This book provides the reader with a better understanding of the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, its various projects around the world, and its consequences at a local as well as an international level. Background information on both Chinese and Greek sociopolitical history and their maritime industry is provided. The book also provides readers with the opinions of people directly involved with the Piraeus Port-China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO) deal through interviews conducted and included in the book. OBOR, a signature initiative of Chinese President Xi Jinping, is currently one of the most frequently discussed enterprises worldwide. This controversial mix of worldwide projects has put both China and Xi at the center of attention, and not in a positive way. Of course, not all projects included in the initiative have been or are likely to be successful, but the initiative has far-ranging economic, cultural, and political potential. OBOR, in its essence, is an attempt by the Chinese government to secure a paramount position in global finance for the country and ensure that primacy extends far into the future. In particular, it is an attempt to ensure that there are enough natural resources for China to support itself in the long term. Therefore, the areas selected for the implementation and development of OBOR are deliberately strategic. One of the countries that China has chosen to invest in is Greece, specifically the Port of Piraeus. The OBOR initiative has many similarities with the ancient Silk Road. Although the ancient route and modern concept are in no way identical, many similarities become evident when the two are compared. To understand China's motivation to build such a network, looking back at history is required. This project was long in the making. Various discussions took place both on an international and a domestic level until all parties came to an agreement. The deal at Piraeus between Greece and China affected more people than the politicians and the shipowners-it affected everyone involved in the operations of the port as well as the residents of the area. To further comprehend the impact on their lives, one must see things through their eyes, and there is no better way than contacting individuals and conversing with them. In conclusion, the specific deal at Piraeus and the OBOR initiative as a whole have the potential of benefiting the international and local communities. However, specific measures must be taken, and governments must collaborate in order for the deal in Piraeus and the OBOR initiative to have the most beneficial and the least negative impact.

In today's competitive markets, considering the demand and the supply chain sides is crucial to keeping revenue and customer satisfaction maximized. Managing and planning demand play a vital role in the sustainability of a company. This is the first book to the discuss managerial, mathematical, and conceptual framework of influencing factors on demand along with accurate mathematical analyses to evaluate and raise revenue. The book provides an understanding of the key elements that impact buyer demand. It presents the mathematical relationship between the influencing factors and the demand functions. It discusses the methods used for inspiring demand, how to measure demand dependency on components such as price, quality, and inventory, and it helps management improve alignment between supply and demand by affecting the level and understanding of the role within supply chain management (SCM). This book is applicable for the professional as well as for academia. It can help those working in SCM, project management, production, inventory control, scheduling, engineering management, retail management, and operations management.

The key to success and reaching peak performance is integrating three processes to optimize business through the use of human performance improvement tools, lean thinking, operational excellence, along with a strong organizational culture as the underpinning. These components form the basis of the Peak Performance Model. The tools presented in this book, along with the case studies, demonstrate how the model is applied and integrated into company practices. Companies and organizations want to improve their performance, but many have not integrated the right tools and processes. Through the application of the Peak Performance Model, every company can achieve and sustain Peak Performance.

Supply chain management decisions are made under the conflicting criteria of maximizing profit and customer responsiveness while minimizing supply chain risk. Multiple Criteria Decision Making in Supply Chain Management provides a comprehensive overview of multi-criteria optimization models and methods that can be used in supply chain decision making. Presenting the contributions of internationally known authors, researchers, educators, and practitioners, this new book in the Operations Research Series provides readers with a single source guide to recent developments in this area. The focus of the book is on the design and operation of the supply chain system, which involves connecting many production and distribution systems, often across wide geographic distances, in such a way that the businesses involved can ultimately satisfy the consumer demand as efficiently as possible, resulting in maximum financial returns to those businesses connected to that supply chain system. The book includes several case studies on the design and operation of supply chain networks in manufacturing and healthcare.

