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The objective of this research is to develop a model to forecast sales for an ice-cream company. In order to achieve this objective, we evaluate sales data of three ice-cream flavors namely vanilla, chocolate, and Tally Ho (mixture of chocolate and vanilla) from January 2016 to 25 November 2019. To determine which model worked the best, we tested different models such as moving averages, simple exponential smoothing, Holt's method, Winters' method, method modeling seasonality and trend, and an ensemble method. We found Winters' method and modeling seasonality and trend performed well in terms of lowest error rates compared with other methods.

Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.

The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.

The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.

This chapter shows how the forecasting and the planning functions in a supply chain can be organized so they will yield optimal forecasts for an entire supply chain. We achieve this result by replacing the process of generating forecasts with that of making optimal coordinated supply chain decisions. The ideal performance for a supply chain is to have the flows of materials perfectly synchronized with the demand rate for the finished product that the chain produces. When the equality is achieved, we have a pure “demand pull” supply chain. This ideal is difficult to achieve because forecasting and decision making in supply chains are typically decentralized and forecasting and planning uncoordinated. Creating a competitive advantage for the finished product requires achieving the ideal. The opposite, not achieving the ideal, leads to uncoordinated forecasts and decisions that trigger unintended buildup of inventories, lost sales and the bullwhip effects, slowness and high costs.

This chapter shows how (1) we can achieve the ideal synchronous supply chain flows by using temporal linear programs; (2) then, we guide each individual supply chain member company in developing his optimal operations plan to guide him in executing his part in the supply chain plan. The result from the two factors: the entire supply chain will achieve the ideal flow rates.

Sharing services increasingly extends beyond intraorganizational concentration of service delivery. Organizations have started to promote cooperation across their boundaries to deal with strategic tensions in their value ecosystem, moving beyond traditional outsourcing. This chapter addresses two research questions geared to the challenge of interorganizational shared services (ISS): why would organizations want to get and remain involved in ISS? And: what are the implications of ISS for (inter)organizational value creation?

The conceptual chapter reviews literature pertaining to ISS from public, commercial, and nongovernmental sectors. ISS is understood as a multistakeholder organizational innovation. In order to analyze ISS and conduct empirical research, we developed a taxonomy and research framework.

The chapter shows how ISS can be positioned in value chains, distinguishing vertical, horizontal, and hybrid ISS. It outlines ISS implications for developing business models, structures, and relationships. Success factors and barriers are presented that epitomize the dynamic interplay of organizational autonomy and interorganizational dependence.

The research framework offers conceptual ideas for theoretical and empirical work. Researchers involved in ISS studies may adopt strategic, strategic innovation, and organizational innovation perspectives.

ISS phases are distinguished to focus innovation management — initiation, enactment, and evaluation. Furthermore, insights are provided into processes and interventions aimed at making ISS a success for participating organizations.

Cross-sectoral perspective on ISS; taxonomy of ISS; research framework built on organization and strategic management literature.

Competition had traditionally been highly intense in the airline sector, forcing airlines to continually foster collaborative practices. Although Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) had always been the backbone of any airline collaborative practice, research investigating the role of ICT in supporting collaboration had been solely concentrated on Global Distribution Systems (GDS) and their impact on marketing practices. In this vein, the importance of GDS to support streamlined supply chains in the airline sector has been neglected. This paper aims to show how the functionality and core competences of GDS are exploited to facilitate collaborative supply chain management and enhance airlines’ competitiveness.

This chapter of the book aims to introduce multiobjective linear programming (MLP) as an optimum tool to find the best quality engineering techniques (QET) in the main domains of supply chain management (SCM). The importance of finding the best quality techniques in SCM elements in the shortest possible time and at the least cost allows all organizations to increase the power of experts’ analysis in supply chain network (SCN) data under cost-effective conditions. In other words, this chapter aims to introduce an operations research model by presenting MLP for obtaining the best QET in the main domains of SCM. MLP is one of the most determinative tools in this chapter that can provide a competitive advantage. Under goal and system constraints, the most challenging task for decision-makers (DMs) is to decide which components to fund and at what levels. The definition of a comprehensive target value among the required goals and determining system constraints is the strength of this chapter. Therefore, this chapter can guide the readers to extract the best statistical and non-statistical techniques with the application of an operations research model through MLP in supply chain elements and shows a new innovation of the effective application of operations research approach in this field. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is a supplemental tool in this chapter to facilitate the relevant decision-making process.

Purpose: Technological innovations and frameworks that provide a framework for unification have evolved to improve information exchange across organisational units and information security. These integration technologies share and communicate information using defined protocols and different data. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a significant emerging approach that enables modular design solution construction.

Methodology: These designs are beneficial when many apps operating on different architectures and networks need to connect. A well-defined strategy and company-specific guidelines are essential for ensuring the firm’s systematic adoption of such an architecture. The critical components of MASSOASCM ‘(Multi-Agent System Service Oriented Architecture Supply Chain Management’ are a multi-agent system (MAS), a service-oriented structure, and supplier management. The MASSOASCM model has been made, and a production unit has been made to show how it works.

Findings: It has been stated that it saves development costs, and inventory management, all of which are critical concerns in any company. Our goal is to create an inventory control approach that relies on MAS and SOA but also a simulation that demonstrates how it works and may enhance Supply Chain Management (SCM) productivity in a production plant.

Practical Implications: The SCM implementation comprises three different services: SCM, SOA, and MAS. These facilities are constructed, maintained, planned, and implemented individually before being brought together collectively using MAS and SOA techniques.

Past research suggests that a financial crisis event has a dual and ambiguous effect on the exporting strategy of subsidiaries of multinational firms in a value chain and offshoring perspective. From a total volume perspective exports are expected to contract due to a decline in demand (demand shock) from other subsidiaries downstream in the value chain. While in a comparative perspective multinational subsidiaries are found to perform relatively better than local firms that are integrated differently (arms’ length) in global production networks (e.g., offshoring outsourcing). This chapter tries to reconcile these findings by testing a number of hypothesis about global integration strategies in the context of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and how it affected exporting among multinational subsidiaries operating out of Turkey. Controlling for the impact that exchange rate depreciations and volatility has on firm-level exports the study shows that the particular global event studied had no additional impact on individual firms’ exports. Since multinational subsidiaries are more insulated from these effects they are able to expand rather than contract their global integration strategies throughout the course of the GFC.