This thesis challenges the idea that buyer-supplier relations can be objectively 'managed' in all cases by firms in the same 'supply chain'. The study examines this argument in relation to a small network of buyer and supplier finns in one industry, ceramic tableware production. The first significant gap found in the 'supply chain management' literature was that the focus of research failed to examine in significant detail the intricacies of why organizations are often forced to 'react' to changes in inter-finn relations, rather than being able to 'manage' such events. A second gap in existing research was its bias toward researching a limited set of industries such as automotives and food production, where manufacturers or assemblers often hold pivotal roles in the supply chain. A final gap in supply chain research was the weak linkage between supply chain management and wider debates relating to productive and organizational change. In addition, the area of literature encapsulating discussions relating to the industrial agglomeration of finns within the 'industrial district' has been used in the past to chart shifting structures for buyer-supplier and infrastructural organization. A strong analytical approach is developed in this thesis that shows the 'softer' aspects of supply chain interaction. The research shows that, although it is possible to 'manage' the pattern of interaction in a network from a focal finn perspective, wider inter-personal, dyadic and network activities do present difficulties in this 'management' activity. This leads to the conclusion that 'supply chain management' may not be a clear cut activity which is simple to apply. At the aggregated network level of interaction, piecemeal evidence was found to support claims for any significant shift in buyer-supplier relations or productive organization that is encapsulated in any of the variant fonns of the Marshallian 'industrial district'.

Information Technology infrastructures continue to be dynamic, evolving, and business critical investments for companies of all sizes. Even with moves to virtualize end user computing functions, the evolution of network architectures, mobile computing devices and corporate security requirements will continue to necessitate technology upgrades requiring, at their core, the rudimentary act of placing hardware at specific physical locations on a prescribed timeline. In distributed corporate environments, deploying a range of devices sourced from multiple suppliers into geographically dispersed locations can be a challenge in material management and logistics planning. This Multi-Source, Multi-Site style of deployment is a complex balance of competing timelines where failures to meet delivery targets can have costly impacts that cascade throughout the project. Perturbations in global supply chains, manufacturing schedules, and local shipping capacities drive fluctuations in a supplier's ability to consistently and predictably execute to delivery timelines so it is the task of a deployment Project Manager to interpret a variety supply chain signals and take action to minimize the negative impacts of supply chain challenges. In that effort, the deployment PM will benefit from a structured approach to defining how available supply chain data will be used to help manage expectations, monitor execution, and effect the overall deployment success. In this paper, I present an approach that breaks deployment planning into 3 primary deliverables; the Site Plan, the Data Plan, and the Monitoring Plan. Executing those three plans will drive a PM to understand the supply chain data available to them, translate that data into information useful and understandable by all stakeholders, and monitor the progress of the supply chain against a deployment schedule. In practical terms, those plans culminate in a data mining and data management methodology that can be supported with spreadsheet based dashboards that provide both a fixed Snapshot of the status of the deployment as well as a rolling Timeline of key material movements over the duration of the deployment. The data management approach described here is specifically designed to avoid complex macro development, database queries, or software purchases that may not be available to all Project Managers. Applying the Multi-Source, Multi-Site approach, a PM can gain useful and relevant information from various streams of supply chain data using straightforward spreadsheet manipulations. With a clearer picture of supply chain execution, a PM tasked with a Multi-Source, Multi-Site deployment can better leverage project change control methods to improve their chances of successfully meeting their schedule and cost targets. / text

published_or_final_version / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

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Organizations have indicated that RFID technology will revolutionise the supply chain in South Africa. There are, however, a number of challenges and issues, including the relatively high costs of the technology and the lack of mature standards, that need to be overcome before this reality is achieved. Research has confirmed that selected organizations understand that there are number of key benefits to be gained from implementing RFID technology. The collaboration between the supply chain partners has been identified as the requirement for the achievement of these benefits. Manufacturers are lagging behind their counterparts, with the research suggesting that they are reluctant to adopt the technology. Retailers and logistics suppliers have been identified as the main beneficiaries of implementing RFID technology. Retailers are expected to follow the American approach with mandates being issued to manufacturers to drive the adoption of RFID technology. RFID technology is to be implemented in the medium-to-long term with none of the respondents currently using the technology. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

