followed Yin's 5 stages of data analysis and yielded 4 themes: define policies and processes, develop collaborative partnerships, leverage technology, and consider the end-to-end supply chain. The themes are the foundation of successful supply chain management strategies that have improved matching of unsold inventory in the supply chain to customer demand. Study findings benefit both supply chain leaders and consumers by providing the potential to improve consistency in meeting customer demand with less inventory in the supply chain, resulting in customer satisfaction, business growth, and stable employment. The findings may contribute to positive social change by helping supply chain leaders create thriving businesses with satisfied employees and customers who are willing to spend their time and money contributing to community growth, economic stability, and enhanced social conditions.

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This thesis addresses integrated challenges within the global supply chain and intercontinental rail freight transport, establishing the foundation for a new research area. First, this thesis focuses on the development of unified SCOR-Rail Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for intercontinental rail freight transport, as well as initial analysis on Eurasian rail freight. It also proposes various rail supply chain strategies to differentiate rail services, including efficient, continuous replenishment, and responsive rail supply chain strategies that support market segmentation and service differentiation. The proposed Integrated Tactical Planning Method (ITPM) is a supply chain-oriented planning approach for intercontinental rail freight transport. It considers the intercontinental rail freight network's complexities, such as multiple border crossings and transshipments at border crossing terminals, the unique characteristics of different train lengths across different rail systems, as well as multiple stakeholders such as terminals, railway undertakings, infrastructure providers, and shippers and forwarders. ITPM offers optimization models (I-FSND and I-SSND) that simultaneously account for both the supply chain and rail system sides. Both models simulate the complexities of intercontinental rail freight operations. The I-FSND model calculates the train service frequency on each route during the planning period, whereas the I-SSND model considers the synchronization of each order at border-crossing terminals across different rail systems. Furthermore, both models include a rejection mechanism and consider transit time differences on the same arc for the main transit, with the I-SSND model determining the duration time of each order at terminals. In the I-FSND model, a weighted goal programming method optimizes resource allocation, balancing service quality, profit, total number of accepted containers through the network, and border crossing terminals' capacity deficiency. The potential capacity deficiencies—information is useful when making future investment decisions. The ITPM is a powerful tool for intercontinental rail freight planners, the proposed optimization models I-FSND and I-SSND ensure more efficient utilization of resources while simultaneously satisfying heterogeneous transport service requirements of the supply chain. Rail planners can employ the I-FSND model for network capacity analysis across various scenarios, especially when the specific timetable of train services is not a primary concern, while I-SSND model could be used to more operational analysis. Furthermore, ITPM is not only applicable to intercontinental rail freight, but also to rail freight transport networks with multiple border crossings, such as the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN). The initial application of these models in Eurasian rail freight shows promising potential for broader implementation in intercontinental rail freight transport, particularly in creating new business opportunities to meet the diverse transport demands of the supply chain.:1 Intercontinental rail freight transport 1 1.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1.1 Development of intercontinental rail freight transport . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1.2 Need for a supply chain-oriented planning method for intercontinental rail freight transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.2 Intercontinental rail freight planning problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1.2.1 Limitations of current rail planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1.2.2 Intercontinental rail freight transport in supply chain planning . . . . . . 9 1.2.3 Scientific gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 1.3 Main contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 1.4 Thesis outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 1.5 Collaborations in the thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 2 Service quality assessment of intercontinental rail transport 20 2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 2.2 Existing research in international freight rail transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 2.2.1 Stakeholders and processes of international rail transport . . . . . . . . 23 2.2.2 International rail services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 2.2.3 Current performance measurement of rail transport . . . . . . . . . . . 26 2.2.4 Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 2.3 Development of SCOR-Rail KPIs for international rail services . . . . . . . . . . . 28 2.3.1 Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 2.3.2 Responsiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 2.3.3 Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 2.3.4 Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 2.3.5 Asset efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 2.4 Initial assessment of Eurasian rail transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 2.4.1 Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 2.4.2 Responsiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 2.4.3 Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 2.4.4 Asset efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 2.4.5 Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 2.5 Improvement measures of current Eurasian rail transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 2.5.1 Service differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 2.5.2 Priority rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 2.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 3 Heterogeneous rail supply chain strategies 48 3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 3.2 Existing research on rail service differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 3.3 Development of railway supply chain strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 3.3.1 Efficient RSC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 3.3.2 Continuous replenishment RSC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 3.3.3 Responsive RSC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 3.4 International rail service differentiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 3.5 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 3.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 4 Integrated tactical planning method 62 4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 4.2 Existing research on information integration in rail transport . . . . . . . . . . . 65 4.3 Information integration in international rail freight transport . . . . . . . . . . . 67 4.3.1 Information quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 4.3.2 Information integration phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 4.3.3 Information evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 4.4 Hierarchical information integration in rail planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 4.5 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 4.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 5 Integrated planning of intercontinental rail freight transport with I-FSND model 77 5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 5.2 Literature review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 5.2.1 Basics of rail planning and SND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 5.2.2 SND in freight transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 5.2.3 Research gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 5.2.4 Our contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 5.3 Problem Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 5.4 Mathematical Modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 5.4.1 Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 5.4.2 I-FSND model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 5.4.3 Weighted goal programming method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 5.5 Case study: Eurasian rail freight transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 5.5.1 Experimental setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 5.5.2 Scenarios generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 5.6 Results and discussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 5.6.1 Single goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 5.6.2 Multiple goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 5.6.3 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 5.7 Conclusion and future directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 6 Scheduled service network design for intercontinental rail freight transport 109 6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 6.2 Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 6.2.1 Intercontinental freight transport-Eurasian rail freight transport . . . . . 113 6.2.2 SSND in freight transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 6.2.3 Research gaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 6.3 Mathematical modelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 6.3.1 Problem description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 6.3.2 Generation of the time-space network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 6.3.3 Mathematical formulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 6.4 Computational Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 6.4.1 Construction of test instances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 6.4.2 Synchronization of orders at border crossing terminals . . . . . . . . . . 127 6.4.3 Effects of differentiating train services during main transit . . . . . . . . 129 6.4.4 Effects of delay tolerance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 6.4.5 Impact of border crossing time of European borders . . . . . . . . . . . 134 6.5 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 6.6 Conclusion and future directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 7 Conclusion and future directions 140 7.1 Main conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 7.2 Recommendations for practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 7.3 Further Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Bibliography 148 Summary 168

