On the basis of a pan-European survey conducted among senior purchasing managers of 200 large-sized multinationals, Martin Lockstrom identifies internal key success factors of companies sourcing in low-cost countries.

This book revises the well-known capacity control problem in revenue management from the perspective of a risk-averse decision-maker. Modelling an expected utility maximizing decision maker, the problem is formulated as a risk-sensitive Markov decision process. Special emphasis is put on the existence of structured optimal policies. Numerical examples illustrate the results.

Based on more than 200 interviews with Chief Purchasing Officers around the world and statistical analyses, Michael Stolle presents a new perspective on the challenges of organizational change in purchasing and supply management.

The fashion industry has a dynamic, ever-changing landscape. The last decade has seen a shift in consumer expectations and a heightened dependence on efficient and effective supply chain management. These shifts in the consumer mentality have already forced apparel retailers to adapt, making changes throughout their organisations to maintain consumer loyalty. This new text provides an overview of the latest trends and advances in fashion supply chain management and logistics, including: The fundamentals of fashion supply chain management Strategic management of the fashion supply chain, including the planning aspect of management Technology in fashion supply chain management Radio-frequency identification (RFID) and interoperability Drawing on the expertise of academics, researchers and industry experts, including a wealth of real-life international cases, this book is ideal for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students and academics of fashion management, logistics and supply chain management, as well as practising professionals.

Due to globalization and internationalization of agri-food production, the arena of competition and competitive advantage is moving from individual firms operating on spot markets towards supply chains and networks. Therefore, coordination between firms within the chain becomes more important. Topics like costs, efficiency, risk and investment analysis have received little empirical attention within chain and network research. Nonetheless, these performance measures are of vital importance for continuity of individual companies, chains and networks.

This book aims at offering a coherent view on this matter by discussing the possibilities and limitations of quantifying performance, risks and investments in the agri-food chain. A wide variety of approaches from different economic disciplines was used to analyse the complex systems of agri-food supply chains and develop appropriate models for management decision support. Research gaps and discussion points are identified by an international forum of researchers in order to enhance progress in this field.

Global systems integrators, outsourcers and consulting firms are responsible for directly leveraging or influencing most IT investment in large corporations. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), software companies and other technology providers aspire to create mutually successful partnerships with the large influencers due to their 'business case' driven approach, their early stage engagement in the sales cycle, their C-Suite relationships with large multi-national enterprises, and the often-giant scale of the typical technology spend that their projects and engagements drive. The projects that these companies deliver are specialist and complex, meaning that companies who aspire to work successfully in the sector require skill, knowledge and a sophisticated alliance approach to gain credibility and maintain long term sustainable relationships. The Ultimate Route to Market provides an insight into the practices, construct and culture of global consulting firms, systems integrators and outsourcers and provides a suggested framework for a successful alliance with them. Here, Ian Shanahan provides organisations with an overview of the global systems integrator, outsourcer and consulting firm sectors, provides insight into their culture and expertly explains alliance best practice methodology. This is a must read for anyone that aspires to understand the market, how it works and how they become desirable to the large IT services companies, so that they can execute alliance engagements to the sector in a measured, methodical and low risk way.

Projects are inherently risky, since they involve some level of uncertainty, doing something new in the target environment, but the percentage of projects seen as a success is still disappointingly low, especially for IT projects. The 'Iron Triangle' of time/cost/quality suggests that all three aspects are equal, but with quantitative methods for monitoring project performance, the focus is primarily on managing cost and time. This book seeks to redress the balance, explaining the rationale and benefits of focusing more on quality (fitness for purpose and conformance to requirements) before detailing a range of tools and techniques to support rebalancing the management of projects, programmes and portfolios. It shows how managing project quality actively can reduce costs through minimising wastage, and reduce delays through avoiding rework, leading to improved project success rates and customer satisfaction.

Negotiation is an essential skill for all those operating commercially on behalf of their organisations. The ability to negotiate quotations, tenders, proposals, internal and external stakeholders, licensing agreements and so on, could form a critical part of any employee's role, be it on the buy or supply side. The Negotiation Handbook is a useful guide for all those wanting to understand how to apply tools and techniques to the negotiation process. This handbook has been subdivided into seven key sections, each representing a key phase in the negotiation process. The models and concepts are presented so that both a pictorial and explanatory commentary is available to the reader. This practical handbook supports all those working in a commercial capacity, so that they may apply commonly used tools and techniques and gain maximum benefit on behalf of their employers.

Global capitalism is a precarious system. Relying on the steady flow of goods across the world, trans-national companies such as Wal-Mart and Amazon depend on the work of millions in docks, warehouses and logistics centres to keep their goods moving. This is the global supply chain, and, if the chain is broken, capitalism grinds to a halt. This book looks at case studies across the world to uncover a network of resistance by these workers who, despite their importance, often face vast exploitation and economic violence. Experiencing first hand wildcat strikes, organised blockades and boycotts, the authors explore a diverse range of case studies, from South China dockworkers to the transformation of the port of Piraeus in Greece, and from the Southern California logistics sector, to dock and logistical workers in Chile and unions in Turkey.

