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This paper seeks to present the formulation of relationships involving different manufacturing flexibility elements related to the total chain of acquisition, processing and distribution in order to assess the level of flexibility practiced by Australian manufacturing industries.

A range of published works and a detailed data gathered from a wide range of Australian manufacturing industry through questionnaires are evaluated to determine how customer‐supplier relationships could have an impact on manufacturing flexibility and enhance the total chain of manufacturing. The main analysis tool used is logistic regression. The knowledge and analysis obtained are linked to evaluate the level of each type of flexibility as well as the impact of customer‐supplier flexibility on the total chain of manufacturing. Finally, a performance assessment framework is developed to connect the interlinking factors and contribution regarding customer, supplier, and manufacturing flexibility of Australian industries.

The relationships and correlation of data displayed would enhance the available body of knowledge on the total chain of manufacturing. Consequently, the relationships found in this paper can be used to support the overall flexibility assessment of manufacturing industries. In the paper, the current flexibility practices of Australian industries are assessed and a framework is suggested based on several elements taken into consideration. As the different elements under flexibility have suggested, the manufacturing flexibility of Australian industries as affected by customer‐supplier participation is found as medium. Suggestions for pursuing improvements are recommended.

The main outcome of the research is to reveal that customer‐supplier relationship could significantly affect the flexibility level within the industries under different functional areas. As a result, to achieve the “real” flexibility of the system, flexibility has to be built into the total chain of acquisition‐processing‐distribution stages, not just focusing on the manufacturing aspects only. The flexibility framework developed in this paper would better assess the impact of customer‐supplier flexibility on the total chain of manufacturing and give more insights for analyzing the flexibility level of customers, suppliers, and manufacturers with data gathered across the globe.

The originality of the paper lies in its detailed analysis of the effect of supplier and customer contribution on manufacturing problems as well as developing a flexibility assessment framework to discuss its impact on the total chain of manufacturing. Its value to both body of knowledge and practitioners are emphasized in the paper.

Risk identification is the first and crucial step in supply chain risk management process. Due to the nature and complexity of supply chain networks of manufacturing organizations, risk identification nowadays has become more challenging. The purpose of this paper to present the development of a tool, called Supply Chain Risk Identification System (SCRIS), for assisting decision makers in identifying existing risks, and the interrelationship of risks in supply chain (SC) network, by considering different process strategies, namely make to stock (MTS), make to order (MTO) and engineering to order (ETO).

SCRIS is developed using a knowledge‐based system (KBS) approach. The knowledge is represented in ruled based form and written using CLIPS expert system language program. To ensure its feasibility, SCRIS is validated using real case studies in several manufacturing industries.

Feedback gathered from organizations involved in validations processes imply the benefit of using SCRIS as a decision support tool in identifying SC risks. SCRIS also has additional positive role in supply chain risk management (SCRM) by promoting communication and collaboration between SC partners.

SCRIS provides an extensive tool using KBS approach which covers hundreds of SC risk sub‐factors, risk factors, and risk events, as well as mapping the interactions and considering different process strategies which have not been developed to date. A novel SC risks taxonomy is also proposed which encompasses broader issues in the SC network.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a Generic decision support system which is based on multi-Objective Optimisation for Green supply chain network design (GOOG). It aims to support decision makers to design their supply chain networks using three key objectives: the lowest cost and environmental impact and the shortest lead time by incorporating the decision maker’s inputs.

GOOG aims to suggest the best-fitted parameters for supply chain partners and manufacturing plant locations, their order allocations, and appropriate transportation modes and lot-sizes for cradle-to-gate. It integrates Fuzzy Goal Programming and weighted max-min operator for trade-off conflicting objectives and overcome fuzziness in specifying target values of individual objectives. It is solved using exact algorithm and validated using an industrial case study.

The comparative analysis between actual, three single-objective, and multi-objective decisions showed that GOOG is capable to optimising three objectives namely cost, lead time, and environmental impact.

Further, GOOG requires validation for different supply chain scenarios and manufacturing strategic decisions. It can improve by including multi-echelon supply chain networks, entire life cycle and relevant environmental legislations.

GOOG helps the decision makers to configuring those supply chain parameters whilst minimising those three objectives.

Companies can use GOOG as a tool to strategically select their supply chain that reduces their footprint and stop rebound effect which imposes significant impact to the society.

GOOG includes overlooked in the previous study in order to achieve the objectives set. It is flexible for the decision makers to change the relative weightings of the inputs for those contradicting objectives.

This paper aims to provide a review of techniques that support risk management in product development projects using the concurrent engineering (CE) philosophy.

The Australia/New Zealand risk management standard AS/NZS 4360:1999 proposes a generic framework for risk management. This standard was adapted for product development projects in the CE environment. In this paper, existing techniques were reviewed for their applicability to processes in risk management; namely, techniques for establishing context, risk identification, risk assessment and treatment.

Risk management is an activity within project management that is gaining importance due to current business environment with a global focus and competition. The techniques reviewed in this paper are used on an ad hoc basis currently. A more risk focused approach is likely to result in an integration of several of these techniques, resulting in an increased effectiveness of project management.

