Nel Wognum

Alignment between chain quality management and chain governance in EU pork supply chains: a Transaction-Cost-Economics perspective.

Although inter-firm coordination of quality management is increasingly important for meeting end-customer demand in agri-food chains, few researchers focus on the relation between inter-firm quality management systems (QMS) and inter-firm governance structures (GS). However, failure to align QMSs and GSs may lead to inefficiencies in quality management because of high transaction-costs. In addition, misalignment is likely to reduce the quality of end-customer products. This paper addresses this gap in research by empirically examining the relation between QMSs and GSs in pork meat supply chains. Transaction-Cost-Economic theory is used to develop propositions about the relation between three aspects of QMSs--ownership, vertical scope and scale of adoption--and the use of different types of GSs in pork meat supply chains. To validate the propositions, seven cases are examined from four different countries. The results show that the different aspects of QMSs largely relate to specific GSs used in chains in the manner predicted by the propositions. This supports the view that alignment between QMSs and GSs is important for the efficient coordination of quality management in (pork meat) supply chains.

Requirements of supply chain management in differentiating European pork chains

This paper summarizes results obtained by research into pork chain management in the EU Integrated Project Q-Porkchains. Changing demands for intrinsic and extrinsic quality attributes of pork products impact the way supply chain management should be organized from the farmer down to the consumer. The paper shows the importance of Quality Management Systems for integrating supply chains and enhancing consumer confidence. The paper also presents innovations in information system integration for aligning information exchange in the supply chain and logistics concepts based on innovative measurement technologies at the slaughterhouse stage. In the final section research challenges towards sustainable pork supply chains satisfying current consumer demands are presented.

Editorial: PLM challenges

Since the inception of the concept of Concurrent Engineering (CE) in the 1980’s to improve efficiency and effectiveness of product development processes, much research has been devoted to developing theoretical and practical concepts and methods to align and integrate processes, people, and organisations. At the start, CE was adopted by North American and European industries as a reaction to the successful and fast innovations by Japanese competitors. Awareness was raised that many downstream problems experienced in production, logistics, and service could be prevented in the product development phase. The first definition of CE, as phrased by Winner et al. [2] from ARPA, emphasised the parallel execution of product and process design activities by integrating multiple design activities and upstream and downstream functions involved in the lifecycle of a product:

Supply chain integration and coordination in the agri-food sector

To improve supply chain performance, in terms of both quality and revenues, integration and coordination between chain actors are considered crucial. A high level of integration is generally claimed to be necessary for optimal performance. However, there are many different types of supply chains in many different contexts serving different types of markets, which may need different types of integration. Some chains, for example, serve homogeneous markets with commodity products produced in large numbers, while other, often smaller, chains serve niche markets with specialty products. In addition, organizations that are responsible for communicating quality to end consumers and maintaining quality levels in the chain are not always those at the end of the chain close to consumers, which may influence integration needs. This paper addresses integration and coordination in the supply chain based on case studies performed in Europe in the agri-food sector, more specifically the pork meat sector. In the paper integration differences will be identified.

Challenges of CE

Despite a long pedigree and many positive reports on its use and benefits, concurrent engineering (CE) and its associated research (sub)domains still experience significant development. In this final chapter, a socio-technical framework is applied to classify and analyze challenges identified as part of the foundations, methods and applications discussed in this book. Existing properties and means of CE are abstracted. Subsequently, the main trends and developments in CE research and practice are discussed, followed by expectations for the future. Findings and trends have been identified for strategic issues visible in product requirements and product portfolios, stakeholders including companies involved, multiple functions and disciplines, current and future technologies that are expected to solve at least some of the existing problems, knowledge and skills as brought by people and teams, and structures necessary for making collaboration work, while dealing also with the still very difficult cultural differences. As the chapter shows, CE as a concept is very much alive, requiring even more advanced tools, techniques and methods to contribute to less waste in resources and efforts world-wide and improve quality.

