Robert J. Vokurka and Rhonda R. Lummus
In today's competitive environment, markets are becoming more international, dynamic, and customer‐driven. Customers are demanding more variety, better quality and service…
Abstract
In today's competitive environment, markets are becoming more international, dynamic, and customer‐driven. Customers are demanding more variety, better quality and service, including both reliability and faster delivery. Technological developments are occurring at a faster pace, resulting in new product innovations and improvements in manufacturing processes. The resulting competitive environment requires low cost, high quality products in increasing varieties. These changes have instigated changes in business and manufacturing strategies.
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Rhonda R. Lummus, Dennis W. Krumwiede and Robert J. Vokurka
Over the past few years there has been confusion and disagreement among general business practitioners and operations professionals concerning the terms “logistics” and “supply…
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Over the past few years there has been confusion and disagreement among general business practitioners and operations professionals concerning the terms “logistics” and “supply chain management”. Various formal definitions have been offered for both terms. In addition, the common usage of each term in industry varies. Business terms are often defined over time, by the common use or application of the term. Examines the historical definitions of both terms, looks at current practitioner views of the terms, and proposes a hierarchy for the relationship between logistics and supply chain management.
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Leslie K. Duclos, Robert J. Vokurka and Rhonda R. Lummus
This paper presents an integrated conceptual model of supply chain flexibility. It examines flexibility classification schemes and the commonalities of flexibility typologies…
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This paper presents an integrated conceptual model of supply chain flexibility. It examines flexibility classification schemes and the commonalities of flexibility typologies published in the literature to create a theoretical foundation for analyzing the components of supply chain flexibility. Even though there has been a tremendous amount of research on the topic of flexibility, most of it has been confined to intra‐firm flexibility concerns. As supply chain management goes beyond a firm’s boundaries, the flexibility strategies must also extend beyond the firm. This paper identifies the cross‐enterprise nature of supply chain flexibility and the need to improve flexibility measures across firms. Opportunities are identified for future cross‐functional research that builds on this theoretical foundation and leads to more effective formulation of supply chain strategies.
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Rhonda R. Lummus, Leslie K. Duclos and Robert J. Vokurka
Effective supply chain management requires sharing information between nodes of the chain. In consumer chains, this demand communication often results in a bullwhip effect as…
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Effective supply chain management requires sharing information between nodes of the chain. In consumer chains, this demand communication often results in a bullwhip effect as demand information becomes distorted back through the chain. Building on the work of Towill et al. and Towill and McCullen, this study evaluates the impact of consumer promotions and wholesale trade deals on the performance of a supply chain. Marketing actions alone are shown to have a significant impact on supply chains.
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Rhonda R. Lummus and Robert J. Vokurka
Interest in supply chain management has steadily increased since the 1980s when firms saw the benefits of collaborative relationships within and beyond their own organization…
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Interest in supply chain management has steadily increased since the 1980s when firms saw the benefits of collaborative relationships within and beyond their own organization. Firms are finding that they can no longer compete effectively in isolation of their suppliers or other entities in the supply chain. A number of definitions of supply chain management have been proposed in the literature and in practice. This paper defines the concept of supply chain management and discusses its historical evolution. The term does not replace supplier partnerships, nor is it a description of the logistics function. The competitive importance of linking a firm’s supply chain strategy to its overall business strategy and some practical guidelines are offered for successful supply chain management.
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Leslie K. Duclos, Samia M. Sih and Rhonda R. Lummus
Maintains that, although service industries would benefit fromresearch concerning the implementation of just‐in‐time (JIT) techniques,most research has focused on JIT only in…
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Maintains that, although service industries would benefit from research concerning the implementation of just‐in‐time (JIT) techniques, most research has focused on JIT only in manufacturing firms. A review of applied journals and articles, however, revealed JIT concepts migrating to non‐manufacturing environments. These articles describe JIT techniques successfully moving from the factory floor to other environments and suggest a potentially rich research opportunity. Summarizes these articles using Benson′s guidelines for applying JIT in service. Illustrates various JIT applications within each of the JIT categories.
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John G. Wacker and Rhonda R. Lummus
The purpose of this article is twofold. First, the article examines how managers can make more effective use of sales forecasts for strategic resource allocation decisions…
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The purpose of this article is twofold. First, the article examines how managers can make more effective use of sales forecasts for strategic resource allocation decisions. Second, the article identifies those research issues in forecasting that must be addressed to better understand the managerial side of forecasting. Managers can improve resource planning by understanding the limitations of forecasts. These limitations are exemplified through several strategic forecasting paradoxes that managers must recognize. The paradoxes suggested here are: first, the most important managerial decisions a company can make are based on the least accurate forecasts; second, the most useful forecast information for resource planning is the least accurate; and, third, the organizations that need the most accurate forecast have the largest forecast error. By recognizing these paradoxes managers can devote their attention to improving the use and implementation of the forecast for better resource decisions. At the same time, future research should focus on broadening the understanding of the role of forecasts in strategic decision making.
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K. Nikolopoulos and V. Assimakopoulos
The need effectively to integrate decision making tasks together with knowledge representation and inference procedures has caused recent research efforts towards the integration…
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The need effectively to integrate decision making tasks together with knowledge representation and inference procedures has caused recent research efforts towards the integration of decision support systems with knowledge‐based techniques. Explores the potential benefits of such integration in the area of business forecasting. Describes the forecasting process and identifies its main functional elements. Some of these elements provide the requirements for an intelligent forecasting support system. Describes the architecture and the implementation of such a system, the theta intelligent forecasting information system (TIFIS) that that first‐named author had developed during his dissertation. In TIFIS, besides the traditional components of a decision‐support onformation system, four constituents are included that try to model the expertise required. The information system adopts an object‐oriented approach to forecasting and exploits the forecasting engine of the theta model integrated with automated rule based adjustments and judgmental adjustments. Tests the forecasting accuracy of the information system on the M3‐competition monthly data.
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This special issue of Facilities on “Strategic Issues for Facilities Managers” is very different in style from the editor‐generated issues of this journal, but it has been…
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This special issue of Facilities on “Strategic Issues for Facilities Managers” is very different in style from the editor‐generated issues of this journal, but it has been designed to achieve a particular purpose. It focuses on the business issues about which facilities managers need to be aware in order to plan the most effective deployment of corporate physical assets. In order that readers can acquire a good understanding of a wide variety of topics in a short period of time, the material is presented in the form of précis and short articles.