Background & aims: Prior research has, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting supply chain (SC) disruptions, increased the level of investigations in the field of SC resilience strategies. Even though many studies have been conducted within the field, little is known about the effectiveness and efficiency of those strategies. As food SC’s (FSC’s) are among the most important SC’s in our societies, their conservation is of great importance. As the operational purchasing process within the FSC was one of the areas within the SC that was strongly affected by the pandemic, this process will be the focus of the paper. This study seeks to identify the most applied SC resilience strategies for operational purchasing activities in FSC’s for various SC disruptions from a SME food retailers perspective. Furthermore, a framework of how to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of those strategies will be developed. Method: To collect relevant empirical data to answer the purpose of the study a qualitative multiple-interview study is conducted based on semi-structured interviews with respondents of the three different case companies. The case companies were selected and four interviews with one to two respondents per company were conducted. European SME food retailers of long shelf life goods are used as case companies to investigate the research gaps. Results: The study found out that the application of theory revealed the five most applied SC resilience strategies (SC flexibility, inventory management, end-to-end (E2E) SC visibility (SCV), information technology (IT) tools and SC cooperation) in operational purchasing, differences between SME food retailers according to their company size and maturity level. The KPIs identified to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of these SC resilience strategies were found to be applied. The KPIs provided are the basis for measurement opportunities that should be adapted and expanded depending on the business model and complexity of the company as part of the SC design. Contributions: The study adds value through theoretical and practical contributions of the most applied SC resilience strategies within operational purchasing from a SME food retailer perspective and their performance measurement system for measuring efficiency and effectiveness. Limitation & future research: The study is limited to the Covid-19 pandemic as a major reason for the triggering of the investigated SC disruptions. Further limitations can be seen within the selection of the case companies. Future research should investigate the differences between SME within their application of SC resilience strategies for their operational purchasing activities, just like the differences between strategic and operational purchasing. Key words: supply chain resilience strategy, supply chain disruption, Covid-19 pandemic, supply chain effectiveness, supply chain efficiency, performance measurements, key performance indicator, food supply chain, food retailers, purchasing process, operational purchasing

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the process where the bacteria develop resistance towards the treating effect of an antibiotic drug. AMR poses an alarming threat to human health causing around 700,000 deaths per year around the globe. If appropriate measures to combat the resistance are not taken, the number of deaths globally could increase to around 10 million by the year 2050. There are various factors driving the growth of AMR of which antibiotic shortages are common. A clear insight into the pharmaceutical supply chain is necessary to understand the reasons causing antibiotic unavailability. Ensuring access to medicines is one of the major objectives of pharmaceutical supply chains. Pharmaceutical firms compete in a volatile market to increase their profits. Antibiotics render slim profit margins to pharmaceutical firms; declining profits and increasing costs of production have led to firms outsourcing their operations to suppliers in different geographical locations. This in turn forms complex supply chain structures with various actors of a single drug chain being dispersed across the globe. The complexity in these supply chains lead to antibiotic supply interruptions. National drug shortages drive the risk of AMR, and these shortages are caused when pharmaceutical supply chains are weak or fragile. Therefore, the pharmaceutical supply chains need to be thoroughly analysed. This thesis aims to explore the different possible upstream supply chain structures that could exist in pharmaceutical supply chains. The study also highlights the factors that motivate the firms to choose different supply chain structures. This research is based on the existing literature on pharmaceutical supply chains. Qualitative semi-structured interviews, reports and existing research articles guided the authors in building a typology of upstream pharmaceutical supply chains based on: how different processes are handled by the MAH, the geographical location of operations in the chain, and the sourcing strategy of the Market Authorisation Holder (MAH) who owns the license for the drug. The findings of this study outline how a pharmaceutical firm could possibly structure the upstream supply chain based on its strategies. This study is limited to conceptualizing only the actors involved in the direct supply chain of the focal firm (MAH), further research including actors in the extended supply chain needs to be performed to get deeper insights into pharmaceutical supply chains.

