Search results for "supply chain."
showing 10 items of 257 documents
A Conceptual Review on Using Consequential Life Cycle Assessment Methodology for the Energy Sector
2020
Energy is engaged in the supply chain of many economic sectors; therefore, the environmental impacts of the energy sector are indirectly linked to those of other sectors. Consequential life cycle assessment (CLCA) is an appropriate methodology to examine the direct and indirect environmental impacts of a product due to technological, economic or social changes. To date, different methodological approaches are proposed, combining economic and environmental models. This paper reviews the basic concept of CLCA and the coupling of economic and environmental models for performing CLCA in the energy sector during the period 2006–2020, with the aim to provide a description of the different tools, …
Alternatives to the traditional waste management: Food recovery for human non-profit organizations
2015
Food supply chains are affected by losses of products which become poorly attractive for the consumers as they get close to their expiration date, therefore remaining unsold on the shelves. Such situation is ethically depreciable considering that many undernourished people rely on non-profit organizations for their survival. Despite of this situation, food recovery through the supply chain is still scarcely practiced, and the potential benefits achievable are frequently ignored. The paper presents a mathematical model for the coordination of the supply chain operating a food recovery policy. The model determines the optimal time for withdrawing the products from the shelves and the quantity…
Supply chain modelling and analysis: an application of Latin square to a repeated coupling of non-linear differential equations
2011
In the last 50 years, Forrester’s system dynamics techniques have been adopted to analyse problems and find solutions for global supply chains. An important topic in production-inventory system modelling is the design of experiment. The aim of this paper is to present an application of a statistical technique of design of experiment, the Latin Square Design, to set a combination of input values for the initial-value problem of non-linear repeated coupling of first-order differential equations modelling a production-inventory system. This design permits to reduce the number of experiments while allowing statistical analysis for testing the significance of the studied parameters.
The Challenges Underlying Firm Revival and Resilience in the Post-COVID-19 Phase
2022
Covid-19 is an exogenous shock that has deeply modified the basic building blocks and the micro-mechanisms on which socio-economic systems and organizations rest. The vast majority of both factor markets and final markets have been significantly disrupted on a worldwide scale. As all factors that determine severe crises, the Covid-19 pandemic is a low probability and high impact shock which has significantly changed the environment in which firms operate (Grewal and Tansuhaj 2001, Hudecheck et al. 2020). Such changes have nonetheless been asymmetric, whilst they have menaced the survival of a huge number of firms and have brought to their knees many key industries, it has also ignited rapid…
Supply Chain Collaboration in Craft Production: empirical evidences from the food and beverage industry
2021
This paper empirically analyzes collaborative relationships among craftsmen and their suppliers in the food and beverage industry. Despite the recent return to traditional manufacturing methods triggered by customers’ attention, the literature debate on supply chain collaboration, in this field, has received limited research attention. In particular, the paper aims at investigating information and knowledge sharing in craft production environments by addressing the following research questions: RQ1. What type of information and knowledge is shared? RQ2. What are the main antecedents that lead to exchange information and knowledge with suppliers? RQ3. What are the benefits? The qualitative c…
From the LCA of food products to the environmental assessment of protected crops districts: A case-study in the south of Italy
2010
In the present study, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to evaluate the energy consumption and environmental burdens associated with the production of protected crops in an agricultural district in the Mediterranean region. In this study, LCA was used as a ‘support tool’, to address local policies for sustainable production and consumption patterns, and to create a ‘knowledge base’ for environmental assessment of an extended agricultural production area. The proposed approach combines organisation-specific tools, such as Environmental Management Systems and Environmental Product Declarations, with the environmental management of the district. Questionnaires were distribute…
Blockchain for power systems:Current trends and future applications
2020
Abstract Today, the blockchain is synonymous of technological innovation, being recognized among the 10 top strategy technologies in 2018 by the consulting company Gartner, it is more and more adopted in different sectors. However, the initial enthusiasm around this technology is going beyond the peak of inflated expectations, towards more stable applications in money transactions, cryptocurrencies and Digital Commodity Exchanges. Essentially, misguided efforts, the overuse of blockchain, and the Bitcoin's price drop have been the main reasons for this decay in expectations. Nevertheless, the exploitation of the blockchain technology in the power systems area appears largely underexplored, …
A synthesis regarding the application of Expert Systems in Inventory management
2015
The paper surveys the application of Expert Systems in Inventory field in order to find out the relevant aspects needed to build an improved system. The result is a hybrid Expert System-Decision Support System that helps managers to face the uncertainty, complexity and the dynamics of the Inventory Management as the Heart of the Supply Chain Management.
An optimized system dynamics approach for a hotel chain management
2009
The proposed model consists of an integrated system dynamics-data envelopment analysis approach to value, in a dynamic framework, the effects over time of the policies implemented according to the relative efficiency analysis. Rooms’ price and competing facilities (the hedonics) are the decision variables to move in order to push the hotels towards a higher relative efficiency at the end of the observation periods. In fact, in competitive markets as tourism, hotels compete for money offering differentiated quality. Moreover, according to the microeconomic theory, a producer of differentiated goods is not a price taker but a price maker. Therefore, we assume that the decision maker of the ho…
How alternative food networks work in a metropolitan area? An analysis of Solidarity Purchase Groups in Northern Italy
2019
AbstractOur paper focuses on Solidarity Purchase Group (SPG) participants located in a highly urbanized area, with the aim to investigate the main motivations underlining their participation in a SPG and provide a characterization of them. To this end, we carried out a survey of 795 participants involved in 125 SPGs in the metropolitan area of Milan (Italy). Taking advantage of a questionnaire with 39 questions, we run a factor analysis and a two-step cluster analysis to identify different profiles of SPG participants. Our results show that the system of values animating metropolitan SPG practitioners does not fully conform to that traditionally attributed to an alternative food network (AF…