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Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Brian C. Briggeman / Garden City Co-op, Inc. is a farm cooperative in Southwest Kansas. It provides marketing and storage of grain, fertilizer, crop protection products, seed, and petroleum to both member and non-member accounts. The cooperative also operates a transportation company called Western Transport. Western Transport provides transportation of anhydrous ammonia (NH3), liquid fertilizer (32-0-0 or 10-34-0), diesel, gasoline, and propane utilizing semi-tractors and trailers to Garden City Co-op, Inc. as well as to other agribusinesses in the region. The purpose of this thesis is to integrate and optimize the supply chain strategies for the cooperative’s fertilizer and petroleum products as it relates to storage and transportation of those commodities. Utilizing the framework of an aggregate production plan, a model is constructed to minimize costs associated with inventory holding, net storage asset depreciation after tax savings, net transportation asset depreciation after tax savings, labor, operations, and freight. By varying the quantities of petroleum and fertilizer the cooperative purchases, sells, and stores each month over a one-year period, an optimum mix of storage and transportation assets is determined. Two different demand scenarios are evaluated that relate to demand during a drought year versus demand during a non-drought year. Also, different model scenarios include varying beginning period inventory and ending period inventory to stress transportation assets versus storage assets. The model is optimized using a genetic algorithm solver in the software program Evolver produced by Palisade Corporation. Results of the optimization provided two feasible strategies for the cooperative. By continuing services to non-member accounts, there was a greater investment placed on transportation. Investments included additional trucks, NH3 trailers, petroleum trailers, and drivers. The strategy favored a just-in-time inventory approach versus inventory smoothing with storage. When discontinuing services to non-member accounts, investment between storage and transportation assets were relatively equal. The model favored a reduction in NH3 trailers, liquid fertilizer trailers, trucks, and drivers. However, additional storage was necessary as well as petroleum trailers. The scenario favored an inventory smoothing approach across the model year.

M.Com. (Business Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The service industry worldwide continues to face unprecedented challenges in decision-making and in managing the operations involved in delivering products at low cost and ever-faster delivery speeds. These pressures exert an even greater impact upon small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) involved in this industry who, influenced by globalisation, have to respond by handling the dynamic complexity within their operational supply chain. Many larger firms have implemented Lean and Six Sigma (LSS) and end-to-end integrated real-time information systems (RTI) that provide the information and the mechanisms needed to support flexibility and prompt decision-making. The recent emergence of new technologies such as multi-agent systems (MAS) provides enhanced capability to address complexity and decision-making with greater ease of use at a reduced cost. Whilst the application of Lean and Six Sigma are supported by significant published research, the application of integrated LSS and MAS in food distribution, especially in SMEs, is not. This study seeks to provide research to address this shortcoming for SMEs within the food distribution sector within Saudi Arabia, how this integrated approach can offer considerable performance improvement in SMEs and provide a base for further contributions in this field. This research undertook an empirical case study in Saudi Arabia to test the application of LSS in a food distribution SME. This approach demonstrated a significant improvement in the Six Sigma for late delivery. A single-stage MAS application extended this improvement, demonstrating that there is value in its application. The study conducted a survey of 39 firms in this sector to gain an insight into their current practices and challenges. The findings indicated there was a lack of Lean and Six Sigma principles adopted and that a lack of use of interconnected real-time systems to support decision-making and complex operational SCs. These findings identified the opportunity to design a conceptual framework with a stepped approach that integrated LSS with MAS, which was then developed on a Java-Assisted DEvelopment Framework (JADE) platform and tested using real-world data in an SME empirical case study. The results of the sequence of applications and the final simulations proved that this integrated Lean multi-agent system (LMAS) solution offered such substantial improvements in quality, time and costs that the SME considered that those factors justified making its implementation a priority.

Since the events of 9/11, there has been tremendous amount of renewed interests in the study of trade security. There has been an influx of security regulations and the private sector has been trying to keep pace in complying with them. However, due to the public externalities of security improvements and the lack of quantified and proven benefits, the private sector is struggling to establish business cases for their security initiatives. There is very little quantitative research in this area. Using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM), this study serves to fill this gap by introducing a statistical way of analysing and understanding the complex relationships amongst security effort, its motivators and performance and traditional supply chain performance (SCP). This study also proposes an evaluation framework for security efforts. EFA results show that security is a dimension of SCP. This means that organizations have all along been measuring an aspect of their operations that relates to security. As such, organizations should not perceive the current heightened interests in security as throwing them off-balance. In evaluating security efforts, organizations should select key performance indicators (KPIs) that represent each of the four areas of information, cargo, people and cost. SEM results show that organizations undertake security efforts as a result of both perceived security benefits and perceived collateral benefits, with perceived security benefits carrying a greater weight in the decision-making process. Results also show that organizations are implementing security initiatives out-of-compliance i.e. implementing initiatives that they perceive as not having significant impacts on security and SCP. In view of the positive relationships among perceived security impact, security effort and security performance, there is further imperative for an objective method for evaluating security efforts to prevent effort justification behaviour in determining the effectiveness of the same. Results also show that organizations perceive an improved performance in security leads to an overall improvement in SCP. However, as with other supply chain strategies, there are tradeoffs and not all aspects of SCP are impacted in the same way. Time, responsiveness and efficiency for instance are negatively impacted while reliability is positively impacted. / Business, Sauder School of / Operations and Logistics (OPLOG), Division of / Graduate

The Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is a cooperative system that relies on reliable and robust communication schemes among vehicles and between vehicles and their surroundings. The main objective of the ITS is to ensure the safety of vehicle drivers and pedestrians. It provides an efficient and reliable transportation system that enhances traffic management, reduces congestion time, enables smooth traffic re-routing, and avoids economic losses. An essential part of the ITS is the Vehicular Ad hoc Network (VANET). VANET enables the setup of Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) as well as Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communication platforms: the two key components in the ITS. The de-facto standard used in wireless V2V and V2I communication applications is the Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC). The protocol that defines the specifications for the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer and the physical layer in the DSRC is the IEEE 802.11p protocol. The IEEE 802.11p protocol and its Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) mechanism are the main focus of this thesis. Our main objective is to develop new IEEE 802.11p-based protocol for V2V and V2I communication systems, to improve the performance of safety-related applications. These applications are of paramount importance in ITS, because their goal is to decrease the rate of vehicle collisions, and hence reduce the enormous costs associated with them. In fact, large percentage of vehicle collisions can be easily avoided with the exchange of relevant information between vehicles and the Road Side Units (RSUs) installed on the sides of the roads. In this thesis, we propose various enhancements to the IEEE 802.11p protocol to improve its performance by lowering the average end-to-end delay and increasing the average network throughput. We introduce multiple adaptive algorithms to promote the QoS support across all the Access Categories (AC) in IEEE 802.11p. We propose two adaptive backoff algorithms and two algorithms that adaptively change the values of the Arbitrary Inter-Frame Space (AIFS). Then we extend our model to be applied in a large-scale vehicular network. In this context, a multi-layer cluster-based architecture is adopted, and two new distributed time synchronization mechanisms are developed.

This thesis demonstrates comparison of methods PERT and Critical Chain on the practical project of the development of golf course Liščí louky. In terms of the project the owners of the company GOLF Šumava s.r.o. will make a decision between two feasible alternates of the project. The thesis presents the comparison by methods PERT and Critical Chain by using software MS Project. The recommendation of the final alternate of the project for the owners was made not only on the basis of time and cost analysis but also on the basis of SWOT analyse.

This thesis is focused on an interesting and dynamic form of business, called franchising. For the purpose of explanation of this form of business purely Czech company The PUB Franchising s.r.o. has been selected. This company is the owner of the gastronomic franching concept The PUB Pilsner Unique Bar. This thesis not only illuminates the franchising business as such, but analyzes and proposes a strategy to facilitate the future development of the concept The PUB in the Czech Republic but also abroad. The analysis uses tools such as the SWOT analysis and focuses on the analysis of marketing tools used in the company. The aim of this thesis is to propose concrete measures to positively affect franchise business of selected company.

In this thesis, I introduce a promising framework for representing an air traffic flow (stream) and flow-management action operating under weather uncertainty. I propose to use a meshed queuing and Markov-chain model---specifically, a queuing model whose service-rates are modulated by an underlying Markov chain describing weather-impact evolution---to capture traffic management in an uncertain environment. Two techniques for characterizing flow-management performance using the model are developed, namely 1) a master-Markov-chain representation technique that yields accurate results but at relatively high computational cost, and 2) a jump-linear system-based approximation that has promising scalability. The model formulation and two analysis techniques are illustrated with numerous examples. Based on this initial study, I believe that the interfaced weather-impact and traffic-flow model analyzed here holds promise to inform strategic flow contingency management in NextGen.