Norman Katz has secured a top spot as one of the Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Supply Chain 2020. Even the largest companies find managing vendors a daunting task. If you get it wrong then you risk inadvertently penalizing potentially valuable suppliers with misguided, overly bureaucratic or costly processes. Worse the burdens placed on the vendors backfires on the customer entity itself as the customer is subjected to the increased operational costs of managing the ramifications of the ill-conceived or poorly implemented requirement through the vendor community, driving up its own operational costs and increasing frustrations for all, straining the customer-vendor relationship. Effective compliance programs balance the requirements with the capabilities of their suppliers, striving to educate instead of just inform. A well-run program should help vendors self-implement and control costs, not force vendors to rely on constant communication and increase costs for all trading partners involved. Successful Supply Chain Vendor Compliance explains the technical, process and cultural elements that go into a successful compliance program. Norman Katz exposes the weaknesses in traditional programs and identifies the characteristics of well-managed programs that foster beneficial trading partner relationships. He shows how a well-executed vendor compliance program can control and decrease costs by reducing disruptions throughout the supply chain, from the distribution center to the data center to the corporate office. Competition is fierce, and the right vendor can help you define a business model, react quickly to changes, and differentiate between you and your competitors. See the latest Forbes article on Abusive Compliance Practices!

This book sets out to explain blockchain for the non-technical expert, to decipher the dense technicalities that dominate the field and to present the opportunities for busy professionals using practical applications and case studies. Presented in a clear and structured way and with documented real-world cases, the book is a practical reference guide that can be used across different industries. It offers both a constructive and critical review of the pain points blockchain is facing today, illustrates the pitfalls as well as the opportunities for business and describes the steps towards overcoming them. It also aims to provide a unique view of both the intersection and synergy of blockchain with other emerging technologies and the wider digital ecosystem, as we see increasingly that blockchain alone won't be able to deliver business solutions. Most important, the book identifies trends and a path for the future of blockchain and its impact on society as a whole. The book is written for business audiences across all sectors. It is not a technical guide to blockchain, but it enables businesspeople to be better informed and prepared to plan ahead and develop strategies using blockchain.

Exploring the practices developed by remote teams to maintain trust across cultures, this book offers both theoretical and practical resources to enable better working in challenging contexts of project work. This book emphasizes building trust between team members from a practice perspective, meaning patterns of collective, shared activities that are produced and reproduced within the virtual team with the purpose of developing team trust. The author explores the trust practices that members of remote project teams use to describe their relationships and interactions. Team trust practices are powerful organizational tools for members of remote cross-cultural teams, influencing team decision-making and facilitating team effectiveness. This book offers extensive descriptions of team practices that build and maintain trust in virtual teams in two different cultures: Germany and Singapore. This is a unique contribution as it offers case studies from project teams that were observed and interviewed during their work and provides readers an in-depth, contextual analysis of the trust practices that virtual project teams develop, which previous research has overlooked. This book will appeal to researchers and graduate students in MBA programs studying project management, human resource management, and strategic leadership. This book is also of direct interest to many practitioners, particularly management consultants and project managers of virtual, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary project teams.

This book highlights topics ranging from green chemistry and engineering to bioremediation, smart technologies, and sustainable business practices. The common threads running through this volume are the need for urgent action, a vision for a sustainable future, and the awareness that solutions must be widely accessible and advance the welfare of all nations, especially in the face of climate change. The authors delineate how we can protect and restore natural ecosystem potential to achieve environmental sustainability. They provide a clear idea of today's environmental challenges and solutions, focus on energy use patterns and the reduction of energy consumption, advocate for increased environmental awareness, and discuss environmental monitoring systems. The book contains many domestic and international case studies and showcases visionary ideas in action to illustrate sustainability principles. This volume provides an in-depth reference for stakeholders from academia, government, and industry on the latest research in environmental sustainability solutions. Inspired by the common wisdom that we do not inherit this Earth from our ancestors but instead borrow it from our children, the authors offer solutions to emergent problems. This research comprises an important contribution to the global effort to build a more sustainable tomorrow.

