As competition for fossil fuels accelerates, alternative sources of chemicals, fuels, and energy production become more appealing to researchers and the layman. Among the candidates to fill this growing niche is lignocellulosic biomass. Many researchers have examined supply chain design and optimization for biofuel and bioenergy production throughout the years. However, these models often fail to capture the variability and uncertainty inherent to the biomass supply chain. Multiple factors with high degrees of stochasticity can have major impacts on the performance of a biorefinery: weather, biomass quality, feedstock availability, and market demand for products are just a few. To begin to address this issue, a discrete event simulation model has been developed to examine the economic performance of a region specific, multifeedstock biorefinery supply chain. Probability distributions developed for product demand and feedstock supply begin to address the random nature of the supply chain. Model development is discussed in the context of a multidisciplinary framework for biorefinery supply chain design. A case study, sensitivity analysis, and scenario analysis, are utilized to examine the capabilities of the model.

Western countries' information technology and software intensive firms are increasingly producing software and IT services in developing countries. With this swift advancement in offshoring, there are many issues that can be investigated which will enable companies to maximize their benefits from offshoring. However, significant challenges can occur throughout the lifecycle of offshoring IT service projects that turn the potential benefits into losses. This research investigated CMM/CMMI best practices and their effects on managing and mitigating critical issues associated with offshore development. Using a web based survey, data was collected from 451 Information Technology and software development firms in the US. The survey instrument was validated by an expert panel which included practitioners and researchers. The survey population consisted of Information Technology and software engineering managers who work on offshore IT and software development projects. Statistical methods including Chi Square and Cramer's V were used to test the research hypotheses. The results of the analysis show that IT companies applying CMM/CMMI models have fewer issues associated with IT offshoring. When US IT companies utilize and incorporate different practices from TSP and People CMM into CMMI for DEV/SVC and CMMI for ACQ, they have fewer offshoring issues related to language barriers and cultural differences. The results of this research contribute to the existing body of knowledge on the offshoring of IT services from the client management perspective and provide practitioners with increased knowledge regarding IT offshoring decisions.

Food safety problems have gained national attention, and food recall is one of the most important indications of this concern. Third-party certifications have become a popular way to improve the safety and quality of products for consumers. Publications related to third-party certification usually focus on the motives and benefits of a particular certification. However, to date, no existing research investigates the effects of food recalls on certification adoption. This study uses Probit models with a binary endogenous explanatory variable to examine the relationship between food recalls and third-party certification, based on recalls occurring between January 1, 2015 and February 18, 2016. Marginal effects are used to interpret the impact of recalls and companies’ annual net sales on third-party certification adoption. Results reveal that past recalls significantly affect a firm’s likelihood of certification adoption.

Attention to cross-cultural management in today’s globalized workplace and marketplace is paramount to professional success. In this exploration I examine the nuances of Chinese business practices and organizational culture as well as their likely points of divergence from American traditions. The variance between organizational culture across national borders is often significant and, as demonstrated by the cases herein, can prove to be either an opportunity to succeed beyond expectation or fail to the same extent.

Innovating for Sleeker, Greener, Friendlier Rides critiques the ethical implications behind the meaning of sustainability in the surfboard manufacturing industry because surfers by origin have a kinship with the environment. First the paper discovers the origins of surfers, how surfing became a sport, and who are the major influencers in the industry. Second, this thesis analyzes three different sustainability approaches, repurpose, reduce, and self-sustainment. Repurpose method examines to decrease the amount CO2 in inputs and outputs of materials throughout surfboard construction. Reduce method innovates surfboard that are more durable so that there are less wasted surfboards going into landfills. Self-sustainment practices a variant of permaculture to construct surfboards out of only natural materials from the earth in order to diminish non-ecofriendly byproducts. Thirdly, the conversation regards towards permaculture as the better option, which requires comprehensive experiments to produce materials meeting the performance of non-sustainable resources. Lastly, the thesis provides areas of research for possible raw materials and a way to implement into the industry.