Unternehmen verfügen typischerweise über mehrstufige Zuliefer- und Abnehmerbeziehungen, deren Konfiguration sich jedoch unterschiedlich komplex gestaltet. Ein Management von Nachhaltigkeit muss diese Unterschiede verstehen, bevor passende Konzepte und Maßnahmen empfohlen werden können. Die Arbeit zeigt welche Ansätze des Nachhaltigkeitsmanagements unter welchen strukturellen Konstellationen der Supply Chain geeignet sind.:1 Einleitung 1.1 Problemstellung und Zielsetzung 1.2 Behandlung der Thematik in der Literatur 1.2.1 Nachhaltigkeitsforschung 1.2.2 Management-Forschung 1.2.3 Supply-Chain-Management-Forschung 1.3 Vorgehensweise und Aufbau der Arbeit 2 Konzeptioneller Bezugsrahmen 2.1 Das Leitbild nachhaltiger Entwicklung 2.1.1 Handlungsfelder nachhaltiger Entwicklung 2.1.2 Grundlagen des Nachhaltigkeitsmanagements 2.1.3 Wertschöpfungsübergreifender Charakter des Nachhaltigkeitsmanagements 2.2 Supply-Chain-Management als Ausgestaltungsrahmen für ein wertschöpfungskettenübergreifendes Nachhaltigkeitsmanagement 2.2.1 Begriff der Supply Chain 2.2.2 Netzwerke als Strukturierungsgrundlage für Supply Chains 2.2.3 Gestaltungsperspektiven des Supply-Chain-Managements 2.2.4 Supply-Chain-Management im Kontext globaler Wertschöpfung 2.3 Zusammenführung des konzeptionellen Bezugsrahmens 3 Rahmenkonzeption zur Gestaltung eines Managements von Nachhaltigkeit in Supply-Chain-Netzwerken 3.1 Einflussfaktoren des Konzepts 3.1.1 Netzwerkkomplexität 3.1.1.1 Netzwerk-Tiefe 3.1.1.2 Netzwerk-Breite 3.1.1.3 Netzwerk-Reichweite 3.1.2 Netzwerkbeziehungen 3.1.2.1 Ausmaß der Zusammenarbeit 3.1.2.2 Zielkongruenz im Netzwerk 3.1.2.3 Zeithorizont der Netzwerkbeziehungen 3.1.3 Netzwerkkoordination 3.1.3.1 Informations- und Kommunikationsstruktur 3.1.3.2 Entscheidungskompetenz im Netzwerk 3.1.3.3 Machtverhältnisse im Netzwerk 3.1.4 Zusammenfassung der Einflussfaktoren 3.2 Gestaltungsparameter des Konzepts 3.2.1 Gestaltungsparameter der Selektionsfunktion 3.2.1.1 Supply-Chain-Transparenz 3.2.1.2 Selektion der Wertschöpfungspartner 3.2.1.3 Selektion relevanter Stakeholder 3.2.2 Gestaltungsparameter der Allokationsfunktion 3.2.2.1 Stakeholder-Engagement 3.2.2.2 Industrie-Initiativen und -Verbände 3.2.2.3 Einbindung strategischer Wertschöpfungspartner 3.2.2.4 Kompetenzentwicklung der Wertschöpfungspartner 3.2.3 Gestaltungsparameter der Regulationsfunktion 3.2.3.1 Verhaltenskodizes 3.2.3.2 Indikatoren und Kennzahlen 3.2.3.3 Anreizsysteme 3.2.3.4 Investitionsmaßnahmen 3.2.3.5 Rückverfolgungssysteme 3.2.4 Gestaltungsparameter der Evaluationsfunktion 3.2.4.1 Zertifizierung und Kennzeichnung 3.2.4.2 Prüfung, Monitoring und Verifizierung 3.2.4.3 Selbstbewertung 3.2.4.4 Beschwerdemechanismen 3.2.4.5 Nachhaltigkeitsrating 3.2.4.6 Dokumentation, Berichterstattung und Offenlegung 3.2.4.7 Umweltanalyse 3.2.5 Gestaltungsparameter der Supply-Chain-Resilience 3.3 Zusammenfassung der Gestaltungsparameter 3.4 Darstellung Gesamtmodell 4 Empirische Analyse 4.1 Untersuchungsmethodik 4.2 Charakterisierung der empirischen Datenbasis 4.3 Statistische Analysemethoden zur Auswertung der empirischen Datenbasis 4.3.1 Faktorenanalyse 4.3.2 Clusteranalyse 4.3.3 Charakterisierung der identifizierten Supply-Chain-Netzwerktypen 4.3.3.1 Supply-Chain-Netzwerke mit globalen und komplexen Wertschöpfungsstrukturen 4.3.3.2 Supply-Chain-Netzwerke mit lokalen und einfachen Wertschöpfungsstrukturen 4.3.3.3 Supply-Chain-Netzwerke mit globalen und einfachen Wertschöpfungsstrukturen 4.3.4 Zusammenfassung der Typologisierung 5 Gestaltungsempfehlungen für ein Management von Nachhaltigkeit in Supply-Chain-Netzwerken 5.1 Funktionsspezifische Gestaltungsempfehlungen 5.1.1 Gestaltungsempfehlungen der Selektionsfunktion 5.1.2 Gestaltungsempfehlungen der Allokationsfunktion 5.1.3 Gestaltungsempfehlungen der Regulationsfunktion 5.1.4 Gestaltungsempfehlungen der Evaluationsfunktion 5.1.5 Gestaltungsempfehlungen der Supply-Chain-Resilience 5.2 Typenspezifische Gestaltungsempfehlungen 5.2.1 Gestaltungsempfehlung für Supply-Chain-Netzwerke mit globalen und komplexen Wertschöpfungsstrukturen 5.2.2 Gestaltungsempfehlung für Supply-Chain-Netzwerke mit lokalen und einfachen Wertschöpfungsstrukturen 5.2.3 Gestaltungsempfehlung für Supply-Chain-Netzwerke mit globalen und einfachen Wertschöpfungsstrukturen 5.3 Zusammenfassung der Gestaltungsempfehlungen 6 Zusammenfassung und Ausblick Anhang Literaturverzeichnis