M.Comm. / The South African economy is currently in a dynamic phase of change. In seeking a solution to rebuilding the economy and attaining a growth rate which is capable of creating jobs and sustaining economic development, it is widely recognized that a competitive platform needs to be created for a powerful expansion by the tradable goods sector. Many South African products cannot compete in international markets because of high unit costs and the consequential high prices offered to consumers. One of the primary reasons for product uncompetitiveness can be described as supply chain inefficiencies.q The supply chain is defined as the network of organisations that are involved in the various processes and activities that produce value in the form of products and services in the hands of the ultimate consumer. This study analyzes a single stand-alone component of the supply chain organisation, namely the public warehouse. The study recognizes that warehousing plays a vital role in enhancing end-user value by providing time and space utility and suggests that in order for the warehouse to fulfil a valueadding role, it must adjust its functioning to meet the supply chain's requirements. The study shows that conventional techniques are incorrectly focused and are thus inappropriate in an organisation aiming to achieve competitiveness and profitability, optimise the logistics trade-off between cost and quality and simultaneously supply the customer with a high level of service performance. The use of conventional costing and management techniques are shown to lead to the incorrect calculation and misallocation of costs which in turn result in inaccurate product (service) costing. This has made the public warehouse analyzed uncompetitive in the market and as a result unable to add any additional value to the customer. It is suggested that a completely new and differently focused system needs to be implemented if supply chain objectives are to be realised. It is suggested that activity-based management is capable of achieving supply chain goals. Activity-based management (ABM) is a system or discipline which focuses on the management of activities as the route to improving the value received by the customer and the profit achieved by providing this value. The study shows that ABM, as applied to the public warehouse, was able to achieve cost reductions, better and more effective management, enhanced strategic positioning, and, most importantly, competitiveness in the market place, a prerequisite for adding value to the supply chain. The study recognizes that supply chain management and activity-based management are relatively new fields of expertise, and that these are not yet recognized as a fully fledged profession in South Africa. Supply chain management needs to be established and promoted as a formal profession. Finally it is recognized that more research is necessary before ABM and supply chain management can become the standard in South African organisations. Information needs to be obtained regarding key South African performance indicators and information needs to be recognized as a strategic asset. Once this recognition is achieved strategic information plans can be designed and used to enhance the competitiveness of South African products.

<p>The purpose of this study is to contribute to thedevelopment of the Logistics Management discipline. A motivefor the study is that I have found actors being very anonymousin the Logistics Management literature. I have found this to bein contrast to my practical experiences where actors are highlyessential. On the basis of an interview study and a literaturestudy I want to give some thoughts and ideas for thedevelopment of the discipline. The interview study wasconducted with 48 actors operating across a supply chain withindifferent business areas of a multinational Swedish company.The actors views of the organisation, problems associated withit and logistical variables were focused. In the literary studyI focused on fundamental ideas and characteristics. I alsofocused on scientific foundations and points of departure inLogistics Management research.</p><p>In the text I strive to view the world as sociallyconstructed and in my writing I have the effort to beinterpretative and reflective. With these points of departure Itry to use approaches seldom used in research within thelogistics management discipline.</p><p>In my work I present thoughts and ideas which are importantto notice with regard to the aim of the discipline to benormative and contribute to the development of one or manyorganisations. The first issue that I highlight is that in theinterview study it was apparent that there existed clusterswith different perspectives across the supply chain. Theseperspectives provided different sorts of understanding for theorganisation and problems associated with it. I found this tobe a reason for problems within the organisation. In theliterature, however, I found the insight about this is low ornot outspoken, which motivates further studies. As aconsequence of the different views and understanding, I noticedthat the interviewees put different meaning into concepts likecustomer focus and holistic vision. The different meaningseemed to be a reason for problems within the organisation.Since I regard the concepts as central and obvious within thediscipline, more attention could be given to the concepts andhow they are used. The interviewees also emphasised awell-functioning organisation and the importance ofimplementing solutions. Implementation issues could thereforebe highlighted to a larger extent, to elucidate obstacles andpossibilities for successful change management and to highlightproblems that need to be treated. In the interviews people andtheir behaviours were seen as central. Therefore human andtheir behaviours could be given more attention. Understandingfor people’s behaviour as a foundation for changemanagement processes could be emphasised even more. As aconsequence, I consider reference to other disciplinesnecessary to reach a higher understanding of these behaviours.Since the studied company was far from the best practicestudies that now dominate the area and the study has proven tobe fruitful, the discipline could strive to be more balancedand use other cases to elucidate problems and highlight theseproblems.</p><p>Some authors’opinions that other paradigms and viewsthan the ones dominating the discipline should be used todevelop it, has been strengthened by the study, especially withregard to paradigms and views with a focus on actors.</p>

