Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (April 25, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Electronic health – this is the object of study work. The focus of research is European countries, which use Information and Communication Technologies improving their Health care system and it is not excepted is the country advanced in developing e-Health or it just started to create or improve this system. As it is a new Developing research area, there are not so many direct relevant researches about it previously found. Therefore it encourages the investigation of this topic, which according to European Commission and Enterprise Directorate General (2003) could reach greatest economy on saving costs in whole service sector. Thus the guidelines for efficient e-Health development should be given as soon as possible. The study work is exactly aimed on this.

Automation control is a new technology developed from a combination of mechanical, electrical, electronic and information. In Taiwan, regardless of the traditional manufacturing industries or the emerging high-technology industries, warehouses, equipments, production equipments required in the manufacturing aspects of value chain business are with the automation applications. However, in the industry, along with the internationalization and liberalization of the economy and the domestic manufacturing industry accelerating towards high value-added development, traditional distributors face considerable threats because of rapid development effect of the standardization of industrial products and more transparency of business information. The treats are: upstream supply sources are in the control of handful large domestic and foreign factories; the distributors are not unique to the downstream customers. Targeting at the hardship faced by the automated control equipment distributors, this study shall explore, from all angles of supply chain, ways in enhancing the operational performance of the automated control equipment distributors. To explore how the automated control equipment distributors, in the face of such severe competitive, use supply chain management to maintain the supply chain marketing order, establish partnership between the supply chain members, further understand that under this marketing order, how the operational performance of the automated control equipment distributors is improved. Through the interview records of the case companies, supplemented by the related domestic reference, the study sums up the constructive marketing order of automated control equipment and key factors of division of labor. The results of the three studies are presented as follows: 1. The information technology and communications technology advancement have enabled the upstream manufacturer to replace part of the automated control equipment distributors. 2.¡§Not to trust each other¡¨ and ¡§Not in harmonic marketing order¡¨ are the main reasons of vicious price competition of the distributors. Therefore, the distributors should pay attention to ¡§Reintermediary¡¨ by enhancing the differences with the upstream manufacturers and reducing the possibility of unbalance in production order. 3. Through the customers¡¦ satisfaction and feedback, they can accumulate customer knowledge and also increase the added value of themselves.

In the past decade, events like 9/11 terror attacks, the recent financial crisis and other major crisis has proved that there is strong interaction and interdependency of a supply chain network with its external environments in various channels and thus a need to focus on building resiliency (in short, the ability of the system to recover from damage or disruption) of the entire network system. Although literature has discussed some way of improving resiliency of an individual firm which is a member of the network system, it lacked to capture a holistic view of the supply chain network. Pertaining to this observation, this work proposes to improve resiliency of a supply chain network from a systems perspective rather concentrate on an individual firm. For this purpose, this thesis proposes a conceptual framework to promote early identification and timely information of the disruptions arising in a supply chain network and timely sharing of this information among all the members of the network. The key principle emphasized in this thesis is that recovery from an inevitable disruption has a better possibility if a member of the supply chain network has an early indication or knowledge of the upcoming disruption. A discrete event dynamic system simulation tool called Petri nets is utilized to realize the proposed conceptual framework. Furthermore, the practical benefits and implications of the proposed model and tool are demonstrated with help of two case studies. This thesis has several contributions to the field of operation management and supply chain. First, a new paradigm for supply chain management to avoid large scale failures such as financial crisis is available to the field, which may be applied by governments or regulatory bodies. Second, a new framework which allows for a quantitative analysis of failures of an entire supply chain network is available to the field, which is easy to be used. Third, a novel application of Petri nets to this new problem in supply chain management is available.

In today’s world, globalization has increased the competition among companies and functioned as a factor for increased product variety, increased amount of customized products and shorter product life cycles. Supply Chain management is considered one of the most critical strategies for increasing organizational effectiveness and enhancing the customer service. Supply Chain needs to be evaluated based on its performance of how efficient and effective it is. Quality on products and processes has becoming even more critical to companies’ success. Zero defects on the components and parts that meet the customers’ needs are important for the quality of the final products and quality efforts can decrease the costs throughout the Supply Chain. Moreover, Supply Chain’s cost identification is getting even more important in order for the companies to evaluate the performance of their channel and realize the efficiency of their activities based on their supply chain processes. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how the implementation of a performance measurement system can assist companies to improve the Supply Chain based on the identification of the relation between the evaluation of the Supply Chain and the quality and service that is provided to the customer. Moreover, the cost of the production and the after-sales service is measured, in order to have a clear image of the Supply Chain performance. A case study company, Giraff Technologies, was examined and investigated further in order the author to be able to support the results and the analysis of the primary research combined with the analysis of the literature review. Based on the results of the research it can be said that the quality performance of a company and the service that is offered to the customers can be enhanced through the measurement and evaluation of the Supply Chain performance. Better collaboration with the suppliers and customers, customer focus and continuous improvements are ways to improve not only the Supply Chain but also the quality and the service that is offered. The production cost is considered as a factor that can be influenced positively or negatively by the Supply Chain performance, whereas the after-sale service cost is not clear if it can be affected immediately from the Supply Chain performance.

