Supply chain management has experienced great changes within the last fifty years. Inevitably, many companies entered the global market with the prime intention to achieve their defined goals. In comparison with the local markets, the global environment requires more efforts and changes in the supply chain operation in order to remain viable in business. Several business models are introduced for achieving the success in the market, suggested by the following researchers: Liker, Choi, Ronald Gilson, andMark J. Roeand others.  In a row with the study cases of Honda and Toyota Companies, the Supply Chain Trading Security is presented. Within this paper the security approaches are discussed during the processes of market penetration and development globally. The main strengths and weaknesses of the models are highlighted in the thesis. The description of market situations and explanation of the models’ application is presented. In order to achieve better results in the analysis of the case studies, the qualitative and inductive research methods have been implemented. The secondary data is considered to be the cornerstone of the thesis. Due to the fact that the thesis is based on descriptive, partially explanatory, and qualitative research methods, different meanings and experiences related to the Supply Chain Security phenomenon are discussed. In order to obtain the necessary data, library catalogues, encyclopedias, databases, and search engines in the Internet are utilized. The thesis goes through the following processes: choice of research area, formulation of research questions, choice of method, formulation of research design and data collection techniques, implementation of data collection, analysis of data, interpretation of data, and finally conclusions. The studied companies in the thesis – Toyota and Honda – conducted four major supply chain models that are neatly explained through the research. Partnership, Supplier Keiretsu, ARA, and Triple-A are the operated models. The following issues have been derived as conclusions: many components of supply chain security in terms of trade, affect the whole organization to a great extent. In order to keep the customer loyalty, image, and brand, companies should focus on their own core competence. Complex, transnational, and multi-vendor supply chain security models require more collaboration on safety issues that is approximately a half of the whole job. In addition, management and control of activities are necessary in order to achieve the target, go through the obstacles, and manage the current market situation.  Economic, political, and nature influence are key determinants of the supply network situation and give the possibility for a company to gain benefits, and control all business activities. The optimal choice of the model is considered to be the main tool aiming to manage all aforementioned tasks. Furthermore, diverse cultural differences influence the choice of the models that are implemented by the American and Japanese companies.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, it became apparent that the way organizations conduct business activities within and between themselves would be forever altered. Specifically, the way the firms share and distribute goods became an important area of interest to ensure the security of their supply chain partners and ultimately, society in general. Supply chain security (SCS) is defined as activities that protect supply chains from damage, terrorism, and contraband. This dissertation adds to an emerging knowledge base – SCS efforts. More specifically, this dissertation attempts to address three key areas concerning SCS: 1) understand what type of SCS activity taxonomy exists; 2) understand what is driving those taxonomy categories to exist; and 3) understand what, if any, relationship between the SCS taxonomy categories and organizational performance exists. To gain this knowledge, inductive and deductive techniques were utilized. First, in-depth semi-structured interviews with 19 executives across a variety of industries concerning SCS issues were conducted to help frame the research and develop research hypotheses. Through content analyzing the interview transcripts, it became salient that institutional environmental pressures were what respondents indicated were the causes of security activities. As such, Institutional Theory was used as a theoretical framework for the dissertation. Second, a survey method was used to collect data concerning supply chain security activities, pressures that cause them, and organizational performance. In the empirical examination of SCS, it was found that three categories of security exist. The taxonomy that emerged had three categories that were named Security Pros, Follow-the-Leaders, and Necessary Evils. The next part of the empirical examination was to determine which, if any, of the identified drivers impact the SCS categories. Using multiple discriminant analysis, it was determined that customers and societal pressures are significant in impacting the SCS categories. Finally, a multiple analysis of variance was conducted to determine if different types of SCS categories were associated with different types of organizational performance. The results indicated that different groups were not related to different levels of firm, customer, market, and supply chain performance.

