This book highlights the innovations in textile fibres, that is the starting point of the supply chain. There are numerous innovations made in terms of making the existing fibres sustainable and also to discover new sustainable fibres. This book deals with those innovative sustainable textile fibres in detail. It also presents an overview of various current textile fibres, their issues associated with sustainability and how new, sustainable fibres overcome those issues. Finally it discusses the challenges and implications of these sustainable fibres on technical and economic fronts.

"Visionary Pricing" is dedicated to Dan Nimer, pioneer of pricing and price management. The volume features leading edge thinking from today's preeminent pricing thought leaders from North America, Europe, and Asia who originally came together 30 years ago to encourage the development of pricing. They now assess the present and future destiny of pricing, pricing innovation, and pricing paradigms that are influencing the evolution of pricing throughout the world. The volume contains four sections: section 1 interviews Nimer and presents his views on the emergence of value-based pricing as an influential pricing paradigm of the 21st century; section 2 focuses on pricing strategy and competitive advantage; section 3 focuses on the difining role of value in pricing; and section 4 focuses on pricing capability and innovation.

This short textbook consolidates all the key aspects of operations management into a concise and easily accessible reference tool. Comprising the management of creating goods and delivering services to customers, operations management plays an essential role in the success of any organization. This book discusses the main areas of operations management, such as the design of the operations system, including product, process and job design. It also covers the management of operations, including lean operations and supply chain management. Breaking the subject down into its key components, this book provides a core introduction for undergraduate students studying operations management as part of business and management degrees.

This book examines key issues, challenges, opportunities and trends in innovation processes and supply chain management. It proposes ways for organizations to improve their performance by developing business strategies, establishing business innovation activities, and aligning business and innovation activities among firms. Further, it showcases and analyzes the implementation of inter- and intra-organizational process improvement activities and the implementation of organizational innovation solutions to address new product and process-related collaborative relationships across the supply chain. The book is useful for researchers, academics and professionals, presenting some of the most advanced research, concepts, and case studies on the relationship between innovation and supply chain.

This book highlights the models developed to create a sustainable framework suitable for luxury in the textile sector and the innovative attempts in the luxury fashion and fabrics industry. The three chapters in this book discuss these issues by means of case studies and the future of such models.

This research focuses on the process of growth in the automobile industries in the ASEAN region. ASEAN is drawing attention both from the vantage point of its position as an automobile-producing region and as a potential automobile market. Thailand in particular has long treated automobile production as a national strategy, and this research puts considerable focus on Thailand's initiatives. Since 2012, the authors have been carrying out on-site surveys and have visited many of the suppliers that form the local automobile industry; this published research represents a summary of those findings. The fields of specialty of this study's respective authors differ, so analyses have been made from a range of vectors. In particular, the focus is on the supply chain in what is generally referred to as a keiretsu.

There have been a lot of innovations in making the garment or apparel production sector sustainable. This book highlights sustainable innovations in the apparel production sector, which is the final destination in the textile production segment. Measuring sustainability in clothing is one of the inevitable areas to deal with when it comes to sustainable apparel production, which is also highlighted here.

This book is the first of two volumes presenting a business model to add value through Procurement. Including several case studies of successful implementation, it demonstrates how the increasing complexity of the business environment requires a significant intervention on the management of processes and information within individual organizations and through inter-company relations. Agile Procurement presents the application of the Agile method which optimises and digitizes processes in order to reduce wastage and defects. As a method, tool and a culture aimed at effectiveness, efficiency and economy of organisations, agile procurement requires a change of paradigm. This volume examines these areas of improvement and presents best practice in improving processes. Each chapter of the book presents and substantiates the costs and benefits of process improvement through agile procurement. This is is seen as the integration of Lean Six Sigma and digitization.

