In current research literature, supply chain management (SCM) is a hot topic breaching the boundaries of many academic disciplines. SCM-related work can be found in the relevant literature for many disciplines. Supply chain management can be defined as effectively and efficiently managing the flows (information, financial and physical) in all stages of the supply chain to add value to end customers and gain profit for all firms in the chain. Supply chains involve multiple partners with the common goal to satisfy customer demand at a profit. While supply chains are not new, the way academics and practitioners view the need for and the means to manage these chains is relatively new. Very little literature can be found on designing supply chains from the ground up or what dimensions of supply chain management should be considered when designing a supply chain. Additionally, we have found that very few tools exist to help during the design phase of a supply chain. Moreover, very few tools exist that allow for comparing supply chain designs. We contribute to the current literature by determining which supply chain management dimensions should be considered during the design process. We employ text mining to create a supply chain design conceptual model and compare this model to existing supply chain models and reference frameworks. We continue to contribute to the current SCM literature by applying a creative application of concepts and results in the field of Stochastic Processes to build a custom simulator capable of comparing different supply chain designs and providing insights into how the different designs affect the supply chain’s total inventory cost. The simulator provides a mechanism for testing when real-time demand information is more beneficial than using first-come, first-serve (FCFS) order processing when the distributional form of lead-time demand is derived from the supply chain operating characteristics instead of using the assumption that lead-time demand distributions are known. We find that in many instances FCFS out-performs the use of real-time information in providing the lowest total inventory cost.

Products at the end of life cycles that are thrown away by the consumers can be harmful to the environment, but could create additional profit as each product or part of the materials of the product can be remanufactured or refurbished and then resold in the market. In this paper, using the ink cartridge as an example, we first describe the product return process, then present the mechanisms for coordinating the customers, the retailers and the manufacturers in order to lure the customers to return the used items while simultaneously presenting potential profits for both the retailers and manufacturers. According to characteristics of ink cartridge industry, an alternative reverse supply chain design is proposed, where partnership is built between OEM and 3rd party refiller to better attract ink cartridge return. Further comparison analysis is conducted to find out which design is better under different circumstances.