When thinking about lowering or changing consumption to lower carbon footprints, the obvious offenders come easily to mind: petroleum and petroleum products, paper and plastic, even food, but not clothes. When people evaluate ways to lower their personal carbon footprint by changing purchasing habits, they are bombarded with information to avoid petroleum and petroleum products, plastics, paper, even food, but not clothes. Most consumers do not think of clothes as a source of environmental damage. Yet, clothes are made with petroleum products through chemically-laden industrial processes that generate significant pollution. The fashion industry is among the largest organic water polluters in the world, accounting for significant greenhouse gas emissions and generating massive amounts of waste as a function of the frequent discarding of used clothing. In the Dirty Side of the Garment Industry: Fast Fashion and Its Negative Impact on Environment and Society, author Nikolay Anguelov exposed the ecological damage from the fast-fashion business model. In this book, The Sustainable Fashion Quest: Innovations in Business and Policy, the author takes this one step further by focusing on solutions. This book uses the familiar (yet complex) industry of fashion as a lens to examine how business pressures and national and international policies can have both positive and negative social and ecological impacts. It provides an analysis of extant and emerging policies to address the divergence in the ongoing quest to maximize economic development and minimize the social costs of the industrialization process. It also examines emerging technologies and innovative business models that have the potential to revolutionize how fashion is perceived, manufactured, and consumed. This book begins with an introductory letter that outlines the social and environmental issues facing the fashion industry, as well as emphasizing the seriousness and urgency of addressing them. Each chapter then focuses on a major aspect of the industry with an increasing emphasis on policy. The chapters outline the impact of global-level and business-level decisions on the industry's success, its social and environmental impact, and its relationship to consumers. The goal of the book is to define that transition, explain its challenges, and educate readers on the possibilities to become powerful drivers of change through their professional actions and their personal behavior as consumers. While the book specifically analyzes the fashion industry, it also explains the implications for other industrial sectors. It uses a product everyone is familiar with (we all buy clothes, after all) to examine the decisions, impacts, and policies shaping the industry behind the scenes. The linkages are applicable to other fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) business sectors, such as consumer electronics, which are starting to face sustainability criticism for relying on a business model of promoting a high frequency of repeat purchasing.

Strong leadership is necessary to drive the transformational change required to build and apply digital capabilities across organizations. Digital transformation in the supply chain is a leadership problem first and foremost. This book draws out some of the key digital business strategies supply chain leaders must become familiar with as they take on the responsibilities of leading transformations within their firms. The central rationale of the book is to establish a clear business case for the performance shifts and opportunities of the Digital Supply Chain. The benefits of a digital supply chain for firms can be summarized as uniquely reducing the amount of trade-off between costs and customer satisfaction. The challenges, complexity, and management involved in transforming to a digital supply chain have slowed many firms in their implementation. The key to unlocking this value and advantage is a new, robust, and digitally aware supply chain leadership mindset. It will provide readers with a practical Digital Supply Chain Leadership Road Map that will accelerate actions in technology, analytics, talent and business models. The road map to digital transformation will step the reader through these critical dimensions and illustrate how they can support their own organizational transformation by developing greater levels of maturity. This book will be most valued by supply chain leaders in medium to large scale organizations, as well as consultants and academics interested in digital business and supply chain transformation. The book will also be valuable for students studying digital transformation, supply chain, and operations.

This volume presents an interdisciplinary reflection on the SARS-COV-2 pandemic and its consequences elaborated in real-time. It embodies the University of Palermo's values and mission by bringing together academics of very diverse disciplinary fields on an issue that is disrupting all aspects of individual and community existence. This volume captures the voices of academics during the pandemic, allowing to crystallize the discourses that are emerging in a wide variety of scientific fields as events unfold and knowledge is rapidly evolving. They share the belief that to shed adequate light on the complex and multifaceted phenomenon of the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences necessarily requires the adoption of an interdisciplinary approach, the consideration of a multiplicity of perspectives, and of a variety of levels of analysis. The organization of the single contributions in chapters allows the exchange of different perspectives, whilst conveying a general overall framework to the interpretation of the many facets of the changes and crisis generated by COVID-19. The volume addresses both academics and professionals dealing with the processes and the consequences brought forth by the pandemic and presents a solid example of the commitment an academic institution should devote to society and communities.

"Dynamic Modelling for Supply Chain Management" discusses how to streamline complex supply chain management by making the most of the growing number of tools available.

The reader is introduced to the basic foundations from which to develop intelligent management strategies, as the book characterises the process and framework of modern supply chain management. The author reviews supply chain management concepts and singles out important factors in the management of modern complex production systems. Particular attention is paid to modern simulation modelling tools that can be used to support supply chain planning and control. The book explores the operational and financial impacts of various potential problems, offering a compilation of practical models to help identify solutions.

A useful reference on supply chain management, "Dynamic Modelling for Supply Chain Management" will benefit engineers and professionals working in a variety of areas, from supply chain management to product engineering.

This book discusses and conceptualizes practices on real-time strategy, focusing on the interplay between strategy and business intelligence. Combining strategic practices and business intelligence systems, the authors demonstrate how managerial practices can be developed in the age of digitization. Also developing the concept of strategic agility, the book provides perspectives from a range of disciplines including strategic practices and decision making, customer relationship management, human resource management, competitive intelligence, supplier network management and business intelligence systems. Presenting managerial frameworks and guidelines, Real-time Strategy and Business Intelligence explores how to improve utilization of business intelligence systems in real-time decision making. Providing practical and future-oriented insights backed by examples and best practices, the authors present a clearly conceptualized theoretical framework.

