In a dynamic and highly competitive supply chain, business organisations have to deal with numerous challenges caused by higher supply risk and greater demand uncertainty. This intense global competition forces major parties along the supply chain, including suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses and retailers, to monitor and improve their performance continuously to achieve long-term success. Thus, improving supply chain performance has become a critical issue for these parties to increase productivity and operations efficiency, resulting in increased customer satisfaction, market share and profits. However, the applications of computational and systematic approaches in enhancing supply chain performance have not received adequate attention from researchers and practitioners. The publication of this special issue will provide researchers and managers with the latest research results on effective approaches with systematic, analytical and simulation models to sustain their competitive advantages.
This special issue is organised based on the 8th International Conference on Supply Chain Management and Information Systems (SCMIS 2010), which took place in Hong Kong in October 2010. Comprehensive versions of good-quality papers presented at the conference that fitted the theme of this issue were invited for submission. This issue contains six papers that present new research ideas in the area of inventory control and planning, order picking and strategy planning problems, with their influence on performance in the supply chain. A brief overview of the papers included is provided as follows.
The paper, ‘Pricing and inventory policies for hi-tech products under replacement warranty’ by Yu-Chung Tsao, Wei-Guang Teng, Ruey-Shii Chen and Wang-Ying Chou, highlights the fact that determining the price and inventory decisions under warranty policy simultaneously is an important issue for the hi-tech industry. Thus, a joint pricing and inventory model for hi-tech products under replacement warranty policy is developed to determine the optimal inventory level and retail price in the dynamic demand market while maximising the total profit. Through a numerical analysis, this research provides implications on how the shortage cost, holding cost and failed faction rates affect decisions and total profit.
Federica Cucchiella, Idiano D’Adamo, Massimo Gastaldi and S.C. Lenny Koh, in their paper ‘Implementation of a real option in a sustainable supply chain: an empirical study of alkaline battery recycling’, examine the effect of a sustainable supply chain by applying green supply principles to the recycling battery sector. The paper seeks to integrate works in supply chain management, environmental management, performance management and real options theory into the same framework by extending the model of life cycle assessment and life cycle costing for profitability evaluation of green investments. This paper is a useful source of information for researchers investigating green supply chain practices from an environmental point of view in the battery-recycling sector.
The paper, ‘An order picking operations system for managing the batching activities in a warehouse’ by Cathy H.Y. Lam, K.L. Choy, and G.T.S. Ho, indicates that the planning of warehouse order picking activities effectively is an important but complex operation to satisfy customer demands within a short period. Therefore, an order picking operations system is developed to assist in the formulation of an order picking plan and batch handling sequence through the adoption of mathematical model and fuzzy logic technique. The results obtained through the case study imply that the system can help provide better control of labour resources, reduce travel distance of the picker and provide a decision on the order picking priority.
The paper, ‘Design of inventory pools in spare part support operation systems’ by Daniel Y. Mo, Mitchell M. Tseng and Raymond K. Cheung, examines the structure of inventory pools and the order fulfilment strategies to manage the spare part support operation. Two types of inventory pools, namely the multiple inventory pool and consolidated inventory pool, are considered to fulfil the part request order with different service contracts in the agreed response time. Through the simulation result, significant cost savings and service performance on the part of request orders are achieved. The contributions of this paper are the analytical design of the inventory pool and the proposal on reserve strategies to manage the order fulfilment risks effectively.
Harry K.H. Chow, K.L. Choy and David W.C. Wong, in their article ‘Assessing a cross-border logistics policy using a performance measurement system framework: the case of Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta region’, discuss the dynamic operations environment of the cross-border supply chain between Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta region in China. A performance measurement system framework, which covers four major logistics performance categories (i.e. cost, time, quality and flexibility) in warehouse and transportation operations, is proposed to provide a comprehensive logistics solution analysis for different logistics scenarios. The framework allows third-party logistics companies to pinpoint the weaknesses and strengths of their current operations policies in four major performance categories.
The paper, ‘User acceptance of mobile commerce: an empirical study in Macau’ by Ivan K.W. Lai and Donny Lai, examines the positive and negative factors that can significantly explain the user acceptance behaviour of mobile commerce. To understand users’ intentions towards adopting m-commerce in Macau, the established UTAUT model is extended by considering a new factor, ‘privacy concern’, to measure the influence on the behavioural intention towards each potential determinant. The results of the study are useful for m-commerce service providers to adjust their strategies in promoting m-commerce services.
We believe that this special issue will provide future research directions for researchers and practitioners to enhance supply chain performance. As the guest editors of this special issue, we would like to thank all of the authors for submitting high-quality articles. We would also like to express our deepest gratitude to the referees for the time and effort they spent in reviewing and providing valuable comments to improve the quality of the articles. Finally, we would like to express our sincere thanks to the Editor-in-Chief, Professor Peter Fleming, for supporting the publication of this special issue.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
K.L. Choy
Dr. K.L. Choy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He obtained his MSc degrees in Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Management Science, and his MPhil in Engineering from the University of Warwick, UK, in the 1990s, as well as a Doctorate degree from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2003. He has published more than 100 international journal papers in the areas of logistics information, data systems, supply chain management and technology management, as well as applied expert systems to industry.
George T.S. Ho
Dr. George T.S. Ho is currently a lecturer in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received his BEng (Hons) in Manufacturing Engineering and PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests are data mining, artificial intelligent systems, logistics workflow optimisation, logistics and supply chain management. During his years of research, Dr. Ho has published more than 50 papers in both international journals and conference publications.
S.C. Lenny Koh
Professor S.C. Lenny Koh is the Associate Dean for Alumni Affairs and Chair in Operations Management at the University of Sheffield Management School, HK. Trained as a manufacturing engineer, Professor Koh holds a First-class Honors degree in Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering as well as a Doctorate in Operations Management. Professor Koh has over 244 publications to her name in the forms of journal papers, books, edited books, edited proceedings, edited special issues, book chapters, conference papers, technical papers and reports. Her research interests and expertise are in the areas of logistics and supply chain management, production planning and control, uncertainty management, modern operations management in advanced manufacturing, e-business, e-organisation, knowledge management and sustainable business.