"Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business Administration from the Naval Postgraduate School, June 2010." / Advisor(s): Yoho, Keenan D. ; Brinkley, Douglas E. "June 2010." "MBA Professional report"--Cover. Description based on title screen as viewed on July 14, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: Inventory management, records keeper, stores onload process. Includes bibliographical references (p. 59). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S. in Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 1990. / Thesis Advisor(s): Moore, Thomas P. Second Reader: Sturm, Mark I. "December 1990." Description based on title screen as viewed on March 31, 2010. DTIC Identifier(s): Logistics Management, Plant Equipment Packages, Industrial Surge, Industrial Mobilization, Army Equipment, Naval Equipment, Acme Gridley Lathes, Department of Defense, Theses. Author(s) subject terms: Study of the management and viability of plant equipment packages. Conclusions were drawn from the examination of the condition assessments on one type of industrial plant equipment in plant equipment packages. Includes bibliographical references (p. 143-147). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S. in Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 1990. / Thesis Advisor(s): Lamm, David V. Second Reader: Evered, Roger D. "September 1990." Description based on title screen as viewed on March 19, 2010. DTIC Identifier(s): Naval Procurement, Contract Administration, Theses, NFCS (Navy Field Contracting System), Procurement Management, Policy Manuals, Surveys. Author(s) subject terms: Contracting, Contract Research, Contract Management, Procurement, Procurement Research, Procurement Management, Policy, Policy Research, Policy Management. Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-165). Also available in print.

Thesis (M. Eng.(Industrial Engineering))-Universiteit van Pretoria, 2007. / Abstract in English. Includes bibliographical references.

The need to be economically successful is the key driver for companies to be innovative and implement new technologies with increasing efficiency and effectiveness. Uncertainty about whether to use new technologies and missing knowledge about their advantages lead to staggering and withholding from fast diffusion of innovations. Focusing on the industry of logistics and the technology Mixed Reality, this research project developed a methodical approach for evaluating the fitness of an innovative technology and a specific process of application. A mixed methods approach was derived, based on interviews and experiments. The main methodologies used, were semi-structured interviews with decision makers in logistics companies to elaborate triggering criteria in the investment process and laboratory experiments for the evaluation of competing technologies. These methods were framed by an initial field experiment and feedback interviews after the analysis for the validation of the approach. The research proved the competitively viable applicability of Mixed Reality and its specific strengths and weaknesses in manual order picking. This set the foundation for possible further development and implementation of the technology. The developed methodological approach proved to be a valid and reliable assessment of the intersection between a technology and specified process of application. This can greatly enhance the speed of implementing new innovations and gaining competitive advantages for companies.

Despite the claim that blockchain will revolutionise business and redefine logistics, existing research so far is limited concerning frameworks that categorise blockchain application potentials and their implications. In particular, academic literature in transport and logistics to date has not sufficiently distinguished between blockchain adoption ('what to adopt') and the identification of the right business opportunity ('where to start'). In response, this paper (1) uses Rogers¿ (2003) 'attributes of innovation framework' to identify potential blockchain applications and (2) presents a framework explicating four transformation phases to subsequently categorise the identified areas of application according to their effects on organisational structures and processes. Using academic and practitioner literature, we classify possible applications for adoption and provide a framework to identify blockchain opportunities in the logistics industry, thereby helping managers to systematically assess where to start building organisational capabilities in order to successfully adopt and deploy blockchain-based technology.

Electrical and electronic equipment waste (e-waste) is growing fast. Due to its potential economic value as well as its possible negative impacts on the environment, tracing e-waste flow is a major concern for stakeholders of e-waste management. Especially, whether or not adequate amounts of electrical and electronic equipment waste (WEEE) flow into the designed recycling systems is a fundamental issue for sustainable operations. In this paper, we analyze how technical, market, and legislative factors influence the total amount of e-waste that is collected, recycled, exported and (legally and illegally) disposed off. We formulate the e-waste network flow model as a variational inequality problem. The results of the numerical examples highlight the importance of considering the interaction between the supply and the demand side for precious materials in policy-decisions. Low collection rates of e-waste lead to low profits for stakeholders and make it difficult to establish sustainable recycling operations. Increasing WEEE collection rates increases recyclers' profits; however, it only increases smelters' profits up to a certain limit, after which smelters cannot benefit further due to limited demand for precious materials. Furthermore, the results emphasize the importance of establishing international control regimes for WEEE flows and reveal possible negative consequences of the recent trend of dematerialization. More precisely, product dematerialization tends to decrease recyles' and smelters' profits as well as to increase the outflow of e-waste from the designated recycling system. (authors' abstract)

This thesis deals with new trends in the field of logistics and its importance for the development of international trade. The main goal is to analyze logistics as a whole in today's holistic approach to understand the Supply Chain Management, the current state and development of the last years of the most important transport modes and analyze the main determinants with the biggeste influence in shaping current and future developments in the field of logistics.

Closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) management provides opportunity for cost savings through the integration of product recovery activities into traditional supply chains. Product recovery activities, such as remanufacturing, reclaim a portion of the previously added value in addition to the physical material. Our problem setting is motivated by the practice of an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) in the automotive service parts industry, who operates a well established forward network. The OEM faces customer demand due to warranty and beyond warranty vehicle repairs. The warranty based demand induces part returns. We consider a case where the OEM has not yet established a product recovery network, but has a strategic commitment to implement remanufacturing strategy. In accomplishing this commitment, complications arise in the network design due to activities and material movement in both the forward and reverse networks, which are attributed to remanufacturing. Consequently, in implementing the remanufacturing strategy, the OEM should simultaneously consider both the forward and reverse flows for an optimal network design, instead of an independent and sequential modeling approach. In keeping with these motivations, and with the goal of implementing the remanufacturing strategy and transforming independent forward and reverse supply chains to CLSCs, we propose to investigate the following research questions: 1. How do the following transformation strategies leverage the CLSC?s overall cost performance? ? Extending the already existing forward channel to incorporate reverse channel activities. ? Designing an entire CLSC network. 2. How do the following network flow integration strategies influence the CLSC?s overall cost performance? ? Using distinct forward and reverse channel facilities to manage the corresponding flows. ? Using hybrid facilities to coordinate the flows. In researching the above questions, we address significant practical concerns in CLSC network design and provide cost measures for the above mentioned strategies. We also contribute to the current literature by investigating the optimal CLSC network design. More specifically, we propose three models and develop mathematical formulations and novel solution approaches that are based on decomposition techniques, heuristics, and meta-heuristic approaches to seek a solution that characterizes the configuration of the CLSC network, along with the coordinated forward and reverse flows.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The growing technological evolution and the changes in the competitive environment make the organizations, as organisms composed by material, financial and human resources, need to break some old paradigms and start the growth, adopting new strategies for the management of its activities in changeable markets. Among these strategies, it s found the Supply Chain Management (SCM), as a new intra and inter-organizational management philosophy. For so, it was tried to establish concepts, related to logistics and the SCM, emphasizing their characteristics, seeking to identify them in the agro-industrial sector of self-propelling agricultural machines, with the purpose of optimizing the results throughout the supply chain. In this context, this present paper verified the accordance of the logistics of two agricultural machines manufactory organizations, of Rio Grande do Sul, with the SCM characteristics, evidencing the integrating character provided by the increase of competitiveness, analyzing the different logistics operations effectuated by the companies, as well as the characteristics of logistics and SCM of the organizations. The exploratory research had, as data collection instrument, questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and in loco observations. The data interpretation was done by means of descriptive analysis, and the SCM model was adopted, subdividing the research questions in five subgroups materials, net of suppliers and distributors, integrations among the several areas of the company, information, and knowledge and consume net. As a result of this study, it was possible to analyze that Agco, a multinational enterprise, leader in this industry sector, has an accordance degree, with the SCM characteristics, higher than Agrale, enterprise pertaining to a familiar group, having less expressive participation in the market. It was noticed, furthermore, that the smaller the volume of production is, the closer the company is of the consumer group, and the bigger the volume of production, the closer the company is to optimizing in the group of information and knowledge. / A crescente evolução tecnológica e as mudanças no ambiente competitivo fazem com que as organizações, na condição de organismos compostos por recursos materiais, financeiros e humanos, precisem romper antigos paradigmas e alavancar o crescimento, adotando novas estratégias para gerenciamento de suas atividades em mercados voláteis. Entre essas estratégias, encontra-se a Supply Chain Management (Gestão da Cadeia de Suprimentos SCM), como uma nova filosofia de gestão intra e interorganizacional. Para tanto, buscou-se fundamentar conceitos, relacionados à logística e a SCM, enfatizando as características dos mesmos, buscando identificá-las no setor agroindustrial de máquinas automotrizes, com o intuito de otimizar os resultados ao longo da cadeia de suprimentos. Nesse contexto, o presente estudo verificou a conformidade da logística de duas organizações manufatureiras de máquinas agrícolas, do Rio Grande do Sul, com as características da SCM, evidenciando o caráter integrador proporcionado pelo aumento da competitividade, analisando as diferentes operações logísticas efetuadas pelas empresas, bem como as características da logística e da SCM das organizações. A pesquisa exploratória teve, como instrumentos de coleta de dados, questionários, entrevistas semi-estruturadas e observações in loco. A interpretação dos dados deu-se por meio da análise descritiva, sendo que foi adaptado o modelo de SCM, subdividindo as questões da pesquisa em cinco subgrupos - materiais, rede de fornecedores e distribuidores, integração entre as diversas áreas da empresa, rede de informação e conhecimento e consumidores finais. Como resultado deste estudo, foi possível verificar que a Agco, empresa multinacional, líder de mercado no segmento, possui grau de conformidade maior com as características da SCM que a Agrale, empresa pertencente a um grupo familiar, possuindo, esta, uma participação de mercado menos expressiva. Percebeu-se, ainda, que quanto menor o volume de produção mais próxima a empresa está do grupo de consumidores, e quanto maior o volume de produção mais próxima a empresa encontra-se da otimização no grupo de informação e conhecimento.