This Master’s thesis concentrates on the investigation of the automotive third party logistics (3PL) industry in China. Therefore the overall aim of this thesis is the investigation of the Chinese 3PL environment with the focus on automotive industry. In order to clarify this aim, following four research objectives are set: 1)      Identify barriers and conditions of the 3PL market, taking automotive market as an example market for 3PL services. 2)      Identify market specific logistics services and compare different logistics services providers in this environment. 3)      Assess the Chinese industrial structures and their impact on foreign enterprises and create an actual picture of the automotive industry. 4)      Detect industrial structures’ influences on logistics services competition. Such a research is important as existing research focused on these objectives is extremely rare or not present. The research objectives are solved by a multi-method approach. In wide areas this thesis is a descriptive study. Thus barriers and conditions of the 3PL market, taking automotive market as an example market for 3PL services, are identified in an extensive literature review and combined with findings from interviews. These interviews are performed in a case company which is active in the Chinese automotive 3PL market. Many important characteristics and circumstances which can mainly be seen as barriers for logistics business are identified in the areas of Infrastructure and equipment, Supply and demand of logistics services, Importance of relationships, Legal issues and Staff requirements. Market specific logistics services are also identified in a literature review. In a next step these services are used to compare seven relevant 3PL providers in the industry by doing a questionnaire survey. The research shows that services mentioned in literature present in the industry. No significant differences between different competitors can be found. Thus none of these companies shows a competitive advantage due to their service portfolios. Industrial structures for both industries automotive manufacturing and automotive 3PL are assessed by combining findings from literature and from empirical internet research. Thus industrial structures in China are ruins of earlier years in China’s history. State-owned enterprises play an important role in China’s automotive manufacturing industry. These companies are involved in the overwhelming share of the passenger car production. An interesting finding is that most passenger cars arise from joint ventures between these Chinese car groups and foreign car manufacturers. The Chinese car groups and the joint ventures create a network like structure in the industry. 3PL providers appear differently. Major companies identified are wholly-owned foreign companies, joint-ventures between Chinese car groups and foreign logistics providers or subsidiaries of car groups. Affiliations between logistics joint ventures and Chinese car groups indicate that competition might not be unrestrictedly present in the market.

In a production cycling, the time spent on logistics activities is much longer than the actual time spent in the process. Therefore, the potential space of improving production logistics is very large in many aspects, such as the ability of researching production logistics, the time saving, and the labor saving in the company. By studying the function of the company's production logistics, we can deeply improve our understanding of it, and make the production logistics work efficiently during the whole process of the production cycling. As we know, there are two main modes of production, pull and push production. Choosing a right or better one is the most important in production logistics. The purpose of thesis is to make production logistics work efficiently by analyzing the current production mode in Kerneos (small subsidiaries in Guiyang City in China) as an example. Firstly, we want to make known what is production logistics and production mode, providing readers with production logistics functions and principles of choosing production mode. Then, we will analyze the current production mode of our case company. Finally, basing on our knowledge, we would like to share our opinions or ideas on how to choose a proper way to make our production logistics better in this article. The literature of thesis is focus on pull and push production, and how to choose an effective production type that suit for the enterprise situation. According to the research completed, we suggest using “push” in the enterprise which has large quantities, less variety, and the production cycle is plenty. In the small quantity, variety, and short-cycle, we suggest using “pull”. Otherwise, there come out a new production type named CONWIP(Constant work-in-process), through compared the different advantages and disadvantages between pull and push, our case company Kerneos is suggested to use this new production.

The objective of this master’s thesis is to determine methods for improving a company’s business processes without investing in new technology and whether a relatively small company can benefit from investing in technology. This study determines the meaning of process optimisation and how it should be conducted. Using existing theory and the case of a logistics company operating in Finland, this research attempts to identify hindrances and find opportunities for the company to develop their processes through process optimisation without technology. Different public bodies in Finland (such as the Finnish government and Statistics Finland) have stated that Finnish logistics requires development and have recommended new technology as a solution to the issue. However, the lack of information on the Finnish logistics business sector makes such statements by public bodies difficult to analyse. Process optimisation has been revealed to be more complex than expected. Many theories available today examine and recommend different technological solutions to execute companies’ work processes. However, a theory is needed on how process optimisation can be carried out at a company lacking technology. Process optimisation consists of process modelling and process analysis. Process modelling appears to be the most significant and crucial aspect of process optimisation. Order-to-delivery processes cannot be optimised within a company if the company does not understand the entirety of such processes. Knowledge of the process has been highlighted as being key to understanding a company’s processes at a high level. The case company in this study showed that process optimisation is possible without implementing new technology; instead, optimisation required additional human capital and a stronger focus on a company’s internal business processes. Technology-based solutions for process optimisation are tempting to implement as doing so may be believed to save time, but no automated solution is able to reveal a company’s critical information if the company does not know what it is looking for and cannot identify its problem areas. This research includes a single case study. The results indicate that whether a relatively small company could benefit from investing in technology is unclear, and the lack of research on process optimisation at Finnish companies resulted in limited findings and analysis. Several different scientific articles presented technology implementation successes and failures, but did not reveal information on the steps taken by the companies.