In the year of 2011, the new CEO of AB Volvo announced a major reorganization. This reorganization was a contributing factor to the start-up of this thesis. Volvo Group Logistics Services (VGLS) is Volvo Group’s global logistics partner, which designs, manages and optimizes all of the group's incoming and outgoing logistics flows. With the reorganization, VGLS started a project regarding responsibilities around railway flows. Within the project a demand to collect logistics requirements occurred. The aim of the thesis was to collect these logistics requirements and analyze the train's ability to meet them. The logistic requirements that was identified as joint within AB Volvo was for example logistics solutions in line with core values, high delivery precision, high delivery reliability and high information availability. The identification of logistic requirements was based on qualitative and quantitative methods. Interviews with survey elements are examples of methods that were used. The results are divided into two parts, possibilities with railway transports and joint logistics requirements within AB Volvo. Based on the results, an analysis has been made of the railway’s abilities to meet the set requirements. With the current infrastructure, we believe it is difficult for railway transports to compete with trucking. Trains can deliver a high delivery precision to a good lead time, where the right conditions exist. Our impression is that only unit/block trains currently can be compared with road transports. The disadvantage with unit or block trains is that they are volume demanding. The railway’s ability to be efficient from a total logistics cost perspective is individual for all flows and depends on factors within the flow. The individual efficiency derives from the nature of the goods, transport distances, infrastructural arrangements, volumes and cargo value. Thus, you can’t say that rail transport is generally more profitable than road transport. / 2011 var året då AB Volvos nye VD Olof Persson presenterade en omfattande omorganisation. Denna förändring var en bidragande faktor till uppstarten av detta examensarbete. Volvo Group Logistics Services (VGLS) är Volvokoncernens globala logistikpartner, vilka designar, hanterar och optimerar alla koncernens in- och utgående transporter. I och med omorganisationen har VGLS startat ett projekt gällande ansvarsfördelning kring tåg som logistiklösning. Som en del i detta arbete skapades ett behov av en analys kring logistikkrav och tågets möjligheter att leva upp till dem. De logistikkrav som identifierats som gemensamma inom AB Volvo är bland annat logistiklösningar i linje med kärnvärden, hög leveransprecision, hög leveranssäkerhet och hög informationstillgänglighet. Identifieringen utgår från kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder. I realiteten innebär det att intervjuer med enkätinslag är de metoder som har används. Resultatet är sammanställt och uppdelat i två delar, järnvägstransporters förutsättningar och AB Volvos gemensamma logistikkrav. Utifrån resultatet har en analys gjorts med utgångspunkt i hur väl tågets möjligheter kan leva upp till de satta kraven. Med nuvarande infrastruktur anser vi att det är svårt för tågtransporter att konkurrera med lastbilstransporter. Tåg kan dock leverera en hög leveransprecision till en bra ledtid där rätt förutsättningar finns. Vår bild är att det för närvarande endast är hel- och blocktågslösningar som kan mäta sig med vägtransporter. Nackdelen med sådana lösningar är att flödena är volymkrävande. Tågets möjlighet att vara effektivt ur ett totalt logistikkostnadsperspektiv är individuellt och beror på flödet. Den individuella effektiviteten härstammar från godsets natur, transportavstånd, infrastrukturellt upplägg, volymer och godsets värde. Således går det inte att fastslå att tågtransporter generellt är mer lönsamma än vägtransporter.

In today’s world Lean and Green are becoming essential components of the supply chain. The thesis tries to contribute to a further understanding of the supply chain management, lean, green and their integration. The basic concepts and the research contributions of various authors are briefed in the theoretical framework made for a better understanding to the readers. Having gained the relevant theoretical knowledge, the interview questions are framed and case companies are analyzed for their lean and green activities in their supply chain. The empirical data collected from the case companies through interviews and surveys are projected. With the empirical results and the relevant theoretical results, an analysis & discussion is made which explicitly gives the implications of lean and green over the supply chain and their associated practical scenarios. The outcome and the findings are used to construct a model which depicts the relationship between lean, green and their influence over the supply chain. Influence on the supply chain by lean and green are projected independently in the lean supply chain model and green supply chain. The Integrated lean and green model illustrates the relationship and influence between lean, green and supply chain factors. This model also serves as a prototype for the industries to make their own indigenous integrated model. Further, outcome that how lean and green improves the supply chain and the lean and green integrated model are summarized in the conclusion. In a bird’s eye view, this research thesis work is a contribution to lean, green and their integration which explicitly shows the ways that lean, green improves the supply chain performance and  provides a framework / prototype model for lean and green integration for the industries.

