As a new economy emerges, driven mainly by information technology, we have seen global expansion and prosperous development from the United States. During the last 10 years, research into the increasingly important issues posed by globalization has been carried out in all divisions of the social sciences. As a widely accepted and used concept, however, the word ¡§globalization¡¨ does not guarantee a greater understanding of the world. An existing analytical structure still dominates studies of globalization, and it reveals that current standpoints and mindsets of specific academic disciplines have caused many debates. For example, Held et al (2001¡G3-19) proposed five major controversial globalization issues worthy of study: ¡§conceptualization of globalization¡¨, ¡§causal relationships of globalization¡¨, ¡§definition of the globalization period¡¨, ¡§impact and influence of globalization¡¨, and ¡§trace the development of globalization¡¨. This study focuses on how Taiwan¡¦s science and industrial parks affect Taiwan¡¦s domestic economy and vision with their positioning, transformation, and future development in the competitive global market. China¡¦s gigantic and attractive market and Taiwan¡¦s current political limitations mean that globalization and regional coopetition are indivisible issues for the purposes of this research. Science parks in Asia have become a fast-rising clustering phenomenon as the largest in the world in this new century, and one result has been Taiwan¡¦s success in the global electronics (wafer fab) industry. Currently there are three major science (industrial) parks in Taiwan, located (by order of establishment) in Hsin-chu, Tainan, and Taichung. All three are important bases of Taiwan¡¦s scientific industry. The contribution of these parks to Taiwan¡¦s GDP has increased in each of the 26 years of their development. This study aims to reconstruct the competition model of Taiwan¡¦s science parks from the view point of data processing. This research will also analyze the maintenance of Taiwan¡¦s economic advantages and influence of these government-supported parks¡¦ development mechanism on the nation¡¦s economy in the midst of a fast-changing global business environment, in the hope of continuous, excellent innovation and performance.

Abstract Due to the fast growing of the globe economy, on the steady quality of the electronic equipment for accurate electrical machinery that the industries application, are requested strictly. The maintenance management in the electric power companies is the main reason that influences the steady quality of the electric system equipment. High level maintenance is expected and the third party service company joint to the market. The main managed strategy leads to "customer satisfaction " and " customer requirement¡¨. Electric equipment supplier focus on sales business, not offering an complete maintenance service, therefore, the related orders often has been shifted to third party. To set up a collaboration solution which solves this problem, it is our researching target with valve. According to the predicament of maintenance system of the power industries, and the discussion and writings via the domestic and foreign language, this research uses ¡§Supply chain, &¡§Value system¡¨. To analyses with ¡§QFD¡¨ and modified ¡§CCM¡¨ then build up a conclusion according with the collaboration maintaining system for triple player. Keywords: Collaborative maintenance management System, Supply Chain Management, Value System, Quality Function Deployment, Collaboration Coordination Mechanism.

Food product contamination leading to a food borne illness is real and has potentially devastating impact on supply chain operations and cost. However, it is not well understood from the quantitative perspective. This research seeks to fill this gap by providing a generic model of a multi-stage food supply chain consisting of a supplier/grower, processing center and retailer(s) and analyzing the impact of food product contamination in this model. The supplier corresponds to the farm/grower of the raw material such as fruits and vegetables, the processing center processes the raw material into a final food product and the retailer corresponds to the supermarkets and grocery stores selling the food product to a customer. A situation where a contamination occurs at the supplier or processing center potentially resulting in a food borne illness to the customer is considered. The contamination is discovered through periodic sampling tests conducted by the grower, processing center or through the outbreak of a food borne illness. The supply chain is modeled utilizing a G/G/1 queuing system at the processing center and an order- up to policy at the retailer(s). This research develops and compares multi-stage supply chain models with varying number of retailers. The negative dependence of contamination on the origin and mode of detection of the contamination is quantified. The differences in individual food product attributes which can impact the cost of contamination are analyzed. The impact of supply chain structure and properties and detection policies on the severity of potential contamination cases is studied. The most cost effective sampling strategies which companies can adopt in the event of product contamination are derived. The payoff from the implementation of a quality control process which can eradicate contamination is evaluated. A numerical study of the impact of a real-world contamination event on a tomato and lettuce supply chain is also conducted. Finally, a traceability system capable of tracking and tracing back products in the event of a food product recall is incorporated in the supply chain model. The value of traceability for different supply chain scenarios is assessed through the implementation of an ARENA based simulation model.