This study determined whether local manufacturers of light vehicles in South Africa employ supply chain best practices and strategies. The research design employed was a combination of exploratory and descriptive research design using qualitative and quantitative approaches based on a survey of light vehicle manufacturers in South Africa. A face-to–face, semi-structured interview questionnaire was used, based on purposive sampling. Descriptive statistics using SPSS software were used for the data analysis and interpretation. The findings of the study revealed that across the supply chain, best practices were implemented to a large extent by all manufacturers. Light vehicle manufacturers in South Africa, however face supply chain challenges, which include technological, infrastructural, cost, market/service and production/skills challenges. The most important supply chain performance indicator that contributes to optimisation of performance is quality, followed by final product delivery reliability, and then cost and supplier reliability. All the manufacturers followed a lean strategy for their inbound supply chain and some had a lean supply chain strategy for their outbound supply chain. A number of them also had an agile supply chain strategy in the outbound supply chain which suggests a leagile supply chain strategy. It was also found that in some instances there was a mismatch between strategies and practices in the area of product characteristics, manufacturing characteristics and the decision drivers of supply chain. One of the conclusions of the study was that local manufacturers of light vehicles do not always make decisions and implement practices in line with their chosen supply chain strategies. The study concluded by developing a framework for determining supply chain best practices in line with a chosen strategy that could guide supply chain managers (in locally manufactured light vehicles) in the automotive in South Africa in their decision making. / Business Management / D. Com. (Business Management)

This study determined whether local manufacturers of light vehicles in South Africa employ supply chain best practices and strategies. The research design employed was a combination of exploratory and descriptive research design using qualitative and quantitative approaches based on a survey of light vehicle manufacturers in South Africa. A face-to–face, semi-structured interview questionnaire was used, based on purposive sampling. Descriptive statistics using SPSS software were used for the data analysis and interpretation. The findings of the study revealed that across the supply chain, best practices were implemented to a large extent by all manufacturers. Light vehicle manufacturers in South Africa, however face supply chain challenges, which include technological, infrastructural, cost, market/service and production/skills challenges. The most important supply chain performance indicator that contributes to optimisation of performance is quality, followed by final product delivery reliability, and then cost and supplier reliability. All the manufacturers followed a lean strategy for their inbound supply chain and some had a lean supply chain strategy for their outbound supply chain. A number of them also had an agile supply chain strategy in the outbound supply chain which suggests a leagile supply chain strategy. It was also found that in some instances there was a mismatch between strategies and practices in the area of product characteristics, manufacturing characteristics and the decision drivers of supply chain. One of the conclusions of the study was that local manufacturers of light vehicles do not always make decisions and implement practices in line with their chosen supply chain strategies. The study concluded by developing a framework for determining supply chain best practices in line with a chosen strategy that could guide supply chain managers (in locally manufactured light vehicles) in the automotive in South Africa in their decision making. / Business Management / D. Com. (Business Management)

The project shows the problems of power supply in electrical engineering. It describes the general parameters of these types of supplies and presents their characteristics. Based on these findings, it is also focused on the selection of specific elements of the laboratory supply, to reach the given parameters. It contains the recalculations of the parameters of other additional components. The overall scheme of the supply is divided into several blocks, thematically corresponded to subchapters. According to the accomplished concept the laboratory supply is realized and its parameters had been tested. Projects results are assessed at the end.

The purpose of this dissertation was to identify factors that contribute to the sustainability of rural water supply facilities (WSFs). Twenty-four interviews were conducted: 16 from rural communities and 8 from water supply agencies. Key findings are that in order to achieve sustainability of WSFs, there is need to ensure that (1) there is an effective community organisation; (2) communities have the ability to operate and maintain WSFs; (3) communities are able to raise adequate user fees for purchasing spare parts; and (4) that there is a strong backup support at the district level to carry out major repairs. Major threats to the sustainability of WSFs include high poverty levels in communities, weak institutional framework and inability of communities to handle major breakdowns. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Work)

