The current logistics chains must be designed to copy with short life cycles of products, high stock velocity, low degree of predictability etc. The conditions for accuracy, reliability and flexibility of deliveries at the markets have been changing, and that is why it is inevitable to seek new alternative methods that would lead to higher efficiency levels, remaining competitiveness and, at the same time, fulfil the needs and wishes of customers. In this paper I focuse on cross-docking which is a newer distribution method. In the first part of the paper, I try to determine the principles of this operation in distribution, identify individual types of cross-docking and in detail describe the assumptions and conditions under which the method should be implemented to reach the requested results. The paper then continues with an analysis of the current position of cross-docking and there are given several examples of demand driven supply chains that have been using this distribution method at a certain point. These examples are followed with a discussion on current options and problems of implementing cross-docking in the case of retailers and manufacturers.

Titel: Hållbarhet inom arenalogistik Bakgrund: Arenalogistik är ett relativt outforskat område som rör de logistikrelaterade flöden och aktiviteter som sker inom en idrottsarena eller en arena utformad för event. Detta arbete inriktar sig på flödet av konsumtionsprodukter och engångsmaterial. Inom detta område finns det möjligheter att arbeta för mot förbättrad hållbarhet utifrån de tre hållbarhetsdimensionerna miljö, samhälle och ekonomi. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka materialflödet inom arenalogistik hos ett fallföretag, identifiera brister i flödet samt se till hur hållbarheten kan förbättras. Studien har som mål att kunna presentera åtgärder samt deras effekter inom fallföretaget samtidigt som dessa kan komma att appliceras inom liknande företag och branscher. Metod: Ett primärfall har studerats genom kvalitativa intervjuer och observationer. Därefter har jämförelseobjekt valts i form av andra organisationer där lättare datainsamling skett för att skapa en bredare bild av forskningsområdet. Resultat: Uppsatsens resultat pekar på en mängd hållbarhetsbrister som kunnat identifieras i de flöden som undersökts. Bristerna kan delas upp efter de aktiviteter och de områden där de kunnat identifieras inom företaget. Dessa områden är inköp, sortiment, avfallshantering samt materialflöde. För att kunna åtgärda dessa brister har en mängd åtgärdsförslag presenterats, baserat på teori och jämförelser med andra organisationer som har liknande flöden. De främsta åtgärder som identifierats berör en övergång till resurseffektivisering och mer cirkulära flöden. / Title: Sustainability in Arena Logistics Background: Arena Logistics is a relatively unexplored theoretical area that encompasses logistic related flows and activities that are performed at an arena for sports events and other events. This study focuses on consumption products and disposables. Within this area there are opportunities to work for a better sustainability by the three dimensions of sustainability, social, environmental and economical sustainability. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the material flow within arena logistics at a business case, to identify flaws in the flow and also see how the sustainability can be improved. The study is aimed to present actions and their effects at the business case, as well as these actions can be applied on other similar businesses and branches. Method: A primary case was studied through qualitative interviews and observations. Further data was collected from other organisations for comparative reasons and to gain a wider understanding of the field of study. Results: The results given in the study shows several sustainability flaws that are identified in the flows that are analysed. The identified flaws can be categorized by activities or area that they occur within the company. These areas are procurement, assortment, waste management and material flow. To be able to fix these flaws, a number of action proposals are presented based on theory and comparison to other organisations with similar material flows. The foremost actions that are identified points to a transition towards circular flows and more efficient resource usage.

O objetivo deste estudo é identificar e examinar o atual estágio de desenvolvimento da gestão da rede de suprimentos do setor industrial de construção civil brasileiro, buscando visualizar as transformações ocorridas e a ocorrer, e os fatores limitantes e incentivadores do seu processo de modernização, gerando parâmetros de referência que espera-se possam servir de base à consolidação de uma teoria sucinta sobre a gestão da cadeia de suprimentos na indústria de construção ou até, de forma presuntiva, sobre o recente conceito de Supply Chain Management, que possa servir como opção estratégica para as empresas deste setor. Os conceitos desenvolvidos neste processo, as variáveis observadas, as mudanças estratégicas e operacionais decorrentes, e os sinalizadores desta evolução compõem os principais resultados deste trabalho. / The objective of this study is to identify and to examine the current stage of development of the supply chain management of the Brazilian construction industry. lt aims to understand the transformation that it has gone through and are still to bappen, and the constraining as well as competitive factors of the modernization process, generating parameters of reference that it hopes can be used as base to the consolidation of a brief theory on the supply chain management in the construction industry. It is also expected that this theory be used as strategic option. The main results of this piece of work are the concepts developed in this process, the observed variables, the current strategic and operational changes, and the indicators of this evolution.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the intra-organisational processes used by businesses operating in the United Kingdom to narrow the gap between their socially and environmentally responsible procurement (SERP) policy and its implementation in buyer-supplier relationships. This is a response both to the wide variety of recent human/labour rights and environmental violations in corporate supply chains as well as to concerns that the corporate policies developed in response to stakeholder pressure regarding such violations may not be sufficient for the effective implementation of their remedy. This examination of corporate efforts to implement SERP policy initiates a line of research aimed at building a theory of internal SERP policy implementation. The theoretical lens used in the component studies of this thesis is a combination of organisational culture and the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm. The former is used to assess how top managers and procurement departments show support for SERP implementation. This is to say that aspects of their cultures are used to perceive this support. The organisational and human resources made available to the procurement department are considered to be the capabilities needed to translate this support into practice. Drawing on data from a survey of 340 buyer-supplier relationships and from two in-depth case studies of businesses operating in the United Kingdom, this thesis contributes both theoretically and empirically to the literature. Prime examples of this thesis‟ contributions include the mapping of commercial processes used to connect stakeholder rights and pressures to procurement activity; the identification of internal subgroups that affect SERP implementation; and the conceptual reconsideration of two core capabilities theorised to facilitate this process. Further research includes the replication of case studies; the consideration of supplier capabilities to implement buyer requirements; and how this research can be more aligned with extant supply chain strategy research.

