Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) are a massive subset of the healthcare industry that negotiate lower costs for healthcare supplies by buying for several hospitals at once. Group Purchasing Organizations provides an analysis and critique of this industry.

This book highlights the latest research on sub-supplier management while also discussing its current state and related managerial challenges. It provides a process framework for managing sub-suppliers and an overview of the various buyer / sub-supplier relationships and their key characteristics. Furthermore, the respective chapters address essential capabilities to successfully manage sub-suppliers and to discuss how to overcome barriers and challenges associated with sub-supplier management. Concrete examples and cases are also provided, and, in closing, potential research opportunities are outlined and demonstrated.

What is motivational dysfunction? You have seen it, you may even have experienced it, and you have certainly felt the effects of this dysfunction in your workplace. Often undiagnosed, employees suffering from motivational dysfunction have lowered motivation caused by a lack of excitement for their job. This serious issue can cost companies billions of dollars per year in lost productivity. How can you combat this in your organization? Simply put, leadership is the cure. Focusing on the people aspect of supply chains, Modeling and Benchmarking Supply Chain Leadership: Setting the Conditions for Excellence provides the framework for leading people to achieve new levels of excellence.

Applying his 30 years of supply chain experience and exemplary leadership, Joe Walden details the qualities considered benchmarks for measuring leadership success. He uses the LEADERSHIP(c) acronym to establish a framework. Each chapter examines a critical attribute, defining it and using examples of good and bad leadership from the military and a range of commercial industries. Just as the study of operations management used the House of Quality to describe how quality is designed into and built into a product; Walden looks at how the attributes of leadership form a House of Leadership.

More than a few business leaders have insinuated that the supply chain is where future competitions will be and winning those competitions will require leadership. While technical skills, automation of functions, and information systems are important, without the right people with the right training and skill set, supply chains will fail and motivational dysfunction will take hold. This book provides a model of leadership to motivate your team and empower them to make the decisions that set the conditions for supply chain victory.

Port Economics is the study of the economic decisions (and their consequences) of the users and providers of port services. A port works as an "engine" for economic development. This book provides a detailed discussion of port freight service users, such as freight water and land carriers, that have their ships and vehicles serviced and their cargoes unloaded by ports, as well as passenger services such as ferry carriers which are serviced by ferry passenger ports. This text continues to enhance our understanding of port economics by exploring the economic theories, supply and demand curves, and the actual and opportunity costs relating to the carriers, shippers and passengers who use ports. This new edition has been updated throughout. This includes: An expanded discussion of container, break-bulk, dry-bulk, liquid-bulk and neo-bulk ports; An introduction of port service chains, hinterland transport chains, maritime transport chains and port multi-service congestion; A discussion of seaborne trade, dry ports, port centrality and connectivity and free trade zones. This updated and comprehensive introduction to port economics will be of benefit to students and researchers in their study of port economics and management. It is also of great importance to professionals who manage and operate ports as well as freight and passenger carriers.

Vor dem Hintergrund der zunehmenden Komplexitat oft globaler, multimodaler Supply Chains einerseits, und der zu konstatierenden nur rudimentaren Umsetzung adaquater Risikomanagement-Konzepte in der Praxis andererseits, greift die Arbeit ein aktuelles Thema der Betriebswirtschaftslehre unter Berucksichtigung der Bereiche Logistik, Geschaftsprozessmodellierung und verteilte Produktion auf. Untersuchungsgegenstand sind Supply Chains, insbesondere Construction Supply Chains, welche derzeit etwa bei der Realisierung von Offshore-Windparks zum Tragen kommen. Im Rahmen des Risikomanagement-Ansatzes entsteht ein mehrkriterielles Entscheidungsproblem, welches in seinen Auswirkungen mittels der Simulationstechnik analysiert wird. Als ein Ergebnis wird ein Vorgehensmodell zum systematischen quantitativen Supply Chain Risikomanagement entwickelt.