The system of concurrent engineering

Concurrent engineering (CE) has been a major theme in the 80s and 90s of the previous century in research and practice. Its main aim is to reduce time-to-market, improve quality and reduce costs by taking into account downstream requirements and constraints already in the design phase. While starting with a design-manufacturing alignment, gradually the CE way of thinking has been ex-tended to incorporate more lifecycle functions together with a stronger focus on and involvement of both customers and suppliers. Application of CE in practice has led to remarkable cost savings, time reduction and quality improvement. However, many failures have been reported too. Often, the complex system of CE has not been sufficiently well understood, in particular because the system that is needed to market, produce, sell, and maintain the new product, the so-called production system, has not been considered sufficiently. The particular properties of the production system that is needed to really make the new product a success need to be understood well, because they heavily influence the CE process. In this chapter a history of CE is sketched as well as its major achievements and challenges. The essentials of the system of CE are described together with the system that is designed by it: the production system. The production system, as defined in this chapter, is an encompassing system, because it also comprises functions like marketing, sales, production, and maintenance. The interaction between the two systems needs to be taken into account in all CE processes in any application domain. The chapter ends with examples of the food application area. The variety of the system of CE, in terms of different innovation efforts, is illustrated. Some important properties of the result of a CE process, a food production system, are discussed, in particular a food supply chain and its coordination for quality.

Environmental Transparency of Food Supply Chains - Current Status and Challenges

Food chains need to become more sustainable to regain and retain consumer trust after recent food incidents and scandals. One of the key components of sustainability is environmental care. To what extent do supply chains invest in environmental care and to what extent are consumers willing to pay for products from a sustainable production chain? In other words, can environmental care contribute to supply chain value? Transparency of environmental care in the entire food chain is necessary to contribute to increased consumer awareness. Currently, though, transparency is mainly limited to traceability for food safety for human health. In this paper significance and current status of environmental care systems in supply chains and chain actor companies are described. Challenges to be addressed to improve environmental care are identified.

Transdisciplinary Engineering Research Challenges

Transdisciplinary research (TDR) has been the subject of discourse in the past few decades, but has bot been studied much in the context of engineering problems. Many engineering problems can be characterized as ill-defined, like open innovation, adoption of new technology, business development, and the adoption of the Industry 4.0 concept. Transdisciplinary engineering research (TDER) is also performed in large projects by multi-disciplinary teams, as in TDR projects, including stakeholders and people from practice. Such projects may last long, often years. In such large projects, the involved disciplines should include both engineering disciplines as well as disciplines from social sciences. In this paper we address the challenges that exist in adopting a TDER approach. Universities need to prepare students to work in TDER projects. We discuss the current situation in transdisciplinary engineering education (TDEE) and identify challenges that need to be addressed for including TDEE in curricula. The paper ends with a summary and ideas for further research.

Advanced design, analysis, and implementation of pervasive and smart collaborative systems enabled with knowledge modelling and big data analytics

Advanced design, analysis, and implementation of pervasive and smart collaborative systems enabled with knowledge modelling and big data analytics

A multi-criteria decision making framework for aircraft dispatch assessment

The aircraft dispatch decision is a complex analysis based on many factors related to airworthiness regulations, aircraft health status, resource availability at current and future stop(s) and operational preferences of the operator. Within the turnaround time (TAT) a decision has to be made whether the aircraft can return to service, defects have to be deferred, operational restrictions apply, maintenance has to be performed, or if the aircraft is unable to safely perform the next flight. This paper presents a framework for automated dispatch decision support and, as a first step of implementation of the framework, a proof of concept for automated root cause identification by means of a case study on a Airbus A320 wing anti-ice valve. A decision tree algorithm has been applied to a synthetic dataset, representing historical failure data with associated root causes and observed symptoms, achieving correct classification of the root cause for 40% of the cases. Analysis of the results show that the accuracy of the method increases with an increasing number of symptoms associated to a root cause. Furthermore, the method cannot distinguish between root causes with similar symptoms. Although the use of synthetic data restricts conclusions that can be drawn from the results, the work shows a proof of concept for automated root cause identification and leads to initial findings that are essential for future implementation and optimisation of the method. Eventually, the framework will be operationalised in the form of a mobile tool to assist stakeholders in on-site aircraft dispatch decision support.