Extranets as they have come to be termed are revolutionizing supply chains and their management. Companies and organizations with quite different internal information systems can now access data from other supply chain members. Information can be shared easily and at relatively low cost. A major benefit that flows from this greater transparency is that internal operation of the business can become more efficient as a result. This thesis studies extranet in development of supply chain from case company’s perspective. Finnsementti Oy was chosen as a case company because they had a desire to improve the operation of their supply chain by developing an extranet. Finnsementti Oy is a Finnish cement manufacturer since 1914. At the moment Finnsementti produces 85% of the cement needed in Finland. Most of company’s business is B-to-B.Finnsementti actively develops its operation and this thesis also supports that goal by aiming to improve the efficiency of Finnsementti’s supply chain which again is assumed to have a positive impact on competitive advantage and profitability. Based on a CRM study conducted in spring 2005 Finnsementti Oy decided to develop its existing rarely used customer forum into an efficient customer-oriented extranet. Finnsementti aims to improve its customer service, improve supply chain performance and make its order and delivery process more efficient. In advance extranet was assumed to enable all this. Extranet project was initiated in early fall 2005 and this study was initiated simultaneously. The starting-point of this thesis was Finnsementti’s desire to implement a supply chain improving extranet, and in order to do that, the implementation had to be successful. Due to the fact that supply chains are currently evolving towards networked e-supply chains there is quite lot of existing literature about how a supply chain performance can be improved by using electronic tools. This study concentrates on these facts, related assumption and expectations. It was also evaluated from case company’s perspective how likely these expected improvements are going to realized; is there something unexpected and additional that Finnsementti has not been able to predict? In order to find this out extranet was studied at first from literature and then from case company’s and their employee’s perspective. One of the goals of this study was to determine what is the actual condition for completing this extranet project successfully because only that can enable the realization of supply chain improvements. How to make employees and customers adopt this new extranet and so that they will start to use it actively in their daily activities? The foundation for this part of the study was the comprehensive literature review conducted on supply chain improvements. Based on that, observations and interviews, an expectations theory was built. According to this theory user’s realistic and accurate expectations make a good foundation for accepting a new information system. If the user’s expectations are fulfilled, user will perceive the new system easy to use and useful which on the other hand leads to acceptance of the system. This expectations theory can be used as a starting point for almost any information system implementation where user acceptance is considered critical.

Problembakgrund: Hur gör företagen för att upprätthålla en god relation med sina kunder? Hur klarar företagen att anpassa sig för att hålla god kvalitet och hantera logistiska problemlösningar med bibehållet goda relationer? Syfte: Att undersöka hur svenska livsmedelsproducenter gör för att förvalta och utveckla relationerna med sina kunder samt maximera kundnyttan genom ett logistiskt synsätt. Resultat: Båda leverantörerna anser att sitt respektive varumärke är starkt och att kunderna väljer varumärket före produkten. Kunderna å andra sidan säger att de väljer produkten före varumärket. Likheterna mellan de båda företagens arbetssätt är stora, förutom deras logistikstrategier. Det vill säga på vilket sätt som logistiken anses ge störst kundnytta i form av konkurrenskraft. Främsta skillnaden hos leverantörerna för att skapa mervärde åt kunden, är att Pågen arbetar med personliga relationer genom butikssäljarna. Polarbröd skapar mervärdet genom Polfärskt personal samt automatisk orderläggning i Pipe chain. Företagen hanterar avlastning och plockning i butikerna vilket minskar personalbehovet från butikens sida. Pågen har transportbilar som inte är så kallad ”fullhöjd” och därmed kommer åt att lasta av vid alla lastkajer. Polarbröd överlåter till distributören Polfärskt att sköta anpassningen till kundernas godsmottagningar. Enkäterna visar att respondenterna är nöjda med de båda leverantörernas kundanpassningar. / Background: How do companies maintain good relations to their customers? How do companies adapt in order to keep high standards and deal with logistics problem solving and still keep good relations to their customers? The main objective of the study: To find out how Swedish grocery industries maintain and develop relations to their costumers with maximum costumer satisfaction from a logistic point of view. Results: Both suppliers think that their brand is vital and that the costumers choose the brand instead of the product. The costumers on the other hand say that they choose the product instead of the brand. The suppliers’ way of dealing with the costumers are almost the same except their strategies regarding logistics. Between Polarbröd and Pågen the main differences are how customer value is created. Pågen has a classic sales structure were the orders are registered by personal to personal contact. Polarbröd is making the orders through an auto misted computer system. To classify which system that is to prefer is a matter of taste. Does the customer prefer less contact or does he prefer the personal contact of communication. The survey result shows that the differences between Polarbröd and Pågen is not significant and cannot be stated. But some differences has been noted.