This book provides a systematic framework for effectively creating value through engineering in global business networks, and contributes to an increasingly important branch of engineering operations. By updating the traditional disciplines of engineering and operations management and addressing challenges and opportunities in building global network capabilities, this study offers a contemporary guide for developing effective industrial policies to enhance the global competitiveness of engineering sectors, which will be extremely useful to engineering companies and policy-makers. Themes discussed include main trends and driving forces, state-of-the-art knowledge in relevant subject areas, new technologies and leading practice. This timely book will help researchers, managers and students to gain an overall understanding of the pioneering research occurring in this field and it will enable companies to benefit from global engineering networks.

This book explains the place of oil in the economic and political predicaments that now confront the West. Thompson explains the problems that the rising cost of oil posed in the years leading up to the 2008 crash, and the difficulties that a volatile oil market now poses to economic recovery under the conditions of high debt, low growth and quantitative easing. The author argues that the 'Gordian knot' created by the economic and political dynamics of supply and demand oil in the present international economy poses a fundamental challenge to the assumption of economic progress embedded in Western democratic expectations.

This book explores the need to develop business strategies, organise and fund transformation projects and manage the transformation programme in order to further a circular economy. Circular Business Models outlines sustainable business models that can be used by companies to move transformation forward on a large scale. In addition to business models the book will cover and discuss a number of other factors necessary for a successful transformation, such as business and innovation strategy, entrepreneurship and change management. Including original interviews with circular economy practitioners, this book will be applicable to industries as diverse as manufacturing, food processing, transportation and mechanical engineering. Addressing the different challenges that meet circular economy visionaries, it outlines strategies and business models needed to gain momentum in these different sectors.

Presenting a vision of the luxury sector and its management, this edited book describes "the new luxury" through a comprehensive view of the value chain, from concept to market. The authors argue that the main characteristics of "luxury" are linked to specific resources and competencies found throughout the value chain and that value is a result of the interaction between the brand and stakeholders, and more precisely with their clients. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, New Luxury Management encompasses both strategic and functional aspects of luxury management, providing innovative solutions to the successful creation and management of value across the organization, from leadership, human resources, financial management, marketing and economic perspectives.

This edited volume brings together contributions from experts on a range of food security issues, and examines them through a number of case studies. A Millennium Development goal and important policy concern, food security is experiencing renewed interest due to globalisation, which has led to population affluence, changing consumption, and production and trade patterns. The authors discuss how globalisation brings a new dimension to the discussion on public policy on food security, and consider the extent to which Global Value Chains (GVCs) dominate trade, investment and international agricultural markets. Food Security and Sustainability therefore sheds new light on the nexus of food security and globalization, as well as its implications for investment and financing in the agro-food sector. The volume draws on papers presented at the inaugural Workshop of the Mediterranean Center for Food Security and Sustainable Growth (MED-SEC), an international network of academics focusing on issues of development, sustainability and food security.

This book analyses the development of strategic supply chain modelling and its role in optimising decision-making in business, in relation to advances in technology and increased demand due to globalisation. The authors examine existing supply chain models in order to create a conceptual framework for a new diagnostic tool, offering a useful, realistic and meaningful contribution to the field, both theoretically and practically. Using the real-life context of a major international automobile manufacturer, this study satisfies the demand from industry for guidance in the complex world of strategic supply chain modeling in the growing logistics business sector. Readers of Strategic Supply Chain Management will find this work instructive and informative, and it will be of particular interest to students, researchers and policy-makers in the supply chain management industry.

This book provides a critical insight into sustainability and fashion in a retailing and marketing context. Examining a truly global industry, Sustainability in Fashion offers international application with a view to contextualising important developments within the industry. Contributors use their diverse backgrounds and expertise to provide a contemporary approach in examining key theoretical concepts, constructs and developments. Topics include consumer behaviour, communications, circular economy and supply chain management. The individual chapters focus on sustainability and provide a range of fashion sector examples from high street to luxury apparel.