The structure of this book follows the decision-making process of Original Equipment Manufacturers investigating the potential of closed loops, including fundamental questions managers must answer when planning a circular supply chain: Does a closed loop fit corporate objectives? Is it profitable? How should OEMs deal with free-rider competition? Which product/technology/location setup leads to a profit-maximizing supply chain? The book includes case studies from the tire and the computer industry.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) has been widely researched in numerous application domains during the last few decades. Despite the popularity of SCM research and applications, there remains considerable confusion as to the clarity of its meaning. There are several attempts made by researchers and practitioners to appropriately define SCM and its challenges. This book entitled Supply Chain Management: Practices, Applications and Challenges is comprised of eleven chapters. Chapter One entails strategic supply chain partnerships which can have dramatic effects on a firm's financial success. Certainly, partnering at both production and sales levels can help to shorten the supply chain and lower costs on the entire production process of a company. Chapter Two highlights global outsourcingalso known as off-shoringand explains the issues of off-shoring. This chapter explains global outsourcing, past and present trends, and lessons learned from the US perspective based on US companies that have various outsourcing issues. In Chapter Three, a decision model is developed aiming to optimise the costs related to the shipment of goods from one or more suppliers to the wholesaler. That model is able to provide expert advice to support the decision to be made by the wholesaler, taking into consideration all the expected costs and achieve the minimisation of total logistics costs. Chapter Four allows readers to explore the ways location can contribute to success or struggle through the evaluation of location strategies. In Chapter Five, the balanced resilience framework for the management of supply chain performance is introduced based on an outline and an evaluation of the prevalent focused frameworks (e.g. agile, resilient, and lean SCM) as well as blended frameworks (i.e. leagile, anti-fragile, and sustainable SCM). An increasing pressure to invest in renewable energy sources is getting high priority due to alarming global warming, pollution and skyrocketing prices of the conventional energy sources. In Chapter Six, HOMER software, an implementation of renewable energy sources, has been used to perform simulations of hybrid systems for street-lighting applications. Chapter Seven depicts some of the more common approaches to strategic competitive advantage via the successful tools associated with outsourcing. Continued outsourcing activities will better their business strategy, even with increasing pressure from both the government and unions as difficult decisions and possible job shifts lie ahead in a world of increasing income disparity. Chapter Eight describes the different stages of the cement manufacturing process in India. The strategies of Green Supply Chain Management are defined clearly for evaluating cement industrial process analysis. In Chapter Nine, three frameworksparticularly the ranking, the portfolio, and the nexus frameworksare outlined for the effective and efficient handling of interconnected conflicts. Chapter Ten illustrates how an organisation has grown at unprecedented rate for the last few decades by utilising the best practices in supply chain management. Finally, Chapter Eleven demonstrates the development of a spreadsheet-based simulation package, which supports the analysis of inventory policies in a four-stage serial supply chain.

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.

Standards play crucial roles in many different aspects of today's economy. They can define meanings of semantics, product interfaces, process steps, or performance levels. Interorganisational standards are specifications that define business-related semantics and processes, which are made accessible to other organisations' information systems. While modular organisation forms such as supply chain networks demand such standards for higher flexibility, XML-based Web Services offer a relatively new technological platform to develop such standards. The development of comprehensive interorganisational standards, however, is far from being completed. This book thus answers the questions, how interorganisational standards are developed and how different actors should get involved in it. The author uses actor-network theory to conduct two in-depth case studies on ebXML and RosettaNet. While researchers will find new explanations for the development of interorganisational standards, managers and executives will benefit from the strategic implications this book discusses.

Stetige Veranderungen des Umfeldes stellen neue Anforderungen an Supply Chains. Durch wachsenden Wettbewerbsdruck werden Fragen nach Differenzierungsmoeglichkeiten und/oder Kosteneinsparungspotenzialen laut. Aus einem anhaltenden Individualisierungstrend der Gesellschaft resultiert ein verandertes Nachfrageverhalten nach etwas "Einzigartigem". Die Arbeit eroertert die Gestaltung von Supply Chains zwischen Kostendruck und der Erfullung von kundenindividuellen Anforderungen aus logistischer Sicht. Das Ziel besteht darin, ein Gestaltungsmodell kundenindividueller Supply Chains zu entwickeln. Das Modell basiert auf einer Analyse von logistischen Planungsaufgaben in Abhangigkeit des Kundenauftragsentkopplungspunktes (KAEP), die sich mit unterschiedlichem Kundenindividualitatsgrad einer Supply Chain verandern.

