Helena Carvalho

Supply chain management must appeal to different and more innovative strategies that make possible a better responsiveness to customers’ requirements and needs. The supply chains must be more agile, and also improving its ability to cope with unexpected disturbances, that is, supply chains must be more resilient. The deployment of these two strategies simultaneously will contribute to enhance the supply chain performance and competitiveness. Accordingly, the main objective of this paper is to propose an innovative conceptual model to a better understanding the influence of agile and resilient strategies on supply chain performance and competitiveness. The conceptual model proposed considers a set of agile and resilient practices deployed with consideration for the upstream and downstream supply chain relationships, as well as for the firm inward. In this model a performance measurement system is also proposed which intends to monitor the influence of these practices on operational and economic performance of the supply chain.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a new technology that has received considerable attention from academics and practitioners due to its large scope of application, advantages and potentialities. This chapter aims to highlight the potentialities associated with RFID in fast moving Fashion Supply Chain Management (FSCM). The research emphasizes the technological contribution to the Fashion Supply Chain (FSC) such as speed up logistics activities, increased quality, reduced prices, and more responsive improvements for customer satisfaction. The chapter reviews the RFID technology, presents the benefits, disadvantages, and barriers associated with it. To explore the deployment of the RFID technology in the Fashion Supply Chain (FSC), a case study investigation of companies in different FSCM nodes was carried out. A cross-case analysis it is also presented to achieve a deeper understanding about this technology in a fast moving FSCM context

The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is a wireless technology that uses transmitted radio signals to tag, recognize, track and trace the movement of an item automatically. The study of this technology is actually considered a hot topic in all scientific areas and has been described as a major enabling technology for the automation of many processes. Although it is not a new technology it has only recently come to the awareness of the public and widely used in many sectors and particularly in the Healthcare. This paper aims to illustrate the deployment of RFID technology in Healthcare, more precisely in infant security systems. A case study about the experience of three hospitals and one RFID technology provider is presented to highlight the main architectural characteristics, functionality, and advantages associated to its deployment. After the case studies analysis it is possible to state that the infant security systems, using the RFID technology, are not so different among research case studies: they involve RFID tagging patients, they are easy to use not requiring an extensive training and also they are installed with an interface with others security systems.

Supply chains in an attempt to be more competitive, are adopting new management paradigm. Among these paradigms there are four that deserve particular mention because of their importance to better {SC} performance: lean, agile, resilient and green. The main objective of this paper is to propose a set of supply chain management practices to become the {SC} more lean, agile, resilient and green, which were named {LARG} practices, and to suggest a conceptual model that makes possible to analyze the influence of these {LARG} practices on manufacturing supply chains performance. Also, a set of operational, economic and environmental performance measures are suggested.

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In this paper, a research project intituled {“Supply} chain management: design for resilient systems” is presented. The project aim is to develop a Management Support System prototype to help managers to react quickly and efficiently to the effects of disruptions that can occur in supply chain. The research project is presented; including the current state of the art in Supply Chain disruptions, the research project objectives and main tasks. Preliminary research findings are presented and discussed.

This paper aims to analyze the supply chain behavior when subject to disturbances using a simulation-based approach. The disturbance explored in this study is the transportation interruption between two suppliers in the automotive supply chain. The performance of the different supply chain entities is used to analyze supply chain design scenarios. The analysis of the outputs simulation study shows that even when a redundancy strategy is used, the negative effects of a disturbance are spread along the supply chain, but the resilience of supply chain entities is enhanced

This paper proposes a model for management of supply chain resilience. To this end the structured content analysis of media news is used to analyze a sample constituted by sixty two documents containing evidences of seventy seven companies that were affected by the Japan 2011 earthquake. The sample provides evidences that companies failed to sustain their operations mainly because capacity shortages and material shortages. Also provides empirical evidence of twelve resilience practices to reduce the disturbance severity and the recovery time. Based on these findings four propositions were made and aggregated to propose a model for supply chain resilience management.

Supply chain management must adopt different and more innovative strategies that support a better response to customer needs in an uncertain environment. Supply chains must be more agile and be more capable of coping with disturbances, meaning that supply chains must be more resilient. The simultaneous deployment of agile and resilient approaches will enhance supply chain performance and competitiveness. Accordingly, the main objective of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework for the analysis of relationships between agile and resilient approaches, supply chain competitiveness and performance. Operational and economic performance measures are proposed to facilitate the monitoring of the influence of these practices on supply chain performance. The influence of the proposed agile and resilient practices on supply chain competitiveness is also examined in terms of time to market, product quality and customer service.

