| 1. |
- Abukhader, Sajed, et al.
(författare)
-
E-commerce and the environment: A gateway to the renewal of greening supply chains
- 2004
-
Ingår i: International Journal of Technology Management. - 0267-5730. ; 28:2, s. 274-288
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Electronic commerce is expected to influence a wide range of supply chain systems and thus lead to unidentified environmental impacts. Current studies discussing the impacts have the problem common in that they arrive either at conflicting or un-generalisable results. This article addresses the issue of methodology and proposes an assessment model for the resolution of this problem. Some important implications of this novel model for supply chain management are presented. This article shows that the subject of “Greening supply chains” is in need of a new focus and direction in research which involves building a new set of constructs for decision-making. Several benefits of this are addressed. Research in this subject is somewhat stagnating nowadays; it lacks specific research themes that are necessary for the integration of the available knowledge. Our model, proposed in this paper, represents a meeting point of the need of renewal of this subject, and the need to evaluate large-scale issues such as electronic commerce.
|
|
| 2. |
- Abukhader, Sajed, et al.
(författare)
-
Horizontal Environmental Assessment of Postponement Strategy – A Delphi-based Investigation
- 2011
-
Ingår i: International Journal of Management Science and Engineering Management. - 1750-9653. ; 6:5, s. 382-392
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper is based on the findings of a research work by Abukhader and Jönson (2004a), who discuss the possibilities and limitations of the ties of postponement strategy in food supply chains. They identified the cases/examples (i.e. company cases) of application of postponement across the various categories of foods: frozen, chilled/fresh and long shelf life. The food industry nowadays is in need for innovative solutions measures as it proceeds into a future full of speculations, pressures and tight margins (Lagneik et al., 2003). Embracing postponement in those cases (with any of its several! forms) is referred to various reasons such as better management. cost-efficiency, private labelling, etc., but observably excluding the environmental reasons. Confusion. though, upon an argument on the correlation between cost-efficiency and reduction of environmental burden brings another point of interest in this respect. One may argue that all postponement cases identified anyway represent cost-efficiency situations, while the rest of non-postponement does not find postponement as a cost-efficient method to them. As such, being cost-efficient means mutually environmentally better (less environmental loads). Such an argument is in fact inaccurate; the following is an explanation. This argument, basically, carries two points. The first has to do with the cost being the reason behind taking a postponement decision, and this is in fact not an accurate analysis. This is because: • It is not always that cost efficiency is the reason; there can be other forces or needs behind adopting postponement, for instance: a situation of limited production capacity, or willing to outsource packaging operation due to limited capital’ investment costs. etc. • In some instances, the cost issue remains one of the things to minimise after choosing postponement for a reason such as introducing a new product (different in form or contents), or making private labels, etc. • In some other situations such as choosing ‘production to order’ (one form of postponement), the reason might be demand invisibility; it cannot be taken simply as a cost efficiency problem (lost costs of unsold items)but as a production planning problem. The problem of lost costs of unsold items is direct in a Situation where it is a traditional economy of scale production form and the company is realising after a while that there still is an un-recovered burden of unsold items at the ends of the supply chain. Rewarding to recall here is that for using postponement there are forces, enablers and factors that are related to product, process, production. and market characteristics as summarised in Abukhader and Jönson (2004a). The second point has to do with the relationship of costs with environmental loads. Assuming a linear correlation between them is not accurate or even is not correct. This is because: • Improving cost efficiency does not necessarily mean or lead to reducing environmental loads, but might sometimes not affect the environmental loads or might in some instances even increase the loads. For example, we may change facility locations to lower the costs (ex. with cheaper labour costs) but this does not mean a reduction in environmental loads. In general, abatement works for reducing emissions often burden the budget. reducing environmental loads, but may on the other hand incur loads due to an added freezing process or keeping aseptic conditions), and • Even if cost efficiency happens to lead to reduction of total environmental loads, this can be only at a “process/operations” level and not the whole supply chain (considering all the related processes/operations in delivering the product of concern). If we say that the producer finds delaying packing works (in time or location) more cost efficient, this might be true at the level of analysis of production process only and might be compensated with added loads somewhere else in the supply chain at the warehousing point, or transportation process or at the retailing point etc. The purpose of this paper is to test the possibility if arriving at an environmental perspective of postponement, demarcated to the food industry, through looking at those identified cases/examples, The aim is to arrive at an “environmental judgment” in total on the cases if they indicate altogether a tendency towards “environmental gain” or “environmental loss”, in other words, towards sustainable development or the inverse. Building such a perspective can provide an integrative support to the future decision making of the food industry on expanding or declining the use of postponement. Yet, this paper does not provide a clear picture of ‘postponement & environment’ issue but in fact represents a pilot work calling for further investigations and development.
