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Many companies that were once centrally involved in the actual manufacture of products, and the delivery of their supporting services, now find themselves primarily engaged in integrating a number of other organizations, some of which they may own but many of which will be independent, each of which goes to make up a particular supply network. Consequently, continuously tracking performance of suppliers and an appropriate selection mechanism is one of the crucial activities in managing this supply network. This paper presents an intelligent generic supplier management tool (GSMT) using the case‐based reasoning (CBR) technique for outsourcing to suppliers and automating the decision‐making process when selecting them. The development of GSMT and how the CBR technique is applied is then given, followed by an application of GSMT in Honeywell Consumer Products (Hong Kong) Limited.

This paper aims to provide a practical model usable by organizations to help form agile virtual enterprises. The model helps to integrate a variety of factors, tangible and intangible, strategic and operational, for decision‐making purposes.

A comprehensive development of factors is determined from the literature and an analytical network process (ANP) methodology is introduced for decision model development. An illustrative example is presented.

The results provide a robust model that will aid decision makers and agile virtual enterprise brokers form partnerships within these organizational structures.

The paper introduces a conceptual model with an illustrative validating example. A practical application and reapplication of the model are required to further validate the model. ANP can require significant managerial input for its application, potentially causing fatigue for decision makers.

Practical implications include a partner selection tool and framework for decision makers. The model may be easily tweaked by the elimination or addition of decision factors and their relationships.

The paper is useful to practitioners and organizations seeking to manage partnership formation of agile virtual enterprises, an emerging organizational form. This work expands the number of factors and interrelationships among these factors that no other model has explicitly addressed for the agile virtual enterprise formation situation.

In today’s competitive industrial environment, it is essential that companies are able to focus on their core activities and collaborate with business partners to achieve the common objective of meeting the best satisfaction of customer demands. However, selecting partners based on accumulated experience may not be effective due to subjective judgement and lack of systematic analysis. This paper attempts to propose a partners benchmarking assessment system (PBAS) which incorporates computational intelligence technologies into partners’ benchmarking process to support decision making. Evidence suggests that the undesirables occur in companies such as extensive delays in the planned schedule, serious quality problems and cost overruns are, to a certain extent, related to the unfulfilled promises of business partners. In this paper, the PBAS is designed to propose an alternative approach to benchmark the business partners based on case‐based reasoning and neural network. To validate the proposed system, a prototype has been developed and tested in an emulated industrial environment. The case example is outlined with analysis of the feasibility of this proposed system based on test results.

The aim of this research was to study collaborative practices with suppliers in multinational manufacturing companies operating in India and to develop a framework for collaboration with suppliers.

This study adopted a four-step mixed-methods approach that included qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative technique was used to explore the factors and develop a balanced scorecard-based (BSC – balanced scorecard) framework using them. Quantitative technique was used to validate the framework statistically and also by using fuzzy analytical hierarchy process using perception-based ranks given by practitioners.

The exploratory research resulted in 26 antecedents for collaboration with suppliers in supply chains. Out of these 26, only 19 were considered based on importance given by practitioners. Further, the identified antecedents were classified and mapped based on the perspectives of the BSC. The extended BSC adds business environment and partnership perspectives to existing BSC framework. Some of the important factors identified under these perspectives were transparency of transactions, long-term commitment and trust. The customer perspective was given the utmost importance by the practitioners.

There are certain issues that may limit the completeness of the work in a global context. The number of organizations (21) and respondents (45) may also be insufficient to convey the complete knowledge embedded in the practice of the field.

The study provides practical insights about the factors affecting collaboration with suppliers. A BSC-based framework for collaboration with suppliers was also developed along with the associated importance of each perspective and factors under each perspective, which can prove to be of great value to academics and practitioners involved in relationship with suppliers in supply chain.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach that integrates three complementary perspectives, multi-agent systems, fuzzy logic and case-based reasoning. Unsatisfied customers, information overload and high uncertainty are the main challenges that are faced by today’s supply chains. In addition, a few existing agent-based approaches are tied to real-world supply chain functions like supplier selection. These approaches are static and do not adequately take the qualitative and quantitative factors into consideration. Therefore, an agent-based framework is needed to address these issues.

