Blockchain Papers

Shantanu Bhattacharya, Sameer Hasija, Luk N. Van Wassenhove

No abstract is available for this record.

Michael Hülsmann, Anne Schwientek, Philip Cordes

No abstract is available for this record.

Michael M Mbugua

Moving to a shared service method of operation entails a huge culture change for an organization. The entire business context must be changed. It takes time, effort and vast amounts of management energy to move from a mindset of purely decentralized management of support activities within each business unit or centralized management of support activities at the corporate level to a mindset of partnership between business units and the consolidated, shared service organization. 
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\nTogether with this, shared service units, despite their importance, receive much less senior executive attention than business units in most companies. The logic for this is that business divisions generate profits, and that is where top management often focuses its time. There is therefore a risk that an organization can lose its focus on shared services if the method is not shown to result in tangible benefits. 
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\nEast African Breweries Limited (EABL) has moved to a shared services environment but no studies have been conducted to show whether this has in any way contributed to the growth of the organization. This study addressed itself to this problem. The purpose of the study was to establish the extent to which shared services strategy affect Cost reduction efforts of East African Breweries Limited. 
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\nThe objectives of the study were to establish whether there has been a reduction of transactional costs at EABL as a result of moving to a shared service environment; determine the extent to which the shared service strategy resulted in reduction in employee headcount and overheads; find out how shared service strategy led to improvement in inventory management; and establish how shared service strategy at EABL has impacted on procurement costs. 
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\nThe study employed the case study design, targeting all the departmental heads working at EABL's shared services centre. Purposive sampling was used to select 10 respondents, among them nine departmental heads from IT, finance, procurement, HR, EABL Kenya Demand, EABL Kenya Supply, COl, EAML, and UDV; and one top management representative. Data was collected from the participants using a semi-structured questionnaire and an interview schedule. 
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\nQualitative and quantitative techniques were employed in data analysis. Qualitative techniques involved giving a detailed account of the impact of moving to a shared services strategy on EABL's cost reduction efforts. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics including percentages and frequency counts. 
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\nThe study established that moving to a shared services environment has led to significant cost reduction efforts of East African Breweries Limited. Shared services led to reduction in procurement costs, reduction in employee headcount and overheads, improvement in inventory management, and reduction of transactional costs. As such, companies running their different functions as disparate competing entities should be encouraged to adopt shared services strategy to cut costs and operate more efficiently.

Hitoshi Niwano, Makoto Hirano

This paper describes a case of a small start-up agency on intelligent, knowledgeable temporary staffs in Japanese mobile-phone industry as a new trend in the field of IT industry in Japan. In the rapid progress of technology and market, many enterprises in IT industry are facing to a serious shortage of knowledge/knowledgeable-employees on technology and market. For example, in the mobile-phone industry, the number of account customers has been so rapidly increased and varieties of services and technologies have also been so drastically increased that the employees inside mobile-phone enterprises cannot cover the whole service and technology. Therefore, outsourcing labor force like temporary staffs has become so important in the industry. However, the problem is that it is not easy to obtain appropriate labor force with sufficiently intelligent, knowledgeable for IT industry and market. The case analyzed here implies a clue to solve this problem by flexible, autonomous decentralized organization on temporary staff agency and effective self-education system. The characteristics of such a start-up enterprise and their manner of absorbing/sharing knowledge are discussed.

Jeanne W. Ross, Cynthia Mathis Beath

No abstract is available for this record.

Authors unavailable

Chapter 12 pulls together the different elements covered in the other chapters. Each chapter so far has inherent in it a contracting commandment. Following these commandments in an organized and business-like fashion leads to more effective contracting. In this final chapter, we will look at a framework for implementing these commandments. This approach is referred to as SMART Contracting TM . The acronym SMART stands for Strategically Managed, Aligned, degenerative, Transitional. SMART Contracting is a balanced approach that considers technical, legal, business and human issues in the development of more effective contracting approaches while recognizing the need to accommodate ongoing change. It is deliberately nonprescriptive. This means that we need to apply the principles and manage the detail depending on what we want to achieve and how much latitude we have to adapt corporate procedures. I feel that I have to apologize for the trademark. In a previous book I used other trademarked terms and was criticized for doing so by one reviewer. I am very sensitive to such criticism, especially if I agree with the comment! However, the trademark protects the term.

DAVID HANSON

THE SURFACE TRANSPORTAtion Board (STB) issued its long-awaited rules for railroad mergers and received negative reactions from all sides. The rules were prepared during a 15-month moratorium on rail mergers imposed because earlier mergers had caused severe service disruptions and substantially increased shippers' costs. The STB rules affect mergers and consolidations of class 1 railroads—those with annual revenues over $250 million—and are supposed to require more proof from railroads that a merger will be in the public's best interest. STB seeks more emphasis on enhancing competition while ensuring stable, reliable service for all involved. The railroads think the rules are too tough. The Association of American Railroads, the umbrella trade organization, says the new rules make railroads subject to stricter rules for competition than other industries. Major rail carrier CSX Corp. says in a statement that STB "has raised the bar for rail consolidation," making future transactions, "all the more difficult to achieve." As a major user of railroads, the chemical industry has a big stake in the rules. And it is not pleased. "The STB decision definitely misses the mark," says Frederick L. Webber, president and ...

