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41
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Introduction
Current institution
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January 2009 - June 2019
Publications
Publications (41)
This paper explores how business reconciles the perceived conflicting demands of social and profit logic to deliver value to shareholders and the wider community it serves. Through a human‐centered design lens, the paper identifies co‐creation as pivotal in the design of the business model that delivers social and economic value. Empirical data fro...
This research examines the application of the Theory of Swift, Even Flow (TSEF) by a distribution company to improve the performance of its processes for parcels. TSEF was deployed by the company after experiencing lean improvement fatigue and diminishing returns from the time and effort invested. This case study combined quantitative and qualitati...
Labor exploitation persists within global supply chains regardless of governmental legislation, private governance mechanisms, and increasing consumer demands. Notably, non‐commercial organizations have been lauded as potential facilitators of improvements in labor standards through their capability to influence supply chain actors. Through an anal...
Purpose
Delivering housing to resource-constrained communities (RCCs) is a complex process beset with difficulties. The purpose of this study is to use a complexity lens to examine the approach taken by a social enterprise (SE) in Australia to develop and manage a housebuilding supply chain for RCCs.
Design/methodology/approach
The research team u...
Purpose
This paper aims to explain the role of supply chain capital (SCC) in developing transformative supply chain resilience (SCRes) to cope with environmental dynamism. Through a panarchy theory lens, this paper holistically examines how supply chains and their resilience are impacted by the multilevel structure in which they are embedded.
Desi...
Lean in healthcare has continued to attract practitioner and research interest over the past two decades yet lacks evidence of sustained application. This longitudinal case study examines Lean healthcare interventions through the lens of Programme Theory, to provide an understanding of the design and implementation of a Lean programme. Through a qu...
Background: Research on Additive Manufacturing [AM] provides few guidelines for successful adoption of the technology in different market environments. This paper seeks to address this gap by developing a framework that suggests market attributes for which the technology will successfully meet a need. We rely on classical technology adoption theory...
Purpose
The sudden arrival of Covid-19 severely disrupted the supply chain of personal protective equipment (PPE) in Australia. This paper aims to examine the development of a geographical cluster, which, through the application of additive manufacturing (AM), responded to the PPE supply crisis.
Design/methodology/approach
This longitudinal case s...
This research examines how knowledge and information is managed within two care networks. We develop a conceptual framework drawing on the notion of brokering and the 3T framework, which is used to describe the relative complexity of boundaries (referred to in the framework as syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic) as well as capabilities and processe...
Purpose
Managing complexity within care ecosystems is an increasing universal challenge. In health, this is emphasised by recent calls for greater care integration to achieve service improvement as levels of comorbidity and frailty grow within populations. This research takes a service-dominant logic (SDL) stance in examining the sources, types and...
Most literature on make-to-order shops assumes that service rates are independent of the system state. In practice however, the service rate is often dependent on the workload level experienced by the worker. While a body of knowledge on state-dependent service rates exists, the available literature has not given sufficient attention to make-to-ord...
This research examines the application of the Theory of Swift, Even Flow (TSEF) by a distribution company to improve the performance of its processes for parcels. TSEF was deployed by the company after experiencing improvement fatigue and diminishing returns from the time and effort invested. The fatigue was resolved through the deployment of swift...
Purpose
This paper aims to encourage the study of blockchain technology from an operations and supply chain management (OSCM) perspective, identifying potential areas of application, and to provide an agenda for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
An explanation and analysis of blockchain technology is provided to identify implications...
The aim of this article is to provide an understanding of how the supplier selection process used by buying organisations to establish socially sustainable supply chains has evolved from the traditional purchasing function. Through the application of a socially responsible purchasing (SRP) approach, organisations are attempting to address the chall...
In sustainable supply chain management, buyers may use intermediaries to bridge exchanges with suppliers when knowledge of suitable sustainability practices is weak and in need of facilitation. Understanding how supply chain intermediaries perform this role and what happens when intermediation is no longer needed is important in establishing more s...
Since the bus deregulation (Transport Act 1985) the patronage for bus
services has been decreasing in a county in South of England. Hence,
methods that increase patronage, focus subsidies and stimulate the bus
industry are required. Our surveys and market research identified and
quantified essential factors. The top three factors are price, frequen...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of supply chain complexity and extend this with literature developed within the project domain. The authors use the lens of ambidexterity (the ability both to exploit and explore) to analyse responses to complexity, since this enables the authors to understand the application of known solut...
Market research on local buses in Surrey to gain insights in the perceived importance of service improvements.