Les entreprises industrielles évoluent désormais dans un environnement de plus en plus incertain. Ces incertitudes sont liées à la fois à l'amont et à l'aval de la chaîne logistique, mais aussi à la configuration interne de la chaîne et de ses systèmes d'information ou encore à des comportements organisationnels néfastes. Cette thèse a pour objectif de comprendre comment les entreprises industrielles gèrent les incertitudes présentes dans l'environnement de leurs chaînes logistiques. Notre recherche se déroule en deux étapes : une étude préliminaire et principale. L'observation participante menée en étude préliminaire a permis de montrer qu'une entreprise réputée en management de la chaîne logistique a choisi de restructurer ses ressources afin de diminuer la vulnérabilité de sa chaîne logistique. Ainsi, l'étude principale s'articule autour de l'approche basée sur les ressources et du courant des capacités dynamiques. La revue de la littérature montre que l'agilité et la résilience sont deux capacités dynamiques du management de la chaîne logistique. Mobilisant la méthode des cas comme heuristique permettant d'organiser la recherche, six études de cas sont menées au sein d'entreprises industrielles de tailles hétérogènes et de secteurs d'activités variés. Une fois les données collectées et codées sous forme de codage multithématique sur le logiciel NVIVO 8, les résultats s'organisent autour du protocole de cas. Ils retracent les incertitudes rencontrées par les entreprises industrielles et s'attachent à montrer quels outils, pratiques et stratégies sont développés pour diminuer la vulnérabilité. Ces outils, pratiques et stratégies sont des construits des capacités dynamiques et permettent d'identifier si les entreprises font preuves d'agilité et de résilience. Puis, les résultats montrent les difficultés au développement des capacités dynamiques et l'analyse identifie le manque de connaissance en management de la chaîne logistique comme barrière principale. La discussion de la thèse s'oriente autour de la connaissance comme réponse à l'incertitude. La thèse met en avant un décalage entre des connaissances académiques avancées en management de la chaîne logistique et des connaissances plus restreintes en entreprises. La littérature académique s'intéresse principalement aux entreprises matures en management de la chaîne logistique. Cependant, elles ne sont pas représentatives des autres entreprises industrielles. En s'intéressant au lien entre recherche, enseignement et pratique, il est possible d'identifier que le manque de connaissance en management de la chaîne logistique laisse un espace à la création d'effets de mode à la fois dans le monde de la pratique et de la recherche. Finalement, la thèse met en avant les conditions d'émergence de formes d'isomorphisme institutionnel dans les institutions universitaires, engendrant des effets de mode dans les travaux académiques, le tout n'ayant qu'un lien relatif avec la réalité empirique. / Industrial companies evolve from now on in a more and more uncertain environment. These uncertainties are linked to upstream and downstream the supply chain, but are also linked to the internal configuration of the supply chain and its information systems, or even linked to possible fatal organizational behavior. This thesis has for objective to understand how industrial companies manage their supply chains environmental uncertainties. The research takes place in two stages: a preliminary and main study. The participating observation led during the preliminary study showed that a company, famous in supply chain management, chose to restructure its resources in order to decrease the vulnerability of its supply chain. So, the main study is built around the Resource-based view based and around the dynamic capacities. The literature review shows that agility and resilience are two dynamic capacities of supply chain management. Using the case-study method as an heuristics allowing to organize the research, six case studies are conducted within industrial companies of heterogeneous sizes and varied business sectors. Once the data were collected and coded in the form of multithematic coding on the software NVIVO 8, the results get organized according to the case study protocol. They redraw the uncertainties met by industrial companies and attempt to show which tools, practices and strategies are developed to decrease the vulnerability. These tools, practices and strategies are some constructs of the dynamic capacities and allow identifying if companies show agility and resilience capabilities. Then, the results show the difficulties in the development of the dynamic capacities and the analysis identifies the lack of knowledge in supply chain management as the main barrier. The discussion of the thesis turns around knowledge as the answer to uncertainty. The thesis identifies a gap between strong academic knowledge in supply chain management and a more restricted knowledge in companies. The academic literature is mainly presenting the supply chain management held in mature companies. However, they do not represent other industrial companies. Focusing on the link between research, education and practice, it is possible to identify that a lack of knowledge in supply chain management leaves some room for the creation of latest fads in the world of practice and research. Finally, the thesis shows the emergence conditions for several forms of institutional isomorphism in the university institutions, engendering latest fads in the academic works, having only a relative link with the empirical reality.

The following thesis counteracts the relationship of Supply Chain Design (SCD) and web-sales[1], and concentrates on the overall aim of “How to re-design Supply Chains more effective when a web sales portal is applied?”. In order to clarify this aim, following four research objectives are set: How does e-commerce connect to Supply Chain Design in general? What is required for a successful implementation of e-commerce? What are the costs and benefits by implementing e-commerce? Which potential risk factors in correspondence of the implementation of             e-commerce may influence the whole SCD and e-commerce interaction process?  Previous studies have not discussed the interaction of e-commerce and supply chain design on operational level at all, which accounts for a large portion of interests these days. When looking at the research objectives they have been solved in three process steps. First of all the general connection of e-commerce and Supply Chain Design had been analysed through an extensive literature review in form of i.e. suitable books and research papers. Results demonstrated that e-commerce helps to support and manage supply chain activities by offering relevant information. The connection between e-commerce and SCD insists of a close gearing. E-commerce helps to support and manage supply chain activities by offering relevant information about what kind of product is demanded, what is available in warehouses, which products are in the manufacturing processes, and which products will enter the physical facilities and customer sites. Following, research objectives two to four had been identified for which a literature review has created a firm basis on the status quo of current research studies. Combined with findings of developing a web-sales implementation plan for a leading group in power and automation technologies this work-out has been used as empirical research on how a real life company is carrying out these objectives. This plan had been worked out on-side the company, data has been obtained through interviews, observations, and internal system data. Requirements for a successful implementation of e-commerce are seen in strategic and organisational planning activities, as well as specific platform conditions. Concerning costs and benefits, monitoring and evaluating improvements, increasing customer satisfaction, and reducing order-cycle times stay in contrast to incidental fixed and variable costs which had been demonstrated through a detailed break-even analysis. Potential risk factors which had been identified can be countervailed through an appropriate risk management. Thirdly, the overall research question of “How to re-design Supply Chains more effective when a web sales portal is applied?” had been solved based on intermediate results of step one and two, combined with the project work-out, providing informative and sufficient data. The result is that in a first step a clear picture of which products and spare parts will be sold has to be defined. Secondly a precisely inventory management - discussing which parts to hold in stock, where to stock them, and how much to hold in stock - needs to be worked out. And thirdly, after analysing the possible and most plausible inventory strategy, possible distribution varieties need to be analysed. The most appropriate solution for the case company is represented in an Inventory-Distribution-Matrix. This research study has created a basis for the business unit of Power Electronics to improve possible efficiency. The knowledge and implementation steps operated for this implementation plan can be used for other business units in Switzerland and can be seen as a decision maker. Therefore this work-out has generated an enormous benefit for the case company. Instead of acting instinctively, decisions are based on qualitative and quantitative methodologies, data collection methods and data analysis techniques, and therefore follow a process strategy. [1]“Web-sales” in this context is associated with selling and buying information, products, or services via computer networks (Strader & Shaw, 1997), in this research study it is identical to “E-commerce”.

