No Abstract Provided, see paper for executive summary

No Abstract Provided

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent Amanor-Boadu / Generally, commodity prices immediately after harvest tend to be low because of supply glut and rise over time away from harvest as supply shrinks and demand remains virtually unchanged. Unfortunately, because many Malawian farmers do not have effective storage, they do not have any commodity for sale when prices are high. To help improve the income Malawian farmers may generate from their activities, this thesis explored the feasibility of hybridizing the two forms of price risk management systems in Malawi to minimize their individual weaknesses and enhance their collective benefits. The two risk management systems are forward contracts and warehouse receipt systems. Forward contracts allow farmers and their buyers to agree on a future delivery date and commodity price. On the agreed date, the farmer delivers the commodity and receives the agreed price. It allows farmers to pass downward price risk to buyers and guarantees a fixed price. As private transactions, forward contracts are not regulated by the Government, and present opportunism and enforcement challenges. Warehouse Receipt System (WRS) enables farmers to deposit their crop in the care of a warehouse operator and sell the crop when and where they choose. Farmers, therefore, incur both upside and downside price movement but avoid some of the opportunism and enforcement challenges presented by forward contracts. The thesis explored the net benefits of developing a hybrid system that allow forward contracts with warehouse receipt enforcement mechanisms. Thus, farmers are guaranteed a minimum price at some future date and the deposited commodity is used as the security supporting the guaranteed minimum price. The buyer also deposits a performance bond as commitment to purchase the commodity. The costs associated with these transactions are real and could affect participation. The thesis provides a process for assessing these transaction costs and incorporating them into the effectiveness of forward contracts, warehouse receipt systems and the hybrid program. The mathematical model example has proved that the hybrid system guarantees a fixed margin to the farmer over and above the harvest price and WRS cost as opposed to fluctuating margins under WRS alone. The thesis has identified three factors that can lead to the successful implementation of this hybrid system in Malawi and they include: the availability of the warehouse receipt bill, reliable warehouse certification which is done by AHCX and ACE on third party warehouse operators; and the availability of performance guarantee assuring that the quantities and quality of goods match those specified by the warehouse receipt. The thesis has also identified two factors that could hinder a successful implementation of this hybrid program and they include: first, low scale of warehousing operations under WRS which could deny most farmers a chance to access and benefit from this hybrid sytem and the commodity exchanges may not benefit from the economies of scale provided by large volumes of commodities produced in rural areas. Second, the absence of a harmonized national grading standard which possess a challenge when engaging in international trade. Finally, the thesis has made three recommendations for the successful implementation of the hybrid program as follows: Taking the system close to the producers to mitigate potentially high transportation costs; educating and selling the system to the stakeholders to increase adoption rate; and push for the implementation of national standardized grading regulations.

Le processus S&OP est souvent considéré comme un processus d'alignement de l'offre et de la demande dans les chaînes d'approvisionnement simples et linéaires, avec un seul marché et une seule usine. Les entreprises multinationales présentent aujourd'hui des configurations de chaînes d'approvisionnement plus complexes possédant des usines spécialisées qui desservent plusieurs marchés. Ce papier analyse comment les entreprises multinationales configurent leurs processus de gouvernance S&OP pour relier les usines et les marchés, ainsi que l'influence de cette gouvernance sur leur capacité à obtenir un alignement entre l'offre, la demande, et les plans financiers. Au travers d'entretiens menés avec des entreprises, une typologie est définie pour les modèles de gouvernance S&OP observés. Cette typologie suggère qu'un type de gouvernance S&OP exerçant une autorité, à la fois dans les usines et dans les marchés, conduit à des résultats S&OP plus probants. Un lien est également établi entre l'efficacité des S&OP et les mesures formelles d'alignement pour la planification financière. A partir de ceci, les éléments de Contrôle de Gestion sont précisés pour permettre la conceptualisation des S&OP en reconnaissant l'influence de la comptabilité sur la gouvernance du processus S&OP pour assurer la transparence et l'engagement multifonctionnel dans les contextes de la chaîne d'approvisionnement multinationale. Il en découle quatre règles normatives pour la réussite de la gouvernance et de l'alignement du processus S&OP dans un contexte de configuration de la chaîne d'approvisionnement multinationale. / S&OP is often seen as a process for alignment between supply and demand in simple, linear supply chains with one market and one factory. Multinational firms today have more complex supply chain configurations that have specialized factories serving multiple markets. This research explores how multinational companies configure their S&OP governance linking factories and markets and the influence this governance bas on their ability to obtain alignment between supply, demand and financial plans. Through company interviews, a typology for observed S&OP governance models is developed., and suggests that an S&OP governance type exerting authority simultaneously into both factories and markets leads to more successful S&OP outcomes. A link is also drawn between S&OP effectiveness and forma! policies for alignment with financial planning. From this, elements of Management Control are deployed as a framework to furthering S&OP conceptualization by recognizing the influence of accounting on S&OP governance in achieving transparency and multi-functional engagement in multinational supply chain contexts. The result is four normative rules for successful S&OP governance and alignment within a multinational supply chain configuration context.