The supply chains (SCs) have to appeal to new management paradigms to improve their ability to respond rapidly and cost effectively to unpredictable changes in markets and increasing levels of environmental turbulence, both in terms of volume and variety. In this highly demanded context, the Agile paradigm provides the capabilities to SC quickly adapt to changes in the market requirements. The purpose of this paper is to suggest an Agile Index to assess the agility of the automotive companies and corresponding SCs.The proposed integrated assessment model incorporates Agile practices weighted according to their importance to the automotive SC competitiveness and obtained from the Delphi technique.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the deployment of RFID technology in fashion supply chain management (FSCM). It highlights the contribution of RFID to FSCM, supporting faster logistics activities, with greater products quality, cheaper and with more responsiveness, improving customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – An inductive theory building approach is used to develop a conceptual model for RFID deployment in the {FSCM} context. Secondary data analysis from a sample of six companies supports the identification and discussion of the real advantages, disadvantages and barriers felt by companies in a fashion supply chain when {RFID} technology is introduced. Findings – The logistics activities in the fashion supply chain where {RFID} technology is most widely deployed are: shipping operations, tracking of raw materials, semi-finished components and finished garments, collecting finished goods, handling processes, tracking containers, tracking products from factory to store, receiving operations, monitoring, and sorting of merchandise. In most cases, the tagging operation is performed at some stage in the production process and tag reading occurs at distribution centres or at stores. The main barrier identified to the deployment of {RFID} is the problem of interoperability. The costs associated with the technology are the main disadvantage pointed out by the companies. Practical implications – A conceptual framework is proposed exploring the {RFID} advantages and disadvantages across the fashion supply chain, the main barriers to its introduction and the fashion supply chain logistics activities in which {RFID} could be found. This represents an important contribution to companies in this industry to become more aware of {RFID.} Also, new companies which are thinking of introducing this technology could overcome its barriers easily, improving its advantages and minimizing its disadvantages. Originality/value – This paper explores the deployment of {RFID} in the fashion supply chain from the perspective of technology users.

This paper suggests an Ecosilient Index to assess the greenness and resilience of automotive companies and the corresponding supply chain. An integrated assessment model is proposed based on green and resilient practices. The Delphi technique is used to obtain the weights of the supply chain paradigms that are the focus of the study and the corresponding practices. The application of the proposed index is then illustrated using a case study approach in the automotive supply chain; in particular the case study is focused in the link supplier/manufacturer. The case study findings confirm the applicability of this index in a real-world supply chain and highlight its managerial implications. The results show that the resilient paradigm is considered to be the one that contributes more to the competitiveness of the automotive supply chain. The green practice identified as the most important to the greenness of this industry is to reduce energy consumption. The significant contributions to resilience are sourcing strategies that allow switching of suppliers, flexible supply base/flexible sourcing and creating total supply chain visibility. The proposed index was developed in the context of automotive sector; this constitutes an initial effort to close the gap between theory and practice. Future research is needed to investigate the index applicability in different industry contexts.

This paper aims to study the influence of eco-innovation practices on eco-efficiency of business, which embraces environmental and economic performance. Four hypotheses are drawn up based on the existing literature in green supply chain and considering the business innovation. A survey questionnaire was used to collect data on a sample of {USA} and Portuguese innovative organizations. Multivariate statistics and Partial Least Squares ({PLS)} path modelling techniques were used to test the proposed hypothesis. The statistical analysis allows to conclude that there are differences between the eco-innovation practices deployed by organizations belonging to different sectors and with different sizes. Also, it was found that the level of implementation of the different eco-innovation practices by organizations influence the eco-efficiency of businesses.

Green and lean paradigms have been adopted by companies in order to manage their relationships with suppliers in a supply chain management context, but nearly always separately and with little understanding of their influence on company performance. This paper proposes a theoretical framework for the analysis of the influence of green and lean upstream supply chain management practices on the sustainable development of businesses. To attend this objective, a set of performance measures covering economic (operational cost, environmental cost, and inventory cost), environmental (business wastage, green image, and CO2 emission), and social (corruption risk, supplier screening and local supplier) perspectives is proposed. An explanatory case study was conducted at a Portuguese automaker to test qualitatively the validity of the proposed theoretical framework. From the case study, a model is suggested, which encompasses the relationships between green and lean upstream supply chain practices and sustainable business development.

The main objective of this exploratory paper is to investigate the relationships between green practices of supply chain management and supply chain performance. This relationship is investigated in the context of the automotive industry. Five research propositions are suggested and tested with empirical data derived from five case studies taken from the Portuguese automotive supply chain. The data analysis identifies the most important green practices considered by managers, as well as the performance measures that are most appropriate and most widely used as means to evaluate the influence of green practices on supply chain performance. A conceptual model was derived from the data analysis and it can be used to assess the influence of green practices on supply chain performance. This model provides evidence as to which green practices have positive effects on quality, customer satisfaction and efficiency. It also identifies the practices which have negative effects on supply chain performance.