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Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB (SIT) manufactures gas turbines, conducts service and develop gas and steam gas turbines. The organization is located in Finspång and in Trollhättan with customers positioned all over the world. During later years the service operation has grown in volume significantly, and at the moment the organization returns number of parts for repair and recondition every year. During maintenance of a Customer turbine SIT uses both tools and instruments that when the maintenance is completed are returned to SIT in Finspång. The master thesis has studied the return processes for Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB for goods from the Customer site to Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery in Finspång and Trollhättan. The return processes can be divided into three main types: Planned Maintenance, Unplanned Maintenance and Tools and Instruments. The return processes and their adjacent processes have been mapped up in order to receive a picture over the present situation. The study has also summarized the demands from the processes before, during and after the return process. From the summarized demands, 26 actions have been formed that are directed at the return process. The actions have been prioritized and discussed during two seminars with personal with knowledge about the return process from different departments at Siemens. The prioritization and the authors’ own knowledge about the return process have resulted in suggestions for how Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery shall focus their work of improvement. The suggestions have been divided up into three steps so Siemens shall focus on the right action in the right order during the work of improvement. The actions include better communication, a reduced variation, correct hand over between processes and sub processes, change in work routines and an idea regarding necessary information for the process to be able to improve. One of the most important areas is that Siemens need to improve the basic data to be able to manage the returns when the maintenance of the customer turbine is planned. Siemens also needs to be able to carry out information regarding the return to the personal at customer site in a better way. The study has also examined how an internal measurement system would improve the return process. Of 22 measure points the study has suggested 6 measure points to be implemented in the return process that would help Siemens to better control their return process, make it easier to improve and to be able to make conclusions regarding future changes. / Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB (SIT) tillverkar gasturbiner och bedriver service av både gas och ångturbiner. Verksamheten har man belägen i Finspång och Trollhättan och kunderna finns belägna i hela världen. Under senare år har Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB serviceverksamhet vuxit kraftigt och i dag returnerar företaget en stor mängd delar för reparation och rekonditionering. Vid ett underhåll på kundens turbin används både verktyg och instrument som hyrs ut till underhåll över hela värden och när underhållet är klart ska de returneras till Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery AB i Finspång. Examensarbetet har studerat Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery ABs returprocesser för gods från kundens plats till Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery ABs i Finspång och Trollhättan. Returprocesserna kan delas in i tre huvud typer: Planerade delar, Oplanerade delar och Verktyg och Instrument. Returprocesserna och dess angränsade processer har kartlagts för att få en bild av nuläget, arbetet har även sammanställt kraven utifrån processerna före, under och efter returprocessen. Utifrån kravbilden har 26 åtgärder tagits fram som berör returprocesserna. Åtgärderna har prioriterats och diskuterats på två seminarier med Siemens personal från flera olika avdelningar som hanterar returer. Prioriteringen samt författarnas egen förståelse för processerna har utmynnat i ett förslag till hur Siemens ska gå till väga för att förbättra returprocesserna. Förslagen har då delats in i tre steg för att Siemens ska kunna fokusera på rätt sak i rätt ordning under förändringsarbetets gång. Åtgärderna behandlar bättre kommunikation, minskad variation i utfallet av processerna, korrekta överlämningar mellan processer och delprocesser, förändringar i arbetsrutiner och vilken information som krävs för att processerna ska fungera bättre. Ett av de viktigaste områdena är att Siemens måste förbättra underlaget för returerna när de planerar ett underhåll för kundens turbin. Siemens måste även bli bättre att föra ut information om returen till deras personal på plats hos kund. Studien har även undersökt hur ett internt mätsystem skulle förbättra processen. Av 22 mätpunkter har studien visat att 6 mätpunkter är intressanta för returprocesserna, de skulle hjälpa Siemens att skaffa kontroll på processen, styra mot förbättringar och kunna dra slutsatser om framtida förändringar.