Sustainable Production and Logistics: Modeling and Analysis Subject Guide: Engineering - Industrial & Manufacturing This book presents issues faced by planners of production and distribution operations in terms of smart manufacturing and sustainability, using efficient quantitative techniques in a variety of decision-making situations. Addressing the state-of-the-art of the smart and sustainable sides of production and distribution planning operations, it highlights how a current issue can be effectively approached and what particular quantitative technique can be used. The book goes on to provide a foundation in the new and fast-growing digital journey, and includes logistics 4.0 inside Industry 4.0, along with case studies. The information in this book is useful worldwide, especially in the Americas, Europe, Turkey, and Japan. It is written for academicians, researchers, practitioners, and students.

This book focuses on digitalised talent management-the use of information technologies in talent management. The book affords theoretically, methodologically and empirically informed insights that are especially salient given the need for executives and organisations to balance the role of humans and technology, while ensuring competitiveness in this interconnected and increasingly digital world. In doing so, the book will shape and contribute to academic and industry-based conversations about the role of technological innovations in enabling organizations to transition towards digital ways of organising talent, as well as the associated implications for the who, what, where, when, and why of talent management as stakeholders decide which aspects of talent management can be delegated to technology, and those that require human agency. This book adds value by assembling subject matter experts currently siloed within traditional research domains whilst also highlighting the complexity of managing talent. By synthesising content from world-leading academics who herald from various backgrounds, the book will instigate, shape and contribute to conversations about both the promises and perils of digitalised talent management and the extent to which judgments and decisions about an organisations most valuable asset-it's talent-should be delegated to non-human agents. This book will be of interest to researchers, academics and students in the fields of talent management and organisational design, especially those interested in digital ways of working, managing and leading.

Resource Allocation (RA) involves the distribution and utilization of available resources in the system. Because resource availability is usually scarce and expensive, it becomes important to find optimal solutions to such problems. Thus RA problems represent an important class of problems faced by mathematical programmers. This book focuses on development of models and heuristics for six new and complex sub-classes of RA problems in Supply Chain (SC) networks, focusing on bi-objectives, dynamic input data, and multiple performance measures based allocation and integrated allocation, and routing with complex constraints. It considers six set of variants of the RA problems normally encountered in practice but have not yet been studied. These variants of the classical RA are complex and pertaining to both manufacturing and service industry.

In recent years, the search for innovative, locally relevant and engaging public service has become the new philosophers' stone. Social procurement represents one approach to maximising public spending and social value through the purchase of goods and services. It has gained increasing attention in recent years as a way that governments and corporations can amplify the benefits of their purchasing power, and as a mechanism by which markets for social enterprise and other third sector organisations can be grown. Despite growing policy and practitioner interest in social procurement, there has been relatively little conceptual or empirical thinking published on the issue. Taking a critically informed approach, this innovative text examines emerging approaches to social procurement within the context of New Public Governance (NPG), and examines the practices of social procurement across Europe, North America, and Australia. Considering both the possibilities and limitations of social procurement, and the types of value it can generate, it also provides empirically-driven insights into the practicalities of 'triple bottom line' procurement, the related challenges of measuring social value and the management of both the strategic and operational dimensions of procurement processes. As such it will be invaluable reading for all those interested in social services, public governance and social enterprise.

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.

This book contains fundamental concepts on discrete mathematical structures in an easy to understand style so that the reader can grasp the contents and explanation easily. The concepts of discrete mathematical structures have application to computer science, engineering and information technology including in coding techniques, switching circuits, pointers and linked allocation, error corrections, as well as in data networking, Chemistry, Biology and many other scientific areas. The book is for undergraduate and graduate levels learners and educators associated with various courses and progammes in Mathematics, Computer Science, Engineering and Information Technology. The book should serve as a text and reference guide to many undergraduate and graduate programmes offered by many institutions including colleges and universities. Readers will find solved examples and end of chapter exercises to enhance reader comprehension. Features Offers comprehensive coverage of basic ideas of Logic, Mathematical Induction, Graph Theory, Algebraic Structures and Lattices and Boolean Algebra Provides end of chapter solved examples and practice problems Delivers materials on valid arguments and rules of inference with illustrations Focuses on algebraic structures to enable the reader to work with discrete structures

