Agile manufacturing (AM) is a new concept in manufacturing intended to improve the competitiveness of firms. Manufacturing processes based on AM are characterized by customer–supplier integrated ...process for product design, manufacturing, marketing, and support services. This needs decision-making at functional knowledge levels, stable unit costs, flexible manufacturing, easy access to integrated data, and modular production facilities. Agile manufacturing requires enriching of the customer, co-operating with competitors, organizing to manage change, uncertainty and complexity, and leveraging people and information. In the recent years, a number of research papers have been published in the area of AM. However, a framework for the development of AM has not received due attention from both researchers and practitioners. Realizing the importance of agile manufacturing in the 21st century manufacturing competitiveness, an attempt has been made in this paper to review the literature available on AM with the objective to: (i) identify key strategies and techniques of AM, (ii) suggest some future research directions and (iii) develop a framework for the development of agile manufacturing systems (AMSs) along four key dimensions which include strategies, technologies, systems and people.
Herein, we report the fabrication of nanocrystals activated 1D TiO2 nanorods heterostructure photoanode with top-open vertical photoanode structure by hydrothermal and SILAR method. The vertical ...nanorod heterostructure could effectively manifest the interface with electrolyte and photoanode for dynamic water oxidation. Furthermore, thermodynamically stable TiO2 nanorod and its conduction band alignment with CdS and CdSe nanocrystals uphold the charge separation and culminate the photocurrent density to 2.01 mA cm−2 at 1.23 V RHE. The decoration of CdS and CdSe co-crystals on TiO2 exhibited a significantly enhanced photoresponse and clear evidence of the negative shift of onset-potential with a five-fold increment of solar to hydrogen generation.
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•TiO2/CdS/CdSe heterostructure photoanodes accomplish enhanced water splitting activity under visible light.•The vertically opened bi-junction heterostructure achieve high surface area and swift electron-hole separation.•The photoanodes can be fabricated via trouble-free facile methods.•The fabrication of TiO2/CdS/CdSe heterostructure is an exceptional strategy for solar to hydrogen conversion.•The charge carrier transfer mechanism for the enhanced watersplitting activity is clarified.
Tougher competitive situations have led to increasing attention being paid to customer satisfaction, of which timely and customized services are the key concepts. As the product life cycle becomes ...shortened, high product quality becomes necessary for survival. Markets become highly diversified and global, and continuous and unexpected change become the key factors for success. The need for a method of rapidly and cost-effectively developing products, production facilities and supporting software, including design, process planning and shop floor control system has led to the concept of agile manufacturing. Agile manufacturing can be defined as the capability to survive and prosper in a competitive environment of continuous and unpredictable change by reacting quickly and effectively to changing markets, driven by customer-designed products and services. This article details the key concepts and enablers of agile manufacturing. The key enablers of agile manufacturing include: (i) virtual enterprise formation tools/metrics; (ii) physically distributed manufacturing architecture and teams; (iii) rapid partnership formation tools/metrics; (iv) concurrent engineering; (v) integrated product/production/business information system; (vi) rapid prototyping tools; and (vii) electronic commerce. A conceptual framework for the development of an agile manufacturing system and future research directions are presented in this paper. This framework takes into account the customization and system integration with the help of business process redesign, legal issues, concurrent engineering, computer-integrated manufacturing, cost management, total quality management and information technology.
Environmental issues have tremendous impact on the development and operations of a supply chain. However, green supply chain management is an emerging research area, thus there are limited conceptual ...models on this important subject, particularly models that considers the effect of environmental directives on greening a supply chain. Considering the significance of this on the performance of a supply chain, this research develops a conceptual model outlining the antecedents for a successful embeddedness of environmental directives – Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and Restriction of the use of certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) – on greening a supply chain. The conceptual model is theorized from systems thinking and systems theory; and grounded from an extensive current literature. It is validated using in-depth multiple cases of a supply chain of the Taiwan IT industry. Results show a close map on how the supply chain embeds directives WEEE and RoHS considering the antecedents in the conceptual model and the degree of its impact on the supply chain. It has emerged that directives WEEE and RoHS have the dynamics of a cross-tier ripple and indirect effects on the Taiwan IT industry's supply chain. This emerging theory explains why collaboration with supply chain partners is the key antecedent on greening a supply chain in order to gain co-benefits. The cross-tier ripple and indirect effects theorized from this study and the refined model provide a theoretical framework for further testing in this emerging research area.
