The subject of illegal supply chains (ISCs) is all but absent from supply chain management research. However, there is much to be gained from investigating this enigmatic and complex topic. This thesis presents propositions that outline the fundamentals for ISCs as an area of study, and reviews relevant theories for ISCs from criminology and supply chain management literature. By exploring these propositions in relation to a case study of the Sinaloa Cartel, the largest drug syndicate in the world, the aim was to verify the accuracy of the propositions so that they could be used in future research. Based on this example, it is proposed that ISCs are similar to their legal counterparts in terms of motivations, structure, and certain key strategies including agility and supply chain integration. Certain strategies are also found to be commonly held, whereas relationships are defined by individualistic rather than truly collaborative behaviours. / October 2015

A B S T R A C T Deregulation of the South African fruit export industry in 1997 caused fragmentation in the supply chain. This led to significant inefficiencies and difficulty in responding to increasingly stringent legal and traderelated traceability requirements. Currently, the South African fruit export industry does not provide a sufficient level of traceability at supply chain level. The consumer packaged goods industry has developed e-commerce building blocks based on global standards. These building blocks offer automated traceability of fruit exports, as well as significant benefits impacting the bottom line, to companies of all sizes. The e-commerce building blocks also provide solutions to the two main challenges faced by the fresh produce supply chains, namely traceability requirements and the need for additional efficiencies. The e-commerce building blocks are available to the South African fruit export industry to enable traceability, as well as to provide significant efficiency benefits. It has been found that early adoption of the e-commerce building blocks will result in a strategic advantage over the southern hemisphere competitors and that automated traceability is feasible for the South African fruit export industry. This article describes the cohesiveness, willingness to participate and supportive thinking of representatives from the important fruit export industry in South Africa, which are necessary to create the critical mass for the implementation of such an automated traceability system.

In the current era of globalization in supply chain, business continuity planning should play an even more important role than previously. Business continuity planning provides company with an analysis of potential business threatening situations, everything from natural disasters to supply shortages, and ensures that actions are taken in order to mitigate the probability that those risks will become reality. Business continuity planning does not come without a cost, since companies will in some cases have to spend money in actions like redundancies (e.g. supplier). In the Semiconductor industry, supply chains might are extremely complex and globalized. These supply chains can go from having suppliers in the United States, to front-end manufacturing in Europe, to back-end manufacturing and packaging in Asia. Raw materials for semiconductor manufacturing, for example raw wafers, can be found for above $500 per wafer. It is due to not only the complexity of the supply chain in semiconductors, but also due to the high costs of raw materials and manufacturing, that it is crucial for companies in this particular industry to ensure business continuity planning is taken seriously, and adequate measures are taken to mitigate as many risks to their supply chain as possible. / text

Avregleringen av Sveriges järnväg ledde till att Statens Järnvägar delades upp i olika företag, SJ AB bildades som har i uppgift att bedriva lönsam persontrafik. Avregleringen har haft en stor påverkan på hur SJ bedriver sin verksamhet idag samt lett till att komplicerade ägarförhållanden har uppstått i Hagalund. Hagalund är SJ’s största depåanläggning för underhåll av fordon. I samråd med SJ’s Division Fordon och Divisionen för Planering och Trafikledning har vi fått i uppdrag att undersöka hur SJ påverkas om de införskaffar en depå i egen regi. Vi har valt att undersöka SJ ur ett värdekedjeperspektiv. Studien bygger sedan på hur SJ’s värdekedja påverkas om en ny depåanläggning införskaffas. Vi har använt Porters värdekedja som grund till vår studie, det är en analysmetod som kartlägger en organisations värdeskapande aktiviteter. Vi har även tagit del av forskning som gjorts på Porters värdekedja med fokus på resurshantering och informationsprocesser. För att kunna undersöka problemområdet har vi även undersökt och analyserat forskning inom det teoretisk omtrådet vertikal integration. Vertikal integration innebär att en organisation införskaffar en verksamhet till egen regi. Den här studiens syfte är att undersöka hur en organisations värdekedja påverkas om en vertikal integration utförs. För att besvara syftet har vi undersökt hur de sekundära aktiviteterna i SJ’s värdekedja påverkas om en primär värdeskapande aktivitet vertikalt integreras. Vi har även i delsyfte att undersöka vilka effekter den nya depåanläggningen skulle ha på SJ’s produkt tågresor som säljs till kund. Vi besvarar både syftet och delsyftet genom en deduktiv kvalitativ undersökning. Vi använde oss av en semistrukturerad intervjumetod där vi intervjuade respondenter från SJ’s Division Fordon och Divisionen för Planering och Trafikledning. Vår övergripliga slutsats av studien är att en vertikal integration har en inverkan på SJ’s värdekedja. Den vertikala integrationen medför en förbättrad kommunikation samt kontroll av depåverksamheten och dess resurser. SJ’s depåverksamhet blir mer flexibel vilket kan leda till snabbare reaktioner vid oväntade händelser. Kvalitén av produkten tågresor påverkas även positivt. Förutsättningen till dessa fördelar är att SJ har en god kommunikation med nya depån samt införskaffar de resurser som krävs.