The proposed approach integrates three complementary perspectives, multi-agent systems, fuzzy logic and case-based reasoning, as a common framework. These perspectives were rarely used together as a common framework in previous studies. Furthermore, an exploratory case study in an office furniture company is undertaken to illustrate the value of the framework.

The proposed agent-based framework evaluates supply offers based on customers’ preferences, recommends alternative products in the case of stock-out and provides a collaborative environment among agents who represent different supply chain entities. The proposed fuzzy case-based reasoning (F-CBR) approach reduces the information overload by organizing them into the relevant cases that causes less overall search between cases. In addition, its fuzzy aspect addresses the high uncertainty of supply chains, especially when there are different customers’ orders with different preferences.

The present study does not include the functions of inventory management and negotiation between agents. Furthermore, only the case description and case retrieval phases of the case-based reasoning approach are investigated, and the remaining phases like case retaining, case reusing and case revising are not included in the scope of this paper.

This framework balances the interests of different supply chain structural elements where each of them is represented by a specific agent for better collaboration, decision-making and problem-solving in a multi-agent environment. In addition, the supplier selection and order gathering mechanisms are developed based on customers’ orders.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an insight to the outsourcing decision-making through investigating if the old evaluation/selection criteria and methods still fit with current business priorities or not and, therefore, to identify the appropriate criteria and methods to develop a new selection framework. Since the economic recession of 2008, logistics outsourcing decisions have become more prominent to avoid high fixed costs and heavy investment requirements and to achieve competitive advantages.

This is a focused literature review prepared after analyzing 56 articles related to the logistics service provider (LSP) evaluation and selection methods and criteria during 2008-2013. The academic articles are analyzed based on research focus/area, evaluation and selection methodology/methods and evaluation and selection criteria. Then reviewed result is compared with previous literature studies for the periods (1991-2008) to identify any possible shifts.

The review reveals that: several problems in current LSPs literature have been identified; the reviewed papers can be categorized into seven groups, the usage and importance of evaluation and selection criteria fluctuate during different periods; 12 crucial criteria have been identified, increasing the importance of specific selection methods and the integrated models and fuzzy logic in logistics literature. Then, a comprehensive LSPs’ evaluation and selection framework has been developed.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first focused logistics outsourcing study that reviews the 2008-2013 period in detail, comparing results with previous literature studies, identifies current LSPs literature problems/gaps, new trends and shifts in the way that LSPs are evaluated and selected, identifies crucial selection criteria and proposes a new holistic LSPs evaluation and selection framework. In addition, it identifies important issues for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to present a research model that explore strategic outsourcing practices for sustainable competitive advantages. In this paper, a decision support system (DSS) for sustainable performance measurement of carry and forward agents (CFAs) is proposed.

The importance of seven criteria as a means of selecting the best CFA for warehouses under the aspect of sustainable environment is analyzed. The criteria are compared and ranked using analytic hierarchy process (AHP) with the combined assistance of literature review and expert opinions. This study makes use of unstructured interviews of Regional Distribution Manager and senior strategic leaders of the firms.

This paper discusses how strategic outsourcing can help firm to achieve desired business outcomes. The selection of best CFA gives a direction to the company to move toward excellence and provides the key areas to work upon to achieve competitive advantage. The main contribution of this paper includes modeling the performance evaluation problem within the context of a sustainable supply chain based on triple bottom line (TBL) concept.

The identified selection criteria are bound with Indian transportation and logistics industry. Further, it is suggested to conduct a real-life application of this study to other companies from different countries, to obtain criteria based on globally acceptable norms. The results may yield the network-specific evaluation criteria and their evaluations.

