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- Pardillo-Baez, Yinef, et al.
(author)
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Local and organic food distribution systems: towards a future agenda
- 2020
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In: Operations and Supply Chain Management. - : OSCM Forum. - 1979-3561 .- 2579-9363. ; 13:4, s. 336-348
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- There has been an increasing consumer demand for local and organic food as they are considered to be more sustainable, ecological and healthier. The ‘conventional’ long food distribution system is not sufficient to fulfill the current needs. Consequently, short distribution systems for local and organic food have been gaining popularity, that is not only sustainable but also contributes to food security and satisfies local consumer demand. One such short distribution systems are alternative food networks (AFNs). The AFNs have emerged as a promising provisioning system for local and organic food that promotes economical, environmental and social sustainability and respect for farming tradition. However, the AFNs are facing challenges in increasing the distribution of local and organic food in the long term. The purpose of the paper is to make a review of the existing short food distribution systems for local and organic food and propose a research agenda. In order to achieve this, a literature review is conducted and different food distribution channels within AFNs are studied. The challenges for each food distribution channel are identified and then compared to ‘conventional’ distribution systems. The main finding of the study is a framework of main challenges of short food distribution channels within AFNs. The practical implication is generic criteria to consider while designing a short food distribution system that closely connects consumers and farmers of local and organic food. The policy implication is to create favorable conditions to encourage short food distribution systems in the long term.
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| 2. |
- Sequeira, Movin, et al.
(author)
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Criteria considered in a manufacturing reshoring decision : a multiple case study
- 2020
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In: SPS2020. - Amsterdam : IOS Press. - 9781643681467 - 9781643681474 ; , s. 610-621
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The manufacturing reshoring phenomenon has received more attention in the academic and business literature in recent years. Due to the newness of the phenomenon, there is a lack of knowledge about how these decisions were made. This research provides a theoretical framework by reviewing literature on possible criteria that are considered in a manufacturing reshoring decision. The criteria are categorized into six categories including competitive priority, resource, strategy, context, preference and global condition. A multiple case study methodology is used to identify the criteria and compare them with the theoretical framework. The findings indicate that total cost is the most common criteria considered and each case company has followed its own cost analysis techniques. Other criteria considered by all case companies were inventory cost, transportation cost, switching cost, delivery lead times, proximity to customer and availability of manufacturing technology. The research concludes that manufacturing reshoring is a holistic decision with criteria occurring at all categories in the theoretical framework. This contributes to the knowledge of reshoring decision-making and suggests that future research should investigate decision support tools for such decisions.
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| 3. |
- Sequeira, Movin
(author)
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Developing decision-support tools for evaluation of manufacturing reshoring decisions
- 2020
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- During last three decades, companies have offshored their manufacturing activities across international borders in order to pursue lower manufacturing costs. Despite having accomplished their purpose, companies have also suffered from issues, especially poor quality of products and a poor response to customer demand. Therefore, companies consider relocating some of the manufacturing activities back to the home country, a process that is known as manufacturing reshoring. There is paucity of scholarly attention on how manufacturing reshoring decisions are evaluated and supported. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to develop decision-support tools to evaluate manufacturing reshoring decisions. In order to fulfil this, it is important to know how industry experts reason while making manufacturing reshoring decisions (RQ1), and how their reasoning can be modeled into decision-support tools (RQ2). Therefore, three studies were conducted including a multiple case study and two modeling studies. The multiple case study addressed the criteria that are considered by the industry experts in these decisions, while the two modeling studies, based on fuzzy logic and analytical hierarchy process (AHP), used a part of these criteria to develop decision-support tools. The findings indicate that a holistic set of criteria were considered by industry experts in arriving at a manufacturing reshoring decision. A large portion of these criteria occur within competitive priority category and among them, high importance is given to quality, while low importance to sustainability. Fuzzy logic modeling was used to model the criteria from the perspective of competitive priority at an overall level. Three fuzzy logic concepts were developed to capture industry experts’ reasoning and facilitate modeling of manufacturing reshoring decisions. Furthermore, two configurations and sixteen settings were developed, of which, the best ones were identified. AHP-based tools were used to capture experts’ reasoning of the competitive priority criteria by comparing the criteria. It was observed that fuzzy logic-based tools are able to better emulate industry experts’ reasoning of manufacturing reshoring. This research contributes to theory with a holistic framework of reshoring decision criteria, and to practice with decision-support tools for evaluation of manufacturing reshoring decisions.
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