Purpose - The thesis aims to provide a framework of measuring the performance of pur-chasing consortia humanitarian sector. The performance measurement seeks to identify the competitive advantages of being a member of purchasing consortia during purchasing activities of transportation ervices. Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on a qualitative study with de-ductive and explanatory approach. Semi-structured interviews with experts within the humanitarian sector have been conducted to gain necessary and credible data. Findings – It has been identified that purchasing consortia do not mutually operate physical purchasing activities. However, the consortia performance measurement framework, derived from the resource-based view, illustrates that being a member gen-erates the capabilities of decreased purchasing complexity, learning capabilities and ca-pacity sharing. These capabilities have a significant impact on the purchasing process for transportation services and lead to the competitive advantages of (1) having access to extensive knowledge, (2) reducing operational efforts, (3) reducing lead-time and (4) improving learning procedures. Research limitations/implications – As the literature on humanitarian logistics is still in its infancy, further applications from the commercial sector were considered to strengthen the results of the framework. Practical implications - The extent of collaboration of purchasing consortia indicates that managers of HOs are able to gain significant expertise and offers advantageous opportunities in handling purchasing activities in humanitarian logistics. The implications cover strategic as well as operational issues. Originality/value – The thesis gives an insight about practical purchasing operations of existing consortia and detects previously unknown aspects within the literature of humanitarian logistics.

No description available.

Research on growth strategy of Taiwan PC firm

Accompanied with the trend of free market economy and the rapid development of transportation and information technology, the international investment become more and more vigorous. This has caused the ongoing establishment and integration of the global collaborative system and supply chain. Every industry seeks the way to improve their competitiveness under the ever changing market environment. In the logistic industry, the trend goes from point to point transmission to supply chain management. The purpose is to offer integrated logistic service to fit customers¡¦ need. The developed countries set up the international distribution center in the airports and harbors to support the global logistic system. Domestic logistic service providers face the new challenge of global logistics. They need the aids of information technology to improve their international competitiveness. However, the implementation of logistics e-business solution require a holistic policy perspective because that the multifaceted channel function and the considerable process complexity are involved. This research, first discusses the impact of information technology to logistic organization. The case research methodology is employed to study the relationship between information technology and logistic organization. The result of this case study shows that information technology is closely associated with international logistics. From the perspective of integration and agility, applying information technology can improve the international logistic organization¡¦s core competence. Second, this research focused on the e-business strategy for international logistics. The development of international logistics is often adhered to the global trend, and its course of e-business is moving toward logistic e-marketplace. This research first addressed the appropriability of e-marketplace and then formulated the e-business strategy for the logistic industry.. From the analysis of appropriability of e-business, the e-marketplace can offer effective solution to the international e-logistics. The goal of logistic e-marketplace is the globalization and to simplify the transaction mechanism. It can aggregate all kinds of logistic vendors to form the whole supply chain of logistic service. At the same time it can lay emphasis on the improvement of logistic operation process. Also, it can enhance the logistic operation process and efficiency of information delivery. The use of e-marketplace is a social phenomena; hence, the social influence model of technology use is adopt to illustrate the policy aspects of e-marketplace. In this model, the use of e-marketplace will be influenced by the five factors when the development of e-marketplace in Taiwan¡Gthe experience and ability, evaluation of logistic task, trust mechanism, evaluation of e-marketplace and situational factors. Furthermore, we address the strategy of carrying out the international logistic e-marketplace which can be the reference when government and the logistic industry want to carry out the e-business.

The current Record of Study presents the qualitative and quantitative analysis of a company's network of distribution centers with the purpose of determining the convenience and the feasibility to reconfigure such a network. The study was performed with a multidisciplinary team of people within and outside of the organization. The distribution network was modeled in various forms and different solutions were obtained as new information was gathered from questionnaires, from observation and from the company's databases. Finally a recommendation was formulated to modify the current configuration of the distribution network and the feasibility to implement the suggested solution in practice was evaluated.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references and vita.

Thesis (M.C.E.)--University of Delaware, 2009. / Principal faculty advisor: Earl E. Lee, II, Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Includes bibliographical references.