The expansion of supply chains into global networks has drastically increased the distance travelled along shipping lanes in a logistics system. Inherently, the increase in travel distances produces increased carbon emissions from transport vehicles. When increased emissions are combined with a carbon tax or emissions trading system, the result is a supply chain with increased costs attributable to the emission generated on the transportation routes. Most traditional supply chain design models do not take emissions and carbon costs into account. Hence, there is a need to incorporate emission costs into a supply chain optimization model to see how the optimal supply chain configuration may be affected by the additional expenses. This thesis presents a mathematical programming model for the design of green supply chains. The costs of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions were incorporated in the objective function, along with the fixed and transportation costs that are typically modeled in traditional facility location models. The model also determined the unit flows between the various nodes of the supply chain, with the objective of minimizing the total cost of the system by strategically locating warehouses throughout the network. The literature shows that CO2 emissions produced by a truck are dependent on the weight of the vehicle and can be modeled using a concave function. Hence, the carbon emissions produced along a shipping lane are dependent upon the number of units and the weight of each unit travelling between the two nodes. Due to the concave nature of the emissions, the addition of the emission costs to the problem formulation created a nonlinear mixed integer programming (MIP) model. A solution algorithm was developed to evaluate the new problem formulation. Lagrangian relaxation was used to decompose the problem by echelon and by potential warehouse site, resulting in a problem that required less computational effort to solve and allowed for much larger problems to be evaluated. A method was then suggested to exploit a property of the relaxed formulation and transform the problem into a linear MIP problem. The solution method computed the minimum cost for a complete network that would satisfy all the needs of the customers. A primal heuristic was introduced into the Lagrangian algorithm to generate feasible solutions. The heuristic utilized data from the Lagrangian subproblems to produce good feasible solutions. Due to the many characteristics of the original problem that were carried through to the subproblems, the heuristic produced very good feasible solutions that were typically within 1% of the Lagrangian bound. The proposed algorithm was evaluated through a number of tests. The rigidity of the problem and cost breakdown were varied to assess the performance of the solution method in many situations. The test results indicated that the addition of emission costs to a network can change the optimal configuration of the supply chain. As such, this study concluded that emission costs should be considered when designing supply chains in jurisdictions with carbon costs. Furthermore, the tests revealed that in regions without carbon costs it may be possible to significantly reduce the emissions produced by the supply chain with only a small increase in the cost to operate the system.

Studies in newsvendor decision-making have shown that human decisions systematically deviate from analytical solutions found in many utility models of the single period problem (SPP). Yet for the most part the impacts of this human decision bias in systems of newsvendor type products have not been investigated. We study bias in human decision-making to determine how different factors affect the performance of systems of newsvendor type products. We extended the state of the arts utility models of SPP to analyze the effects of individuals wealth on individual decision-making. Our theoretical and empirical results proved that individuals wealth significantly affected individual decision-making. Specifically, our analysis concluded that wealthier individual ordered more than poorer individual did when presented with the same investment opportunity. We created a human decision bias (HDB) model to include different newsvendor ordering policies that individuals could use to determine their order quantities. This model is set up to investigate individuals reliance on different ordering policies under different experimental conditions. We designed multi period newsvendor experiments to study effects of factors such as item profit margin, wealth, value of learning, and salvage value on decision-maker's order quantity. We found that wealth and profit margin factors significantly affected individual newsvendor decision-making. Learning, gender, and salvage value factor did not exhibit significant effects in our empirical studies. We designed multi period multi echelon newsvendor experiments to study effects of factors such as the relationship between newsvendors, item profit margin, and newsvendors' wealth on the performance of two-echelon newsvendors system. We found item profit margin, wealth, and relationship between supplier and retailer to significantly affect newsvendor decision-making. Finally, we present a case study of US fresh produce industry to illustrate the impacts of human decision bias on the performance of a supply chain system.

