This book presents recent advances in the theory and application of the Best-Worst Method (BWM). It includes selected papers from the Second International Workshop on Best-Worst Method (BWM2021), held in Delft, The Netherlands from 10-11 June, 2021, and provides valuable insights on why and how to use BWM in a diverse range of applications including health, energy, supply chain management, and engineering. The book highlights the use of BWM in different settings including single decision-making vs group decision-making, and complete information vs incomplete and uncertain situations. The papers gathered here will benefit academics and practitioners who are involved in multi-criteria decision-making and decision analysis.

This book intersects the distributed ledger technology (DLT) community with the international security community. Given the increasing application of blockchain technology in the fields of business and international development, there is a growing body of study on other use cases. For instance, can blockchain have a significant role in preserving and improving international security? This book explores this question in the context of preventing the proliferation of some of the most dangerous materials in the world-items that if not secured can lend to the development of weapons of mass destruction. It considers how blockchain can increase efficiencies in the global trade of nuclear and chemical materials and technology, thereby increasing assurances related to compliance with international nonproliferation and disarmament treaties.

This open access book provides a clear holistic conceptual framework of CISS-F (competitiveness, inclusiveness, sustainability, scalability and access to finance) to analyse the efficiency of value chains of high value agricultural commodities in India. It is based on the understanding that agriculture is an integrated system that connects farming with logistics, processing and marketing. Farmer's welfare being central to any agricultural policy makes it very pertinent to study how a value chain works and can be strengthened further to realize this policy goal. This book adds value to the existing research by studying the value chains end-to-end across a wide spectrum of agricultural commodities with the holistic lens of CISS-F. It is not enough that a value chain is competitive but not inclusive or it is competitive and inclusive but not sustainable. The issue of scalability is very critical to achieve macro gains in terms of greater farmer outreach and sectoral growth. The research undertaken here brings out some very useful insights for policymaking in terms of what needs to be done better to steer the agricultural value chains towards being more competitive, inclusive, sustainable and scalable. The value chain specific research findings help draw very nuanced policy recommendations as well as present a big picture of the future direction of policy making in agriculture.

From data collection to evaluation and visualization of prediction results, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the process of predicting demand for retailers. Each step is illustrated with the relevant code and implementation details to demystify how historical data can be leveraged to predict future demand. The tools and methods presented can be applied to most retail settings, both online and brick-and-mortar, such as fashion, electronics, groceries, and furniture. This book is intended to help students in business analytics and data scientists better master how to leverage data for predicting demand in retail applications. It can also be used as a guide for supply chain practitioners who are interested in predicting demand. It enables readers to understand how to leverage data to predict future demand, how to clean and pre-process the data to make it suitable for predictive analytics, what the common caveats are in terms of implementation and how to assess prediction accuracy.

This book summarizes the effect of COVID-19 on the global supply chain. Eminent researchers, practitioners, and professors discuss the challenges faced by supply chain providers and supply chain strategies related to various global, retail, fast moving consumer goods, humanitarian, pharmaceutical, and agricultural supply chains. This book also suggests the resilient approach adopted by supply chain organizations for quick recovery and re-establishing their networks. This book helps the readers explore the pandemic's impact on the supply chain and rebuilding the same using suitable approaches.

The book examines the supply chain from different perspectives: the physical structure which it is composed of (actors, roles, infrastructures and processes), the organizational structure of the people involved (business functions and related interactions and integrations), and the manifold flows that characterize it (product flows, information flows, service flows and monetary flows). For each of these dimensions, the text thoroughly illustrates how to design and manage it, aligning supply chain performance and competitive strategies through an integrated approach, which is key to generate competitive advantage. The book covers the different topics by combining a quantitative approach typical of engineering disciplines and adopted particularly in the operational parts, with a qualitative approach which fits in the more strategic parts. This combination makes the volume suitable for both under- and post-graduate students in industrial engineering and management, as well as undergraduates or masters students confronting supply chain management from different cultural backgrounds. Industry operators and practitioners can also find useful insights, since it thoroughly describes industry best practices, especially in the food and consumer goods, fashion and apparel, pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, stemming from author's real life experiences in these fields.