This book provides readers a holistic and pragmatic approach towards supply management in China. It elaborates on how supply management should integrate the optimum level, and a combination of quality, cost and delivery. In addition to serving as a guide on how to address cultural barriers, apply supply tools and concepts, it also illustrates the best practices in supply management in China. It draws from a large number of best practices of companies from automotive to railway, to convince other functional departments and higher management that supply management plays the most fundamental role in any organization due to the high number of value adding activities which are coming from suppliers. These practices have been derived by a multi-methodical approach including interviews with supply management leaders from industry and experts in academia, making it as unique and a suitable a guide for practitioners and academics.

This book, through an analysis of 49,355 high value public procurement contracts awarded between 2004 and 2011, provides systematic evidence on favoritism in public procurement in Turkey. Public procurement is one of the main areas where the government and the private sector interact extensively and is thus open to favoritism and corruption. In Turkey, the new Public Procurement Law, which was drafted with the pull of the EU-IMF-WB nexus, has been amended more than 150 times by the AKP government. In addition to examining favoritism, this book also demonstrates how the legal amendments have increased the use of less competitive procurement methods and discretion in awarding contracts. The results reveal that the AKP majority government has used public procurement as an influential tool both to increase its electoral success, build its own elites and finance politics. The use of public procurement for rent creation and distribution is found to be particularly extensive in the construction and the services sector through the TOKI projects and the Municipal procurements.

This book is primarily intended to serve as a research-based textbook on sustainable supply chains for graduate programs in Business, Management, Industrial Engineering, and Industrial Ecology, but it should also be of interest for researchers in the broader sustainable supply chain space, whether from the operations management and industrial engineering side or more from the industrial ecology and life-cycle assessment side. Finding efficient solutions towards a more sustainable supply chain is increasingly important for managers, but clearly this raise difficult questions, often without clear answers. This book aims to provide insights into these kinds of questions for students and practitioners, based on the latest academic research.

This book examines corruption in public procurement in three Member States of the EU, reviewing their different approaches to combating corruption, and the extent to which the transparency principle is applied in their procurement systems. The focus of the work is on the contrast between the unsuccessful procurement legislation of a relatively young Member State (Bulgaria) and its attempt to curb corruption by expanding the scope of application of the transparency principle, and two examples of procurement systems where corruption is limited adequately, without an excess of information procedural requirements (Germany and Austria). The book scrutinizes the transparency rules, procurement participants, and responsible institutions in the award of procurements in these countries. It discusses in detail the types of infringements involving corruption as well as their link to infringements of the transparency principle. It compares and examines the systems of control and appeal against a contracting authority's actions within the various legislative schemes, and highlights the legislative weaknesses which fail to reduce corruption. The comparative analysis between the Bulgarian public procurement system and the German and Austrian systems is carried out through detailed research not only with regard to adherence to the transparency principle, but also to the use of other mechanisms to limit corruption, insofar as these solutions are appropriate and could be adapted in other countries currently lacking sufficient anti-corruption measures.

This book presents high-quality original contributions on the fashion supply chain. A wide spectrum of application domains are covered, processing of big data coming from digital and social media channels, fashion new product development, fashion design, fashion marketing and communication strategy, business models and entrepreneurship, e-commerce and omni-channel management, corporate social responsibility, new materials for fashion product, wearable technologies. The contents are based on presentations delivered at IT4Fashion 2016, the 6th International Conference in Business Models and ICT Technologies for the Fashion Supply Chain, which was held in Florence, Italy, in April 2016. This conference series represents a targeted response to the growing need for research that reports and debates supply chain business models and technologies applied to the fashion industry, with the aim of increasing knowledge in the area of product lifecycle management and supply chain management in that industry.

