Bernd Hellingrath

A humanitarian supply chain process reference model

Humanitarian operations comprise a wide variety of activities. These activities differ in temporal and spatial scope, as well as objectives, target population and with respect to the delivered goods and services. Despite a notable variety of agendas of the humanitarian actors, the requirements on the supply chain and supporting logistics activities remain similar to a large extent. This motivates the development of a suitably generic reference model for supply chain processes in the context of humanitarian operations. Reference models have been used in commercial environments for a range of purposes, such as analysis of structural, functional, and behavioural properties of supply chains. Our process reference model aims to support humanitarian organisations when designing appropriately adapted supply chain processes to support their operations, visualising their processes, measuring their performance and thus, improving communication and coordination of organisations. A top-down approach is followed in which modular process elements are developed sequentially and relevant performance measures are identified. This contribution is conceptual in nature and intends to lay the foundation for future research.

Optimal Stock Relocation under Uncertainty in Post-Disaster Humanitarian Operations

The number of world-wide emergencies and disasters which trigger humanitarian operations is ever-increasing. Although general research contributions to supply chain management in the context of humanitarian operations have risen significantly, operations research techniques have not yet comprehensively been applied in this context. A literature review categorizes existing approaches in the pre- and post-disaster phases. Filling an identified gap in current literature, a model for optimal stock relocation under uncertainty in risk-prone post-disaster scenarios is formulated. The model is solved with an optimal and a heuristic approach. It is found that overall costs can be significantly reduced compared to a benchmark model when the uncertainty of demand in post-disaster scenarios is taken into account.

Spare parts supply chains’ operational planning using technical condition information from intelligent maintenance systems

The use of technical condition information provided by intelligent maintenance systems improves the reliability of spare parts demand forecasts. This paper aims to propose and test a procedure to integrate demand forecasts derived from technical condition information into the operational planning of spare parts supply chains. The procedure employs mathematical programming and a simulation-based sensitivity analysis. Through the development of a proof-of-concept, it was possible to verify that the procedure allows for the minimization of total costs while ensuring service level regarding the delivery of the orders in a predefined time.

Conceptual approach for integrating condition monitoring information and spare parts forecasting methods

Precise estimation of part failures, and hence system breakdowns, is required to reduce or avoid the downtimes of machines and stock-outs. If detected sufficiently early, potentially broken parts of a machine may even lead to not necessarily having to store the respective spare part. For estimating the spare parts demand as accurately as possible, this article conceptualizes an approach for integrating condition monitoring information provided by Intelligent Maintenance Systems and forecasting methods. This concept is validated based on an example evaluation. Thus, the research objective is to improve the forecasting quality of estimated machine breakdowns in order to enhance the planning of the spare parts supply chain.

A Framework for the Development of Multi-Agent Systems in Supply Chain Management

The application of multi-agent systems in the context of supply chain management has been much discussed during the last years and several implementations have emerged within research. Yet very few applications are actually being used in practice. The reason for this lies in an existing gap between domain concepts and agent technology, which complicates the application oriented development. A framework can support this process in order to devise customized and flexible solutions by providing the necessary agent modules and a supply chain management specific ontology. Within this paper, an analysis of requirements on multi-agent systems that stem from the domain of supply chain management is carried out. This forms the basis for the development of the architecture of the multi-agent framework whose design and implementation is described. In the following, common modules are designed and implemented to provide both a sophisticated and generic basis for specific projects.

Guiding the Introduction of Big Data in Organizations: A Methodology with Business- and Data-Driven Ideation and Enterprise Architecture Management-Based Implementation

Researchers and practitioners frequently assume that big data can be leveraged to create value for organizations implementing it. Decisions for big data idea generation and implementation need careful consideration of multiple factors. However, no scientifically grounded and unbiased method to structure such an assessment and to guide implementation exists yet. This paper describes a methodology based on IT value theory and workgroup ideation guiding big data idea generation, idea assessment and implementation management. Distinct business and data driven perspectives are distinguished to account for big data specifics. Enterprise Architecture Management and Business Model Generation techniques are used in individual steps for execution. A first prototypical application in the context of Supply Chain Management illustrates the applicability of the method.