The expansion of supply chains into global networks has drastically increased the distance travelled along shipping lanes in a logistics system. Inherently, the increase in travel distances produces increased carbon emissions from transport vehicles. When increased emissions are combined with a carbon tax or emissions trading system, the result is a supply chain with increased costs attributable to the emission generated on the transportation routes. Most traditional supply chain design models do not take emissions and carbon costs into account. Hence, there is a need to incorporate emission costs into a supply chain optimization model to see how the optimal supply chain configuration may be affected by the additional expenses. This thesis presents a mathematical programming model for the design of green supply chains. The costs of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions were incorporated in the objective function, along with the fixed and transportation costs that are typically modeled in traditional facility location models. The model also determined the unit flows between the various nodes of the supply chain, with the objective of minimizing the total cost of the system by strategically locating warehouses throughout the network. The literature shows that CO2 emissions produced by a truck are dependent on the weight of the vehicle and can be modeled using a concave function. Hence, the carbon emissions produced along a shipping lane are dependent upon the number of units and the weight of each unit travelling between the two nodes. Due to the concave nature of the emissions, the addition of the emission costs to the problem formulation created a nonlinear mixed integer programming (MIP) model. A solution algorithm was developed to evaluate the new problem formulation. Lagrangian relaxation was used to decompose the problem by echelon and by potential warehouse site, resulting in a problem that required less computational effort to solve and allowed for much larger problems to be evaluated. A method was then suggested to exploit a property of the relaxed formulation and transform the problem into a linear MIP problem. The solution method computed the minimum cost for a complete network that would satisfy all the needs of the customers. A primal heuristic was introduced into the Lagrangian algorithm to generate feasible solutions. The heuristic utilized data from the Lagrangian subproblems to produce good feasible solutions. Due to the many characteristics of the original problem that were carried through to the subproblems, the heuristic produced very good feasible solutions that were typically within 1% of the Lagrangian bound. The proposed algorithm was evaluated through a number of tests. The rigidity of the problem and cost breakdown were varied to assess the performance of the solution method in many situations. The test results indicated that the addition of emission costs to a network can change the optimal configuration of the supply chain. As such, this study concluded that emission costs should be considered when designing supply chains in jurisdictions with carbon costs. Furthermore, the tests revealed that in regions without carbon costs it may be possible to significantly reduce the emissions produced by the supply chain with only a small increase in the cost to operate the system.