|
|
| 3. |
- Abukhader, Sajed, et al.
(författare)
-
Logistics and the environment: Is it an established subject?
- 2004
-
Ingår i: International Journal of Logistics. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1367-5567. ; 7:2, s. 137-149
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The issue of environmental implications of logistics systems is one of the future challenges to logisticians. The purpose of this paper is to explore the logistics and supply chain management discipline to see how the scientific community handles this challenge. Observations in the primary literature revealed that there are weak ties between the logistics/SCM discipline and the environmental discipline. Our analysis indicated that the literature seems to be unbalanced: knowledge about assessing ‘impact of logistics on environment’ is missing, and most emphasis is on ‘impact of environment on logistics.’ Knowledge about implementation comes mainly within reverse logistics literature, which has been described by scholars as exploratory and anecdotal. When comparing the subject ‘log/SC & environ’ with other subjects in the logistics literature, less attention has been paid to ‘log/SC & environ’. Moreover, almost half the articles on ‘log/SC & environ’ are published outside the primary logistics-related journals.
|
|
| 4. |
- Abukhader, Sajed, et al.
(författare)
-
Postponement strategy in food supply chains – an empirical investigation
- 2007
-
Ingår i: International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management. ; 3:2, s. 215-234
-
Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relevancy/feasibility of the postponement strategy in food supply chains. The paper also aims at discussing the windows of opportunities for the growth of use of postponement by identifying the factors/drivers/enablers in the adoption of this strategy. It is out of the scope of this paper to survey a specific market/country, or answer how much or how many; it only captures as many cases as possible and build a categorised picture of postponement against the various food commodities by using semi-structured interviews. Our research results show that food postponement is a relevant strategy across the different types of food commodities/categories (frozen, hilled/fresh and long shelf life). Moreover, the results also show that this is not limited to one form of postponement as one may expect (such as logistics postponement or repacking display packs for instance), but is in fact related to the various forms of postponement.
|
|
| 5. |
- Abukhader, Sajed, et al.
(författare)
-
The Environmental Implications of Electronic Commerce - A Critical Review and Framework for Future Investigation
- 2003
-
Ingår i: Management of Environmental Quality. - 1477-7835. ; 14:4, s. 460-476
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There are accelerating trends for the implementation of electronic commerce(e-commerce) as an extra marketing channel for selling products globally via the access of the Internet. This is expected to in¯uence the shape of future cities and the conservation of natural resources. This paper critically reviews the current research work to date regarding the environmental implications of e-commerce. The main observation is that there are dif®culties to generalise the results. There is a general agreement that it is highly dif®cult, if not impossible, to state if the damaging effects of e-commerce on the environment can weigh over the advantageous effects or the contrary. One proposition in this context is that instead of looking at e-commerce as ªa vehicle driving towards freely satisfying the market needsº, we should look at e-commerce as ªa cart attached to our vehicle towards sustainable developmentº.
|
|
| 6. |
|
|
| 7. |
- Berglund, Anders, et al.
(författare)
-
Incorporation of environmental aspects in transport purchasing
- 2000
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In spite of the fact that transport is the fastest growing sector relevant to the environment and that there is an awareness in society of the environmental problems caused by transportation, there are still few methods addressing the problem. In this article research with a case study approach is presented. The research has resulted in a framework model consisting of two tools and a work process. The first tool makes it possible to assess environmental performance, while the second tool provides a method for assessing environmental aspects of a specific transport relation. The model makes it possible to identify the resource efficiency and effectiveness in a transport system.
|
|
| 8. |
- Bramklev, Caroline, et al.