Successfully managed product information for mass customization avoids disclosure of how these systems work. This is the first book to provide a holistic recognition of the essential aspects of an IT-supported product configuration system. It reveals the basic building blocks of these systems and their operational and strategic implications.

On the backdrop of the institutionalisation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability, and the emergence of multi-stakeholder-driven voluntary regulation, this timely collection places special emphasis on India and explores its international voluntary sustainability standards. The authors analyse the adoption and implementation of voluntary governance initiatives across a range of industries, offering insightful sectoral discussion and evaluation of voluntary sustainability standards as forms of transnational private regulation. This book will be of interest to anyone researching CSR, sustainability and supply chain management in emerging markets.

Those who have successfully managed product information for mass customization carefully avoid disclosing how these esoteric systems work in practice. This is the first book to provide a holistic recognition of the essential aspects of an IT-supported product configuration system. In doing so, it reveals the basic building blocks of these systems, how they support mass customization, how these systems are selected and implemented, what alternative options there are, and lastly, what the operational and strategic implications of these systems are.

"Supply Chain Event Management (SCEM)" is one of the major topics in application-oriented Supply Chain Management. However, many solutions lack conceptual precision and currently available client-server SCEM-systems are ill-suited for complex supply networks in today's business environment. Agent-based proactive information logistics promises to overcome existing deficits by providing event-related information to all participants in the distributed environment. Hence, follow-up costs of disruptive events are significantly reduced for all network participants and performance of a supply network is increased.

In this book a thorough analysis of the event management problem domain is the starting point to develop a generic agent-based approach to Supply Network Event Management. The main focus lies on practical issues of event management (e.g., semantic interoperability) and economic benefits to be achieved with agent technology in this state-of-the-art problem domain.

The third-party logistics industry is a growing field. This is the first practical handbook to support managers in the creation and negotiation of logistics contracts from the legal and economic perspective. The book provides the general framework and an extensive analysis of the content, structure and best practices of logistics contracts.

Steigender Wettbewerbsdruck, kurzere Innovationszyklen und Marktsattigung machen den Einkauf zum entscheidenden Ansatzpunkt, um das Unternehmensergebnis zur verbessern. Dieses Buch beschreibt alle Instrumente im Einkauf ausfuhrlich, strukturiert und praxisorientiert. Sehr nutzlich fur alle, die Budgetverantwortung tragen."

Category management is one of the biggest contributors of commercial value in the area of procurement and supply chain. With a proven track record of successful delivery since the early 1990s, it helps organisations gather and analyse key data about their procurement spend before subsequently creating and delivering value-adding strategies that change the value proposition from supply chains. The aim of category management is to find long-term breakthrough strategies that help lift an organisation's commercial performance to a new level. Because of its strategic long-term orientation and complex execution, category management has long been the preserve of commercial consulting companies - in effect a 'black box' toolkit shrouded in expensive methodologies. This practical handbook lifts the lid on category management by providing readers with a step-by-step process and established toolkit that allows them a 'do-it-yourself' approach. Each activity is presented as a simple tool or technique for practitioners to apply to their own organisations. To support each activity, easy-to- use templates and checklists have been provided, together with simple but practical hints and tips for implementation. This handbook is a 'must read' for all procurement and supplychain managers looking to find significant improvements in their organisations. Its practical approach cuts through long-winded consultant-speak and provides an easy-to-use practical toolkit for everyday application.

Recipient of the 2019 IISE Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers Joint Publishers Book-of-the-Year Award This is a comprehensive textbook on service systems engineering and management. It emphasizes the use of engineering principles to the design and operation of service enterprises. Service systems engineering relies on mathematical models and methods to solve problems in the service industries. This textbook covers state-of-the-art concepts, models and solution methods important in the design, control, operations and management of service enterprises. Service Systems Engineering and Management begins with a basic overview of service industries and their importance in today's economy. Special challenges in managing services, namely, perishability, intangibility, proximity and simultaneity are discussed. Quality of service metrics and methods for measuring them are then discussed. Evaluating the design and operation of service systems frequently involves the conflicting criteria of cost and customer service. This textbook presents two approaches to evaluate the performance of service systems - Multiple Criteria Decision Making and Data Envelopment Analysis. The textbook then discusses several topics in service systems engineering and management - supply chain optimization, warehousing and distribution, modern portfolio theory, revenue management, retail engineering, health systems engineering and financial services. Features: Stresses quantitative models and methods in service systems engineering and management Includes chapters on design and evaluation of service systems, supply chain engineering, warehousing and distribution, financial engineering, healthcare systems, retail engineering and revenue management Bridges theory and practice Contains end-of-chapter problems, case studies, illustrative examples, and real-world applications Service Systems Engineering and Management is primarily addressed to those who are interested in learning how to apply operations research models and methods for managing service enterprises. This textbook is well suited for industrial engineering students interested in service systems applications and MBA students in elective courses in operations management, logistics and supply chain management that emphasize quantitative analysis.

This book defines supply chains, focusing on the impact that they can have o the retail industry. Featuring step-by-step how supply chains are set up, the factors that can impact them and what that means to the customer.