Agribusiness offers a unique introduction to the business of agriculture: what agribusiness is, why it matters, what the role of technology is, how trade fits into the picture, what its key risks are, who is lending and investing and why, and what returns they are getting. It is both practical in orientation - focusing on the role of managers in the industry as well as that of lenders and investors - and international in scope - drawing on case studies and interviews with key figures all over the world. The text ranges across various agricultural commodities to stress that there is no 'one size fits all' solution and successful management, lending or investment in agribusiness requires understanding specifics. Readers are introduced to the economics of the supply and demand of food, the role of agricultural trade, agricultural marketing and farm management along with key business aspects including: Main drivers of agribusiness value; Principal risks of agribusinesses; Agribusiness as an investment class; and Agribusiness lending: why, who and how. This engaging textbook offers a complete guide to the international business of agriculture which is ideal for all students, scholars and practitioners. A selection of eResources is also available to supplement this text, and instructors will find PowerPoint slides, discussion questions, case studies and further teaching materials available to them.

Most companies are continuously trying to reduce their supply-chain costs, time to market, and inventory. Optimizing Your Supply-Chain Performance: How to Assess and Improve Your Company's Strategy and Execution Capabilities presents the "how-to's" (and a few "how-NOT-to's"!) for conducting assessments of companies' supply chains as well as identifying areas for improvement. It covers techniques, tools, and methodologies for evaluating current working methods (current state) versus industry best practices and operational optimization. It identifies performance gaps and suggests planning and implementing improved ways of working (the future and ideal states). With a collection of approximately 40 case-in-point examples of supply-chain transformation across a wide array of industries including Fortune 1000 companies as well as foreign global leaders, this book provides a detailed guide for assessing and improving organizational strategy and execution-capabilities for: Inventory management Order fulfillment Sourcing and purchasing Manufacturing planning, scheduling, and execution Overall supply-chain effectiveness Business continuity planning Essentially, this book provides basic knowledge for assessing, improving, and optimizing the end-to-end supply chain, and the case-in-point examples assist in breaking down theories into simple, actionable improvement activities. The author stresses the importance of business continuity and provides grassroots approaches to identifying risks. Based on the author's vast experience out in the field, it gives professionals a new perspective and inspires them to seek world-class performance.

This book is a collection of best selected research papers from the "Digital Technologies in Logistics and Infrastructure" conference (ICDT-2021). The topics of the presented papers are related to various aspects, problems, and solutions in maritime, transport, warehouse logistics, digital transformation, and information technologies in logistics, as well as digital transformation of infrastructure industries from theoretical and practical points of view. The authors of the conference are representatives of major companies, researchers, and scientists from Russia, Hungary, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Thailand, the Netherlands, and Finland. The conference proceedings are of interest to researchers and practitioners in the field of logistics and infrastructure in various sectors of digitalization.

The need to contain costs across the business is as strong as ever and the search for cost reduction opportunities is intensifying. There still remains one last major opportunity to take out costs - through the supply chain. Ultimately all costs will make their way to the final marketplace to be reflected in the price paid by the end user. Smart companies instead seek to make the supply chain more competitive through the value it creates and the costs it reduces overall. They have realized that the real competition is not company against company but rather supply chain against supply chain. Supply Chain Management Accounting looks at how the evolution of supply chains has been dramatic over the last few years, with more and more companies moving to sourcing overseas, distributing finished goods to overseas markets, and increasing their international operations. The seeking of low-cost country sourcing, optimizing manufacturing, and exporting products and services has created new challenges to demand forecasting and supply chain planning. Supply Chain Management Accounting presents a wide range of approaches and ground-breaking research findings. The book covers profitability, liquidity and asset utilization, product costing, activity-based costing, investment appraisal, customer profitability analysis, budgeting and sales and operations planning. Online supporting resources include invaluable study questions and worked solutions to reinforce the learning as well as multiple-choice questions with solutions and PowerPoint activities.

This book consolidates the current state of knowledge on implementing cooperating robot-based systems to increase the flexibility of manufacturing systems. It is based on the concrete experiences of experts, practitioners, and engineers in implementing cooperating robot systems for more flexible manufacturing systems. Thanks to the great variety of manufacturing systems that we had the opportunity to study, a remarkable collection of methods and tools has emerged. The aim of the book is to share this experience with academia and industry practitioners seeking to improve manufacturing practice. While there are various books on teaching principles for robotics, this book offers a unique opportunity to dive into the practical aspects of implementing complex real-world robotic applications. As it is used in this book, the term "cooperating robots" refers to robots that either cooperate with one another or with people. The book investigates various aspects of cooperation in the context of implementing flexible manufacturing systems. Accordingly, manufacturing systems are the main focus in the discussion on implementing such robotic systems. The book begins with a brief introduction to the concept of manufacturing systems, followed by a discussion of flexibility. Aspects of designing such systems, e.g. material flow, logistics, processing times, shop floor footprint, and design of flexible handling systems, are subsequently covered. In closing, the book addresses key issues in operating such systems, which concern e.g. decision-making, autonomy, cooperation, communication, task scheduling, motion generation, and distribution of control between different devices. Reviewing the state of the art and presenting the latest innovations, the book offers a valuable asset for a broad readership.