Smart, strategic inventory management delivers competitive advantage, yet Inventory Turn trends suggest that little seems to change. Sustainable improvement through increasing control of systems and processes generates savings that can, in turn, be invested in growth initiatives. Inventory is not something that just concerns planning, production and finance. By working to better understand and control their inventory-related processes, everyone can drive improvements that will harness inventory's potential to become a source of sustainable competitive advantage. Unlike other guides to inventory management, this book is not only aimed at planners or inventory managers, but details the impact, both direct and indirect, that all functions have on inventory. It is rich in practical tools that can be clearly implemented, including a detailed purchasing strategy and guide to error management. It is also rich in best-practice cases that further show how to implement these methodologies in a real-world context. This book is essential reading for any manager or executive looking to boost their organisation's competitive advantage, as well as students of inventory management, production and operations management.

Due to its societal and economic relevance, Project Management (PM) has become an important discipline and a concept critical to modern organizations, public and private. PM as an academic discipline is discussed both in Management Science and in Operations Research. Management Science tends to focus on quantitative tools and the soft skills necessary to manage projects successfully. Operations Research gives the essential scientific contribution to the success of project management through the development of models and algorithms. In Management Science, Operations Research and Project Management, Jose RamA(3)n San CristA(3)bal Mateo fills the gap between scientific research and the practical application of that research. Project managers need formal training in decision-making but sometimes, they do not have an in-depth knowledge of Operations Research or they lack the necessary theoretical background. This book, with its focus on the quantitative models of Operations Research and Management Science applied to Project Management, provides project managers with the tools and methods necessary to manage projects successfully. Project managers operate in a complex global environment, in which numerous factors need to be considered, such as minimizing total project costs, meeting contracted dates, and ensuring that activities achieve certain quality levels. The focus here on the application of quantitative models of Operations Research and Management Science applied to Project Management provides them with the tools and methods necessary to make sound decisions.

The rapid advancement of technology and of Internet commerce in a globalized market has brought change at an unprecedented rate. Credit institutions, manufacturing, merchandising and service companies are finding that their traditional methods and tools for accounting and logistics no longer suffice. They must develop more efficient processes, able to assure management control in real-time, promote transparency in accounts, and make immediate corrective action possible. The earlier they prepare to take advantage of the Internet supply chain, the greater the benefits will be. This book focuses on the most significant developments taking place in the market, their impact on the accounting and finance function, the new efficient logistics solutions, and how new technology effects commerce. Based on an extensive research project in the US, Britain, Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden, The Internet Supply Chain explains what can be expected in business opportunities and in cost savings from selling and purchasing through the internet. The author goes on to suggest how accounting and logistics will need to be restructured to cope with, and make the most of the challenges and benefits presented by the Internet supply chain.

You don't have to outrun the bear ... you just have to outrun the other guy. Often in business we only have to run a bit faster than our competitors to be successful. The same is true in risk management. While we would always like to anticipate and prevent risk from happening, when risk events do occur being faster, flexible, and more responsive than others can make a world of difference. Supply Chain Risk Management: An Emerging Discipline gives you the tools and expertise to do just that. While the focus of the book is on how you can react better and faster than the others, the text also helps you understand how to prevent certain risks from happening in the first place. The authors detail a risk management framework that helps you reduce the costs associated with risk, protect your brand and reputation, ensure positive financial outcomes, and develop visible, predictable, resilient, and sustainable supply chains. They provide access to a cloud-based, end-to-end supply chain risk assessment "Heat Map" that illustrates the maturity of the chain through the various stages. It should not come as a surprise to anyone that the world is a riskier place than it was just 15 years ago. A survey used to calculate the Allianz Risk Barometer recently concluded for the first time that supply chain risk is now the top concern of global insurance providers. For most organizations this new reality requires major adjustments, some of which will not be easy. This book helps you understand the emerging discipline called supply chain risk management. It explains the relevant concepts, supplies a wide variety of tools and approaches to help your organization stay ahead of its competitors, and takes a look at future directions in risk management-all in a clear, concise presentation that gives you practical advice and helps you develop actionable strategies.

The Contracting Organization offers a clear and accessible guide to the theory and practice of contracting. Well supported by numerous case studies and examples, it is ideal for academics, students and practitioners wanting to understand `make or buy' decisions. Domberger looks at the way in which organizations throughout the world are increasingly contracting out - `outsourcing' - many activities traditionally done in-house. Deregulation, cost reduction, a focus on core activities, and the growth of the service economy all drive this process and are examined within this enlightening text.