(författare)
-
Concurrent Design of Product and Package - Extending the Concept of IPD
- 2001
-
Ingår i: [Host publication title missing].
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- As a result of the globalisation of the world economy, many enterprises that previously confined their business activities to national markets are now focusing on broader international markets, thus forming the basis for the establishment of global enterprises. In addition to the extension of markets, these global companies also seek cost reductions through scale economics in logistics, marketing, product development, production and purchasing, and through focused manufacturing and/or assembly operations - Christopher [5], Porter [10]. In order to contribute to the establishment of global enterprises, an interdisciplinary research project has been launched at the Department of Design Sciences, Lund University, Sweden, as a collaborative effort between two of its divisions Machine Design and Packaging Logistics. The overall objective established for the project is to: facilitate the establishment of successful global enterprises by providing methods, techniques and an overall procedure model for integrating packaging logistics into the product development process.” By extending the concept of Integrated Product Development (IPD) to include the concurrent design of product and packaging, increased efficiency and effectiveness in the product development process are conceivable. Apart from the apparent advantage of reducing the time to market, environmental impacts in terms of a reduction in the consumption of raw materials due to the possibility of facilitating a “tailor-made” packaging of the product are also conceivable. As a result of the development of more efficient and effective packaging of the products, a reduction in emissions from the distribution of the products is also expected. For the development of the product-to-be, the packaging might provide alternative, less costly, solutions; this especially applies to those products, which have to withstand major structural loads during the distribution phase of the product life cycle. The overall concept of integrating relevant activities from the packaging logistics area into the IPD process has been introduced in a previous paper - see Bjärnemo et al [1]. In the paper presented here, the main objective is to:” establish the industrial relevance of introducing the concurrent design of product and packaging thus supporting or rejecting the key element in the previously developed integration concept.” The secondary objective is to: “obtain more detailed information on the actual handling of the interaction between product and packaging design in industry.” The latter information is intended to be used either for the further development of extended IPD concept or for providing a more detailed view why the integration concept has to be reacted. In order to obtain the information requested, an explorative survey has been performed in Swedish industry. The findings from this survey and its implications, as outlined above, are reported here
|
|
| 9. |
- Bramklev, Caroline, et al.
(författare)
-
Increasing competitiveness through concurrent development of product and packaging
- 2004
-
Ingår i: Proceedings of the TMCE 2004. ; , s. 855-868
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Extending the product development process to also include the concurrent design of product and packaging is expected to increase efficiency and effectiveness in the development process. Apart from the obvious advantage of reducing the lead times of the development project, improving environmental impact by reducing the consumption of raw material due to the possibility of facilitating a "tailor made" packaging of the product is also anticipated. For the development of the product-to-be, the packaging might provide alternative, less costly, solutions. The main objective is to establish the actual interest in or need for introducing concurrent development of product and package in the product development process. In this paper the findings from a literature review and two surveys are reported. The surveys are performed in 40 Swedish companies, half of them in the food industry and the other half in the pharmaceutical industry. From an overall perspective of competitiveness, the findings demonstrate not only the relevance of introducing concurrent development of product and packaging in the product development process, but also that this introduction should be based on the concept of integration.
|
|
| 10. |
- Bramklev, Caroline, et al.
(författare)
-
Towards an Integrated Design of Product and Packaging
- 2005
-
Ingår i: [Host publication title missing].
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The globalization of the world economy has forced many enterprises to merge and/or to acquire enterprises worldwide. in the next phase of this development, rationalization calls for specialization of functions such as product development and production in one or a few sites, if not being outsourced to external suppliers. These new divisions of the “virtual” enterprise have to collaborate within internal and external networks, where efficient and effective transportation, handling and storing of intermediary and final products is a must. In order to obtain this objective, an integration concept of the design of product and packaging has been proposed by Bjärnemo et al. [ 1]. The acceptance of the need for such a concept in industry has been established by Bramkiev [2]. In this paper an industrially implementable, integrated procedure model for the concurrent design of product and packaging, confined to the product area of mechanical engineering, is presented.
|
|