For a multi-national company like Adidas, supply chain management is one of the most crucial aspects of business operations. Products cannot be sold unless Adidas’s supply chain is well-managed and efficient, and public perception of a brand/company is critical to success. This case study analyzes the effectiveness of Adidas's distinct “collaborative approach” to supply chain management, which is characterized by not only monitoring and auditing suppliers, but also training them to make Adidas’s standards their own and approaching suppliers with the intention of building long-term relationships where the suppliers can become self-sufficient. This study reviews the structure of Adidas's supply chain, the nature of Adidas's collaborative approach to supply chain management, the benefits that collaboration provides over the conventional "compliance" approach to supply chain management, and the potential shortcomings of Adidas's approach. A conclusion is reached that the collaborative approach is the backbone of Adidas's success as one of the largest apparel manufacturers in the world because of its holistic nature and consideration for unique cultural challenges.

The purpose of this project is to try and establish a blueprint for integrating Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Supply Chain Management (SCM). ERP and SCM have become popular in many industries because they help companies improve their Information Systems (IS) which helps support their operational goals. New technology is being used in resource planning and e-commerce and a stable supply chain helps corporations integrate many basic applications. This helps facilitate smooth supplier-customer interactions while minimizing transaction costs. This project is trying to provide a way in which to implement ERP systems properly into SCM. It should result in improved business performance and client satisfaction.

The early stages of a product’s design are a critical time for decisions that impact the entire life-cycle cost. Product designers have mastered the first generation; however, they currently do not have the ability to know the impact of their decisions on the multi-generational view. This thesis aims at closing the gap between total life-cycle information and the traditional design process in order to harbor sustainable value creation among all stakeholders involved. A framework is presented that uses a combination of a life-cycle costing methodology and an evolutionary algorithm in order to achieve a sustainability assessment for a true multi-generational component. An illustration of the implementation of the framework shows the value to current engineering scenarios. A foundation is also laid for the overall future vision of this work to utilize proper databases and existing design tools to evaluate the overall sustainability and life-cycle cost of multi-generational components.

Over the past few decades, environmental changes have led to more frequent occurrences and greater intensities of natural disasters worldwide. In terms of globally connected supply chains, this has resulted in an enormous economical loss for corporations. Therefore, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) planning and management has become essential for businesses in order to protect their critical business flow. Yet there is a lack of systematic and transparent methodologies for companies to handle this problem. Hence, this thesis introduces a novel approach to combine consecutive steps of the Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) process within one application. The multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) tool called the Analytic Network Process (ANP) is employed to identify critical products of a business and match them with optimal disruption mitigation strategies based on an evaluation of benefits, opportunities, costs, and risks (BOCR). To validate the method developed in this thesis, a case study using historical data of a U.S. company (Company XYZ) is introduced. The results of the ANP mathematical modeling demonstrate that the developed methodology provides a valuable approach to analyze and confirm BC/DR planning decisions. Moreover, an expert of Company XYZ confirmed that the suggested solution established through this case study is in agreement with the preferable choice based on his expertise and professional decision-making. Further research could extend the proposed methodology to other fields of BC/DR planning, such as IT Disaster Recovery Planning or Human Disaster Relief.

<p>This study focuses mainly on situations of time-based competition. Three problems in this context will be studied in three different parts. In the first part, we will examine the promised delivery time (PDT) competition for firms whose production processes consist of more than one stage. We study three games; a) when each firm consists of two stages and has identical production rates in both stages, b) when each firm consists of k stages and has identical production rate in all stages and, c) when each firm consists of two stages and has different production rates in each stage. In the second part, we focus on a duopolistic market where the firms compete against each other by determining their PDT. The firms try to win the business of a single customer who is sensitive to PDT but will also penalize the winning firm through tardiness costs. This situation may emerge when the production duration is too long and the product is expensive as in the aviation industry. The third part of this study deals with situations of investment competition in the presence of incomplete information in the market. The investment decision will affect the time to production (speed) and determines the probability of winning the business. The notion of incompleteness in information is projected when firms are not fully certain about each other's objective function. In each chapter, we will find the equilibrium of the game and determine the players' optimal strategies. At the end of each chapter, a numerical analysis is presented, where numerous numerical examples are solved. Based on the numerical examples, a sensitivity analysis is also presented for each model that would capture the sensitivity of the Nash equilibria and the firms' optimal strategies towards changes in parameters in the market or the competitor's operations.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)