THE DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF EXPERIMENTS. By Oscar Kempthorne. New York, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1952. 631 pp. $8.50. This book by a teacher of statistics (as well as a consultant for \"experimenters\") is a comprehensive study of the philosophical background for the statistical design of experiment. It is necessary to have some facility with algebraic notation and manipulation to be able to use the volume intelligently. The problems are presented from the theoretical point of view, without such practical examples as would be helpful for those not acquainted with mathematics. The mathematical justification for the techniques is given. As a somewhat advanced treatment of the design and analysis of experiments, this volume will be interesting and helpful for many who approach statistics theoretically as well as practically. With emphasis on the \"why,\" and with description given broadly, the author relates the subject matter to the general theory of statistics and to the general problem of experimental inference. MARGARET J. ROBERTSON

The Design and Analysis of Experiments

On the truck dispatching problem

Research in closed-loop supply chains (CLSCs) has grown rapidly over the last 10 years. The authors offer a critical review of influential CLSC research that takes a business economics perspective. Much of the research was inspired by practice-driven thoughtpieces, and this helped to keep research focused on relevant issues. However, CLSC research has several assumptions, such as perfect substitution between new and remanufactured products that risk becoming institutionalized. There is a strong need to carefully examine current industrial practice so that research remains focused on relevant problems. Deeper understanding of consumer perceptions of remanufactured products, product diffusion, and valuation of returned products are needed for the field to continue to add insights into developing sustainable economies.

Production and Operations Management

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to determine the underlying dimensions of supply chain management (SCM) practices and to empirically test a framework identifying the relationships among SCM practices, operational performance and SCM‐related organizational performance with special emphasis on small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in Turkey.Design/methodology/approach – Data for the study were collected from a sample of 203 manufacturing SMEs operating in the manufacture of fabricated metal products and general purpose machinery (NACE codes 28 and 29) within the city of Istanbul in Turkey. The research framework was tested using partial least squares method, which is a variance‐based structural equation modeling approach.Findings – Based on exploratory factor analysis (EFA), SCM practices were grouped in two factors: outsourcing and multi‐suppliers (OMS), and strategic collaboration and lean practices (SCLP). The results indicate that both factors of SCLP and OMS have direct positive and significa...

The impact of supply chain management practices on performance of SMEs

Simulation for manufacturing system design and operation: Literature review and analysis

Purpose – To investigate the integration of supply chain management (SCM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for competing in the twenty‐first century supply chain.Design/methodology/approach – A case study with a paper manufacturing company in China is conducted. Primary data is collected through interviews with managers of the company. The reengineering activities and processes, and the soft issues of supplier relationship are examined.Findings – Breaking the traditional decentralised system and introducing the concept of a single, integrated plan, which a company could work together with their suppliers has led to cost reduction, lead‐time reduction, improved visibility, reduced time to market, and increased efficiency in the company.Research limitations/implications – This research is based on a single case study in process manufacturing industry in China, which perhaps limits its usefulness elsewhere.Practical implications – One should not rely solely on ERP systems for managing their sup...

Competing in the 21st century supply chain through supply chain management and enterprise resource planning integration

Extensive research can be found in coping with uncertainty under Material Requirements Planning (MRP)-planned manufacture, but the under-performance of many manufacturing enterprises is still reported. To examine the reasons, a review of the literature on uncertainty under MRP-planned manufacture has been carried out. This paper presents a comprehensive review and categorisation of such research. It aims to provide a structure within which directions can be given for future research and the results of past research work are summarized to give an indication to practitioners of how to cope with uncertainty. An uncertainty categorization structure has been developed using systems theory to categorize uncertainty into input and process, and simultaneously to highlight the uncertainty that occurs in the supply and demand chain of the manufacturing process. Buffering and dampening (BAD) approaches are proposed and the experimental methods used are incorporated in the structure. A range of research gaps is identified: the lack of a detailed structure to enable the significant uncertainty to be diagnosed optimally, as most of the past research studied uncertainty discretely and only some in specific combinations; the sub-optimal approach in coping with uncertainty; and little research has examined the interactions between uncertainties. Several directions for future research are proposed: the development of a cause-and-effect structure for diagnosing uncertainty, a holistic approach to deduce to the underlying causes of uncertainty, generalization of the cause-and-effect structure, examination of the BAD approaches applied in industry and consideration of interactions between uncertainties by first diagnosing the significant uncertainty. It is found that safety stock, the use of appropriate lot-sizing rules and rescheduling are the most robust approaches to cope with uncertainty, while safety capacity is not used at all for buffering process uncertainty. Hedging/over-planning is useful for dampening process uncertainty. It can be concluded that input uncertainty has been maturely researched with external demand uncertainty dominating others, but with a range of suggested BAD approaches available. Scheduling heuristics, simulation modelling and mathematical modelling are the most applicable experimental methods in this research area. This review and categorization have identified that a structured and systematic approach is required to cope with uncertainty holistically within MRP-planned manufacture.

Uncertainty under MRP-planned manufacture: review and categorization

https://isiarticles.com/bundles/Article/pre/pdf/1131.pdf

Managing uncertainty in ERP-controlled manufacturing environments in SMEs

It has been identified from a comprehensive literature review and a subsequent industrial survey that uncertainty within an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)controlled manufacturing environment has not been tackled systematically and not examined effectively. This has been shown in two areas: (i) most identified research on uncertainty within an ERP environment focuses on finding suitable approaches to cope with uncertainty rather than tackling the underlying causes; and (ii) most identified simulation models on uncertainty controlled by ERP, while purporting to represent such an environment, do not truly model a multilevel dependent demand system, with multi-products, and controlled by Planned Order Release (POR) based on planned lead times. The aim of this research is to tackle these two areas simultaneously. A business model that is aimed at enabling the underlying causes of uncertainty within ERP environments is developed. This business model is verified and validated through a comprehensive survey i...

Sameh M. Saad

Papers

Competing in the 21st century supply chain through supply chain management and enterprise resource planning integration

Uncertainty under MRP-planned manufacture: review and categorization

Managing uncertainty in ERP-controlled manufacturing environments in SMEs

Development of a business model for diagnosing uncertainty in ERP environments

The reconfiguration issues in manufacturing systems