The developed excel-based tool could be used to record the inspection data, compare the CFAs and determine the best CFAs on the basis of selected criteria. With the help of this tool, CFAs know their position and ranking among all the CFAs and the focus areas they need to work upon to perform well. The training module could be used to keep the CFA staff on the right track which is very essential in a typical manufacturing industry warehouse. The improved performance of CFAs will in turn help to improve the manufacturing process, thus maximizing the gains along with environmental benefits.

This paper provides a priority of sustainable issues for evaluating the performance of the best CFA. The paper presents a strategic outsourcing model, which suggest both theoretical and managerial implications showing how to implement successful outsourcing practices in the global market by analyzing the performance of outsourcing partners, i.e. CFAs.

This study aims to develop a framework for the action hierarchy of sustainability practices and financial performance and their optimal combination for supplier evaluation and selection in business-to-business (B2B) for the Indian manufacturing industry.

Through the extensive literature review followed by comprehensive interviews conducted using the Delphi methodology with professionals, this study attempts to represent the interactions of the sustainability practices and financial performance factors on B2B buying behaviour using a graph-theoretic approach.

The contribution of environmental, social, economic and financial performance to B2B buying behaviour is obtained quantitatively in the context of the Indian manufacturing industry.

This study considers inputs from the Indian manufacturing industry, which may vary significantly based on the type of industry and geographical locations.

This study provides a direction to prioritize their supplier evaluation and selection criteria for sustainability practices and financial performance with quantifiable rationale.

The study seeks to encourage manufacturing industries to plan their actions by quantifying the intangibles through a systematic approach.

Pursuing objectives despite limited internal resources and leveraging external resources despite non‐ownership are familiar hallmarks of entrepreneurial firms. Although outsourcing is the standard way for businesses to surmount these barriers, entrepreneurial firms often lack the resources to purchase outsourcing arrangements. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on how entrepreneurial firms can better procure and benefit from outsourcing arrangements.

The paper examines six entrepreneurial firms in a Shanghai business incubator as they undertook a variety of outsourcing arrangements. It utilizes an integrative framework based on transaction cost theory, resource dependency theory, and the resource‐based view. It then cross‐hatches those three theory bases with four outsourcing modes (full, partial, spinout, inter‐outsourcing) and case study methodology.

The paper's findings yield three novel propositions for strategic and ex ante entrepreneurial firm outsourcing activities. The propositions pertain to the exchange of non‐traditional resources, vendor‐buyer power differentials, and linkages between internal operations and external resources.

Entrepreneurial firms stand to benefit in particularly vital ways from outsourcing arrangements. Yet, they are often severely constrained with respect to resources. Such strong need combined with limited means is a peculiarly valuable setting but only a paucity of research exists. The original study targets this important setting.

Managing the green (environmentally sustainable) supply chain is an important issue for industry. This paper aims to provide a framework to understand and appreciate the relationships of various research streams and topics in this field. Utilizing this framework, emergent research directions to advance the field are also presented.

Published research in peer‐reviewed journals is evaluated using a new framework of nine non‐exclusive, interrelated boundaries and five flows of resources related to green supply chains and supply chain management.

The research literature can be integrated into these comprehensive multidimensional frameworks, which also provide opportunities as vehicles for future research. Research directions are described utilizing the framework presented in this paper.

This work presents one potential set of frameworks. Insights relating to other potential frameworks are additional areas of investigation and not presented in this study. The literature reviewed in this paper focuses almost exclusively on peer reviewed journals. Emergent research in this area may also appear in books and conference papers. The frameworks provide guidance for various research streams.

The frameworks and review also provide opportunity for managers and organizations to more comprehensively understand issues underlying green supply chain management.

Greening supply chains has become a necessity as environmental concerns have remained at the forefront of the debate of global and local social interests.

The comprehensive boundaries and flows framework can be valuable for identifying barriers to study and implementation of the interdisciplinary green supply chain management topic based on recent published literature. They also provide insights into research streams and practice. The research questions provide some further direction for those wishing to investigate this field.