Global supply chains (GSCs) are formed with the primary objective of cost minimization. Apart from cost reductions, GSCs also have other benefits like opening up new markets, reduction in the price of the product sold, and increasing production capacity. The benefits of GSCs are significant only when the environment it works in is stable. But in real life, almost all the systems are stochastic. While companies try to globalize their supply chains (SC), it is important to understand and evaluate the risks associated with global expansion. Several risk events arise in global supply chains and efficient management of these probable risk events plays a crucial role. Supply chain risk management (SCRM) is the implementation of strategies to manage both everyday and exceptional risks along the SCs based on continuous risk assessment to reduce vulnerability and ensure continuity. But there is a need to differentiate risk management of domestic and global supply chains due to additional risk elements involved in the functioning of GSCs. COVID-19 pandemic is one such risk event that has disrupted the GSCs of many companies around the world. Hence, the purpose of this study is to examine whether the framework of risk management in global supply chains needs reviewing after the manifestation of the COVID-19 pandemic. To fulfill the purpose, the study is divided into 2 sections. A literature review is done in supply chain management, supply chain risk management using the keywords mentioned below. Interviews were conducted with companies having GSCs. The interviews help in primary data collection for understanding the impact of COVID-19 on GSCs. Questions regarding company background, strategy for RM, the impact of COVID-19 on the GSC, and previous catastrophic impacts & future plans were asked. The collected data is processed and analyzed to arrive at findings. These findings are compared with theory to conclude by answering the research questions.  The findings prove that the existing risk management (RM) framework is sufficient to handle risk events such as pandemics. The benefits of implementing risk monitoring are visible with the comparison of the impact of RM strategies prior to and during the pandemic. Disruptive events such as COVID-19 cannot be completely avoided but can be mitigated. Several risk types occur due to catastrophic events as risk types are interconnected. Hence, all risk types must be evaluated for the RM plan. The impact is also dependent on local restrictions. Hence, it should also be considered in RM plans. Coordination mechanisms and robust strategies have shown that resiliency and flexibility improve and have reduced the impact of COVID-19 both proactively and reactively. So, it shows that the existing RM framework has the capability of mitigating the impacts of future pandemics and does not require updating.

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