Changes to the strategy, context or environment of a business unit may necessitate a revision of its supply chain strategy. However, rethinking a supply chain strategy is not an easy problem, and has no clear answer in the specialized literature. Some fundamental questions about supply chain strategizing -i.e., the process of doing supply chain strategy -have been largely ignored, while others have been answered with overly-simplistic typeand-match approaches of unclear validity. In this paper, we present a holistic approach to supply-chain strategizing, called Conceptual System Assessment and Reformulation (CSAR), we have developed through a series of collaborative management research projects over a decade. This paper presents the key ideas of CSAR, and explains how it can be used to capture, evaluate and reformulate the supply chain strategy of a business unit. We argue that these ideas can serve as a first step towards a theory of supply chain strategy. Finally, we demonstrate the practical merits of CSAR by presenting the case of a large world-class corporation that used the approach as a starting point for an initiative to rethink the supply chain strategy of most of its business units.Keywords: Supply chain strategy, strategizing, capture, evaluation, reformulation Acknowledgements:The authors thank our students Javier Martin, Leonardo Laranjeira, Daniel Mota and Manuel Rippel for the feedback they provided to early versions of this manuscript. AbstractChanges to the strategy, context or environment of a business unit may necessitate a revision of its supply chain strategy. However, rethinking a supply chain strategy is not an easy problem, and has no clear answer in the specialized literature. Some fundamental questions about supply chain strategizing-i.e., the process of doing supply chain strategy-have been largely ignored, while others have been answered with overlysimplistic type-and-match approaches of unclear validity. In this paper, we present a holistic approach to supply-chain strategizing, called Conceptual System Assessment and Reformulation (CSAR), we have developed through a series of collaborative management research projects over a decade. This paper presents the key ideas of CSAR, and explains how it can be used to capture, evaluate and reformulate the supply chain strategy of a business unit. We argue that these ideas can serve as a first step towards a theory of supply chain strategy. Finally, we demonstrate the practical merits of CSAR by presenting the case of a large world-class corporation that used the approach as a starting point for an initiative to rethink the supply chain strategy of most of its business units.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a practical method to elicit – in a manner grounded in fact – the “as is” supply chain strategy that a business unit currently has in place. It also proposes a framework to represent the supply chain strategy of a business unit in a clear and actionable manner. Design/methodology/approach A framework to represent the supply chain strategy of a business unit was developed through inductive theory generation. A method to elicit the current, “as is” supply chain strategy of a business unit was developed through collaborative management research projects and validated by several third-party projects. Findings In different projects – many conducted by third parties – the method was found to be a useful approach to elicit the “as is” supply chain strategy of a business unit. Practitioners found value in representing a supply chain strategy as a conceptual system serving as a logical bridge between the overall strategy and the supply chain operations of the business units. Research limitations/implications The proposed framework may have limited scalability beyond a single business unit. The proposed method may be less useful when the supply chain strategy is undergoing a dramatic transformation, or when the participants from the company are either not fully engaged in the exercise or knowledgeable about the strategic rationale behind activities. Originality/value The paper provides an innovative approach to tap into the tacit knowledge of the organization to reveal the patterns of decisions underpinning its current supply chain strategy and to characterize the supply chain strategy of a business unit as a conceptual system.
PurposeThe objective of this paper is to contribute to Australian berry supply chains with a relevant identification regarding the possible data driven interventions that stakeholders can take while the berries are in transit.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory series of semi-structured interviews was conducted through six Australian experts in the industry with more than 20 years of experience in Australian berry supply chains and the Australian perishable food industry, to identify key possible in-transit interventions that could be implemented in the Australian berry industry.FindingsThe analysis of the interviews revealed a total of 18 possible in-transit interventions. An important finding is that in-transit interventions are made possible by the use of real-time data gathered through IoT devices such as Active Radio Frequency Identification, Time and Temperature Indicators interacting with Wireless Sensor Networks. Another key finding is that Australian berry growers and retailers do possess the technologies and the resources necessary to make in-transit interventions possible, however they have yet applied these technologies to operational decision-making and interventions based on the product, rather focussing on supply chain transactions and events.Research limitations/implicationsSince the research focusses on an Australian context, its findings may or may not be applicable to other countries. The research is exploratory in nature, and its findings should be verified by future research, in particular to test whether the in-transit interventions proposed here can be implemented in a cost-efficient way.Originality/valueTo the authors' knowledge, this publication is the first known academic article to provide a clear understanding of the Australian berry industry from a supply chain and logistics perspective, and the first to explore possible data driven in-transit interventions in perishable food supply chains.
We present a kinesthetic active learning activity, based on tug-of-war, that challenges upper secondary education and undergraduate learners to engage with Newton’s laws. The learning module has two parts. In the first part students analyse the game using common introductory physics concepts. They use those insights to make predictions about what factors affect the outcome of the game. In the experimental part of the activity, students first use a load cell to measure the force of tension produced by pulling against a fixed object while standing on various surfaces. The effective coefficient of friction for each interface is calculated from this data. Next, students compete in, observe, and analyse a series of tug-of-war games in which the tension in the rope is again measured and a local positioning system simultaneously tracks the position of the rope. We present example data and results for these activities and compare them to the predictions. In particular, we show the tension force in the rope typically decreases as one team gains the upper hand. This is evidence that forcing the opposing team to lose balance, which makes it difficult for them to apply their maximum force, is a key factor in winning a game of tug-of-war.
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