Purpose – Existing works in the supply chain complexity area have either focused on the overall behavior of multi-firm complex adaptive systems or on listing specific tools and techniques that business units (BUs) can use to manage supply chain complexity but without providing a thorough discussion about when and why they should be deployed. This r...
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the differences and similarities between the manufacturing and services sectors in order to develop a methodology that can provide the opportunity for the transfer of best practice between the two sectors. This paper aims to describe an audit methodology capable of yielding objective comparisons...
Purpose
– This paper aims to identify reverse flows and exchanges that support public service provision. Reverse flow literature has focused on manufacturing based supply chains using the lens of exchange (recovery, reuse, repair and recycle) to gain performance improvement in product flows. Limited research is available to support an understanding...
Lean and Swift-Even-Flow (SEF) operations are compared in the context of sorting facilities. Lean approaches tend to attack parts of their processes for improvement and waste reduction, sometimes overlooking the impact this will have on their overall pipeline. A SEF approach on the other hand is driven by a desire to reduce variations by enabling t...
Lean and Swift-Even-Flow (SEF) operations are compared in the context of sorting facilities. Lean approaches tend to attack parts of their processes for improvement and waste reduction, sometimes overlooking the impact this will have on their overall pipeline. A SEF approach on the other hand is driven by a desire to reduce variations by enabling t...
In this paper a demand time series is analysed to support Make-To-Stock (MTS)
and Make-To-Order (MTO) production decisions. Using a purely MTS production
strategy based on the given demand can lead to unnecessarily high inventory
levels thus it is necessary to identify likely MTO episodes.
This research proposes a novel outlier detection algorithm...
Industrial practices and experiences highlight that demand is dynamic and non-stationary. Research however has historically taken the perspective that stochastic demand is stationary therefore limiting its impact for practitioners. Manufacturers require schedules for multiple products that decide the quantity to be produced over a required time spa...
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of business analytics as a method for developing understanding of the environment that delivery service organisations operate within and how this comprehension can support the evolution and implementation of lean thinking. Mapping complex and dynamic environments in a manner which provides suffici...
This paper addresses the lessons learnt by London Underground (LU), the public sector contracting authority, when a tied supply chain arrangement, namely where shareholders are also commercial beneficiaries from sub-contracted delivery, was utilised by a consortium to upgrade its system under an innovative Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model. Re...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the changes in governance structures that evolved as reverse logistics systems were developed. The UK car crash repair sector was used as a case study.
Design/methodology/approach
The value‐chain governance framework proposed by Gereffi et al. was used to assess changes in governance systems as firms...
We investigate the relational dynamics in supply chains focused on three questions. The first question relates to the initial strategic choices of suppliers; the second relates to the impact of interactions between buyers and suppliers, or how suppliers manage buyer's initiative; the third relates to the pre-requisites to forming successful supplie...
The reuse of salvaged parts from vehicles deemed to be at the end of their life is viewed as an opportunity by insurers and crash repair firms to reduce rectification costs and improve service to policy holders. This research investigates the opportunities and challenges that confront an important but under-researched part of the automotive supply...
The latter part of the 20th century saw the lean production paradigm positively impact many market sectors ranging from automotive through to construction. In particular, there is much evidence to suggest that level scheduling combined with the elimination of muda has successfully delivered a wide range of products to those markets where cost is th...
Purpose
In the twenty‐first century business scenario, most organisations supply a range of products to multiple markets, so participate in several often quite different supply chains. Just as the linear chain is a simplification of a supply network, the single channel is a simplification of the true complexity many organisations face. When all pro...
Tel : +44 (0)1234 751122 Fax : +44 (0)1234 752158 e-mail : m.g.christopher@cranfield.ac.uk Journal of Business Logistics, Vol 26, No. 2, 2005, pp 73-96 2 Authors James Aitken spent the first 12 years of his industrial/commercial experience involved in all aspects of the supply chain ranging from the installation of a manufacturing postponement faci...
In order to compete in today's highly competitive marketplace supply chains must be engineered to match product characteristics and customer requirements. As products proceed through their life cycles these requirements dramatically change. Consequently supply chain strategies must be dynamically matched so as to maximise competitiveness. This pape...
The paper describes the evolution of focused demand chains over an extended period of time as a major UK lighting manufacturer has sought to remain an international player in a fast changing business environment. Analysis and design procedures make use of the concepts of Wickham Skinner and Marshall Fisher to answer the strategic questions “what fa...
Tel : +44 (0)1234 751122 Fax : +44 (0)1234 752158 e-mail : m.g.christopher@cranfield.ac.uk 2 Authors James Aitken spent the first 12 years of his industrial/commercial experience involved in all aspects of the supply chain ranging from the installation of a manufacturing postponement facility to the establishment of a pan-European transport and war...
