Sin‐Hoon Hum

Performance measurement in supply chain entities: balanced scorecard perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine what senior supply chain executives measure and how they perceive performance measurement from a balanced scorecard (BSC) perspective.Design/methodology/approach – A survey designed from the four perspectives of the BSC framework is conducted on senior executives involved in the supply chain functions of client firms, and those executives from the logistics service provider industry.Findings – Despite the need to provide a balanced approach to performance measurement, firms remain focused on traditional financial measures (gross revenue, profit before tax, and cost reduction). From a supply chain perspective, the non‐tangible measures such as customer satisfaction are most measured. Other key logistics performance indicators include on‐time delivery, and customer satisfaction.Research limitations/implications – The findings are based on a sample size of 113. Thus, some respondent clusters are smaller than others. Hence, the results may not be r...

Time‐based competition: literature review and implications for modelling

Competition, technological advancement and the sophistication of consumers’ needs have led to the evolution of competitive paradigms, in which, time‐based competition apparently has emerged as the competitive paradigm of the 1990s. While much has been written about the paradigm since it was first highlighted in the late 1980s, no comprehensive literature review is currently available. Seeks to provide such a review of the literature. Categorizes the existing literature into four broad classes: descriptive literature, managerial implications, case studies and applications, and mathematical modelling. Presents the key ideas and the associated literature to the reader as a guide to the total topic of time‐based competition. Reviews also the theoretic time‐based modelling literature, and so highlights the current status and limitations of this literature. Provides the motivation for further research to be carried out within the realm of time‐based modelling.

A Hayes‐Wheelwright framework approach for strategic management of third party logistics services

Third party logistics services have a significant role to play in the current trend of outsourcing of the logistics function. From the third party logistics service provider’s perspective, the provider must seek to manage itself strategically in order to win an increasing share of the outsourcing pie. In this paper, we extend the Hayes‐Wheelwright framework for strategic manufacturing management to the strategic management of third party logistics service providers. A Singapore‐based case example is provided within this context to illustrate the relevance of the Hayes‐Wheelwright framework. The case also gives a glimpse into the strategic thinking and practices of a leading Singapore‐based service provider in terms of its vision and strategy in building the logistics superhighway within the Asia Pacific Region.

Analysis of third-party warehousing contracts with commitments

Abstract This paper considers multi-period warehousing contracts under random space demand. A typical contract is specified by a starting space commitment plus a certain number of times at which the commitment can be further modified. Three forms of contracts are analysed: (1) there is a restriction on the range of commitment changes and the schedule for the changes is preset by the warehouser; (2) the same as form (1) but there is no restriction on the range; (3) the same as form (2) but the schedule for the changes is chosen by the user. We explore properties and algorithms for the three problems from the users perspective. Solutions of simple form are obtained for the first two models and an efficient dynamic programming (DP) procedure is proposed for the last. A numerical comparison of the total expected leasing costs suggests that under certain demand patterns, contract forms (2) and (3) could be cost effective.

Strategic manufacturing effectiveness

Hayes and Wheelwright, in postulating a more proactive strategic role of manufacturing, provided a four‐stage framework for the evaluation of manufacturing effectiveness. Reports on some results of an empirical study on the assessment of manufacturing effectiveness based on the Hayes‐Wheelwright (H‐W) framework. Highlights the operationalization of the H‐W framework as a strategic manufacturing audit tool and applies this tool to the manufacturing operations within a specific industry, namely the electronics industry. Aggregates and reports the results of the strategic manufacturing audits. In this way, provides an industry‐wide summary average of the strategic thinking and practices of manufacturing operations. This can then be used as the industry benchmark against which specific operations may be compared. Adds to the empirical database of manufacturing strategy and strategic manufacturing effectiveness as reported in the open literature. Provides a pragmatic strategic manufacturing audit tool that is based on the previously reported works of Hayes and Wheelwright.

The coordinated replenishment dynamic lot-sizing problem with quantity discounts

Abstract In the classical coordinated replenishment dynamic lot-sizing problem, the primary motivation for coordination is in the presence of the major and minor setup costs. In this paper, a separate element of coordination made possible by the offer of quantity discounts is considered. A mathematical programming formulation for the extended problem under the all-units discount price structure and the incremental discount price structure is provided. Then, using variable redefinitions, tighter formulations are presented in order to obtain tight lower bounds for reasonable size problems. More significantly, as the problem is NP-hard, we present an effective polynomial time heuristic procedure, for the incremental discount version of the problem, that is capable of solving reasonably large size problems. Computational results for the heuristic procedure are reported in the paper.