This book uses numerous examples to describe the current opportunities and risks of air freight against the backdrop of stagnating transport volumes since the financial crisis in 2008. It shows what impact these developments have had on those involved, in particular shippers, airlines, airports and freight forwarders. The application-oriented presentation also provides an insight into the design of complex supply chains and the areas of tension in which the players in air freight operate.

Practical guidance and a fresh approach for more accurate value-based pricing Pricing Done Right provides a cutting-edge framework for value-based pricing and clear guidance on ideation, implementation, and execution. More action plan than primer, this book introduces a holistic strategy for ensuring on-target pricing by shifting the conversation from 'What is value-based pricing?' to 'How can we ensure that our pricing reflects our goals?' You'll learn to identify the decisions that must be managed, how to manage them, and who should make them, as illustrated by real-world case studies. The key success factor is to build a pricing organization within your organization; this reveals the relationships between pricing decisions, how they affect each other, and what the ultimate effects might be. With this deep-level insight, you are better able to decide where your organization needs to go. Pricing needs to be done right, and pricing decisions have to be made but are you sure that you're leaving these decisions to the right people? Few managers are confident that their prices accurately reflect the cost and value of their product, and this uncertainty leaves money on the table. This book provides a practical template for better pricing strategies, methods, roles, and decisions, with a concrete roadmap through execution. * Identify the right questions for pricing analyses * Improve your pricing strategy and decision making process * Understand roles, accountability, and value-based pricing * Restructure perspectives to help pricing reflect your organization's goals The critical link between pricing and corporate strategy must be reflected in the decision making process. Pricing Done Right provides the blueprint for more accurate pricing, with expert guidance throughout the change process.

This book aims to provide academic and industrial applications advancing the critical role of circular economy principles in the sustainability of various resources. The latest research and practice in resource sustainability are shared, discussed, and promoted. The core competency of this book revolves around providing recent advances in sustainable consumption and production implementations, developed tools for environmental and sustainability assessment, technological advancements in resource and waste management/treatment, and advances in waste reduction, reuse, recycling, and recovery. Resources are defined broadly to include (1) physical resources: metals, non-metallic minerals, energy, and water (2) biological resources: food, forestry, land, ecological systems, etc., and (3) "misplaced" resources: air emissions, water pollutants, and solid waste. Finally, legislation, and policy implications and recommendations for resources sustainability are concluded.

This book explores the impact of industry 4.0 on agricultural supply chains, exploring how changes such as increased digitisation, automation, and the digital value chain, will impact food production globally. At a time when increasing population and environmental degradation puts stress on food supply chains, traditional farming operation models struggle to maintain both sustainability and transparency. Industry 4.0 could lead to digitalised ways of farming and agricultural production processes that will transform the traditional operating and process models to digital, data-intensive methods focusing on analytics and decision-making practices. This book aims to provider the reader with an understanding of the concept of Agriculture 4.0 in relation to supply chain management. Different applications of Agricultural 4.0 supply chains are discussed in relation to their respective advantages and disadvantages. Dr. Stella Despoudi is Lecturer in Operations and Supply Chan Management at Aston University and Adjunct Lecturer in Supply Chain Management at the University of Western Macedonia, Greece.Dr. Konstantina Spanaki is a Lecturer in Information Management at Loughborough University, UK. Dr. Oscar Rodriguez-Espindola is a Senior lecturer in Operations and Supply Chain Management at Aston University and a member of the Aston CRISIS centre, UK. Dr. Efpraxia Zamani is a Senior Lecturer of Information Systems at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Die IT-Branche hat sich uber die letzten Jahre hinweg wiederholt nach dem gleichen Muster entwickelt: Es gab eine neue Technologie - diese wurde akzeptiert oder verworfen - und anschlieend verschmolz ein Teil der neuen Methoden mit etablierten Technologien. Dabei sind auerst effektive Management-Technologien entstanden. Das Buch stellt diese Technologien praxisbezogen dar und beschreibt deren Zusammenwachsen zu einer effizienten Sammlung breit anwendbarer Management-Tools.