The World Trade Centre terror attack in 2001 changed the world and with it the conditions for logistics worldwide. The aftermath of the attack brought needed attention to the vulnerability of modern supply chains. This thesis addresses the antagonistic threats that exploit the vulnerability in a supply chain. Antagonistic threats are a limited array of risks and uncertainties and can be addressed with risk management tools and strategies. There are three key demarcations between antagonistic threats and other risks and uncertainties: deliberate (caused), illegal (defined by law), and hostile (negative impact, in this thesis, for transport network activities). This thesis makes a theoretical contribution to the usage of theories from criminology in supply chain risk management to handle antagonistic threats against the transport network. The recognition that antagonistic threats toward the transport network are a problem leads to verification of the research questions from the background and the theoretical framework. This is done to place or relate the research questions closer to the context. Furthermore, it leads to the conclusion that the answers may or may not contain competing and/or incompatible parts which differ depending on the perspective or viewpoint at the moment. One of the most important things to understand is that antagonistic threats toward freight always have been a feature in both business and politics. The different functions and goals for all stakeholders mean that all stakeholders and actors may use similar methods to manage antagonistic threats but the effects and consequences will change according to the circumstances.The system approach in this thesis is a soft-system thinking where reality is described in subjective terms and the whole system has the distinctive trait of vague or undefined boundaries between system components and the surrounding environment. Therefore, this thesis uses a complex system approach in which paradoxes and bounded rationality describes the system’s behaviour. This thesis defines the legal descriptions and criminal threats against and within supply chain management activities that entail both the systems context and boundaries. Managing of the antagonistic threats through the risk management perspective is separated into two sides, pre-event and post-event measures, which means the system needs to be robust and resilient, using logistics terms. It should be robust to automatically handle small risks (normally with high likelihood and low impact). The system also needs resilience in order to adapt, improvise, and overcome any disturbance greater than the system’s robustness can handle. Both robustness and its resilience can constitute of the full range of prevention, mitigation, and transferring tools and methods. Regardless of which perspective or viewpoint is chosen for analysing the problem, the same basic set of tools and methods are valid, but in practical use they need to be adapted to the actors’ needs and wants for managing their exposure to antagonistic threats. / <p>Thesis to be defended in public at 8 May 2009 at 13.00 in Vasa A, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy</p><p>Avhandlingen har tilldelats den prestigefyllda utmärkelsen ”The 2011 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards”. The thesis has been awarded with the prestigious honor of ”The 2011 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards”</p><p><b>Sponsorship</b>:</p><p>VINNOVA</p>

NORMA Sweden AB is part of NORMA Group, a global market and technology leader in engineered joining technology. The Swedish business unit, NORMA Sweden, trades with various internal and external customers in different customs territories. In order to facilitate this, the management is considering to attain the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) certification that allows for customs facilitations. The AEO program consists of the AEO-C and AEO-S certification. Those two certifications can be achieved independently, they have different barriers and create different benefits. The extent to that these general benefits and barriers create benefits and barriers in a specific company varies a lot depending on the individual supply chain settings of the organisation. The purpose of this thesis is to assess the advantage of the AEO-C and the AEO-S certification to NORMA Sweden. In order to achieve a comprehensive result, the benefits and barriers of the AEO certifications to NORMA Sweden are analysed in the context of the company’s strategy and the drivers for the AEO application. A Framework is developed to conduct the examination. It allows to appraise the benefits and barriers of the certification that are combined into different impact areas. This is accomplished by a quantitative analysis that is based on a simplified scale of 0-3. The results are verified by a subsequent qualitative analysis. The Analysis has been conducted under consideration of literature, customs guidelines and empirical information that has been gathered by expert interviews as well as by observations. The results of the quantitative analysis indicate that both certifications are currently not beneficial to NORMA Sweden. Further, it is obvious that the gap between barriers and benefits is smaller for the AEO-C certification as it is for the AEO-S certification. The qualitative analysis reveals that NORMA Sweden should aim for an AEO certification anyway due to the strategy of the parent company and expected future developments. Following the findings of the quantitative and qualitative analysis the company is advised to aim for the AEO-C certification first.