A study on just‐in‐time practices in Singapore

The just‐in‐time (JIT) production system represents a new technology that has been widely promoted by the Singapore government and which has been adopted by several organizations operating in this newly industrialized economy (NIE). Presents the first comprehensive study of JIT practices in Singapore. Describes the major survey findings on the profile of JIT companies, their pre‐implementation and implementation experiences, and the JIT practices targeted for future implementation. In this way, the study is similar to other such studies conducted in the USA, the UK, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan, and hence adds to the empirical database of actual JIT practices as published in the literature. Also seeks to provide empirical insights to three specific research issues pertaining to the strategic significance of JIT, the speedy and effective implementation of JIT, and the need for local suppliers to practise JIT. Such empirical insights derived from the JIT practices of companies operating wi...

JIT Scheduling Rules: a Simulation Evaluation

Just-In-Time (JIT) production systems capitalize on simplicity and the ability of workers to make decisions in a decentralized manner. In a multiproduct line operating under kanban control, the production worker at a given station must schedule the different jobs awaiting processing using information available locally. In practice, the first-come-first-served (FCFS) rule is commonly used. Recent results reported in the literature indicated that the shortest-processing-time (SPT) rule performed better than the FCFS rule. In this paper, we provide a simulation evaluation of the performance of a number of scheduling rules operating under different JIT production scenarios. Our hypothesis is that there are differences in the relative performance of the scheduling rules under different production scenarios. We differentiate among the JIT scenarios by the extent of setup time reduction already carried out (as indicated by the ratio of setup to processing times), the amount of slack in the system (as measured by the number of kanbans circulating), the extent to which uncertainty has been eliminated (as determined by the stochasticity of processing times), and the complexity of production requirements (as specified by the product-mix in mixed-model assembly). In this way, this paper provides further insights into the performance of scheduling rules operating under different JIT production environments, thereby adding to the scope and depth of research in this particular aspect of JIT production systems.

The Perception of the Strategic Role of Manufacturing amongst Operations Managers: An Empirical Study Based on a Newly Industrialized Economy

Seeks to contribute to the empirical database on the progression of thinking with regards to the strategic role of manufacturing by reporting some results of a study on the manufacturing‐strategy thinking and practices amongst practising managers of operations based in a newly industrialized economy (NIE). In particular, highlights the finding that while almost all operations managers in the sample perceive that manufacturing can and should contribute to overall corporate strategy, their view of the role of manufacturing is that it should primarily be reactive vis‐a‐vis other functional areas; such a view is far from strategic. Operations managers in the survey agree that there are many ways to compete besides cost, but their main criterion for evaluating the manufacturing function is still cost and productivity. They seem to fail to recognize the existence of tradeoffs in the production system. They acknowledge the necessity to handle strategic issues, but still perceive infrastructural decisions as mere...

Measurement and optimization of supply chain responsiveness

This article considers make-to-order supply chains with multiple stages where each stage is completed in a random length of time. An order that is placed in stage 1 is considered fulfilled when all of the stages are completed. The responsiveness of such a supply chain is defined as the probability that an order placed now will be fulfilled within t time units. The responsiveness of the supply chain is optimized by maximizing the probability that the order will be fulfilled within some promised time interval subject to a budget constraint. This is achieved by manipulating the rates of distributions representing the duration of each stage. It is assumed that the completion time of each stage is exponential (with possibly different rates) and generalized Erlang and phase-type distributed fulfillment times are both considered. This is followed by more realistic scenarios where the time to completion of a stage is non-exponential. The cases (i) of generalized beta-distributed, (ii) of correlated stage durations, (iii) where stages may be completed immediately with a positive probability (possibly corresponding to the availability of inventory), and (iv) where the number of stages traversed is a random variable are considered. Then an assembly-type system is analyzed for the case where the completion of a stage may depend on the availability of components to be delivered by an outside supplier and a serial system where each stage consists of a multi-server queue. Also considered is a related model of network of queues where the congestion effects are taken into account in the measurement of supply chain responsiveness. This model is analyzed using an approximation and its results are compared to those obtained by simulation. Detailed numerical examples of measurement and optimization of supply chain responsiveness are presented for each model.