This book focuses on three essential elements of agricultural supply chains: Planting and Growing, Processing and Selling, and Government Interventions. For decades, most agricultural economists applied macro-economic theory in decisions pertaining to the optimization of food production and distribution. However, few researchers used micro-economic theory to examine how individual farmers respond to market information, incentive pricing mechanisms and different market structures in the trade of agricultural goods. Examining challenges in agricultural supply chain operations through the lens of micro-economic theory is imperative because it can enable policymakers and social enterprises to develop and design market information provision policy, incentive contracts and market structures for improving farmer and consumer welfare. In each chapter, contributing authors motivate their research questions by providing the context and articulating the importance of their questions. They present their analysis to examine the respective research questions and explain their results. At the end of each chapter, they provide a short list of future research questions.

Today, one of the top priorities of an organization's modern corporate strategy is to portray itself as socially responsible and environmentally sustainable. As a focal point of sustainability initiatives, green supply chain management has emerged as a key strategy that can provide competitive advantages with significant parallel gains for company profitability. In designing a green supply chain, the intent is the adoption of comprehensive and cross-business sustainability principles, from the product conception stage to the end-of-life stage. In this context, green initiatives relate to tangible and intangible corporate benefits. Sustainability reports from numerous companies reveal that greening their supply chains has helped reduce operating cost, thus boosting effectiveness and efficiency while increasing sustainability of the business. Green Supply Chain Management provides a strategic overview of sustainable supply chain management, shedding light on the theoretical background and key principles of the topic. Specifically, this book covers various thematic areas including benefits and impact of green supply chain management; enablers and barriers on supply chain operations; inbound and outbound logistics considerations; and production, packaging and reverse logistics under the notion of "greening". The ultimate aim of this textbook is to highlight the challenges in the implementation of green supply chain management in modern companies and to provide a roadmap for decision-making in real-life cases. Combining chapter summaries and discussion questions, this book provides an accessible and student-friendly introduction to green supply change management and will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners in the fields of sustainable business and supply chain management.

Organisational buying is the purchase of goods and/ or services, by one or more individuals acting on behalf of the buyer firm, after a formal or informal consideration of purchase alternatives, and, the integration or use of those goods and/ or services to address one or more buyer firm problems or issues. Organisational buying accounts for about two-thirds of economic transactions globally. However, organisational buying has traditionally been taught in discipline-specific silos. Organisational buying concepts appear in courses on marketing and sales management, procurement, contract management, supply chain management, operations management, finance, as well as accounting. Moreover, most organisations treat organisational buying activities in a similarly disjointed way. This book provides a comprehensive overview of organisational buying that integrates perspectives from across a range of disciplines and organisational functions. The primary goal of the book is to develop a holistic interpretation of organisational buying. It covers topics such as: * Purchase situations. * The organisational buying process. * The purchase decision and the value proposition. * Communications in organisational buying. * Buyer-supplier relationships. * Organisational buying capabilities. * Organisational buying culture. * Organisational buying approach design. * Channels of supply. * Networks and organisational buying. Written in a practical, approachable way the book includes a range of exercises, case examples, learning objectives and discussion questions to support a broad spectrum of organisational buying-related courses.

In recent years, digital business models have frequently been the subject of academic and practical discourse. The increasing interconnectivity across the entire supply chain, which is subsumed under the term Industry 4.0, can unlock even farther-reaching potentials for digital business models, affecting entire supply chains and ecosystems. This book examines the specific challenges and obstacles that supply chain and ecosystem management poses with regard to the development of digital business models. The top-quality contributions gathered here focus on the successful implementation of Industry 4.0 in digital business models for industrial organizations in a European context, making the book a valuable asset for researchers and practitioners alike.

This book highlights the applications of blockchain technologies to foster sustainable development in different fields. The concept of Sustainability has grown widespread in today's context and there are many requirements to achieve Sustainability in any industrial sector including mapping, tracing the supply chain to ensure sustainable supply chain management. Reliable and transparent, efficient data is one of the key requirements for Sustainability in today's advanced industrial context. Achievement of Sustainability objectives in this advanced era demands various technological advancements such as Blockchain technologies. The core competencies of blockchain technology namely transparency, data auditability, privacy, value transfer, and process efficiency and automation are very much essential for achieving the multifold objectives under sustainability.