David Simchi‐Levi, Philip Kaminsky, Edith Simchi‐Levi

Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Inventory Management and Risk Pooling Chapter 3: Network planning Chapter 4: Supply contracts Chapter 5: The Value of information Chapter 6: Supply Chain integration Chapter 7: Distribution strategies Chapter 8: Strategic alliances Chapter 9: Procurement and Outsourcing Strategies Chapter 10: Global Logistics and Risk Management Chapter 11: Coordinated product and supply chain design Chapter 12: Customer Value Chapter 13: Smart Pricing Chapter 14: Information Technology and Business Processes Chapter 15: Technology standards Appendix A: Computerized Beer Game Appendix B: Risk Pool Game Appendix C: Supply Contract Spreadsheet Appendix D: Bidding Game

Alessandro Innocenti

This paper gives an interpretation of the recent diffusion of the processes of productive outsourcing founded on two explanatory points. The first is that such processes replace a hierarchical paradigm of information diffusion with a decentralized paradigm in which independent subcontracting firms autonomously collect and process part or all of the prominent information. The second is constituted by the change of the modality of production innovation, becoming the result of autonomously developed inputs that are successively made complementary by the work of the network through an encapsulation process of the information. This is made possible by the fact that after an initial phase in which a new input is jointly projected by the contractor and the subcontractor and in which the information comes shared, a phase follows in which the prominent information for the specification of the characteristics of the product and for the solution of the local and unforeseen problems is collected and processed in a sequential manner and then encapsulated in the input by autonomous production units. In comparison with the vertical integration (make) or the market (buy), this form of governance (subcontract) allows for the organization in more efficient manner of the processing of the information, for the reduction of the informative costs and for the minimization of the risk of spillover.

Graham Sharman

An interview with Gus Pagonis, Executive Vice President for Logistics, Sears Gus Pagonis: I am a strong believer in centralized control, decentralized execution. In the Gulf War, General Schwarzkopf made the US Army's 22nd Support Command responsible for logistics. He agreed that there had to be a single of point of contact (SPOC) for all issues related to logistics. At Sears, Arthur Martinez, Chairman and CEO, had a similar vision. He agreed that our logistics organization, the Sears Logistics Group, be the SPOC for all Sears logistics. Previously, each one of our businesses had portions of our present logistics organization. So these logistics operations were buried within various structures throughout Sears. It used to be extremely difficult to put your finger on a logistics problem, because no one executive had total responsibility. I believe Sam Walton was the first retailer to have the vision of centralizing the logistics function in one organization and bringing in a logistician into his top management group. What role do you play as a logistic ??? on the executive committee of ??? Martinez, like Schwarzkopf, wanted logistics to have a voice on the executive committee equal to that of the various Sears businesses. This also would ensure that all new ideas could be reviewed for their logistical impact. If for example, someone wanted to find out whether we could logistically support a concept, we would test it. We may find it was too costly in some markets, and unnecessary in others, all of this being done, of course, prior to making a national decision. The same goes for some of our seasonal items. Air shipping snow blowers or lawn mowers from one of our stores in one region to a store in another region to meet growing demand might seem to make a lot of retail sense, but when you examine the logistics cost and the gross margin it does not make economic sense. Having the Executive Vice President of Logistics with an equal vote on the CEO's Executive Committee allows all costs to be considered in the decision. We can also act on the logistics related issues much sooner. Take promotional items. We know six months in advance what items are going to be promoted, so we can take appropriate logistics related actions. Unlike in the military, where the enemy situation can suddenly change, here we have the opportunity to make more deliberate plans. For example, we need to be prepared for Christmas every December. The only downside is that while I used to enjoy Christmas in the past, I now begin worrying about it in May. How does the CEO know whether the logistics team is meeting its objectives? Just like we did with General Schwarzkopf in the Gulf War, every month we present Martinez and the other members of the executive committee with a single sheet of paper that contains all data on logistics performance - good and bad. This Logistics Situation Report (LOGSITREP), prepared by my finance department, has all the service and cost metrics for our various channels, including direct delivery (home deliveries), take with (merchandise customers can carry from our stores), and fashion - broken down to the level of per carton, per order, and per piece. All of these numbers are tied in with the company's financial numbers so the committee has a clear idea as to how much we are incurring in transportation, distribution, and delivery costs and how well we are managing our inventory, our vendors (in so far as recovering the costs of defective products), and even our home office expenses. This single piece of paper is probably the most universally used document within both our logistics organization and the businesses we support. How much of the old logistics organization have you retained? I have always tried to work with any existing organization I inherit since I don't want to lose the things that are working. Military training is good in that regard. …

Stephen King

No abstract is available for this record.

A. Brey, G. Gabsa

No abstract is available for this record.