This book introduces blockchain technology applications in supply chains. Blockchain is a relatively new tool, nevertheless, there have been considerable advances over the last five years, and blockchain is now poised to revolutionize the conventional supply chains with the offering of accountability and quality to the wider complex supply networks. Based on literature reviews and original research, this book serves as an essential introduction to blockchain and its applications in supply chain. The unique features of the book are empirical studies to demonstrate the application of blockchain technology in food, healthcare, manufacturing, transportation and retail sectors. Each chapter includes research framework and open research questions. Simple narration of concept and detailed insights from primary research information. Use case narrative will provoke the readers to demystify the myths in application of concepts in the supply chain . Overall, the book demystifies blockchain technology, reviews evolution and outlines its future applications by blending contents to meet the expectations of both academic and practice community.

This book addresses the increased fragmentation and internationalization of production. It explores how concurrent business transformations in manufacturing and marketing impact global and developing economies, and how supply chain initiatives and information sharing impact overall organizational performance. It further connects marketing and advertising as an important link between organizations and its partners; education as a bridge between developing and developed world economies; and growth as a long-term objective of increasing integration at the regional and global level. Through a series of case studies, scholars across the US and France contribute chapters on the manufacturing, marketing, and internationalization of luxury fashion brands, music advertising, the growth of Amazon, and the business landscapes in India, China, Africa, and North Korea. The book provides academic libraries, international business scholars, graduate students, and policy makers with insights and opportunities that enable firms to achieve a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

This book offers a fresh method of assessing and managing risks in SMEs, by adopting a multidisciplinary approach. In small and medium companies, the risk management process cannot be often formalised and procedures are usually integrated unconsciously into the decision-making process. Therefore, to enhance the flexibility of these companies, increase their market share and allow them to grow and manage risks more effectively, the first step is to improve the way decisions are made. Consequently, it is fundamental for those companies to improve the awareness about the way reasonable decisions are made, which can be achieved only through a proper knowledge and the definition of the Risk Appetite Framework. Therefore, by improving knowledge, the risk appetite and awareness in the decision making, companies will implicitly start developing a risk consciousness, which can be translated into a sound risk approach. SMEs need to understand the importance of an effective internal control system. Hence, the central point is the necessity to start reconsidering the company as a unique entity, by adopting a holistic approach. The book explores whether small and medium companies should adopt a formalised risk management process and, more importantly, the role that the development of an appropriate risk mindfulness and approach to expand existing functions plays in these entities. It suggests an appropriate way of thinking about risk, starting with the amalgamation of both past and present theories, and enabling SMEs to find a solution to improve the effectiveness of their risk management strategies.

For courses in operations and supply chain management. Introduction to Operations and Supply Chain Management is an integrated, comprehensive introduction to both operations and supply chain management (SCM). The text remains engaging and brief while integrating all of the major concepts of both subjects in one cohesive source. The 5th Edition contains updated content and thorough coverage of analytical tools and techniques that students will apply to their careers in operations and SCM. It explores these topics in an interesting and relatable manner, providing students with real-world examples and easy-to-understand material.

The concept of Halal defines what adheres to Islamic law and is so comprehensive that it goes beyond food to include processes. The Halal industry has allowed many business firms a competitive advantage and is integral in its support for industries from food, tourism, banking and hospitality to medical. This book gives an overview of what Halal is in logistics and supply chain management, and discusses related issues and challenges in Southeast Asia. The book also examines Halal logistics and supply chain in reference to global trends and practices. It attempts to integrate theoretical and methodological aspects of Halal logistics and supply chain study in different geographical areas across industries. This will be a useful reference for those who wish to understand the Halal ecosystem and Halal logistics supply chain development.

Our daily lives are permeated by the activities of logistics and supply chain, from food and clothing to doorstep deliveries. As these processes have the ability to significantly impact the natural environment, it has never been so important to develop and implement sustainable principles and practices. Sustainable Logistics and Supply Chain Management is an essential textbook for undergraduate and postgraduate students for understanding sustainability as it pertains to logistics operations. This book covers the direct environmental impacts of logistics and supply chain processes, including emissions and waste, as well as how wider changes such as globalization need to be given similar considerations. Presenting different pathways to guide readers, case studies and supported by extensive research, this book provides all the support needed to understand and implement a sustainable approach. Now in its third edition, Sustainable Logistics and Supply Chain Management is fully updated with the latest research and data including trends in logistics and supply chain management and new cases. Online resources include instructor manuals, lecturer slides and a complied list of figures and tables.