This book lays the foundations for quality modeling and analysis in the context of supply chains through a synthesis of the economics, operations management, as well as operations research/management science literature on quality. The reality of today's supply chain networks, given their global reach from sourcing locations to points of demand, is further challenged by such issues as the growth in outsourcing as well as the information asymmetry associated with what producers know about the quality of their products and what consumers know. Although much of the related literature has focused on the micro aspects of supply chain networks, considering two or three decision-makers, it is essential to capture the scale of supply chain networks in a holistic manner that occurs in practice in order to be able to evaluate and analyze the competition and the impacts on supply chain quality in a quantifiable manner. This volume provides an overview of the fundamental methodologies utilized in this book, including optimization theory, game theory, variational inequality theory, and projected dynamical systems theory. It then focuses on major issues in today's supply chains with respect to quality, beginning with information asymmetry, followed by product differentiation and branding, the outsourcing of production, from components to final products, to quality in freight service provision. The book is filled with numerous real-life examples in order to emphasize the generality and pragmatism of the models and tools. The novelty of the framework lies in a network economics perspective through which the authors identify the underlying network structure of the various supply chains, coupled with the behavior of the decision-makers, ranging from suppliers and manufacturers to freight service providers. What is meant by quality is rigorously defined and quantified. The authors explore the underlying dynamics associated with the competitive processes along with the equilibrium solutions. As appropriate, the supply chain decision-makers compete in terms of quantity and quality, or in price and quality. The relevance of the various models that are developed to specific industrial sectors, including pharmaceuticals and high technology products, is clearly made. Qualitative analyses are provided, along with effective, and, easy to implement, computational procedures. Finally, the impacts of policy interventions, in the form of minimum quality standards, and their ramifications, in terms of product prices, quality levels, as well as profits are explored. The book is filled with many network figures, graphs, and tables with data.

This brief explores the business and global implications of the American shale energy, or natural gas, revolution. Specifically, it provides a rational, comprehensive look at the major business themes and management implications that surround the new abundance of natural gas in the United States and identifies some of the most significant geopolitical considerations globally. While acknowledging some of the controversies and hazards surrounding the extraction techniques, commonly known as "fracking", the author also looks at the hopes this technique poses and details how shale energy will impact supply chains for firms. The discovery of new sources of domestic natural gas in recent years - coupled with innovations that facilitated their extraction - has altered the global landscape. However, the vast majority of the information out there for business students, faculty, and practitioners about the natural gas revolution is focused on the impact of "longer and lower" energy prices; and, secondarily, opportunities within the domestic energy sector. Each of these is crucial for business people to understand, however, the natural gas revolution is about much more. Companies of all sizes, whether they see it or not, are having new opportunities open up for their products and services. Further, the globalization of shale energy will have far reaching influence beyond simply economic factors. Geopolitical considerations and the re-structuring of international relations around shale energy will impact supply chains in a myriad of ways. This book aims to examine these opportunities. Featuring case studies from contemporary companies, this book will be of interest to students, academics, researchers, professionals and policy makers who are seeking to understand the business and global implications of the shale energy revolution.

This book addresses the challenges companies face when different customer value propositions require them to pursue a differentiated supply chain strategy. It provides practical insights on how to achieve successful supply chain segmentation and presents the benefits this can yield for companies on the basis of best-in-class industry case studies from Gardena, Philips Luminaire, Siemens Healthcare and Volvo Construction Equipment. Drawing on these examples, it provides recommendations and solutions on how to define supply chain segmentation, and how to set up and implement a transformation program. Furthermore, it presents an in-depth discussion of the current theoretical background of supply chain segmentation and introduces the current trends and available frameworks. Offering readers specific, pragmatic guidance on the main challenges and opportunities and proposing ways to effectively measure efficiency and performance, the book concludes with the do's, don'ts and most important aspects to keep in mind when considering an end-to-end segmentation.

This book analyzes how and under what conditions collaborating corporations can effectively manage relationships with their suppliers in order to decrease the risk of suppliers' noncompliance with codes of conduct and standards. In so doing, it represents an important addition to the management literature on corporate social responsibility in global supply chains - which is highly topical at a time when companies are increasingly aware of the social and environmental aspects of global sourcing. After an opening systematic review of the literature on agency theory and supply chain management, it explores the rationale underlying collaboration among competitors, and the most critical aspects of such collaboration, in depth. Thanks to the book's use of real-life examples, readers will learn how agency theory can help improve relationship management and address the major issues in sustainable global sourcing.

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.