The purpose of this dissertation was to identify factors that contribute to the sustainability of rural water supply facilities (WSFs). Twenty-four interviews were conducted: 16 from rural communities and 8 from water supply agencies. Key findings are that in order to achieve sustainability of WSFs, there is need to ensure that (1) there is an effective community organisation; (2) communities have the ability to operate and maintain WSFs; (3) communities are able to raise adequate user fees for purchasing spare parts; and (4) that there is a strong backup support at the district level to carry out major repairs. Major threats to the sustainability of WSFs include high poverty levels in communities, weak institutional framework and inability of communities to handle major breakdowns. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Work)

D. Tech. (Business, Logistics, Faculty of Management Sciences) Vaal University of Technology / The effective implementation of intra-firm and inter-firm supply chain practices and processes such as supply chain e-collaboration and sharing of important information among supply chain partners, is commonly associated with the creation of supply chain competitiveness and enhanced performance. However, little attention has, thus far, been given to the empirical investigation of the influence of the successful implementation of intra-firm supply chain practice on supply chain e-collaboration, strategic information sharing, supply chain competence and supply chain performance in South Africa. The principal objective of this study was to fill this void by investigating the influence of intra-firm supply chain practice on supply chain e-collaboration among supply chain partners in South Africa. Secondly, the study sought to determine the influence of supply chain e-collaboration on strategic information and supply chain competence among supply chain partners in South Africa. It also aimed to examine the influence of strategic information sharing on supply chain competence and ultimately on the supply chain performance of supply chain partners in South Africa. Lastly, the study sought to ascertain the influence of supply chain competence on supply chain performance of supply chain partners in South Africa. A positivist approach that allowed a quantitative research method in data collection was used in this study. Data from a sample of 280 collaborating firm owners/managers from all the industries of South Africa’s nine provinces was used for the final data analysis of this research. A principal component analysis was performed for factor reduction and dimensional groupings using SPSS 21 software. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were performed for model fit assessments and hypotheses tests respectively, using the Analysis of Moments of Structure (AMOS 21) software. Multiple Regression analysis was performed using SPSS 21 software, and was used for comparison and support of the weak and unsupported SEM hypotheses tests. The principal finding of this study reveals that intra-firm supply chain practice has a strong positive and significant influence on supply chain e-collaboration among supply chain partners in South Africa. In addition, the results showed that supply chain e-collaboration can strongly and significantly enhance the sharing of strategic information among supply chain partners in South Africa. The findings further revealed that supply chain e-collaboration has an ability to create a supply chain competence among supply chain partners in South Africa. The study’s empirical findings also indicate that strategic information sharing has a weak positive and significant indirect influence on supply chain competence and supply chain performance. Lastly, the SEM findings showed that supply chain competence has a weak negative and insignificant influence on supply chain performance. However, the multiple regression analysis showed a weak negative and significant influence of supply chain competence on the supply chain performance of supply chain partners in South Africa. The conclusions and implications of the empirical research findings are provided and recommendations are suggested. The study suggests a new supply chain management conceptual model for research. It also proposes a new supply chain management implementation framework to help guide firms to formulate strategies for improving supply chain performance. The study recommended that the collaborating firm owners/managers consider: training and education for all employees on the importance of supply chain practices and processes such as supply chain e-collaboration and strategic information sharing. Furthermore, it is recommended that collaborating firm owner/managers should consider adopting advanced technologies and information sharing structures to improve their supply chain performance. The collaborating firm owner/managers were also encouraged to align their incentives with the supply chain roles and activities assigned to the supply chain partners. Policy makers were encouraged to make e-business financing arrangements for supply chain collaborating firms; promote synergies between collaborating small and mediums firms and large technology vendors; and ensure affordability of supply chain e-collaboration technologies. The study attempted to address the intra-firm supply chain practice deficiencies on the side of both the supply chain e-collaborating firms and the government. / Research Hubs and Spokes