Notre travail de recherche traite la problématique de la conception d’une chaîne logistique multi-niveaux tout en tenant compte du cycle de vie du produit. Par cycle de vie du produit, nous voulons dire la succession des quatre phases de commercialisation que traverse un produit à travers le temps, à savoir : l’introduction, la croissance, la maturité et le déclin. L’objectif est de mette en place un modèle mathématique qui soit fondé sur une analyse approfondie des différents acteurs de la chaîne, selon la phase du cycle de vie du produit.Trois principaux modèles ont été développés dans cette thèse. Chacun fait l’objet d’un chapitre à part entière.Le premier modèle développé vise à concevoir une chaîne logistique de coût minimum, tout en prenant en considération l’efficacité des différents acteurs potentiels calculée selon plusieurs critères (coût, qualité, innovation, qualité du service, délais de livraisons, …), ainsi que sa variation au cours du cycle de vie du produit. Un deuxième modèle a été mis en place pour la conception d’une chaîne logistique durable, tout en prenant en considération le cycle de vie du produit. Dans ce modèle, trois objectifs différents ont été pris en compte à la fois, à savoir, un objectif économique, un objectif environnemental et un objectif social. Dans les deux premiers modèles, nous avons supposé que le produit aura un cycle de vie classique. Cependant, dans la réalité, ceci n’est pas toujours le cas. En effet, quelques produits connaissent des cycles de vie très atypiques et donc très éloignés de la courbe d’un cycle de vie théorique. Pour ce faire, un troisième modèle stochastique a été proposé pour la conception d’une chaîne logistique robuste, tenant compte des différents scénarios du cycle de vie du produit. / Our research addresses the problem of designing a multi-level supply chain, while taking into consideration the product life cycle. By product life cycle, we mean the succession of the four marketing stages that a product goes through since its introduction to the market and until it will be removed from. All products have a life cycle which can be classified into four discrete stages: introduction, growth, maturity and decline.Depending on the product life cycle phases, and based on a thorough analysis of the different supply chain potential actors, this study aims to establish mathematical models to design an efficient supply chain network. Three main models have been developed in this thesis. The first proposed model aims to design a product-driven supply chain with a minimal total cost, taking into consideration the evaluation of the different potential actors effectiveness, according to several criteria (cost, quality, innovation, quality service, timely delivery, ...).A second model was developed to design of a sustainable supply chain network, taking into account the product life cycle. In this model, three different objectives at the time were considered, namely, an economic objective, an environmental objective and a social objective.In the two previous models, we have assumed that the product has a classical life cycle. However, in the reality this is not always the case. Indeed, some products have very atypical life cycles, whose curves are very different from the classical one. To tackle this problem, in the third part of this thesis, we propose a stochastic model to design a robust supply chain network, taking into account the different product life cycle scenarios.

Outsourcing breaks up the supply chain and often increases in number of stakeholders and organizations and therefore puts a higher demand on a well-functioning coordination of the material supply. The logistical task spectrum is characterized by a great degree of variety and dissimilarity which is due to the logistical role itself, functions within both overall economic and business processes, in value-added steps from the processing of raw material to the end user. Research in the field of global sourcing environment has been conducted in prior research, however, the outsourcing environments differs one from another. The purpose of this study is to identify critical logistical factors when transferring to a third party stakeholder. The findings are based on an extensive literature study in the field of logistics and a single case study. An interactive investigation at a large, multinational company provided opportunities to observe and participate in an ongoing global transfer and verify the applicability of the result (matrix concept). The observations were done over a three months’ period and gave the author the opportunity to investigate the logistical setup for the ongoing transfer. The company henceforth Genopower AB, is transferring the assembly and testing to a third party stakeholder located in Indonesia. The motives for the transfer is to increase the company’s market shares in Indonesia and further into Asia. The third party stakeholder, henceforth PT PAK does not have any prior experience in the Gas turbine (Power generation) industry. The study provides a generalized matrix with critical logistical factors which affects the logistical performance measurements, logistical cost and customer service elements. By presenting the findings in terms of factors, the matrix can be applicable on future outsourcing projects and give a clear insight in which of the factors is worth investigating further; prior, during or after the actual transfer as an evaluation tool.

Build-to-order supply chains (BOSCs) have recently received increasing attention due to the shifting focus of manufacturing companies from mass production to mass customization. This shift has generated a growing need for efficient methods to design BOSCs. This research proposes an approach for BOSC design that simultaneously considers multiple performance measures at three stages of a BOSC – Tier I suppliers, the focal manufacturing company and Tier I customers (product delivery couriers). We present a heuristic solution approach that constructs the best BOSC configuration through the selection of suppliers, manufacturing resources at the focal company and delivery couriers. The resulting configuration is the one that yields the best global performance relative to five deterministic performance measures simultaneously, some of which are nonlinear. We compare the heuristic results to those from an exact method, and the results show that the proposed approach yields BOSC configurations with near-optimal performance. The absolute deviation in mean performance across all experiments is consistently less than 4%, with a variance less than 0.5%. We propose a second heuristic approach for the stochastic BOSC environment. Compared to the deterministic BOSC performance, experimental results show that optimizing BOSC performance according to stochastic local performance measures can yield a significantly different supply chain configuration. Local optimization means optimizing according to one performance measure independently of the other four. Using Monte Carlo simulation, we test the impact of local performance variability on the global performance of the BOSC. Experimental results show that, as variability of the local performance increases, the mean global performance decreases, while variation in the global performance increases at steeper levels.