To survive and stay ahead in today’s competitive world companies are pushed to their limits in search for organizational skills and technologies. Of those Supply chain Management and Enterprise Resource Planning are the two most primarily used terms. In order to stay and survive in the competition companies are forced to speed up their production, reduce their cost and improve performance. All these three factors go hand in hand and in order to achieve these factors, information exchange from both inside and outside plays the key role. Supply chain management is the term used managing this accurate information’s in and out and ERP is the technology used for achieving the same.The purpose of this research is to continue in this field of study and solve real problems with ERP implementation, and eventually create analytical tools for these systems. With the advent of globalization ERP software has emerged as a major area of interest for many business organizations.There are two main research orientations in these studies which include: first, how to implement ERP system in a corporation and, second, what are the advantages of this system in resolving a variety of problems an organization might encounter.The first area, on which most of the studies have already focused, comprises studies on the fund, timing, economy and success of the implementation of ERP. On the contrary, our study addresses the functions of ERP in strategic and operational levels and also aims at bringing in the major difficulties and disadvantage on implementation of ERP systems into an organization.Our results suggest that ERP systems in its current state have a modest role to play in obtaining supply chain integration and management. With the major development in the field of communication and IT solutions we can expect a time shift where many solutions could be available for better interfacing of ERP systems and in turn which can help in achieving much better supply chain management.Many studies claim that the major advantage of an ERP system is that it is integrated and centralized. An ERP system offers the decision makers the means of enhancing the knowledge about the process which in turn helps to make reliable decisions more rapidly and as well collecting sources to support their decisions. However according to our findings from various studies it is evident that ERP helps to improve the reliability of decision by mutual participation of the participants, improves co-ordination of tasks which makes inter-related decision making easier. As a result it improves the satisfaction of decision process across the participants. / Program: Master’s Program in Industrial Engineering with Specialization in Logistics Management

Thesis: M. Eng. in Logistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, February 2016. (Axel Barbará). / Thesis: M. Eng. in Logistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, June 2015. (Tomás Dominguez Molet). / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (page 54). / Globalized companies seek growth while dealing with more complex and compelling challenges such as economic volatility, fluctuating commodity prices, supply-chain inefficiencies and increasing customer expectations. While companies cannot control all of these challenges, there is much they can do to remain competitive. Companies can gain competitive edge through improved demand forecasting and efficient inventory management. SKU segmentation is a concept that intends to demonstrate that there is a economic benefit behind treating and handling some products differently from another. Our thesis optimized SKU segmentation for a global CPG and restaurant brand. This aided inventory managers and supply planners adequately assess the varying needs of diverse products, to cluster them according to comparable needs, to reduce supply chain costs and optimize their supply chain. To explore this problem, we analyzed 53 weeks of forecast and demand data for over 15,000 SKUs. Utilizing a variety of clustering techniques, we identified a more cost-effective clustering strategy for the subject case. We analyzed the comparative costs between our theoretical classification and the actual classification used by the subject case study. Once we identified the disconnect, we calculated the incurred costs for being out of the optimal solution. This included both the effect of safety stock and the stock out costs. Our research created new insights into the comparable cost of under-forecasting and over-forecasting on safety stock and customer service level. / by Axel Barbará and Tomás Dominguez Molet. / M. Eng. in Logistics