The techniques reviewed in this paper can be used for the development of risk management tools for engineering and product development projects.

This paper provides a gist of techniques categorized in the form that they are applicable for implementation of risk management functions in product development projects using CE philosophy.

Flexibility has become one of the most useful and necessary weapons in many of today's competitive markets. For companies in situations considering investments in flexibility, it is necessary to assess carefully exactly what flexibility could benefit the company's operations, and how this flexibility can be achieved. Different manufacturing situations are associated with different levels of uncertainty and variations, and therefore call for different sorts of flexibility. Although flexibility has been argued to be available (to a certain point) without major investments in technology, it can be assumed that flexibility is most likely to come at a price. A company should therefore spend considerable effort on identifying what flexibility would be of benefit to the organisation to enhance their performance, and thereafter assess how to achieve it. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of variability and uncertainty, and therefore, the need for flexibility within an organisation by examining market and manufacturing process related factors. Each factor is further examined to find out relevant flexibilities and corresponding methods, tools, and techniques to be used by suggesting proposed manufacturing approaches to organisations. The human factor is suggested as an essential flexibility component as well as a key contributor for selecting, developing, improving and implementing flexibilities in order to succeed in markets that are accelerating and becoming more turbulent.

Improved environmental performance of products and services have lately become one of the main strategic and operational goals of manufacturers. This is due to influences from various stakeholders including government, consumers, societies and the business partners. Evidently, different manufacturers differently implement their environmental practices for sustainable product development depending on various driving factors such as customer awareness, legislation, economic benefits and competitive strategies, etc. In theory, manufacturers can efficiently undertake sustainable product development by implementing life cycle thinking into their system. This way, they can monitor the environment hot spots throughout a product life cycle and be able to minimise the environmental impact effectively. Therefore, several researchers have focused on developing tools and strategies to support the manufacturers in implementing sustainable manufacturing and product development studies. However, in reality, each manufacturer may operate their manufacturing system differently to accommodate different demands and constraints induced by firm characteristics and its regional location. Their attempts to implement the sustainable tools and strategies to their companies would also be different. Thus far, a number of studies have studied the implementation for a specific company. No studies have examined the relationship between their decisions and implementation for different characteristics of firms and different manufacturing locations. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to comprehensively investigate the practices of manufacturers towards sustainable product development.

A detailed statistical analysis was conducted on the survey data gathered from 330 manufacturing organisations in 13 countries. The research questions mainly cover implementation approaches, decision tools and techniques used and main driving forces at the strategic and operational levels concerning environmental practices in sustainable product development. This is to bridge the gaps between the research outputs and implementations in practice for the developed sustainable strategies and tools. Results highlighted interesting relationships of the implementations across different geographical regions (locations) as well as types and sizes of manufacturers. They can be used to shed some light for future research direction, the dominant driving forces of consumers and regulations importance towards the manufacturer practices to improve not only the environmental performance but also their social responsibility. In total, 12 null hypotheses were formulated to test the relationships as well as the correlations between the manufacturing characteristics and the research questions which cover several driving forces in implementing the environmental strategies.

The results of this large-scale global research highlighted that different geographical/manufacturing regions are driven mainly by legislation, competition and consumer pressures whilst manufacturers of different sizes utilise various decision tools. Design tools such as LCA, DFE and ECQFD methods are likely to be utilised in the medium-and high-complexity product development by OEM and ETM manufacturers. Environmental responsibility plays an important role and also enhanced by other driving forces such as the economic benefits, the long-term survival in the market and the company image.

Future work may include some or all of the following; such as respondents of this survey may be re-contacted and comparative data can be gathered from these manufacturers to capture the changes over the years. Further investigation of the sustainable supply chain management approaches, influences of dynamic driving forces and the environmental practices towards cleaner production practices such as improving energy efficiency, minimising waste, recycling scraps and reusing product as well as the product recovery practices for used products would be beneficial to gather and evaluate. This would support to address the current trends and emerging practices.

Results highlighted interesting relationships and thus provide some answers on strategies adopted by many manufacturers for the sustainability approaches and implementations across different geographical regions (locations) as well as types and sizes of manufacturers. The wave of change towards sustainability is clearly on enterprises, industries, communities and governments for thinking about solutions to increase the awareness in environmental sustainability thus reduce carbon footprint. In some areas there is clear progress but for many, this process is just beginning.

There is an overwhelming amount of information, methods and opinions, and proliferation of initiatives. It is in this climate that not only manufacturers but society must provide a practical and effective way to develop and disseminate the skills and knowledge required to fuel an environmentally sustainable economy. To achieve this, results of global surveys like this paper may support manufacturers who need to work with communities and stay well connected to their stakeholders. This may lead to developing training packages that accurately reflect industry needs and provide leadership in communities and workforce development.

There is generally an understanding of the sustainable product development and the use and role of tools and techniques to improve environmental performance of manufacturers at micro-level (within companies based on selected product, process, environmental tools and manufacturing characteristics). Whereas, a large-scale research like this paper, to present the status of sustainable product and process development approaches used by manufacturers located around the globe, of different sizes, types within existing operational and corporate strategies and eco-design initiatives have not been detailed.