Lean is a management philosophy that enhances customer value through waste elimination and continuous improvement in a system by applying lean principles, practices, and techniques. The focus on lean implementations and research had been typically a single company without extension to the entire supply chain. When the concept of lean is implemented across the entire supply chain, however, it is referred to as lean supply chain. The purpose of this thesis is to create a structure from theory and practice of lean in the supply chain, which will enhance understanding of the field.  The thesis is based on a comprehensive review of articles on lean in the supply chain using structured content analysis approach. The reviewed articles are classified based on the articles’ basic characteristics and contextual issues or ideas. Also, a case study of an aerospace industry was conducted in order to gain insight on lean in supply chain from a practice perspective.  Lean in the supply chain as a supply chain management strategy aims at applying the lean concepts to the whole functions within the entire supply chain members: suppliers, focal organisations, distributors, and customers. From the literature review and the case study, it is found that researchers and practitioners view lean in the supply chain as a transformation process in the supply chain which results in a transformed and competitive supply chain called lean supply chain. The studies show that the attributes and outcomes of the major result of lean in the supply chain (lean supply chain) help in better understanding of the field. Lean supply chain is found to be linked to the following benefits: improved quality reduced cost, improved delivery, high flexibility, reduced shortage, etc. Also, it is distinguished from the traditional supply chain by the following attributes: Long-term relations with suppliers, effective communication and information sharing, integrated supply chain members, continuous improvements, and predictability. The transformation and the benefits are linked to the implementation of lean principles, practices and techniques in the supply chain. There is no rigorous and general purpose process in the implementation of lean in the supply chain; however, general and adaptable steps can be followed. Choice and order of implementation of lean tools and techniques depends on suitability, situations, preference and familiarity. It is found that from the literature review that the research approach on lean in the supply chain is structured towards gaining in-depth knowledge of the field. The emphasis on the supply chain members; suppliers and focal organisations by the authors of the reviewed articles shows their importance in the supply chain.

In the past decade, events like 9/11 terror attacks, the recent financial crisis and other major crisis has proved that there is strong interaction and interdependency of a supply chain network with its external environments in various channels and thus a need to focus on building resiliency (in short, the ability of the system to recover from damage or disruption) of the entire network system. Although literature has discussed some way of improving resiliency of an individual firm which is a member of the network system, it lacked to capture a holistic view of the supply chain network. Pertaining to this observation, this work proposes to improve resiliency of a supply chain network from a systems perspective rather concentrate on an individual firm. For this purpose, this thesis proposes a conceptual framework to promote early identification and timely information of the disruptions arising in a supply chain network and timely sharing of this information among all the members of the network. The key principle emphasized in this thesis is that recovery from an inevitable disruption has a better possibility if a member of the supply chain network has an early indication or knowledge of the upcoming disruption. A discrete event dynamic system simulation tool called Petri nets is utilized to realize the proposed conceptual framework. Furthermore, the practical benefits and implications of the proposed model and tool are demonstrated with help of two case studies. This thesis has several contributions to the field of operation management and supply chain. First, a new paradigm for supply chain management to avoid large scale failures such as financial crisis is available to the field, which may be applied by governments or regulatory bodies. Second, a new framework which allows for a quantitative analysis of failures of an entire supply chain network is available to the field, which is easy to be used. Third, a novel application of Petri nets to this new problem in supply chain management is available.

This is an analysis of the potential for creating a sustainable value-chain for tourism in the Nampula province in northern Mozambique. Research for this analysis has been conducted both in Mozambique from a supply and community perspective and from the international demand level in Sweden. The study establishes that Nampula has the resources in the form of scenic landscapes, pristine beaches and a rich cultural and historical heritage that give ample potential to build a tourism industry. There are however, several obstacles that have to be overcome if the development of a tourism industry is to become reality. These obstacles include poor infrastructure, problems of marketing, a rather unvaried tourism supply, financial and monetary policy issues, low skills and knowledge, low integration of local production with the tourism sector, intricate bureaucracy, insufficient dialogue and socio- cultural issues.Analyses of international demand show a view of Mozambique as an expensive tourist destination with lower standards than competing destinations with similar price-levels. Marketing of tourism supply in Mozambique, and especially in Nampula, do not reach the international tourism market to any substantial degree and what actually does reach the market caters more for the luxury end.The most important conclusions drawn from this study are that substantial infrastructural development is needed on all levels and that there is a need to incorporate sustainable thinking within all measures and activities regarding tourism development. Furthermore, in order to attract larger volumes and different categories of tourists, diversification of tourist activities is required together with general improvements in standards of facilities and value-for-money. Regional cooperation and a wider focus on Nampula’s tourist-attracting opportunities such as culture-conscious tourism might help to create a local “trademark” and improve marketing options and possibilities. There is also need for increased access to basic education and information to facilitate the integration of local communities with the tourism sector. In addition, increased cross-sector coordination and dialogue are vital to an integrated and sustainable development of the tourism sector. For example, local agricultural development and improved distribution channels should not only be regarded as ends in themselves but also as beneficial towards the tourism industry – and vice versa.