In this era, where international outsourcing and global distribution systems are thriving, providing the security of products in the logistic system is very crucial now. For corporates, it is highly vital to know how secure high-tech products and materials are handled, warehoused and transported as they move throughout the globe. Different international security standards have been introduced, two of which are TAPA FSR and ISPS. TAPA FSR (Freight Security Requirements) defines the smallest required security standards for goods travelling throughout the supply chain and the suitable approaches in keeping those standards. ISPS (International Ship and Port Facility Security) is another security standard which identifies the tasks of governments, shipping companies, shipboard personnel, and port/facility personnel to find security threats and take preemptive actions against security events influencing ships or port facilities used in global business. This research attempts to study the literature on security of transportation in supply chain. By comparing the requirements of TAPA FSR and ISPS, we aim to find their basic differences and to analyze to what extent the two standards respond to the crucial concepts of security in the supply chain. / Program: BSc in Industrial Engineering - International Business Engineering

Supply chain security has become relevant to both practitioners and academics for years, yet the understanding of this topic is still incomplete. The literature produces relatively few explanatory and confirmatory studies, offers ambiguous definitions and terminology and the theoretical development is inconsistent. In this dissertation, I review relevant research streams and employ four in-depth case studies to conceptualize supply chain security (SCS). I also utilize the principles of human immunology to propose a taxonomy of supply chain security management (SCSM) mechanisms. Building on institutional theory and the taxonomy, I further examine the antecedents as well as the consequences of SCSM mechanisms via a large empirical data set collected during 2011-2013. The sample includes responses from 462 firms. Specifically, in my first model I draw on the institutional theory and posit that five institutional isomorphism pressures (i.e., government, customer, peer, normative, and performance pressure) impact four classes of SCSM mechanisms (i.e., prevention, detection, reaction, and restoration). In addition, shared SCS perception (SSP) and top management commitment (TMC) are hypothesized to moderate (strengthen) the relationships between institutional pressures and SCSM mechanisms. In my second model, I propose that the four classes of mechanisms explain five different supply chain performance dimensions (i.e., security performance, cost performance, supply chain responsiveness, supply chain resilience, and supply chain visibility). I also specify differential effects for both models; some effects are more salient than others. The results suggest that not all institutional pressures motivate the implementation of SCSM mechanisms. While normative pressure and performance pressure act as predominantly powerful predictors of SCSM mechanisms, other pressures appear to have negligible or even adverse effects. Surprisingly, data analysis suggests that coercive institutional pressures (i.e., government pressure and customer pressure) do not exhibit the strongest effects on SCSM mechanisms as the literature would suggest. As far as the moderation effect is concerned, the results illustrate that neither SSP nor TMC interact with all institutional pressures to affect the employment of SCSM mechanisms. In addition, TMC can even impede the implementation of reaction- and restoration-oriented SCSM mechanisms when interacting with government pressure. Regarding supply chain performance, the results demonstrate that SCSM mechanisms have strong effects on multiple supply chain performance measures. Further assessments reveal that the effect of SCSM mechanisms on supply chain security performance is stronger than its effects on other performance dimensions.