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been classified as one of the phenomena that belongs to the current top threats to human health. AMR is the process where bacteria become resistant to the antimicrobial drug and renders the antibiotic ineffective. This phenomenon is increasing exponentially due to misuse and overuse of antibiotics and is responsible for 700,000 annual deaths globally. If the contributing factors to AMR remain persistent, the estimated amount of annual deaths will increase to the exorbitant figure of 10 million by 2050. The inappropriate waste discharge from antibiotic manufacturing plants is the third major cause contributing to AMR. For this reason, environmental sustainability within the pharmaceutical industry is tightly linked to human health, and therefore, the importance of environmental risk management becomes crucial. Pharmaceutical supply chains are extremely complex, fragmented, and rigid due to the highly regulated environment and global distribution of the chains. Constant availability is sometimes compromised, and this leads to national shortages of antibiotics, which increase AMR. Therefore, supply chain sustainability risks (SCSRs) need to be thoroughly assessed and managed. The thesis aims to identify the sustainability risks that threaten the constant supply of antibiotics and further provide a comprehensive and sufficient framework on how to assess and manage SCSRs within the pharmaceutical industry. This research is based on the review of existing literature, followed by an empirical study that included a case study of two specific antibiotics relevant to the Swedish market. The analysis of publicly available databases, together with the qualitative interviews, revealed that the most susceptible node of the supply chain resides in the primary manufacturing stage. The most relevant SCSRs have been identified, and an adapted framework is suggested. The role of regulatory agencies has been demonstrated to be fundamental to achieve change concerning environmental progress. Further research needs to be implemented for the validation of the suggested framework within a practical context.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T10:29:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sonia Mara da Silva Borges.pdf: 9762184 bytes, checksum: d446d66de35e3d211c12c05ef719ce33 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-09-29 / The Supply Chain Management has been showed up as an increasing model adopt in the business world, being ahead of the organizations necessities to rethink their strategies toward the organizations frontiers. Improvement on the proceedings involved on the network links of supllies has the sinergetic effect on the global network performance. This research describes the management performance of the supllies network of drugstore industry from Goiás pole, from the business process: to plan, to suplly, to produce, to distribute and to come back sanctioned by the SCOR model (Supply Chain Operations Reference) The work method consisted of a literature review, covered the contributions about the reference model, allowing that we tested five hypothesis linked on the studied process. To test the hypothesis, a survey was conducted, sent to the all eighteen drugstore industries of the pole, and had an answer tax of fifty six per cent. The results gained, treated by describes statistics techniques suggest that the drugstore industry, don t matter the charge, mainly have the supllies network based in system produced pushed, with little integration between the inter-industries process (links of the network), as the provision side as the demand side. / O Supply Chain Management tem se despontado como um modelo crescentemente adotado no mundo dos negócios, frente à necessidade das organizações repensarem suas estratégias além das fronteiras organizacionais. Melhorias nos processos envolvidos nos elos da cadeia de suprimento têm efeito sinérgico no desempenho global da cadeia. Esta pesquisa descreve a performance do gerenciamento da cadeia de suprimento, das indústrias farmacêuticas que compõem o pólo goiano, a partir dos processos de negócios: planejar, suprir, fabricar, distribuir e retornar referendados pelo Modelo SCOR (Supply Chain Operations Reference ). A metodologia de trabalho consistiu da revisão de literatura, cobrindo as contribuições relativas ao modelo de referência, permitindo que fossem testadas cinco hipóteses relacionadas aos processos estudados. Para testar as hipóteses, uma survey foi conduzida, enviadas a todas as 18 indústrias farmacêuticas do pólo, obtendo-se uma taxa de resposta de 56%. Analisando os resultados obtidos, tratados por meio de técnicas estatísticas descritivas, nota-se que as indústrias farmacêuticas, independente do porte, essencialmente possuem cadeias de suprimento baseada em sistemas empurrados de produção, com pouca integração entre os processos interfirmas (elos da cadeia), tanto do lado do fornecimento, quanto do lado da demanda.