All businesses strive for excellence in today's technology-based environment in which customers want solutions at the touch of a button. This highly regarded textbook provides in-depth coverage of the principles of operations and supply chain management and explains how to design, implement, and maintain processes for sustainable competitive advantage. This text offers a unique combination of theory and practice with a strategic, results-driven approach. Now in its fourth edition, Operations Management for Business Excellence has been updated to reflect major advances and future trends in supply chain management. A new chapter on advanced supply chain concepts covers novel logistics technology, information systems, customer proximity, sustainability, and the use of multiple sales channels. As a platform for discussion, the exploration of future trends includes self-driving vehicles, automation and robotics, and omnichannel retailing. Features include: A host of international case studies and examples to demonstrate how theory translates to practice, including Airbus, Hewlett Packard, Puma, and Toyota. A consistent structure to aid learning and retention: Each chapter begins with a detailed set of learning objectives and finishes with a chapter summary, a set of discussion questions and a list of key terms. Fully comprehensive with an emphasis on the practical, this textbook should be core reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of operations management and supply chain management. It would also appeal to executives who desire an understanding of how to achieve and maintain 'excellence' in business. Online resources include lecture slides, a glossary, test questions, downloadable figures, and a bonus chapter on project management.

For over a decade, there has been an increasing interest in the use of supply chain methods to improve performance across the entire business enterprise. Numerous industries have recognized the importance of efficient supply chain integration, and, as a result, supply chain management has become a standard part of business practice.

The Practice of Supply Chain Management: Where Theory and Application Converge is a must-have volume for users of supply chain management methods, supply chain management researchers, and students in supply chain management. The objective of the book is to provide an overview of this important practice-research cycle, and it is organized into three sections: Core Concepts and Practices; Emerging Supply Chain Practices; and Supply Chain in Action. The focus of the book is on supply chain practice, but supply chain practice that has been heavily influenced by supply chain research. It is this synergy between research and practice that continues to simulate new directions for research.

If the only measure of your organization's purchasing performance is forcing down prices from suppliers then not only is your purchasing team failing to add value, they may also be damaging your supply chain and the medium to long-term competitiveness of your organization. Derek Roylance's Purchasing Performance - Measuring, Marketing and Selling the Purchasing Function is a blueprint to help you identify the performance measures and marketing expertise that matter for your purchasing team. Buyers don't exist in isolation but often find it easier to focus excessively on the external market place leading to neglect and subsequent alienation of their internal customers. The book recommends operating the function as a business within a business. Part of this approach is to increase market share by better internal marketing and selling of their procurement expertise. The author provides practical methods for measuring purchasing performance and then communicating effectively - to the whole organization - the contribution the function can make to increase competitive advantage, profitability and all-round efficiency. In an intensely competitive world marketplace, purchasing can only achieve its true potential if it can persuade top decision makers that it will pay them to involve their procurement specialists in all major strategic decisions; the book shows how to achieve this top-level influence.

An incredible volume of data is generated at a very high speed within the supply chain and it is necessary to understand, use and effectively apply the knowledge learned from analyzing data using intelligent business models. However, practitioners and students in the field of supply chain management face a number of challenges when dealing with business models and mathematical modelling. Supply Chain Analytics and Modelling presents a range of business analytics models used within the supply chain to help readers develop knowledge on a variety of topics to overcome common issues. Supply Chain Analytics and Modelling covers areas including supply chain planning, single and multi-objective optimization, demand forecasting, product allocations, end-to-end supply chain simulation, vehicle routing and scheduling models. Learning is supported by case studies of specialist software packages for each example. Readers will also be provided with a critical view on how supply chain management performance measurement systems have been developed and supported by reliable and accurate data available in the supply chain. Online resources including lecturer slides are available.

This book focuses on latest cutting-edge research to address the interaction between risk and innovation management in supply chains. It is predicted that future operations and supply chain management will be more digital. The collection aims on investigating how digital technologies have helped or can help organisations and supply chains being more resilient. The work is a compilation of selected papers from the 2021 International Conference on Operations and Supply Chain Management: Supply Chain Risk & Innovation Management In "The Next Normal" (ICOSCM 2021). The contents make valuable contributions to academic researchers, practitioners in the industry, and policy makers of respective authorities. Those who lack digital capabilities will find the collection useful in improving their capabilities.

This book summarizes a set of lectures given at U.C. Berkeley in the Fall of 2001, highlighting the connection between traffic flow, queuing systems and supply chains. The book unveils the root causes of the "bullwhip" effect; i.e., where the production of raw materials in a supply chain is seen to be more volatile than that of intermediate goods, and even more so than the final customer demand. It also shows that this indesirable effect arises if suppliers act in a certain non-cooperative way, even if they have perfect information about the future. Their actions, just as importantly as what they know, determine the stability of a supply chain. The book then describes control methods for eliminating all instabilities without increasing supplier costs, and presents approximate cost formulas. It also shows that for every supply chain, there is a dual queuing system with identical behavior, and that queuing systems can be similary controled.