1,720,993 research outputs found
Balancing picking and outbound loading efficiency in an SBS/RS through a digital twin
No full textWarehouses are essential elements of almost every Supply Chain and have a significant impact on its performance. However, existing research on warehouse operations mainly aims at maximizing operational performance, neglecting their effect on downstream nodes. In this paper, we propose the use of a digital twin (DT) to support warehouse managers to identify the picking policy that most effectively balances picking and outbound loading efficiencies in an SBS/RS, with the aim of providing both a cost-effective and timely delivery to the subsequent nodes. The problem is set referring to a real case study of the logistics hub of a tire distributor company. The DT was built and validated based on real data from plant sensors and information systems. Afterwards, the DT was used to define three picking strategies that differently impact on both picking and outbound loading efficiency. The DT was then employed on a daily basis and fed with real orders, machine and rack availability to replicate stocking and picking operations and to directly communicate the recommended picking strategy to the warehouse PLC. Several demand scenarios have been considered to extend managerial inferences. Results show that the DT is a valuable tool to support the balancing of picking and outbound loading performance
Configurations for logistics co-ordination: a survey of Italian grocery firms
No full textINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL DISTRIBUTION & LOGISTICS MANAGEMEN
A data-driven methodology for supporting resource planning of health services
No full textIn recent years, healthcare systems have been forced to better organize their services in the final attempt to maximize both care effectiveness and efficiency. In particular, emergent trends are prompting hospitals to pay more attention to the effective and efficient planning of resources and to the creation of patient-centred services, in which current activities and resources are reorganized around patients. This paper proposes a process mining based methodology to systematically support the resource planning of health services. Specifically, combining Time-Driven Activity Based Costing and process mining approaches, it automatically identifies the patient flow and analytically evaluates activities, service times, and resource consumptions for a specific class (-es) of patients (e.g., a DRG, patients with specific medical condition, etc.). Thus, it allows to reliably estimate the expected resource consumptions for the patient group under investigation. Thanks to process mining, the method overcomes the limitations of existing quantitative approaches that are often time-consuming, based on subjective observations, and too case specific. The method was applied to a real case study of lung cancer patients in an Italian hospital
Curling linearity into circularity: The benefits of formal scavenging in closed-loop settings
No full textScavengers – actors who collect and redistribute waste into circular ecosystems to reuse or recycle it – may improve resource availability and sustainability in the firms' procurement business process. In Closed-Loop Supply Chains, their role is crucial to the business stability. Indeed, governments and the private sectors are encouraged to formalize them, that is, to institutionalize and regulate them and to provide them with the appropriate organization, training, and infrastructures. Yet, to our best knowledge, the scientific literature has not empirically investigated how formal scavengers may advantage those firms that decide to involve them in their procurement process. To do so, a case study was developed in an Italian Pulp & Paper firm that operates in closed-loop settings and that integrated one formal scavenger into its own business to feed its paper mill – one of the biggest in Europe. The findings show that the introduction of the scavenger entailed four benefits: procurement risk mitigation, lower environmental impact, lower procurement costs, and better quality assurance. By considering conservative estimates related to purchasing the waste paper from the secondary raw materials market on a one-year time window, the scavenger has led to a 7.2 % reduction in the procurement costs and a 21 % improvement in the CO2 emissions. Finally, implications for Supply Chain Management and policymaking were outlined
Does supply chain sustainability benefit from formal scavenging? A case study in circular settings
No full textFormal scavenging grants material circularity, but its potential contribution to the sustainability of a Supply Chain (SC) is far from being a trivial issue. Thus, this paper aims to understand what is the impact of formal scavenging on the sustainability of an SC and quantify it. Accordingly, a case study in an Italian Pulp and Paper circular SC was developed through the lenses of the Triple Bottom Line. This SC consists of five groups of stakeholders and a formal scavenger that collects and redistributes wastepaper. The findings show that, in a one-year time window, the formal scavenger generated an economic value of over euro3 million and led to saving 718 tCO2e and an energy equivalent to that consumed by 1000 average Italian families every year. In addition, it created new stable jobs and directly contributed to decreasing the waste tax in the geographical area in which it operates. Furthermore, formal scavenging proved to be effective in building up SC resilience in the face of un-expected changes in the prices and volumes of wastepaper. The results contribute to framing formal scavenging as a collaboration-based solution to enable the achievement of sustainability benefits in closed-loop SCs and provide actionable suggestions for SC managers and policymakers
Data-driven enabling of port performance improvements: the case of a port community system
No full textThe purpose of this work is to investigate if an enhanced port data availability, attained
through a Port Community System (PCS), can enable improvements in port processes.
By applying a data-driven approach, based on Process Mining techniques, to a dataset
of the export process from a PCS-enabled Mediterranean port, we found out three flaws
among the export activities that cause low time-based performances in some process
instances. Fixing these issues could reduce the time length of the export documentation
flow and, then, the overall time performance of the export process
Configurazioni logistiche e fattori contingenti nell’industria dei beni di largo consumo
No full text
Leveraging procurement-related knowledge through a fuzzy-based DSS: a refinement of purchasing portfolio models
Full text linkPurpose: This paper aims to model a decision support system (DSS) that could overcome the oversimplified, subjective, compensatory decision logic of extant purchasing portfolio models (PPMs) by leveraging the firms’ procurement-related knowledge base. Design/methodology/approach: The DSS was developed through a fuzzy-based approach, whose design and application were framed within a case study in a multinational company. Findings: The application of the fuzzy-based DSS to a product class suggests investing in the relationship with two specific suppliers and to loosen the relationship with a third one. Research limitations/implications: Exploiting the fuzzy set theory and fostering the elicitation of procurement-related knowledge from the decision-makers, the DSS effectively tackles the concerns about the existing PPMs by including strategic-oriented priorities and contextual constraints in the evaluation. Practical implications: The recommendations in output from the DSS are feasible, more analytical and easy to interpret, enabling knowledge sharing, group decision processes and better decision-making. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this manuscript is the first attempt to effectively integrate traditional PPMs with contextual, strategy-related factors to refine the purchasing directions and make them objective
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