For any business involved in today's supply chains, logistics services are critical. Companies have to decide whether to retain their own logistics operations or place their trust in third-party suppliers. This potential move away from the traditional approach of managing these processes internally can lead to improved service and reduced cost although this isn't always the case. The Logistics Outsourcing Handbook provides step by step guidance on the process of logistics outsourcing and explains how to apply this information for commercial success. Vital advice is given on benchmarking existing operations, how to shortlist companies, produce a request for a proposal, choose the optimum supplier and implement and manage the contract. The Logistics Outsourcing Handbook analyses outsourcing from both an industry wide perspective, while also drilling down into specific individual considerations. The book provides valuable guidance in terms of contractual relationships, cost models and the integration of information technology systems. By analysing current statistics and surveys, looking into factors behind why contracts are awarded and terminated important insights can be acquired. This book contains tools, models, online resources and case studies on the outsourced relationships of companies including Intel KFC and BA to further develop the reader's knowledge which makes this book an informative and essential resource.

Around the world, virtually every company is engaged in some form of effort intended to improve the processing that takes place across an end-to-end supply chain system as they work towards moving their organizations to the next level of performance. Supply chain, particularly when enhanced with collaboration and Internet technology, is uniquely suited to helping an organization increase profits and decrease costs. A comprehensive guide to adding value to supply chain efforts, Using Models to Improve the Supply Chain demonstrates how leading firms have successfully integrated their supply chains and how they plan further progress through supply chain evolution.

Using both generic and specific models, the author carefully explains just what's required for each function of the supply chain and outlines what takes place form lower to higher levels of progress. He emphasizes establishing the pathway to success, then finding the correct models to guide the effort, and finally, implementing with the right combination of technology and collaboration, the elements that set one supply chain apart from another in the eyes of the customers and consumers. He explores the importance of business-to-business commerce or business-to-business-to-consumer commerce, enabled by cyber techniques as a central concept in any future business strategy.

Although some firms have come close, no firm has yet mastered all of the techniques and tool required to claim the dominant position. Selecting and applying the correct models can only enhance the odds of being the eventual ultimate leader in a particular industry. A practical guide for moving your supply chain effort forward, Using Models to Improve the Supply Chain provides the missing links needed to reach the necessary level of achievement.

How to Conquer the Effective Frontier and Drive Improved Value in Global Operations Growth has slowed. Volatility has increased and the world is more global. Brands are defined by innovation and services. Supply chain excellence matters more than ever. It makes a difference in corporate performance. One cannot snap their fingers and deliver supply chain success. It happens over the course of many years. It is measured in inches not miles. In this book, the author evaluates the progress of over a hundred companies over the period of 2006-2013. Success drives value. The effective supply chain makes a difference in winning a war, saving a patient, and driving commerce; but it also makes a difference in a community having clean air, potable water, and a standard of living. Mistakes are hard to overcome. Supply Chain Metrics that Matter tells this story. The book links corporate financials to supply chain maturity. In the book, the author analyzes which metrics matter. The author Lora M. Cecere is a supply chain researcher as well as an authority in supply chain technology. She helps companies gain first mover advantage. In the book, Cecere provides concrete, actionable steps to align and balance the supply chain to drive value. The book explores the crossover between supply chain efficiency and financial growth with topics such as: * Outlining the metrics that matter, the metrics that don't * Progress in industry sub-segment in improving inventory, cash, productivity and margin * The management techniques that improve performance * Sharing insights on how metrics change as the supply chain matures * The roadmap to improve performance. Today, supply chains are global and dynamic. They are rapidly evolving. Companies that constantly seek out new solutions and opportunities for improvement drive differentiation. In a market where growth is stalled and many companies are stuck in driving supply chain performance, this book provides a clear, concise framework for a more modern, effective supply chain.

This book shows how digital transformation has the power to revolutionize the way procurement operates, and discusses how especially buyer decisions are empowered through artificial intelligence. Depending on a company's strategy all desired outcomes are possible, including doubling savings, innovation, sustainability, quality, speed, and halve the risk. Jumpstart to Digital Procurement is a hands-on guide on how companies can grasp the opportunities offered by digital transformation.