Key words: supply chain management, capacity planning, spot market, long-term contract, contract theory / The long-term supply commitment is made deal through strategic interactions between the players of the supply chain. Game theoretical analysis is conducted to study the bargaining behaviors of the players. Optimal contract design can be obtained in various bargaining power scenarios: Contract Manufacturer Stackelberg, OEM Stackelberg, and Vertical Nash game. We also extend the analysis for single Contract Manufacturer and single contractual customer to multiple customers. The multi-units auction mechanism is also discussed briefly. / This thesis studies the problem of strategic capacity planning for make-to-stock manufacturing systems in the presence of a spot market and a long-term contractual channel in a continuous-time infinite horizon setting. The spot market is run by a B2B online exchange where the sales and prices are random over time while the long-term contractual channel is established by a structured contract in which the price and volume to be delivered are pre-negotiated. / Typically, we consider a supply chain which consists of an upstream manufacturer (e.g. Contract Manufacturer) and a downstream manufacturer (e.g. OEM). The two parties of the supply chain are linked by a long-term contract and both of the parties can trade in the spot market. To study the strategic behaviors of the contract manufacturer and the OEM, we first characterize the optimal operating strategies of the players under a specific contract and then analyze the influence of the contract terms on the optimal policies and the expected profit functions. We find that the optimal contracting strategy of the contract manufacturer can be characterized by a supply curve, which is a price-volume pair and strictly upward slopping, and the optimal contracting strategy of the OEM can be characterized by a demand curve, which is strictly downward slopping. / Pang, Zhan. / "August 2007." / Adviser: Youyi Feng. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: B, page: 1305. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-122). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

Managing large scale supply chains are never an easy task. Numerous researches have put emphasis on supply chain modeling and optimization to assist businesses in searching for the best practices so as to endure the extremely competitive business landscape. To some, the paradigm of centralized supply chain management is adequate for solving its strategic and operational problems. Yet with the improper use of authoritative assumptions, the efficiency of the management process is often jeopardized. Furthermore, current researches in decentralized supply chain are mostly focused on dyadic or linear relationship and seldom consider quantitative modeling and analysis with scalability. Recent development in multi-agent systems provided a means for such a modeling methodology and hence researches in this area. To enhance model representativeness and computational efficiency, vision-based control models that are able to simulate individual operational and strategic traits are developed. In this research, pyramidal agent alignment is proposed for simulating the management-operation dimension with regards to decision exercising and bargaining power management. The system offers one thousand supply chain agents that are simulated in a mono-layer, multi-tier network in real time. Stochastic and dynamic behaviors of the network are handled by statistical regression on scenario-based model evaluation. The proposed design enabled grand scale supply chain modeling and optimization that follows a general or custom simulation supported optimization architecture. Network governance problems and dynamic steering problems are considered and solved using genetic algorithm and dynamic programming. The thesis looks into the potential benefits and limitations of the proposed methods in details, and future research directions are discussed. / published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Supply Chain Management, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on July 7, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 146-150). Also issued in print.

Thesis (M.S. in Management) Naval Postgraduate School, Dec. 1996. / Thesis advisors, Paul J. Fields and Erik Jansen. AD-A323 397. Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-68).

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of Toledo, 2010. / Typescript. "Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Manufacturing Management." "A dissertation entitled"--at head of title. Title from title page of PDF document. Bibliography: p. 177-201.