L'auteur n'a pas fourni de résumé.

It is known that the small commodity markets are influential to people’s life, but their operations are unique. The lack of standard management has become the biggest obstacle for the development of logistics services in a commodity market. How traditional logistics model can be operated effectively in a commodity market is therefore interesting in this study. The purposes of this thesis are to characterize the commodity logistics systems, identify the challenges of logistics systems in the commodity market, and discuss how the use of e-business platform may improve the logistics system. In order to realize the purposes, the qualitative approach was used in this research. Literature review, interview and case study in one Chinese city with a big commodity market are implemented in the research. Survey study has been carried out to collect data for analyzing the logistics systems. As the main results in this thesis, small-volume, short-life cycle, variety and variability are found to be the main characteristics of a logistics system in the commodity market in the case city. The challenges are therefore about how to design and improve the logistics system so that it can adapt to these characteristics. Finally, this thesis presents the analysis on how an e-business platform can provide effective solutions to meet these challenges.

This thesis summarises research focused on the requisites required to implement improvement initiatives successfully. Processes used to enhance supply chain performance initiatives are examined. The core hypothesis is that a preconditioning programme provides support for progressive organisations, irrespective of size or position in the supply chain. An interpretation matrix developed as a result of action research with M E Ltd was tested with NP Ltd and its suppliers. During search conferences the matrix was found to add value by serving as a common platform to record then compare observations and agree a common understanding between participants. Based on qualitative descriptions of training and learning in organisations from the 1950s to the 1970s, Barrington's model has three levels: 'systematic approach' predominating in the 1950s, 'appraisal approach' developed extensively in the 1960s and an 'attitude to continuous improvement' that was promoted after the 1970s fuel crises. This model was used as the basis for selecting collaborating establishments. The literature review concludes that conventional supplier development has the attributes of the systematic approach, which is considered the least effective level. M E Ltd was considering introducing appraisal, had few attributes of the systematic approach, and had an attitude for continuous improvement. A company specific survey was undertaken that led to a series of remedial actions which were identified as a preconditioning programme prior to supplier development. NP Ltd selected leaders by attitude, had institutionalised appraisals and once the core group was established, trained employees with systematic techniques. AAP Ltd had the attitude and systematic techniques, yet did not have appraisal systems. Principal conclusions of this are: · These case studies suggest companies can have any two of Barrington's levels. As a result, an alternate depiction of Barrington’s model is suggested. · The cases indicate that preconditioning can occur within a company, from customer to suppliers and from suppliers to customer. · The cases suggest product development roadmap stability as a root cause for negative effects to the relationship between customer and supplier.