A major challenge for supply chain managers is how to manage sourcing relationships to ensure reliable and predictable actions of existing suppliers. The extant research into sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has suggested the transactional (e.g. monitoring and auditing) and collaboration (e.g. supplier development) as the main two approaches by which buyers can sustain an acceptable level of suppliers' internal social performance. A successful implementation of such approaches, and hence improving suppliers' social performance, often requires a level of cooperation that can be difficult to establish, particularly on the part of suppliers. Despite the recent proliferation of SSCM research, little efforts have been devoted to exploring the factors that increase the effectiveness of the two approaches. This research aims to examine the individual and combined effect of socially sustainable transactional practices (SSTPs) and socially sustainable collaboration practices (SSCPs) on supplier's internal social performance and buyer's operational performance. The study also sets out to examine the moderating effects of social capital dimensions (i.e. relational, cognitive and structural) on the relationships among SSTPs, SSCPs and supplier's internal social performance. A mail survey was administered to 1,250 stratified randomly selected large manufacturing companies operating in the UK. An analysis of 119 responses using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation modelling (PLS-SEM) revealed that SSTPs are ineffective in driving supplier's internal social performance, whilst SSCPs are more effective. Moreover, although the interaction effect of SSTPs and SSCPs is non-significant, the data suggested that the simultaneous implementation can be detrimental to supplier's internal social performance. Furthermore, social capital dimensions were found to play different roles on the implementation of SSTPs and SSCPs. Relational capital plays a unique role by increasing the effectiveness of both SSTPs and SSCPs, while cognitive capital is critical for SSCPs, and structural capital is vital for SSTPs. This study contributes to SSCM literature by exclusively focusing on the social dimension of sustainability, examining the joint implementation of SSTPs and SSCPs and featuring the centrality of social capital in the implementation of SSCM practices. The study sets a foundation for new research avenues in the SSCM context and provides a set of managerial implications that support informed decision-making by supply chain managers.

The aim of this thesis is to contribute to knowledge in the form of a new theory for supply chain strategy formulation. The objective is to design evaluation criteria, specific to the context of greenfield project architecture and integration design. This study addressed the aim and objective by synthesising existing methods and techniques which are outlined into a research framework of supply chain strategy problems. The study applied the case study and action research methods to pursue conceptual validity from the process of investigating the supply chain strategy formulation in a specific situation and presented the data collection and analysis process. The thesis derived a conceptual framework for investigating and identifying the relationship between multiple elements, dimensions, forces and factors that influence and affect supply chain strategy formulation in a greenfield project context, specific to the mining industry. The contribution to knowledge emerged from building upon the architecture of the conceptual framework, through synthesising existing techniques and adapting these techniques, to extend and redefine the existing knowledge on the practice of supply chain strategy formulation. Through critical analysis, a number of critical problems emerged and the process of addressing these problems, resulted with a new framework for evaluating the relationship between business and supply chain strategy, specific to greenfield project and integration context. The contribution to knowledge also derived from addressing the emerging obstacles in the process of identifying, defining and formulating, the visions and goals of individual supply chain participants from implicit into an explicit form. The process synthesised the knowledge for conceptualising the idea, through developing and evaluating information and issues, to derive insights into the complex and abstract concept, of greenfield project business and supply chain strategy formulation. The conceptual framework and evaluation framework advanced into designing greenfield project supply chain integration strategy. The process involved categorising individual supply chain strategic interests, decisions and problems into formulation areas, and was aimed at defining the process of greenfield project integration strategy as a system of concepts containing formulation areas, formulation principles, segregated into subcategories of formulation imperatives and formulation concepts. The thesis contributed to knowledge with advancement of the design engineering method, which enables visualisation of the supply chain strategy evaluation process. The design is not personalised for individual company business strategy or supply chain strategy formulation. The method was personalised to evaluate the integration of individual goals, and concepts in a supply chain strategy formulation. The novelty that emerged from the thesis was a conceptual framework for greenfield project architecture and integration design. The greenfield project architecture and design derived in the thesis a proposed conceptual system for applying the conceptual framework and the evaluation criteria.

Diplomová práce pojednává o možnostech využití radiofrekvenční technologie (RFID) v logistice, vysvětluje její funkční principy a současné použití na případových studiích třech významných retailových společností: Kaufhof, Marks and Spencer, Tesco. Vysvětluje výhody technologie oproti čárovým kódům, mapuje standardizaci na národní a mezinárodní úrovni a vyjmenovává faktory, které brzdí celosvětové rozšíření RFID. V závěru nastiňuje budoucnost této technologie.

Práce nejprve vymezuje koncept štíhlé výroby jako jeden z přístupů pro optimalizaci integrovaných logistických řetězců. Dále rozebírá a představuje základní nástroj konceptu štíhlé výroby, a to nástroj mapování hodnotových toků. Tento nástroj je v praktické části aplikován na konkrétní příklad z praxe. Jedná se o optimalizaci procesu příjmu materiálu do výrobního závodu. Součástí práce jsou také konkrétní návrhy zlepšení tohoto procesu.