This book provides an overview of the key transportation management processes from a shipper's perspective. It enables managers to gain quick insight in the added value of transportation as a strategic differentiator, its key drivers, and guidelines on how to use them in an effective and efficient decision-making process. It explains how to identify and eliminate waste using basic Lean tools and proven concepts. The reader is guided on how to start implementing the Lean methodology and best practices in the industry to realize significant savings. Companies such as Adidas and Amazon are using transportation to increase sales by delivering purchased products faster than the competition. These companies do not treat transportation as a cost center. They are not focusing on reducing transportation spending. They allow customers to buy any product that is available in any store or warehouse and have it delivered to their homes. By delivering faster than the competition, they increase sales. At the same time, they lower their total supply chain costs as faster deliveries lead to fewer returns. Reduction of returns means higher sales and lower transportation costs for returns. The result is higher profits while creating more value for the customer. Transportation is moving from a cost center towards a profit center. The traditional logistics service providers are perceived to not innovate fast enough. Top management must understand the transportation management basics and use it in their strategic decision-making. They should be involved in discussions on how to organize the transport management function in the best way and how to use it as a service differentiator. Transportation is more than the efficient movement of supplies, sub-assemblies and final products. In addition, it is more than the key performance indicators on the business-balanced scorecard. Transportation management professionals fail to catch top management's attention due to the use of technical language. It is more difficult to understand transportation key performance indicators such as loading degree, net and gross pick-up and delivery reliability. It is easier to get top management attention when talking about lost sales due to stock-outs, lost tenders due to long delivery times, high inventory holding and scrap costs.

Supply chain management is a well-developed area. The traditional supply chains are dynamic systems which include the forward and reverse flows of physical products and the related information and fund. However, a service supply chain is different because the real "product" may take the form of a "service" which implies that many traditionally crucial decisions in supply chain management such as product shipping problems are no longer important. Here, a service supply chain is defined as a supply network that transfers resources into services or servitised products, with or without physical products, to satisfy customer needs. As a result, managing a service supply chain system requires innovative strategies with new models. Currently, there is an absence of a comprehensive reference source that provides the state-of-the-art findings on this important topic. It will thus be significant to develop a well-balanced edited volume that includes both theoretical results (from different perspectives) and application cases/studies on service supply chain systems. This book is a pioneering text on service supply chain systems. It features papers which adopt the systems engineering approach in conducting service supply chain analysis. It includes both theoretical results (from different perspectives) and application cases/studies on service supply chain systems. It will be a good reference book for industrialists and academics who are interested in the service industry, service operations, service management, and service sciences.

WINNER: ACA-Bruel 2015 - Grand Prix Businesses are going through rapid change due to an increased focus on sustainability and corporate responsibility, technological advances, geo-political and macro-economic change, and demographic shifts. If purchasing and supply chain managers are to embrace these challenges they must develop new ways of thinking about supply structures and processes as well as new skills and competencies. The Procurement Value Proposition examines these important changes that will have a profound effect on the way future procurement is carried out. It considers the implications of global economic transformation for procurement set against: changes in business contexts, purchasing strategies, organisational structure, roles and responsibilities, system development and skills required to work in the profession. This book discusses the value proposition offered by contemporary procurement to the sustainability and development of business. They examine how organizations that position procurement as a core business function will be able to drive a more competitive lever for change, and more readily adapt to the forces driving rapid change in the current global environment. The Procurement Value Proposition features case studies of companies that are moving through procurement transformation in a continual phase of movement and adaption to the multitude of shifts that are occurring. It features input, observations and case studies from CPO's, Commercial Directors and other Procurement and business leaders. The book considers a variety of geographical contexts and highlights differences between the US, the UK and China. Awarded the Grand Prix ACA-Bruel for its important contributions to the research and practice in procurement and supply chain management, it has been recognized for its ambitious vision of procurement.

Logistics and Supply Chain Management is a comprehensive new text that explains the fundamentals of the subject to help students understand the game rules, goals and objectives when designing, planning and controlling efficient and effective logistics systems in supply chains. It also includes coverage of information technology, the impact of manufacturing and product structures on logistics and supply chain systems, and the environment.Designed specifically with the student in mind, this book is the perfect companion for introductory courses in logistics and supply chain management. Key Features:The book contains many mini cases to illustrate current practice. Discussion tasks have been included to help facilitate effective learning and provide reinforcement. A comprehensive glossary has been included at the end of the book. Key terms are defined at the end of each chapter. Where appropriate, quantitative examples and exercises have been included to help students understand planning and control concepts and analysis tools. Full solutions are provided in the appendix.

