Zugl.: Bern, Universiẗat, Diss., 2005.

Thesis is about various implications that can be seen in business processes. It defines the term, describes history, the most important offshoring destinations and positive, as well as negative influences that offshoring has on firms. Practical part demonstrates decisions which firm has to make when it considers various locations of manufacturing.

This thesis aims to develop and validate the dimensions of supply chain collaboration and collaborative advantage in the containerised maritime industry and explores the impact of supply chain collaboration on collaborative advantage and port performance. Additionally, this thesis tests a mediation effect of collaborative advantage on the relationship between supply chain collaboration and port performance. This thesis employs a quantitative method. A theoretical model is built based on thorough literature reviews of supply chain management and maritime studies, in-depth discussions with experts, item review and Q-sorting techniques to signify ambiguity or misunderstanding with the scales and to suggest modifications. The proposed model is empirically tested with survey data using 178 responses from terminal operators, shipping lines, inland transport companies, freight forwarders, ship management companies and third-party logistics providers involved in maritime logistics in the major containers ports of Busan, Gwangyang and Incheon for a comprehensive and balanced view by using structural equation modelling. With regard to the findings of the empirical research, three main constructs were successfully validated as multi-dimensional constructs. The structural paths support hypotheses that supply chain collaboration has a positive influence on collaborative advantage, and collaborative advantage has a strong contribution to port performance. However, the direct impact of supply chain collaboration on port performance is insignificant. A hierarchical approach of the mediation test and bootstrapping test found that the association between supply chain collaboration and port performance is fully mediated by collaborative advantage. In other words, the greater degree of supply chain collaboration between the port and port user enables them to gain a higher degree of collaborative advantage, and, in turn, this collaborative advantage can contribute to augmenting port performance. This thesis synthesises transaction cost theory, resource based theory and a relational view to explain how supply chain collaboration influences collaborative advantage and port performance. Its theoretical contribution expands the concept of supply chain collaboration and collaborative advantage into containerised maritime contexts, capturing the perspective of the ports and port users. Further, despite numerous maritime studies which extol the importance of collaboration between the ports and port users, no systematic approach has previously developed and validated those constructs and relationships. The various maritime logistics organisations would benefit from applying the results of this study to their supply chain collaboration practices when seeking greater collaborative advantage. The results heed practitioners in containerised maritime logistics organisations to focus on balancing the facets of supply chain collaboration to transport flows of containers seamlessly and efficiently from door-to-door, as supply chain management philosophy drives the maritime logistics industry to become more integrated into shippers' supply chains.

The aim of this thesis is the analysis of logistic systems of two different wholesale food business operators, with the focus on material and information flows in singular processes. The thesis also compares the reached levels of logistic services provided to retailers, explores the possibilities of optimization of a chosen wholesale business and suggests concrete changes leading to increase in effectiveness of its particular processes.

The thesis is focused on the creation of the logistics chain for textile products. The issue was analyzed and suitable suppliers after their selection. Were then identified the best transportation options to the Czech Republic in accordance with the optimized cost effectiveness. The next stage of the analysis of demand forecast, which then followed the method cost-effective order quantities. In the last stage on the basis of analyzes to create the optimum distribution.

This diploma thesis has been created based on the demand of the management of DHL Exel Supply Chain and Swindon Pressings Limited to increase the efficiency and utilization of resources employed within they operations. The theoretical introduction part is first of dealing with the terms "logistics" and "supply chain management" in the perspective of their use in the contemporary logistics theory, comparison of their meaning (are there differences) and explanation of their use in this thesis. Subsequently I am explaining "reverse logistic" and its position in the structures of corporations and logistics itself. Supply chain management and the concept of lean manufacturing combined with the six sigma approach are, from my point of view, essential for today's supplier-customer relationships. That is why those topics are examined in the last part of the theoretical chapter. Returnable packaging and the transport process are key elements of the second part -- practical part, the reengineering of logistics processes which occurred at Swindon Pressings Limited. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the give problem, develop problem solving options and critically comment them. Finally choose one of the options, implement it and document the process of "going live".

This Master's Thesis discusses an analysis of the supply chain at Schiessl s.r.o. The aim is to describe the entire logistics chain in the Czech Republic and its relationship with the Schiessl group. The aim is also to find weaknesses and to offer possible solutions to these problems. The first part discusses the theoretical basis of the research - basic concepts such as logistics, logistics chain, supply chain management, and more. The second part is devoted to Schiessl s.r.o. It introduces the company and describes its structure in the Czech Republic. The most important part is an analysis of the logistics chains of this company - an evaluation of information and material flows (chains). The work concludes with recommendations that should eliminate bottlenecks in the company's supply chain.