Supply chain management (SCM) has been considered as the most popular operations strategy for improving organizational competitiveness in the twenty-first century. In the early 1990s, agile ...manufacturing (AM) gained momentum and received due attention from both researchers and practitioners. In the mid-1990s, SCM began to attract interest. Both AM and SCM appear to differ in philosophical emphasis, but each complements the other in objectives for improving organizational competitiveness. For example, AM relies more on strategic alliances/partnerships (virtual enterprise environment) to achieve speed and flexibility. But the issues of cost and the integration of suppliers and customers have not been given due consideration in AM. By contrast, cost is given a great deal of attention in SCM, which focuses on the integration of suppliers and customers to achieve an integrated value chain with the help of information technologies and systems. Considering the significance of both AM and SCM for firms to improve their performance, an attempt has been made in this paper to analyze both AM and SCM with the objective of developing a framework for responsive supply chain (RSC). We compare their characteristics and objectives, review the selected literature, and analyze some case experiences on AM and SCM, and develop an integrated framework for a RSC. The proposed framework can be employed as a competitive strategy in a networked economy in which customized products/services are produced with virtual organizations and exchanged using e-commerce.
Supply chain management (SCM) is the 21st century global operations strategy for achieving organizational competitiveness. Companies are attempting to find ways to improve their flexibility and ...responsiveness and in turn competitiveness by changing their operations strategy, methods and technologies that include the implementation of SCM paradigm and information technology (IT). However, a thorough and critical review of literature is yet to be carried out with the objective of bringing out pertinent factors and useful insights into the role and implications of IT in SCM. In this paper, the literature available on IT in SCM have been classified using suitable criteria and then critically reviewed to develop a framework for studying the applications of IT in SCM. Based on this review and analysis, recommendations have been made regarding the application of IT in SCM and some future research directions are indicated.
In todays world, supply chain management SCM is a key strategic factor for increasing organizational effectiveness and for better realization of organizational goals such as enhanced competitiveness, ...better customer care and increased profitability. The era of both globalization of markets and outsourcing has begun, and many companies select supply chain and logistics to manage their operations. Most of these companies realize that, in order to evolve an efficient and effective supply chain, SCM needs to be assessed for its performance. Based on a literature survey, an attempt has been made in this paper to develop a framework for measuring the strategic, tactical and operational level performance in a supply chain. In addition, a list of key performance metrics is presented. The emphasis is on performance measures dealing with suppliers, delivery performance, customerservice, and inventory and logistics costs in a SCM. In developing the metrics, an effort has been made to align and relate them to customer satisfaction.
Supply chain management (SCM) has been a major component of competitive strategy to enhance organizational productivity and profitability. The literature on SCM that deals with strategies and ...technologies for effectively managing a supply chain is quite vast. In recent years, organizational performance measurement and metrics have received much attention from researchers and practitioners. The role of these measures and metrics in the success of an organization cannot be overstated because they affect strategic, tactical and operational planning and control. Performance measurement and metrics have an important role to play in setting objectives, evaluating performance, and determining future courses of actions. Performance measurement and metrics pertaining to SCM have not received adequate attention from researchers or practitioners. We developed a framework to promote a better understanding of the importance of SCM performance measurement and metrics. Using the current literature and the results of an empirical study of selected British companies, we developed the framework presented herein, in hopes that it would stimulate more interest in this important area.
Although a large volume of literature is available on mobile commerce (m-commerce), the topic is still under development and offers potential opportunities for further research and applications. ...Since the subject is at the stage of development, a review of the literature on m-commerce with the objective of bringing to the fore the state-of-art in m-commerce research and applications will initiate further research on the growth of m-commerce technologies. This paper reviews the literature on m-commerce and applications using a suitable classification scheme to identify the gap between theory and practice and future research directions. The 149 m-commerce articles are classified and the results of these are presented based on a scheme that consists of five distinct categories: m-commerce theory and research, wireless network infrastructure, mobile middleware, wireless user infrastructure, and m-commerce applications and cases. A comprehensive list of references is presented. We hope that the findings of this research will provide useful insights into the anatomy of m-commerce literature and be a good source for anyone who is interested in m-commerce. The paper also provides some future directions for research.
As the world shifts its emphasis from hydrocarbons to cleaner alternative sources of energy, the question of how oil and gas companies react to such a dynamic change has been of interest to academic ...and policy makers. Such a shift in demand is a result of both the on-going campaign against greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and forecasts of future rapid depletion rate of hydrocarbon reserves. Although deposits are still vast, hydrocarbons are not renewable and the cost of extraction is rising mainly because of location complexities of viable reserves. Over the years, some research efforts have centred on the problems of possible depletion of oil reserves whilst others have been on how to reduce GHG emissions in the oil and gas supply chains with the view to achieving sustainability. It is in respect of the latter case that this paper examines the concept of sustainability, its essence and historical evolution as well as the depth and extent of its adoption and related benefits in the UK oil and gas supply chains. The paper reviews existing literature on the subject to generate an appropriate and adequate context for the analytical investigations that follow. Furthermore, data on sustainability and performance were collected from the UK oil and gas industry through survey by questionnaire. The statistical analysis of the data shows the impact of sustainability on the operational and business performance of the UK oil and gas supply chains.
► This paper examines the concept of sustainability, its essence and historical evolution. ► The paper explores depth and extent of adoption of sustainability measures and related benefits in the UK oil and gas supply chains. ► The paper provides empirical evidence of the impacts of sustainability performance of the UK oil and gas supply chains.