Sustainable Operations and Supply Chain Management addresses the most relevant topics of operations and supply chain management from the perspective of sustainability. The main focus is to provide a step by step guide for managerial decisions made along the product life-cycle, following a path made up of the following steps: product design, sourcing, manufacturing, packaging and physical distribution, reverses logistics and recovery.

Dieses Buch zeigt die Bedeutung der Dienstleistungen als zunehmend wichtigen Erwerbszweig fur die Wirtschaft. Der Anteil der Erwerbstatigen im dritten Sektor (tertiarer Sektor) steigt stetig. Durch die spezifische Charakteristik von Dienstleistungen erweist sich die Beschaffung und Bewertung als deutlich schwieriger als der vielerorts bereits hoch professionalisierte Einkauf von Gutern. Zu diesem Zweck hat das Institut fur Supply Chain Management der Universitat St. Gallen ein Projekt gemeinsam mit verschiedenen Verbanden und Praxispartnern aus der Schweiz initiiert. Die Ergebnisse aus diesem Projekt werden in diesem Buch auch vor dem Hintergrund der Digitalisierung anschaulich dargestellt.

Many organisations often fail, or perhaps stumble, in managing their suppliers. This is because the internal customer, or worse, someone else, is left to manage the selected suppliers, without perhaps realising that they have to. There is, therefore, often little use of best practice regarding how a procurement department relates to, or gets involved with the essential supplier management in the procurement process. This book concentrates on the need for better supplier management, and improving supplier management. It gives guidelines on how to better manage contracts and develop suppliers. The book answers the question: "What kind of relationship do I need with suppliers so I can get the best from them, and therefore the best for me?" The style of the book is direct with little jargon. It covers all of the basics as well as providing detailed and wider discussions to encourage thought and practical application. To facilitate practical application, the book is illustrated by case studies and application checklists. The following main sections are covered: Procurement Strategy, Supplier Management; the Suppliers View, Supplier Relationship Management, Supplier Development, Supplier Management: Making the change and Supplier Management: Conclusion

Integrated supply chain planning is well understood by theory and widely applied in practice - however, only with respect to intra-organisational supply chains. In inter-organisational supply chains, an additional, yet unresolved problem arises: due to confidentiality reasons, decentralized parties keep their local data private, which prevents an integrated planning. Local planning procedures such as upstream planning, which are usually applied then, result in suboptimal solutions for the supply chain as a whole. In this work, new mechanisms for inter-organizational, collaborative supply chain planning are presented. These mechanisms are able to identify the systemwide optimum for several classes of supply chain planning problems. They can be applied by two or more self-interested parties and do not require a trusted third party. Extensive computational tests for randomly generated and real-word data suggest a favorable performance of these mechanisms.

The enterprise-focused framework of supply chain, which an overwhelming majority of books on supply chain management (SCM) have adopted, falls short in explaining recent developments in the real world, especially the so-called Wal-Mart model, in which a 'factory' is a virtual logistics network of multiple international manufacturing firms. The book fills the gap and examines supply chain and transport logistics. The success of the Wal-Mart model rests on dynamic innovations in two key dimensions, namely, all-mode logistics service facilitation and industrial organization of supply chains, on which existing SCM textbooks have little coverage. For example, managing transport utility and facility, such as seaports and airports, has become expected parts of logistics and SCM, especially in an international orientation; which, however, are seldom covered in the textbooks on SCM and logistics. Supply chain and transport logistics as termed in this book is precisely based on this intriguing interrelationship, referring to supply-chain centered logistics of enterprise-crossing characteristics, including both service facilitation and industrial organization (IO) aspects of logistics. This book also includes the development of a unified methodological framework which underpins all the characteristics of the intriguing interrelationship between supply chain management and logistics. It covers many aspects of the important and innovative developments well. The book offers a unique coverage of integrated logistics of navigation, aviation and transportation. The book not only answers the urgent need for a book on supply chain management and transport logistics but also highlights the central role of supply chain logistics in the emerging fields of sustainable (green), humanitarian and maritime supply chains and the importance of studying supply chain management together with transport logistics. It also explains the difference between supply chain