When a major disruption occurs, an organization’s performance is usually negatively affected. The great recession of 2008 – 2009 was such a disruption which had global implications that had not been seen since the great depression that started in the 1930s. This thesis is intended to contribute to the understanding of how leanness and slack resources affect firm performance in the presence of disruptions that test supply chain resilience, or the ability to restore the firm’s performance to its original condition after encountering stress or a large disturbance. These disruptions may not only affect the firm’s financial performance during the disruption but also well after the disruption has occurred. Two industries with differing supply chains, food and beverage, and electronics and computer, were investigated. The study is based on archival data (N=10,020 and 668 firms) with observations from just before and just after the great recession, a disruption that affected the entire global economy. Our results suggest (1) the effect of inventory leanness and slack resources on firm performance is industry specific; and (2) variation in firm performance is less in the post-disruptive period than in the pre-disrupted period. Overall, our findings call for a contingency perspective to specify the level of inventory leanness and slack resources when determining their impact on firm performance to support supply chain resilience.

This thesis intended to increase the understanding of bullwhip effect in electrical appliance industry in the Chinese market. In the supply chain management, the bullwhip effect is a phenomenon can never be ignored. The bullwhip effect has being defined as information distortion when orders move form downstream enterprises to the supplier (Lee et al 1997b). The distortion information was amplified step by step, and finally propagates to the enterprise marketing, logistics, manufacture and other fields. The existence of the bullwhip effect weakens the ability to add value and competitiveness of the supply chain. Hence, enterprises must collaborate and jointly mitigate the bullwhip effect to reach groups coexist. This work focus on the electrical appliance industry in China, and based on the successful experience of the case company, Haier Group, to formulate recommendations. Firstly, this research analysis the four causes of the bullwhip effect: demand forecast, price fluctuations, order quantity and short game (Lee et al 1997a). After analyze these causes, this study begins to identify the impacts which the bullwhip effect bring to the members of supply chains. The most obvious impacts can be defined as inaccurate forecasting, inadequate customer service and high inventory cost. Next, the paper evaluate the measures of Haier implement to dampen the bullwhip effect. Information sharing, the key point to solve the problem has been use in Haier. In addition to this, the Just in Time (JIT) strategy which include JIT purchase, JIT delivery and JIT distribution is another important measure for Haier to achieve the goal of mitigate the bullwhip effect.  Overall Every Control and Clear (OEC) management was created by Haier Group and aims to improve the supply chain management, is another countermeasure to deal with the bullwhip effect. Besides, the inventory management also have an important role in gaining the control of bullwhip effect. In summary, the successful experience on dampening the bullwhip effect of Haier can shine a light for electrical appliance industry in China on solving the similar problem. Information sharing is always the key point to mitigate the bullwhip effect, and related instructions should build to remove the barriers of sharing information.

Integrated robust planning systems that cover all levels of SC hierarchy have become increasingly important. Strategic, tactical, and operational SC plans should not be generated in isolation to avoid infeasible and conflicting decisions. On the other hand, enterprise planning systems contain over millions of records that are processed in each planning iteration. In such enterprises, the ability to generate robust plans is vital to their success because such plans can save the enterprise resources that may otherwise have to be reserved for likely SC plan changes. A robust SC plan is valid in all circumstances and does not need many corrections in the case of interruption, error, or disturbance. Such a reliable plan is proactive as well as reactive. Proactivity can be achieved by forecasting the future events and taking them into account in planning. Reactivity is a matter of agility, the capability of keeping track of system behaviour and capturing alarming signals from its environment, and the ability to respond quickly to the occurrence of an unforeseen event. Modeling such a system behaviour and providing solutions after such an event is extremely important for a SC. This study focuses on integrated supply chain planning with stochastic dynamic considerations. An integrated tactical-operational model is developed and then segregated into two sub-models which are solved iteratively. A SC is a stochastic dynamic system whose state changes over time often in an unpredictable manner. As a result, the customer demand is treated as an uncertain parameter and is handled by exploiting scenario-based stochastic programming. The increase in the number of scenarios makes it difficult to obtain quick and good solutions. As such, a Branch and Fix algorithm is developed to segregate the stochastic model into isolated islands so as to make the computationally intractable problem solvable. However not all the practitioners, planners, and managers are risk neutral. Some of them may be concerned about the risky extreme scenarios. In view of this, the robust optimization approach is also adopted in this thesis. Both the solution robustness and model robustness are taken into account in the tactical model. Futhermore, the dynamic behaviour of a SC system is handled with the concept of Model Predictive Control (MPC).