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.

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.

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.

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.

A survey of 25 industrial manufacturing organizations in the U. S. indicated that 70% of respondents experienced dissatisfaction with their outsourcing programs due to unfulfilled expectations, which caused negative continuance intentions. The purpose of this descriptive case study was to explore the experiences of customers who currently use 3PMRO outsourcing programs to determine what factors affect satisfaction levels in the Southern United States. The conceptual framework for this study was the expectancy disconfirmation paradigm, which connects consumer satisfaction level to the fulfillment of consumer expectations. Data were collected from interviews of 22 procurement professionals of maintenance, repair, and operating supplies; observations of 3PMRO supplier performance meetings; and the analysis of performance scorecard documents. Data were analyzed using pattern matching followed by thematic analysis. Three themes were identified through the data analysis that affected consumer satisfaction: inventory management services, utilization of outsourced labor resources, and total cost value of the 3PMRO program. According to results, satisfaction of 3PMRO consumers are based on the proper utilization of a 3PMRO program for the intended limitations of the organization, reduced MRO supply costs, improved inventory management strategies, and improved competitive advantage from the realignment of resources to focus on core competencies. Implications for positive social change include increased awareness of cradle-to-grave inventory management to prevent improper disposal of non-biodegradable materials into our environment.

The thesis focuses on the application of logistics in a particular manufacturing plant. Theoretical part defines logistics, integrated supply chain, the position of its sections, the position of selected stocks and some of the logistic technologies. The practical part focuses on the company Backer Elektro CZ a.s. At first, the company is introduced. Then, the purchase, production and distribution phase of the supply chain is described and the detection of problems is provided. The thesis analyses the ABC in the purchasing department and makes proposals for changes in the supply chain in order to create an integrated logistics chain. Great emphasis is placed on the economical aspect of new business software implementation - Microsoft Dynamics AX.

As building codes and green building programs require tighter home construction, the need for outdoor air ventilation to improve indoor air quality increases. Major improvements in building envelopes and duct systems have led to decreases in heating and cooling loads causing fewer HVAC system run-time hours, and increasing the probability for air stagnation within homes with poor outdoor air ventilation. ASHRAE Standard 62.2 quantifies the amount of whole-house ventilation required based on the number of occupants and the square footage of conditioned space, but leaves the design of the ventilation system up to the mechanical engineer or HVAC contractor. In 2010, ASHRAE began requiring flow testing for confirmation of outdoor air ventilation rates, yet few municipalities and green building programs have adopted the new standard. Builders in mixed-humid climates are forced to balance the need for outdoor air ventilation with the upfront costs for mechanical ventilation systems, and the potential for increased humidity loads and energy costs associated with mechanical ventilation strategies. One common solution employed in the southeastern United States involves a central fan integrated supply (CFIS) ventilation system controlled with an air-cycler for minimum run-time to meet ASHRAE Standard 62.2. While this system has been tested and proven to meet design ventilation rates, those tests were often conducted on homes constructed by well trained builders receiving strong oversight from building scientists and the design ventilation rates were not always ASHRAE compliant. The following report analyzes whether the CFIS ventilation system with air-cycler controller provides ventilation meeting ASHRAE Standard 62.2 when employed by builders with minimal training and support.

Supply chain management has been recently introduced to address the integration of organizational functions ranging from the ordering and receipt of raw materials throughout the manufacturing processes, to the distribution and delivery of products to the customer. Its application demonstrates that this idea enables organizations to achieve higher quality products, better customer service, and lower inventory cost. In order to achieve high performance, supply chain functions must operate in an integrated and coordinated manner. Several challenging problems associated with integrated supply chain design are: (1) how to model and coordinate the supply chain business processes, specifically in the area of supply chain workflows; (2) how to analyze the performance of an integrated supply chain network so that optimization techniques can be employed to improve customer service and reduce inventory cost; and (3) how to evaluate dynamic supply chain networks and obtain a comprehensive understanding of decision-making issues related to supply network configurations. These problems are most representative in the supply chain theory's research and applications. There are three major objectives for this research. The first objective is to develop viable modeling methodologies and analyzing algorithms for supply chain business processes so that the logic properties of supply chain process models can be analyzed and verified. This problem has not been studied in integrated supply chain literature to date. To facilitate the modeling and verification analysis of supply chain workflows, an object-oriented Petri nets based modular modeling and analyzing approach is presented. The proposed, structured, process-modeling algorithm provides an effective way to design structured supply chain business processes. The second objective is to develop a network of inventory-queue models for the performance analysis and optimization of an integrated supply network with inventory control at all sites. An inventory-queue is a queueing model that incorporates an inventory replenishment policy for the output store. This dissertation extends the previous work done on the supply network model with base-stock control and service requirements. Instead of one-for-one base stock policy, batch-ordering policy and lot-sizing problems are considered. To determine the replenishment lead times of items at the stores, a fixed-batch target-level production authorization mechanism is employed to explicitly obtain performance measures of the supply chain queueing model. The validity of the proposed model is illustrated by comparing the results from the analytical performance evaluation model and those obtained from the simulation study. The third objective is to develop simulation models for understanding decision-making issues of the supply chain network configuration in an integrated environment. Simulation studies investigate multi-echelon distribution systems with installation stock reorder policy and echelon stock reorder policy. The results show that, depending on the structure of multi-echelon distribution systems, either echelon stock or installation stock policy may be advantageous. This dissertation presents a new transshipment policy, called "alternate transshipment policy," to improve supply chain performance. In an integrated supply chain network that considers both the distribution function and the manufacturing function, the impacts of component commonality on network performance are also evaluated. The results of analysis-of-variance and Tukey's tests reveal that there is a significant difference in performance measures, such as delivery time and order fill rates, when comparing an integrated supply chain with higher component commonality to an integrated supply chain with lower component commonality. Several supply chain network examples are employed to substantiate the effectiveness of the proposed methodologies and algorithms. / Ph. D.

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Yes / The paper contributes to development of RMS through linkage with external stakeholders such as customers and suppliers of parts/raw materials to handle demand fluctuations that necessitate information sharing across the supply chain tiers. RMS is developed as an integrated supply chain hub for adjusting production capacity using a hybrid methodology of decision trees and Markov analysis. The proposed Markov Chain model contributes to evaluate and monitor system reconfigurations required due to changes of product families with consideration of the product life cycles. The simulation findings indicate that system productivity and financial performance in terms of the profit contribution of product-process allocation will vary over configuration stages. The capacity of an RMS with limited product families and/or limited model variants becomes gradually inoperative whilst approaching upcoming configuration stages due to the end of product life cycles. As a result, reconfiguration preparation is suggested quite before ending life cycle of an existing product in process, for switching from a product family to a new/another product family in the production range, subject to its present demand. The proposed model is illustrated through a simplified case study with given product families and transition probabilities.