Unibrands is a small company that has implemented a postponement strategy without knowing it. However, they have not implemented completely because they do not know the theories behind it. This report is an attempt to understand and analyze the problems of the implementation of postponement in the supply chain of Unibrands, in terms of examining the theoretical succeeds factors of postponement implementation in the case of Unibrands.The purpose is to determine what type of postponement strategy the supply chain use and what factors can hinder the use of postponement strategy in a SME fashion supply chain by applying an qualitative research approach. The collection of empirical data was through the interview guide approach in which we used meetings and telephone interviews with people representing Unibrands and their contact trading company. The results of this research can be concluded in few perspectives. Unibrands is imple-menting postponement in an improper format, with the results of several gaps in the supply chain related to the success factor in postponement. The request for the fully customization in colors and materials, the bottleneck of relationship developing which is caused by factory manager,  complicated procedures for sample testing, and lack of knowledge of different relationships in the supply chain. Postponement is never perfect, but for Unibrands some problems could very well hinder the efficiency in the supply chain. Solutions are proposed to solve the problems in chain. The proposals suggest re-lationship improvement and information sharing. In addition, culture adaptation by in-volving the right people in the right process.

The issue of sustainability has gained significance in the past two decades or so particularly inthe business sector throughout the globe. Companies from various industries have inculcatedaspects of sustainability in their portfolios due to reasons ranging from stakeholder demandsto industry competition and profit. In fact, with the issues of climate change and resourcedepletion now gaining global political and economic significance; not going ‘green’ is not anoption for companies anymore.This paper sheds light on the ways that companies are becoming more environmental friendlyand benefitting from this process. All aspects of the business process ranging fromprocurement of materials to waste management and recycling have been viewed from asustainability perspective. This also includes the manner in which firms practice ‘greenmarketing’ for their environmental friendly practices and products. Since this paper will actas a guiding strategy for a company ‘Ascom’, the industry under focus is thetelecommunications industry. More specifically, the activities of three of Ascom’s majorcompetitors namely Siemens, Alcatel and Cisco have been thoroughly reviewed to providebenchmarks for Ascom. Coupled with the current theories and frameworks on the issue ofsustainability in business, the benchmarks set by these competitors will be used torecommend Ascom on how they can become more ‘green’.

This paper summarises the results of using image processing technique to get information about the load of timber trucks before their arrival using digital images or geo tagged images. Once the images are captured and sent to sawmill by drivers from forest, we can predict their arrival time using geo tagged coordinates, count the number of (timber) logs piled up in a truck, identify their type and calculate their diameter. With this information we can schedule and prioritise the inflow and unloading of trucks in the light of production schedules and raw material stocks available at the sawmill yard. It is important to keep all the actors in a supply chain integrated coordinated, so that optimal working routines can be reached in the sawmill yard.

This study considers whether or not optimizing process metrics and settings across a supply chain gives significantly different outcomes than consideration at a firm level. While, the importance of supply chain integration has been shown in areas such as inventory management, this study appears to be the first empirical test for optimizing process settings. A Partial Least Squares (PLS) procedure is used to determine the crucial components and indicators that make up each component in a supply chain system. PLS allows supply chain members to have a greater understanding of critical coordination components in a given supply chain. Results and implications give an indication of what performance is possible with supply chain optimization versus local optimization on simulated and manufacturing data. It was found that pursuing an integrated approach over a traditional independent approach provides an improvement of 2% to 49% in predictive power for the supply chain under study.

Today we find ourselves in limbo between the need to reduce usage of the world’s dwindling supply of natural resources and a stubborn resistance to change our consumption habits. The continuing scarcity of resources, coupled with an increase in demand for them from a growing population, is the largest challenge facing earth and its people. While many individual citizens, politicians, press sources and businesses are ignoring the current situation, some have recognized the need for a green revolution. Leaders have attempted to enact a cultural change, organizing events and initiatives to garner the attention of those in position to make a change, and people have taken responsibility for their own actions in choosing more sustainable options in their everyday lives. Very small starts have been made in the colossal struggle against the changing climate, mounting environmental problems and expansive social issues, but these will not be sufficient for sustaining out future. Some entity with power must stand up to lead change, and that entity should be business. While business is largely responsible for much of the world’s environmental problems today, the ability of the free market system to create positive change through sustainable business practices is far more powerful than public polic