This dissertation is based on three essays in operations and supply chain management. In essay 1, we study an operations scheduling problem in a complex manufacturing system, most notably, semiconductor manufacturing. In particular, we study the scheduling problem of minimizing total weighted tardiness on parallel non-identical batch processing machines. We formulate the (primal) problem as a nonlinear integer programming model. Moreover, we prove that the primal problem can be solved exactly by solving a corresponding dual problem with nonlinear relaxation. Since both the primal and the dual problems are NP-hard, we propose to use genetic algorithms, based on random keys and multiple choice encodings, to heuristically solve them. We found that the genetic algorithms consistently outperform a standard mathematical programming package in terms of solutions and computation times. We also found that for small scale problem instances, the multiple choice genetic algorithm outperforms the random keys genetic algorithm, while for medium and large scale problem instances, the random keys genetic algorithm outperforms the multiple choice genetic algorithm. In essay 2, we study a monopolist firm offering successive versions of a durable good (e.g., software) that improves over time. The firm decides the time between successive introductions as well as price. In turn, consumers strategically decide whether to purchase or wait for a later version. We model and analyze three alternative strategies for offering successive product versions: the partial-, continuous-, and no-updates policies. We first consider the firm's profit maximizing policy assuming a homogeneous market and subsequently address consumers with heterogeneous product valuations. Our analytic model's simple structure and results highlight the important tradeoff between price and release timing for products with successive versions. In essay 3, we study the effect of time series structure of customer demand models on the value of information sharing within a supply chain. We contribute to the literature by incorporating a nonlinear demand model based on exponential disturbances, coupled with temporal heteroscedasticity, which captures more complex patterns in the demand process. We examine the conditions under which information sharing is valuable. / 10000-01-01

Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第13812号 / 工博第2916号 / 新制||工||1431(附属図書館) / 26028 / UT51-2008-C728 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科機械理工学専攻 / (主査)教授 椹木 哲夫, 教授 吉村 允孝, 教授 松原 厚 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

No description available.

Bakgrund och problematisering Under 90-talet flyttade många företag sin produktion till lågkostnadsländer långt bort för att minska sina produktionskostnader och därmed öka konkurrensfördelarna. Nu menar forskare att denna trend börjat vända, och företag väljer att flytta tillbaka sin produktion till hemlandet eller i ett närliggande lågkostnadsland då det visat sig att totalkostnaden inte blev lägre. En produktion i eller nära hemlandet kan resultera i minskad totalkostnad, minskade risker och ett ökat värde för kunden. Valet av produktionsland kan också starkt influeras av företagets hållbarhetsarbete. Majoriteten av forskningen är fokuserad kring jämförandet av Sverige med ett lågkostnadsland i Asien men väldigt lite forskning finns som jämför Sverige med ett lågkostnadsland i Europa. Syfte och metod Syftet för studien är att jämföra strategierna inshoring och nearshoring genom att undersöka svenska hållbara mikroföretags val av produktionsland. För att jämföra strategierna kommer vi undersöka dessa utifrån faktorerna kostnad, risk och värde. Det empiriska materialet samlas in med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer med företag som har sin produktion i antingen Sverige eller Portugal. Resultatet kommer sedan att analyseras och kopplas till den teoretiska referensramen kring Supply Chain Management, hållbarhet och de tre faktorerna ovan för att kunna besvara syftet. Resultat och slutsats Efter att den empiriska datan analyserats kom vi fram till att företagen till en hög grad delade forskarnas syn på att en produktion i Sverige på många sätt var mer kostnads effektiv, mindre riskfylld och ökade värdet för konsumenterna då varumärket och produkterna sågs mer hållbara. Däremot märkte vi också att design spelade en stor roll in på vilket produktionsland man väljer, något som litteraturen inte tagit upp. Vi konstaterade att det inte finns en sourcingstrategi som ansågs vara bäst, utan företagets storlek, framtidsplaner, produktdesign och materialanvändning istället påverkar vilket produktionsland som är mest lämpligt. / Background and problematisation During the 1990’s many companies moved their production to remote low cost countries to reduce their production costs and create an increased competitive advantage. Research has now shown that this trend is reversing and companies are now starting to move their production to their home country or a close by low cost country due to the revelation that the total cost did not increase. Placing the production in or near the home country can result in a lower total cost, reduced risks and an increase of value to the consumer. The production location choice can also strongly be influenced by the companies’ sustainability work. The majority of research is focused around the comparison of Sweden and a low cost country in Asia but very little research has been done comparing Sweden and Europe. Purpose and method The purpose of the study is to compare the strategies inshoring and nearshoring by investigating Swedish sustainable micro companies’ choice of production location. To compare the strategies we will evaluate these through the factors cost, risk and value. The empirical material will be collected through semi-structured interviews with companies producing in either Sweden or Portugal. The result will then be analysed and connected to the theoretical framework around Supply Chain Management, sustainability and the three factors above to answer our research questions. Result and conclusion After the empirical data had been analysed we saw that the companies more or less shared there searchers’ views on that a production in Sweden in many ways was more cost effective, less prone to risks and increased the value to the consumers due to the brand being perceived as more sustainable. Also the design of the product played a big part in the choice of production location, something the literature did not bring up. Our conclusion was that none of the sourcing strategies were considered the best, but the size of the company, product design and the choice of material affected which production country that was deemed the most suitable. This thesis is written in Swedish.

