List of Abstracts 2023: SESSION A - SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SCM) STRATEGY AND PLANNING

The article demonstrates the application of Bayesian networks in determining effective distribution strategies within the context of smart cities. Our work especially emphasizes the dynamic nature of optimal decisions under uncertainty. Employing a modification of the Bayesian network model introduced in our past research, different potential future scenarios are modeled and the share of cases when a distribution strategy is optima is established. The theoretical framework is first laid out, followed by its practical application to a real-world scenario involving a company's distribution strategy in Prague, Czechia. Our Bayesian network-based model facilitates better strategic decision-making under uncertainty. In the theoretical part, the process of assessing future possible distribution strategy paths is laid out and explained. The methodology application, in the practical part, addresses the impact of a smart city policy on a company operating within the city limits. Due to the frequent occurrence of traffic restrictions in other major European cities and the overall trend of following more environmentally friendly policies, the city of Prague is expected to take this path as well. Accordingly, the company's operations could be significantly affected. By utilizing historical delivery data from the company and specialized simulation software, we model diverse distribution network scenarios under potential traffic restrictions and probabilistically assess the future the company is facing.

In this paper we consider a strategic problem of redesigning a Copy Paper Supply Chain, taking into consideration number of warehouses, scheme of delivery, customer satisfaction and fleet composition then propose solutions along the concept of Lean/ Agile management. We design certain scenarios, simulate their behavior, analyze them and investigate how they satisfy certain logistics standards, including: costs, customer service, safety, matching supply and demand, environmental friendliness. The redesign process gives us the chance to check how flexible they are and what is their ability to adapt to the changing environment (as indicated by the lean/ agile supply chain concept). The variants/scenarios were tested in respect to how much they are sensitive to costs, utilization, environmental friendliness, agility and safety.
The analysis is carried out as a case study for a supply chain operating in Poland. The firm in this supply chain owns the manufacturing plant and the warehouses and uses his own fleet both on the segment between MP and the warehouses, and on the segment between warehouses and the clients. These clients are denominated by the symbols C1 - C21, and generate different demand from 1 - 27 pallets a week per 1 client. The manufacturing plant (MP) is situated in the vicinity of Poznan city. Warehouses are located in the neighborhood of Poznan. The CEO and the Company’s top Management are interested in redesigning the supply chain due to the increased demand and growing logistics costs of the whole supply chain.
The considered decision problem has a strategic character and belongs to a classical category of Redesigning of the Supply Chain. We define the most suitable supply chain parameters starting from the manufacturing plant and ending with the Print Houses and Retailers, taking into consideration the paper physical distribution/ supply system, number of warehouses, scheme of delivery, fleet composition and accordingly the routes used and number of drivers.

The multi-criteria decision-making (MCDA) methods provided a systematic methodology for adequate evaluation of sustainable supply chain management practices. MCDA allows decision makers to face complex decision making situations involving multiple, usually conflicting decision criteria which include quantitative and/or qualitative aspects in a decision-making process. Many MCDA methods are available to decision makers and analysts aiming to support decision making in the Supply Chain Management practices

The ELECTRE III/IV method preference model has been selected and constructed with the application of indifference qj, preference pj and veto vj thresholds as well as the weights wj, defined for each criterion. Thresholds define the sensitivity of the DM to the changes of the criteria values and the weights wj, express the importance of each criterion. The preference model for ELECTRE method was shown.

The computational experiment is initiated by the construction of the Evaluation Matrix. The matrix includes the Variants evaluated by the criteria representing the DM interests. Thresholds, preference direction and weights were tabulated. The ranking result was indicated and showed that the most preferred variant.

The purpose of this paper was to emphasize the importance of data accuracy within internal logistics systems and their extended influence on supply chains in automotive industry through a 6 month case study conducted on 3 first tier original equipment manufacturers (OEM) based in Western Romania. Data collection and analysis revealed that main issues arise due to ordering quantities mismatching actual customer demand, a wide range of order lot sizes, lead times and delivery reliability concerns and the reluctance to shift away from mainstream cost-effectiveness and towards strategic added value thinking. These issues sourced significant other related operational challenges such as excessive inventory, short-term stockouts and subsequent special transport services or product-related inconveniences (quality and capacity levels, contracted volumes and dedicated lines). The paper sources different logistics and supply chain approaches used by the 3 OEMs, their features and operational performance, as well as their overall effectiveness which can be applied by other automotive industry suppliers to improve own results. Introducing more reliable real-time data collection tools and performance metrics has started hauling more focus towards solving these prevalent issues with some ongoing improvement projects showing up to 25% better results. For one of the 3 OEMs introducing a new warehouse management system has already sourced an overall quality increase (5 percentage points) due to a 60% higher utilization of its production equipment.