Coordination in Supply Chain Management - Review and Identification of Directions for Future Research

We review developments in fundamental research on coordination in supply chain management. The review presents recent articles in the field and explicitly addresses new trends in supply chain management, namely, the consideration of multi-tier value-added processes, the coordination of multi-sourcing/customer relationships and the handling of complex bill-of-materials structures. Our contribution is the segmentation of the existing approaches, employing a general framework and leading to insights for the future direction of research. We describe the state-of-the-art and point out areas where further research is necessary. We analyze which coordination problems models address, how they structure supply chains and which roles and relationships of supply chain partners they assume. We conclude two research potentials: First, more emphasis should be laid on approaches that apply to multi-tier production and logistic networks. Second, more attention should be paid to the problem of resource coordination in networks.

Kennzahlenbasierte Wirtschaftlichkeitsbewertung in Produktions- und Logistiknetzwerken

Kennzahlen werden sehr unterschiedlich klassifiziert, bezeichnet, definiert, aus Daten berechnet, interpretiert und eingesetzt. Dies macht eine Vergleichbarkeit der Kennzahlen verschiedener Kennzahlenkonzepte nahezu unmoglich und fuhrt zu dem Problem, dass die Kennzahlen eines Unternehmens von einem anderen oftmals nicht verstanden werden. Dieses Problem wirkt sich insbesondere bei der Integration verschiedener Unternehmen oder unterschiedlicher Standorte bzw. Werke eines Unternehmens, d. h. verschiedener produktionslogistischer Systeme in einem Produktions und Logistiknetzwerk aus. Aus diesem Grund wird ein neues Kennzahlenkonzept — das so genannte KPI Framework Model — entwickelt, mit welchem eine unternehmensubergreifende Wirtschaftlichkeitsbewertung der Integration in solche Netzwerke ermoglicht wird. Dieses Modell wird auf Basis von Anforderungen abgeleitet, welche zum einen aus den mit einer Integration verfolgten Zielsetzungen und zum anderen aus den in Produktions und Logistiknetzwerken vorliegenden Rahmenbedingungen beruhen. Das KPI Framework Model kann als Bewertungsbausteinbibliothek eingesetzt werden, um Kennzahlen fur eine Potenzialanalyse zu bestimmen. Es dient zudem als Schema zur Klassifizierung von in der Forschung und Praxis vorhandenen Kennzahlenkonzepten, um Lucken eines Performance Management zu identifizieren. Das KPI Framework Model ordnet sich dabei Kennzahlenkonzepten wie dem SCOR-Modell und den Balanced Scorecard-Ansatzen ein. Es zeichnet sich durch eine hohe Unterstutzung des Anwenders bei der Definition von Bewertungsgrosen bei gleichzeitig hoher Flexibilitat zur Anpassung dieser Bewertungsgrosen auf die jeweilig vorhandene Datenbasis aus.

Crowdsourcing and crowdtasking in crisis management: Lessons learned from a field experiment simulating a flooding in the city of the Hague

The EU FP7 project DRIVER conducts a number of experiments that explore new approaches for addressing known deficiencies in crisis management. The “Interaction with Citizens” experiment campaign focuses on testing the usability and acceptance of various methods and tools that facilitate crisis communication via several channels. These include: informing, alerting, micro-tasking, incident information crowdsourcing from volunteers, and usage of this information to improve situational awareness. The results highlight that volunteer motivation in a serious game like scenario is important to simulate participation in crisis events. We also argue that the scenario complexity level needs to be simple enough to avoid difficulties in communication with non-professional participants in addition to external influences in a field experiment. In this paper, we present lessons learned from the final experiment of this campaign that investigated two-way communication solutions between crisis managers and citizens or unaffiliated volunteers in a simulated flooding scenario in the city of The Hague.

Auswahl und Einführung von SCM-Softwaresystemen

Die SCM-Philosophie beschaftigt sich nicht nur mit dem Management und der Optimierung der internen Prozesse und Ablaufe eines Unternehmens: Sie hat das Management und die Optimierung des gesamten Wertschopfungsnetzes (inklusive der Lieferanten, der Sublieferanten und der Logistikdienstleister) im Blick. SCM- Software muss aus diesem Grunde in der Lage sein, sowohl die Prozesse und die Ablaufe innerhalb eines Unternehmens, als auch unternehmensubergreifend die Prozesse zwischen den Partnern in der Beschaffungs- und in der Distributionskette durchgangig zu unterstutzen. Dies ist eine anspruchsvolle Aufgabe und erfordert grose Anstrengungen von allen Beteiligten.