M.Com. (Business Management) / Retailers are the main link between product suppliers and final consumers and therefore in a position to play a pivotal role in driving environmental sustainability by encouraging the adoption of appropriate greening practices in their total supply chain activities. Whilst studies have been conducted on the green supply chain practices of leading retailers from around the world, few studies have been conducted on retailers in South Africa. The objectives of this study are to explore the range of green supply chain best practices currently adopted amongst consumer services retailers listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the extent to which green supply chain best practices are adopted in their total supply chain activities, the level of maturity of their green supply chain management practices, and the main driving forces for, benefits of and barriers to the adoption of green supply chain practices. A conceptual framework is derived from a literature review and used to develop a highly structured survey questionnaire to collect empirical data for analysis in relation to the objectives of the study. The questionnaire was administered by engaging in face-to-face interviews with respondents representing listed consumer services retailers. The empirical data collected was analysed using a Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet model. The findings of the study indicate that the majority of the retailers studied are adopting all those green supply chain best practices identified in the literature review at least to some extent. Although a few of the retailers studied have reached a high level of maturity in their green supply chain management practices, the majority have recognised the importance of environmental sustainability related issues, have started incorporating appropriate greening practices into their total supply chain activities and therefore have progressed beyond a low level of largely ignoring green supply chain practices to the intermediate levels of maturity. This implies that they are taking environmental sustainability related issues seriously and not merely engaging in acts of green-washing. However currently these retailers are focusing first on those internal operations where they consider greening practices to be within their sphere of influence, easy to formulate, quick to implement and which can have a positive impact on environmental sustainability and the organisation in the short- to medium-term. These internal operations include transportation and logistics, solid waste management and energy usage management. Most of the main driving forces for the adoption of green supply chain practices come from outside the organisations and include an increase in disclosure requirements for sustainability policies and practices, government environmental regulations, and risks of disruptions in energy and raw material supply.

Background: Companies operating in the low-cost offshore locations are increasingly challenged with various critical issues more recently that have directed their attention towards re-evaluating offshore strategies and considering reshoring. Rising labour costs, labour shortage and high labour fluctuation in offshore locations continues to create substantial risks and disturbances to the business and supply chain. These difficulties, especially in the light of higher labour productivity levels of developed countries and prospects of automation and robotisation, has persuaded many to believe this trend would encourage reshoring and enable companies to see manufacturing in developed countries cost effective once again. However, studies in reshoring are scarce, very little is known about labour or automation and especially how the two interrelates. Purpose: This thesis aims to explore the concepts of labour and automation and their interrelations in reshoring. Method: This research has adopted case study approach. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with a total of 6 companies from various countries, situated in both high and lowcost environments with reshoring intention or previous reshoring experiences. Transaction cost economics and the resource-based view have been applied in analysing the findings. Findings: This study has identified twelve labour factors and five automation factors in reshoring. The empirical findings showed labour cost as well as labour availability important in the decision of two companies. This study did not find empirical evidence to suggest automation as a significant reshoring motivating factor. Reviewing the literature also did not yield sufficient reliable evidence in support of automation. Labour and automation interrelations in reshoring have also been discussed as well as elucidating some considerations in applying automation in manufacturing.