Yearly Archives: 2011

Sustainable supply chains

Sustainability has become a huge buzzword, both in today’s business world and within the broader facets of society. Sustainability has evolved from a perspective and investigation of standalone research in social and environmental areas, through a corporate social responsibility perspective, and towards a convergence of perspectives of sustainability as the triple bottom line.

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Transportation Resilience

Resilience is related to three overarching concepts: 1) the vulnerability to unpredictable shocks, 2) the resources or wealth available to a system to help it change, and 3) the internal controllability of relationships in a system, i.e. its rigidity or flexibility.

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Book Review: Political Risk

Every firm with a supply chain that sources globally or operates internationally is exposed to political risks that may be very different from what they are used to domestically. On the international scene such risk can occur suddenly and without warning, not because they cannot be foreseen, but because the firm usually lacks the tools and the knowledge it needs to anticipate and react coherently to political risks.

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Supply Chain Nirvana

The supply chain is a firm’s core asset, and perhaps its most important asset, and a firm is only as good or as bad as its supply chain. In this tightly packed 300-page volume Sehgal shows how important it is to have a top-down-driven approach to supply chain management and how important it is to link strategy and execution, from the board room to the very last delivery guy.

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Book Review: Operations Rules

This book is about the principles, frameworks and processes that enable the aligning of a company’s specific customer value proposition with its operations strategy.The book is built around 33 rules that cover all possible aspects of supply chain operations and management, and that are placed throughout the eleven chapters of the book.

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Cross-border supply chains

What are the main change and trend drivers for international supply chains? How will future cross-border supply chains look like? In a study commissioned by the World Customs Organization in 2006, they sought to identify a set of foreseeable drivers of change and their predicted impact on global supply chain management for the next 20 years.

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Book Review: Customs Risk

For businesses, failing to comply with customs requirements may result in delayed shipments and serious disruptions in the supply chain. That is why managing customs risk is an integral part of managing global supply chain risks, but customs risks are unfortunately absent from much of the supply chain risk literature.

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ARTICLES and PAPERS
Call for papers: S-D Logic and Supply Chain Risk
Is supply chain risk is now beginning to enter more and more areas of  supply chain thinking? It wou[...]
Supply Chain Management - does it really exist?
The other day I came across a very interesting PhD dissertation by Erik Sandberg from Linköping Univ[...]
BOOKS and BOOK CHAPTERS
Book Review: Global Supply Chain Management
The Handbook of Global Supply Chain Management is an excellent book. My interest in it stems from th[...]
Book Review: Single Point of Failure
Just out a few days ago, Single Point of Failure is a fascinating read. The author, Gary S. Lynch, i[...]
REPORTS and WHITEPAPERS
Managing supply chain risk
In September and October 2009 the Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed 500 company executives with r[...]
How New Zealand develops resilient organisations
Is New Zealand better prepared for a disaster than other countries? As our infrastructure and organi[...]
from HERE and THERE
Sweet Seduction
Kinaxis Suitemates Episode 4
Time for my weekly reminder: "Suitemates", the big new marketing campaign by Kinaxis. Canada-based [...]
Fastest path problems in dynamic transportation networks
This research essay and literature review investigates some of the gateways to path finding in stati[...]