Search results

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework to assess the sustainability of service supply chains (SC) based on the concept of the balanced scorecard and three dimensions of sustainability, namely economic, social, and environmental performance.

After reviewing the literature and interviewing the experts, the preliminary list of identified general criteria is categorized in the four perspectives. Then, to select the most important factors in hospital SC, 15 experts evaluated the identified criteria by questionnaires of Fuzzy Delphi Method. Then, interpretative structural modeling was applied to identify the interrelations between the perspectives and between the criteria.

The framework includes four perspectives, financial; service SC operations; stakeholders’ satisfaction in the direction of sustainability; and learning, growth, and innovation, to improve the SC for sustainability in the service industry. According to the results, the identified criteria are interrelated.

The paper provides an important reference to assess the sustainability of service SCs. It will be beneficial in strategic and operational decision-making in service industries.

Reviewing the literature shows that the concept of sustainability of service SCs is still immature. The paper is a preliminary effort to identify the general criteria of sustainability and their interrelations in the service sector. The presented general framework links the financial measures with the environmental and social measures. It helps to maintain the balance between the sustainability goals for the service SC managers. It can be modified and applied in different service sectors.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework of sustainable service supply chain management (SCM) processes and practices in the multi-dimensional construct. It tries to provide a template for those sustainability general key practices that can be scheduled and budgeted in different service sectors.

To provide an applicable framework, its adaptability to most service settings should be ensured. In this regard, at first, the related literature on service SCM processes and sustainability practices of SCM are reviewed. To modify and confirm the extracted list, it is distributed to experts. After summarizing experts’ opinions, an initial list of the sustainable service supply chain practices (SSSCPs) is provided. Finally, the Fuzzy Delphi Method is applied to construct the framework for hospital supply chain (SC).

It suggests that the SSSCPs can be constructed in terms of seven major processes: managing the sustainable supplier, sustainable employee, sustainable customer, sustainable service performance, sustainable service operations, sustainable external relations, and sustainable knowledge, information and technology.

The framework can be employed as a template of sustainability practices for individual member firms of service SCs to identify and implement the key practices toward sustainability.

Reviewing the literature indicates that determining what is unique about the sustainable SCM in the service sector is immature. The paper is a preliminary effort to identify the general sustainability practices, in incorporating all sustainability dimensions in service SC processes.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the significance of improvement of marketing process using Six Sigma methodology, in the context of a banking environment.

Based on Six Sigma's DMAIC model, the paper uses Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control phases to study marketing process improvement in Saman Bank.

Research states the way concepts of marketing performance management relates to the improvement of a bank marketing process using Six Sigma. Low quality was observed in the process and then regarding customer relations as one of the main priorities, improvement actions were planned. A major marketing failure for the bank was decline of online banking usage, which justifies the importance of loyal online banking customers in marketing plans.

This paper helps marketing departments in financial institutions to analyze their current performance and execute improvement actions to optimize their process. One fact in designing marketing improvement actions for banks is effectively using related information systems to organize the high amount of marketing data and to respond quickly to customer needs.

Marketing performance measurement is done in a new way as the research describes how a general marketing process can adopt Six Sigma tools to have stronger customer relations, reduced marketing costs and how to prioritize improvement actions systematically.

This paper aims to propose a new approach for determining a decoupling point in leagile chain, based on Lean and agile criteria regarding market and customer demands and internal capabilities of the chain with the ultimate goal of fulfilling customer needs and increasing chain profit.

In the new approach, Lean and agile criteria have been defined for assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of supply chain. The efficiency and effectiveness ratios have been calculated for Lean and agile processes using input- and output-oriented Banker, Charnes and Cooper (BCC) methods, respectively. Based on the results, inefficient and ineffective units have been addressed and the decoupling point has been determined.

Findings indicate that the decoupling point can be regarded as a borderline between two strategies of Lean and agile production, and fuzzy decoupling point and lean–agile distance can provide the basis for distinguishing the two strategies.

Determining the decoupling point has an important role in dynamic performance of a supply chain. By the proposed approach, managers can estimate the most probable area for the decoupling point. Moreover, by appropriate determination of decoupling point, an organization can increase its public responsibility by appropriate usage of its resources and responding faster to customers’ requirements.

In this study, in addition to determining a decoupling point in a supply chain with the aim of increasing productivity, the subject of leagile strategy of supply chains has been developed.

Nowadays, the field of data analytics is witnessing an unprecedented interest from a variety of stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the subfield of predictive analytics by proposing a new non-parametric classifier.

The proposed new non-parametric classifier performs both in-sample and out-of-sample predictions, where in-sample predictions are devised with a new Evaluation Based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS)-based classifier, and out-of-sample predictions are devised with a CBR-based classifier trained on the class predictions provided by the proposed EDAS-based classifier.

The performance of the proposed new non-parametric classification framework is tested on a data set of UK firms in predicting bankruptcy. Numerical results demonstrate an outstanding predictive performance, which is robust to the implementation decisions’ choices.

The exceptional predictive performance of the proposed new non-parametric classifier makes it a real contender in actual applications in areas such as finance and investment, internet security, fraud and medical diagnosis, where the accuracy of the risk-class predictions has serious consequences for the relevant stakeholders.

Over and above the design elements of the new integrated in-sample-out-of-sample classification framework and its non-parametric nature, it delivers an outstanding predictive performance for a bankruptcy prediction application.