The study is to provide an analytical view to the gradual development in the issue of online reputation management of courier, delivery and shipping companies, or the entire logistics chain associated with online shopping. The research is carried out as a follow-up to the previous year, in which basic measurements were implemented to define the initial state of the topic. The paper deals with the issue of sustainable development of the corporate reputation of courier, delivery, and shipping companies in Slovakia, specifically their corporate reputation in the context of the online environment. The research sample consists of all 23 companies, belonging to the courier, delivery, and shipping companies and at the same time operating on the Slovak market. Their selection is made based on alphabetical order compiled by the Slovak online magazine Retailmagazin in the second half of 2021. The results of the study represent the gradual phase of examining the issue of reputation management in the field of logistics chains. The findings identified from the sentiment analysis provide an up-to-date and relevant view of the issue of sustainable corporate reputation and at the same time provide a knowledge base for continuous research into the impact of the pandemic on supply chain management, as well as an empirical basis for applying knowledge to business practice.

The actions of the European Commission, as well as the sustainability goals developed by the UN, are forcing companies to take steps towards a circular economy. One such product that can be reused is PUR foam from appliance equipment. The introduction of appliance PUR foams into the circular economy involves a reorganisation of the reverse supply chain. This requires the involvement of different stakeholder groups that are involved in the entire process. The aim of this thesis is to present the current reverse supply chain for appliance-derived PUR foams and to propose a new reverse supply chain concept to build a new closed-loop ecosystem for PUR foam. Based on a survey among different groups of stakeholders, the challenges and barriers of designing a reverse supply chain for closed-loop PUR foams will be presented. The project has received funding from the European Union‘s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101036854.

Management of the logistics system in an AUTOMOTIVE production plant involves planning processes in which methods and standards are applied, including APS, S&OP, SCM and others. Planning and scheduling for a plant in the AUTOMOTIVE industry requires consideration of information, material, capital and human resources requirements in relation to the production capacity and the availability of resources. In the article, a logistics planning process is presented according to the PL9A method. The PL9A method uses mathematical modelling to examine and holistically evaluate the efficiency of a logistics system, including determining its capacity, logistics costs and the capital expenditure required for executing a defined logistics task. The application of a mathematical instrument in the PL9A logistics planning method, provides a bidirectional transformation of engineering quantities into economic ones and the determination of technical characteristics of the technological infrastructure of the system.
The article presents the results of a study and evaluation of the assumptions adopted for the developed logistics plan whose primary function is to answer the following questions: 1) Does the plant's existing logistics system provide the capacity to perform the logistics task set out in the assumptions for the logistics plan? 2) What technical and organisational bottlenecks exist in the logistics system that may negatively affect the performance of the logistics task resulting from the implementation of the logistics plan? The foundation for answering the above-mentioned questions was an analysis of the results of conducted computer simulations involving modifications of the company's logistics system processes and infrastructure components.

The subject of consideration in the paper are negotiations conducted within the performance of the supply chain, both between its participants and with its external stakeholders. The objective of the paper is to distinguish and describe the strategies of such negotiations, based on the authors' original concept. First, the supply chain was presented as a specific negotiation environment. Then, the negotiation strategy was defined, and its two basic types were distinguished, i.e. two-party and multi-party negotiation strategies. In turn, the next two parts of the paper present the individual subtypes of these two types of strategies, highlight their specific features and indicate the possibilities of using them in negotiations in the supply chain. Finally, summary synthesizes the considerations and indicates the directions of research to improve the proposed concept.

Handling the uncertainty in decision-making is always a challenge in practice. This holds also when choosing the most suitable strategy towards suppliers. In this situation, the time when the negotiation is done makes the decision even more difficult. This study builds on Trumić and Zapletal (2023) where the decision-making model has been built. However, this study focusses on the role of variability in opinions in more detail. The goal of this paper is twofold. First, the best strategy is explored with respect to time and uncertainty. Second, it is pointed out how much oversimplifying and distorting the aggregation of opinions using the averaging operator can be. The study works with the results of a large survey conducted in an automotive company. Stochastic multi-attribute acceptability analysis (SMAA) is used to get the results.