Container Line Supply Chain (CLSC), which transports cargo in containers and accounts for approximately 95 percent of world trade, is a dominant way for world cargo transportation due to its high efficiency. However, the operation of a typical CLSC, which may involve as many as 25 different organizations spreading all over the world, is very complex, and at the same time, it is estimated that only 2 percent of imported containers are physically inspected in most countries. The complexity together with insufficient prevention measures makes CLSC vulnerable to many threats, such as cargo theft, smuggling, stowaway, terrorist activity, piracy, etc. Furthermore, as disruptions caused by a security incident in a certain point along a CLSC may also cause disruptions to other organizations involved in the same CLSC, the consequences of security incidents to a CLSC may be severe. Therefore, security analysis becomes essential to ensure smooth operation of CLSC, and more generally, to ensure smooth development of world economy. The literature review shows that research on CLSC security only began recently, especially after the terrorist attack on September 11th, 2001, and most of the research either focuses on developing policies, standards, regulations, etc. to improve CLSC security from a general view or focuses on discussing specific security issues in CLSC in a descriptive and subjective way. There is a lack of research on analytical security analysis to provide specific, feasible and practical assistance for people in governments, organizations and industries to improve CLSC security. Facing the situation mentioned above, this thesis intends to develop a set of analytical models for security analysis in CLSC to provide practical assistance to people in maintaining and improving CLSC security. In addition, through the development of the models, the thesis also intends to provide some methodologies for general risk/security analysis problems under complex and uncertain environment, and for some general complex decision problems under uncertainty. Specifically, the research conducted in the thesis is mainly aimed to answer the following two questions: how to assess security level of a CLSC in an analytical and rational way, and according to the security assessment result, how to develop balanced countermeasures to improve security level of a CLSC under the constraints of limited resources. For security assessment, factors influencing CLSC security as a whole are identified first and then organized into a general hierarchical model according to the relations among the factors. The general model is then refined for security assessment of a port storage area along a CLSC against cargo theft. Further, according to the characteristics of CLSC security analysis, the belief Rule base Inference Methodology using the Evidential Reasoning approach (RIMER) is selected as the tool to assess CLSC security due to its capabilities in accommodating and handling different forms of information with different kinds of uncertainty involved in both the measurement of factors identified and the measurement of relations among the factors. To build a basis of the application of RIMER, a new process is introduced to generate belief degrees in Belief Rule Bases (BRBs), with the aim of reducing bias and inconsistency in the process of the generation. Based on the results of CLSC security assessment, a novel resource allocation model for security improvement is also proposed within the framework of RIMER to optimally improve CLSC security under the constraints of available resources. In addition, it is reflected from the security assessment process that RIMER has its limitations in dealing with different information aggregation patterns identified in the proposed security assessment model, and in dealing with different kinds of incompleteness in CLSC security assessment. Correspondently, under the framework of RIMER, novel methods are proposed to accommodate and handle different information aggregation patterns, as well as different kinds of incompleteness. To validate the models proposed in the thesis, several case studies are conducted using data collected from different ports in both the UK and China. From a methodological point of view, the ideas, process and models proposed in the thesis regarding BRB generation, optimal resource allocation based on security assessment results, information aggregation pattern identification and handling, incomplete information handling can be applied not only for CLSC security analysis, but also for dealing with other risk and security analysis problems and more generally, some complex decision problems. From a practical point of view, the models proposed in the thesis can help people in governments, organizations, and industries related to CLSC develop best practices to ensure secure operation, assess security levels of organizations involved in a CLSC and security level of the whole CLSC, and allocate limited resources to improve security of organizations in CLSC. The potential beneficiaries of the research may include: governmental organizations, international/regional organizations, industrial organizations, classification societies, consulting companies, companies involved in a CLSC, companies with cargo to be shipped, individual researchers in relevant areas etc.

A gestão das ameaças e dos riscos nas empresas tem se dedicado a estudar estes problemas, pelo viés de mercado, com o intuito de torná-las mais preparadas para enfrentar estes desafios. Nesse sentido, uma série de instrumentos de análise diagnosticaram que as ameaças e os riscos fazem parte da natureza das relações empresariais. Dentre as inúmeras relações que uma empresa estabelece para atingir os seus objetivos, destacam-se as que estão inseridas em um sistema denominado “cadeia de suprimentos” que, em decorrência do processo de globalização tornou-se internacionalizada. As empresas, ao prolongarem suas cadeias de suprimentos “além fronteiras”, estão submetidas, às influências do ambiente econômico, geopolítico, social e histórico. Nesses ambientes, o ano de 2001 originou uma série de estudos de gestão de risco que identificaram, nas ameaças externas ou exógenas, isto é, as que estão fora do viés de mercado, a possibilidade de tornar a cadeia de suprimentos internacional insegura. Tais ameaças se configuram em ações da natureza e ações praticadas pelo ser humano, por meio de atos criminosos, como, o terrorismo, o tráfico, o contrabando e a pirataria marítima Além das empresas, os países criaram regimes internacionais que buscaram proteger as cadeias de suprimentos, principalmente, em seu sistema de transporte, destacando-se o modo chamado “marítimo”, em razão da sua intensa utilização para transportar cargas. O presente estudo tem como objetivo propor um protocolo de gestão de risco para o transporte marítimo de cargas “less than container load”, para tornar a cadeia de suprimentos internacional mais segura. A metodologia utilizada nesta pesquisa, foi descritiva e documental, já que descreveu o processo de operacionalização e baseou-se na análise dos documentos, utilizados na gestão do transporte marítimo “less than container load”. Conclui-se, assim, que o operador de transporte multimodal, como responsável por operacionalizar uma forma de transportar cargas, a qual torna a cadeia de suprimentos insegura, tem condições e, principalmente, o dever de juntar-se aos outros atores, em prol do aumento da segurança do sistema. / The management of threats and risks in the company has been dedicated to study these problems by market bias in order to make them better prepared to face these challenges. In this regard a number of analytical tools diagnosed threats and risks as part of the business relations. Among the many relationships that a company established to achieve their goals, we highlight those that are embedded in a system called the supply chain, which as a result of the globalization process has become internationalized. Companies to extend their supply chains "across borders", are subject to the influences of economic, geopolitical, social and historical environment. In these environments, the year 2001 led to a series of risk management studies that have identified the external or exogenous threats, those outside the market bias, the possibility of making the chain of uncertain international supplies. Such threats are configured shares of nature and actions taken by humans, by means of criminal acts as terrorism, trafficking, smuggling and maritime piracy In addition to companies, countries have created international regimes that sought to protect supply chains, especially in its transport system, highlighting the called maritime, because of their heavy use to transport cargo. The thesis aims to propose a risk management protocol for the shipping cargo "less than container load" to make the international supply chain more secure. The methodology used was based on descriptive type and documentary because described the operational process and analized documents used in the management of shipping “less than container load”, In conclusion, the multimodal transport operator who is responsible for operating a means of transporting cargo , which makes the supply chain insecure supplies, has conditions , and especially the obligation to join the other actors , in favor of the increase system security.

Aujourd’hui, avec la mondialisation et la concurrence internationale effrénées, les chaînes logistiques globales (CLG) sont conçues à l’échelle planétaire, les places portuaires deviennent entre autre, des sites d’implantation idéale, permettant ainsi la valorisation des marchandises, grâce à la performance de son maillon portuaire. Depuis l’élaboration d’un partenariat commercial en 2000, entre le maillon portuaire de Djibouti (MPD) et le groupe international portuaire Dubaï Port World (DPW), entre 2002 et 2012, le trafic conteneurisé s’est accru de près de 700 %. De plus, depuis l’ouverture de Djibouti Free Zone (DFZ) en 2004, gérée totalement par une filiale du groupe DPW, près de 150 entreprises sont venues s’y implanter, dont plus de la moitié sont des entreprises étrangères. Partant de ce double constat, notre problématique de recherche s’attache à comprendre la contribution du MPD, à la performance de la CLG. Dans une phase de recherche empirique, qui nous a permis d’identifier les dimensions et les axes caractérisant la performance logistique du MPD, nous déployons un modèle descriptif et synthétique de la performance portuaire. / With globalization and international competition sprees, the Supply Chain (SC) are designed on a global scale, the port spaces, thus allowing ideal implementation sites, thanks to the performance of its link port. Since the development of a strategic partnership between the link port of Djibouti (LPD) and the international group port Dubai Port World (DPW) in 2000, the containerized traffic increased of almost 700 %, between 2002 and 2012. With in addition, with the opening of Djibouti Free Zone (DFZ) in 2004, managed entirely by a subsidiary of the group DPW, nearly 150 businesses have implemented there warehouses in DFZ, with more than half of whom are foreign companies. Starting from this dual observation, our research has been focused on understanding the contribution of the LPD, to the performance of the SC. In a phase of empirical research, which has allowed us to identify dimensions and axes characterizing the logistics performance of the LPD, we deploy a descriptive and synthetic model of the port performance.

A gestão das ameaças e dos riscos nas empresas tem se dedicado a estudar estes problemas, pelo viés de mercado, com o intuito de torná-las mais preparadas para enfrentar estes desafios. Nesse sentido, uma série de instrumentos de análise diagnosticaram que as ameaças e os riscos fazem parte da natureza das relações empresariais. Dentre as inúmeras relações que uma empresa estabelece para atingir os seus objetivos, destacam-se as que estão inseridas em um sistema denominado “cadeia de suprimentos” que, em decorrência do processo de globalização tornou-se internacionalizada. As empresas, ao prolongarem suas cadeias de suprimentos “além fronteiras”, estão submetidas, às influências do ambiente econômico, geopolítico, social e histórico. Nesses ambientes, o ano de 2001 originou uma série de estudos de gestão de risco que identificaram, nas ameaças externas ou exógenas, isto é, as que estão fora do viés de mercado, a possibilidade de tornar a cadeia de suprimentos internacional insegura. Tais ameaças se configuram em ações da natureza e ações praticadas pelo ser humano, por meio de atos criminosos, como, o terrorismo, o tráfico, o contrabando e a pirataria marítima Além das empresas, os países criaram regimes internacionais que buscaram proteger as cadeias de suprimentos, principalmente, em seu sistema de transporte, destacando-se o modo chamado “marítimo”, em razão da sua intensa utilização para transportar cargas. O presente estudo tem como objetivo propor um protocolo de gestão de risco para o transporte marítimo de cargas “less than container load”, para tornar a cadeia de suprimentos internacional mais segura. A metodologia utilizada nesta pesquisa, foi descritiva e documental, já que descreveu o processo de operacionalização e baseou-se na análise dos documentos, utilizados na gestão do transporte marítimo “less than container load”. Conclui-se, assim, que o operador de transporte multimodal, como responsável por operacionalizar uma forma de transportar cargas, a qual torna a cadeia de suprimentos insegura, tem condições e, principalmente, o dever de juntar-se aos outros atores, em prol do aumento da segurança do sistema. / The management of threats and risks in the company has been dedicated to study these problems by market bias in order to make them better prepared to face these challenges. In this regard a number of analytical tools diagnosed threats and risks as part of the business relations. Among the many relationships that a company established to achieve their goals, we highlight those that are embedded in a system called the supply chain, which as a result of the globalization process has become internationalized. Companies to extend their supply chains "across borders", are subject to the influences of economic, geopolitical, social and historical environment. In these environments, the year 2001 led to a series of risk management studies that have identified the external or exogenous threats, those outside the market bias, the possibility of making the chain of uncertain international supplies. Such threats are configured shares of nature and actions taken by humans, by means of criminal acts as terrorism, trafficking, smuggling and maritime piracy In addition to companies, countries have created international regimes that sought to protect supply chains, especially in its transport system, highlighting the called maritime, because of their heavy use to transport cargo. The thesis aims to propose a risk management protocol for the shipping cargo "less than container load" to make the international supply chain more secure. The methodology used was based on descriptive type and documentary because described the operational process and analized documents used in the management of shipping “less than container load”, In conclusion, the multimodal transport operator who is responsible for operating a means of transporting cargo , which makes the supply chain insecure supplies, has conditions , and especially the obligation to join the other actors , in favor of the increase system security.