This Master's Thesis deals with logistic processes within Unipetrol group of chemical companies with main focus on material flow of polyolefin plastics. Thesis's key objectives are thorough exploring of material flow, identifying possible ineffective areas and suggesting solutions. All parts of the material chain (production line, packaging,warehousing and expedition) are carefully analyzed. Theoretical part defines general logistics, importance of supply chain management in connection with globalization, chemical industry specifics and methods used in analyses (inventory management models). Practical part describes Unipetrol and its departments and more importantly results of executed analyses. Ten selected products with the greatest impact on department efficiency are examined carefully. Thesis conclusion includes final recommendations and chain's weakest places that should be eliminated.

O problema de roteirização periódica de veículos pode ser considerado como uma generalização do problema clássico de roteirização devido a duas características próprias: um período de planejamento maior que um dia, em que os veículos fazem diversas viagens, e freqüências de visitas associadas a pontos a serem servidos. Esse tipo de problema pode ter muitas aplicações práticas. Atualmente, algumas indústrias automobilísticas brasileiras já utilizam um sistema de coleta que se baseia na idéia de roteirização periódica, com a finalidade de reduzir o estoque de peças. Assim como os problemas originais de roteirização de veículos, o problema aqui tratado é também difícil de ser resolvido, sendo impossível o uso de algoritmos exatos para a obtenção de uma solução ótima para o tamanho de problemas encontrados na prática. Isso motivou o estudo, que direcionou seus esforços na exploração de novas estratégias de solução para esse problema através de novas abordagens, de modo que houvesse um aumento na qualidade de soluções e uma diminuição do tempo de processamento computacional. Dois procedimentos diferentes foram propostos para a alocação dos clientes aos dias de visitas: uma heurística de inserção seqüencial que visa equilibrar os esforços dos diferentes dias do período de planejamento, e uma heurística baseada em algoritmos genéticos. As rotas diárias são construídas através da utilização do algoritmo de economias de Clarke e Wright, que permite a obtenção de boas soluções em tempos de processamento curtos. Experimentos computacionais são realizados para a avaliação da eficiência de cada uma das heurísticas propostas através da utilização de benchmarks retirados da literatura e problemas-teste gerados aleatoriamente, e os resultados são também comparados aos anteriormente mostrados na literatura. / The period vehicle routing problem can be viewed as a generalization of the classic vehicle routing problem due to two singular features: a planning period longer than one day in which vehicles make several trips and frequencies of visit associated to points to be serviced. This type of problem may arise in different practical applications. Nowadays, some Brazilian automaker industries are already utilizing a collect system based on the idea of the period routing in order to reduce parts inventory. Similarly to the original vehicle routing problem, the period vehicle routing problem is also hard to solve, making it impossible to use exact in order to obtain an optimal solution for problem sizes found in practice. This motivated this research study, which directed its efforts to the exploration of new strategies of solution through new reasoning, leading to an increase in the quality of the solution and a decrease in the computational processing time. The proposed heuristics are composed of three consecutive stages: (i) assigning customers to days of visit while respecting their given frequencies, (ii) building routes that serve all customers assigned to each day of the planning horizon, and (iii) improving the obtained solution. Despite the distinction between the stages, we managed to take into consideration the integration among the three decisions. Two different procedures were proposed to the assignment of customers to days of visit: a sequential insertion heuristic that aims to balance the workload among different days in the time horizon, and a heuristic based on genetic algorithms. The daily routes are then constructed by using the Clarke and Wright\'s savings algorithm, which allows good solutions to be obtained in short processing times. Computational experiments are made in order to evaluate the efficiency of each proposed heuristic using both benchmark problem sets from the literature and randomly generated problems as well, and the results are compared to the previously reported in the literature.

Analysis of Forwarding and Courier Services in Czech Republic was carried out fron the end of a service portfolio, quality and cost at the end. The following companies were in a scope of analysis: DHL Express (Czech Republic) s.r.o., FedEx s.r.o., UPS s.r.o., TNT s.r.o., DACHSER EST a.s., Gebrüder Weiss s.r.o., DB Schenker s.r.o.