Globalisering het die wêreldekonomie onomkeerbaar verander. Globalisering is onder andere moontlik gemaak deur die snelle tegnologiese vooruitgang en die verstewiging van handelsbande oor landsgrense heen. Dit het tot groter mededinging gelei en organisasies aan nuwe uitdagings en onsekerhede blootgestel. Die unieke aard van die nuwe ekonomie het organisasies verplig om hul tradisionele besigheidsmodelle aan te pas. Dit is nou moontlik om grondstowwe van bykans enige plek ter wêreld te bekom, om produkte naby buitelandse markte te vervaardig of waar die arbeidskoste die laagste is, om produkte vanaf optimale punte te versprei en om produkte bykans enige plek ter wêreld te bemark. Die geleenthede soos hierbo uiteengesit, het die klem opnuut laat verskuif na die belangrikheid van die voorsieningskanaal in organisasies. Die voorsieningskanaal is vandag die kern van die besigheidsmodel van menige organisasie en sluit verskeie eksterne partye van ’n organisasie in, soos byvoorbeeld verskaffers van grondstowwe en vervoerdienste. Dit is vandag van uiterste belang dat die ketting as ’n eenheid optimaal funksioneer, aangesien dit algemene praktyk is dat voorsieningskanale teen mekaar meeding om produkte so vinnig en goedkoop as moontlik aan die verbruiker te lewer. Voorsieningskanale is inderdaad van strategiese belang vir organisasies. Die prestasie van voorsieningskanale het ’n direkte impak op winsgewendheid en is dus ook bepalend in die skepping van aandeelhouerswaarde. Die moderne voorsieningskanaal is egter weens verskeie faktore, soos die betrokkenheid van derde partye, kulturele verskille en die lengte van sekere voorsieningskanale, ‘n onsekere omgewing. Dit is van uiterste belang dat organisasies hierdie onsekerhede of risiko’s na behore bestuur ten einde te verseker dat die prestasie van hul voorsieningskanale aan die verwagtinge voldoen. Hierdie studie het hoofsaaklik ten doel gehad om ’n optimale struktuur vir die bestuur van voorsieningskanaalrisiko’s asook ’n geïntegreerde benadering vir die effektiewe bestuur van die risiko’s daar te stel. Voorts was dit die oogmerk om die benadering in ’n werklike voorsieningskanaalomgewing deur middel van ’n gevallestudie toe te pas. Die voorgestelde benadering tot risikobestuur in die voorsieningskanaal is ’n ten volle geïntegreerde benadering wat alle komponente van die voorsieningskanaal insluit. Dit sluit dus alle eksterne partye van die organisasie in, soos byvoorbeeld verskaffers van logistieke dienste, asook alle relevante ondernemingsfunksies, soos byvoorbeeld aankope, bemarking en finansies. Voorts is dit ‘n gestruktureerde benadering wat op strategiese, taktiese en bedryfsvlakke in die voorsieningskanaal toegepas kan word. Indien dit behoorlik geïmplementeer en toegepas word, kan dit byvoorbeeld onderbrekings in die voorsieningskanaal voorkom of ten minste die potensiële impak van onderbrekings verminder. Dit het heelwat ander voordele, byvoorbeeld verbeterde besluitneming en sakeprestasie. Enige organisasie kan hierdie benadering implementeer. Dit is egter makliker om dit te implementeer in organisasies wat alreeds gevestigde risikobestuurstrukture het. ’n Deeglik beplande implementeringstrategie is ’n voorvereiste vir die suksesvolle implementering van die benadering. Risikopersepsie is ’n wesenlike aspek wat in ag geneem moet word tydens die implementering en die toepassing van die benadering. Persepsies van risiko en risikobestuur word deur verskeie faktore beïnvloed, byvoorbeeld die opleiding en ondervinding van individue asook die organisasiekultuur. Die uitkomste van risikostudies kan byvoorbeeld benadeel word indien risikopersepsies nie na behore bestuur word nie. / Prof. J. Walters

The purpose of this study is to contribute to thedevelopment of the Logistics Management discipline. A motivefor the study is that I have found actors being very anonymousin the Logistics Management literature. I have found this to bein contrast to my practical experiences where actors are highlyessential. On the basis of an interview study and a literaturestudy I want to give some thoughts and ideas for thedevelopment of the discipline. The interview study wasconducted with 48 actors operating across a supply chain withindifferent business areas of a multinational Swedish company.The actors views of the organisation, problems associated withit and logistical variables were focused. In the literary studyI focused on fundamental ideas and characteristics. I alsofocused on scientific foundations and points of departure inLogistics Management research. In the text I strive to view the world as sociallyconstructed and in my writing I have the effort to beinterpretative and reflective. With these points of departure Itry to use approaches seldom used in research within thelogistics management discipline. In my work I present thoughts and ideas which are importantto notice with regard to the aim of the discipline to benormative and contribute to the development of one or manyorganisations. The first issue that I highlight is that in theinterview study it was apparent that there existed clusterswith different perspectives across the supply chain. Theseperspectives provided different sorts of understanding for theorganisation and problems associated with it. I found this tobe a reason for problems within the organisation. In theliterature, however, I found the insight about this is low ornot outspoken, which motivates further studies. As aconsequence of the different views and understanding, I noticedthat the interviewees put different meaning into concepts likecustomer focus and holistic vision. The different meaningseemed to be a reason for problems within the organisation.Since I regard the concepts as central and obvious within thediscipline, more attention could be given to the concepts andhow they are used. The interviewees also emphasised awell-functioning organisation and the importance ofimplementing solutions. Implementation issues could thereforebe highlighted to a larger extent, to elucidate obstacles andpossibilities for successful change management and to highlightproblems that need to be treated. In the interviews people andtheir behaviours were seen as central. Therefore human andtheir behaviours could be given more attention. Understandingfor people’s behaviour as a foundation for changemanagement processes could be emphasised even more. As aconsequence, I consider reference to other disciplinesnecessary to reach a higher understanding of these behaviours.Since the studied company was far from the best practicestudies that now dominate the area and the study has proven tobe fruitful, the discipline could strive to be more balancedand use other cases to elucidate problems and highlight theseproblems. Some authors’opinions that other paradigms and viewsthan the ones dominating the discipline should be used todevelop it, has been strengthened by the study, especially withregard to paradigms and views with a focus on actors. / NR 20140805

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy