Supply Chain Management

To evaluate research approaches in logistics, tests are indispensable. For enhanced research in logistics worldwide well established labs could take a major role to shorten development cycles. However, often remote access to necessary resources in the different labs is not possible. In this context a new opportunity for a technology driven access to supply chain labs could be established to increase the availability and user friendliness as well as the utilization rate of existing infrastructures. In the present article the remote access through a web based interface is introduced. The system has been developed within a two year student project in collaboration with the computer science and production engineering department at the University of Bremen.

The importance of sustainable planning and managing of networks by logistics concepts is rising. However, estimating these logistics concepts under sustainability aspects is a problem which many logistics managers have to face. The impact of logistics concepts to the target figures in a sustainable performance measurement system highly depends on the correlation between the variables. In this paper the correlation between the target figures within the functional areas of procurement, production, distribution and service are depicted. Based on these findings a cross-functional causal loop diagram is derived.

Over the last decades, the cement industries achieved significant efficiency enhancements in their production processes. The so-called “co-processing”, the use of waste as a source of energy and raw material, was found to be both ecologically and economically beneficial. Cement plants can partially replace all fossil fuels by alternative ones and thus achieve significant reduction of cost and carbon footprint. Yet, in this context special challenges regarding supply chain management emerge. While respecting goals like quality, cost and delivery reliability, changing conditions need to be considered. Examples may be new regulations and the question of waste availability at nearby located industries as well as the desire to engage in long-term supply relationships. This article shows the relevant interrelations and presents approaches in order to contribute to a more efficient development of these supply chain relationships.

Nowadays, the economic determining factors are volatile and change dynamically leading to high uncertainty and risk for supply chain partners. Increased supply chain flexibility is not only considered as a success factor but is also essential for companies to remain competitive. The present article is based on selected results from expert interviews, a focus group as well as a survey analysing the status quo concerning supply chain risk management and the importance of flexibility. Afterwards, a process model is presented which consists of an approach to deduct strategies and measures in order to adjust supply chain flexibility in a structured way. The approach can be implemented for risk mitigation in practice.

The article deals with the topic of demand and capacity management in inter-organizational production networks. It addresses the question how firms can coordinate build-up as well as reduction of the capacities of their production resources. For this purpose a decentralized negotiation-based coordination mechanism is presented. By this production networks are enabled to synchronize their capacities without the help of a central coordinator. The coordinating effect of the proposed decentralized planning approach was proven also in comparison to existing centralized network planning methods.

Dynamic production and logistics systems along supply chains have to operate smoothly with each other in order to satisfy customer demand in time. This task becomes even more challenging in the presence of perturbations affecting the systems. In order to address this challenge, information concerning capabilities and employment level should be appropriately exchanged between production and transportation systems. Nevertheless different stakeholders perform the planning and control of the individual systems, making locally bounded decisions. In this article we present a new approach for the alignment of production and transportation processes that enables an advanced handling of perturbations on the operational level. To this end we introduce a trigger that indicates when a re-planning of existing schedules becomes necessary. We also present a collaborative planning approach that allows for an advanced management of perturbations and a dynamic vehicle routing concept for the on time ...

Since the turn of the millennium companies are confronted with a tightly interwoven network consisting of changed framework conditions. Thus, for many companies it is necessary to form a network, together with a simultaneous securing of liquidity. Additionally, it is important to consider ecological values. The selection of adequate concepts in the supply chain management in combination with the right extent in logistic services poses a major challenge. However the dynamic assessment and selection of logistic concepts is quite possible. This article presents such an approach.

Several logistics service providers are involved in the handling process at the seaport terminal in Bremerhaven, Germany. This process includes the arrival of the vehicles by vessel from the automotive manufacturer followed by the storage and the technical treatment ending with the transport to the automotive retailer. A cross-company approach of the complete process is necessary in order to improve the qua-lity of services and to enhance the utilization of the terminal as a holistic system. A control centre is used in order to generate information transparency. This is the basis for the development of cross-company planning and scheduling method. The simulation study was used to investigate the effectiveness of the developed method towards process and economic performance indicators of the supply chain.

Sourcing flexibility, i.e., the capability of a company’s procurement processes to respond rapidly to changing supply requirements is one of the building blocks of supply chain agility. In today’s decentralized supply chains, companies increasingly depend on their suppliers for value creation. Hence, understanding the causes and consequences of sourcing flexibility is critical. Based on a survey of 336 companies from Europe and the U.S., we show that sourcing flexibility is curvilinearly (U-shaped) related to supply chain performance. Companies with either low or high levels of sourcing flexibility exhibit high supply chain performance, whereas medium levels of sourcing flexibility reduce a company’s supply chain performance by up to 30%. That is, the “stuck in the middle” phenomenon, which is frequently observed in areas of strategy and organization, is evident in procurement decisions as well.

An optimized working capital aims to activate tied capital, capital which is frozen in account receivables and payables as well as in inventories. Often the ability to deliver anytime is a top priority for firms so that the tied capital is not optimized which increases the potential of bankruptcy in economic recessions. The potential to release tied capital can only be mastered by a tight company-wide collaboration, including the finance purchasing, production, sales and accounting department. Furthermore a holistic approach taking the whole supply chain into consideration must be realized to achieve a superior working capital performance. We show how firms can benefit from an optimal working capital in order to turn their supply chains into gold veins.