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Products of medicinal plants play significant roles in management of diseases. Their accessibility through trade plays a key role in health, economic and livelihood improvement. However, the traceability of the production process from their source in Tanzania is lacking. This study aims to depicture the production process of formulated products of medicinal plants.

The study applied the value chain theory using qualitative data from literature review and survey to practitioners of traditional medicine. Survey data were collected through 15 in-depth interviews and ten focus group discussions in five regions of Tanzania.

Input to output structure is performed through a five actors' value chain. The raw material is provided by harvesters who collected medicinal plants from wild. The processing is conducted by wholesalers and formulators. The wholesalers add value by drying, milling and bulk packaging of individual medicinal plants. Formulators mix different medicinal plants to create readymade products for specified diseases. Distribution is done by retailers and healers. There were six regulating and two supporting organizations. Private supporters were millers and transporters. Governance structure was deduced to be relational. Relational governance was a result of lack official standards along the value chain.

The described value chain can be used to guide investments in production of products of medicinal plants by improving formulation technology.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the prerequisites for lateral knowledge transfer in manufacturing networks.

Data stem from a single case study involving 26 interviews at the management level of a manufacturing network and a survey of 17 manufacturing plants in the network.

The requirements for lateral knowledge transfer between knowledge-sending and knowledge-receiving plants are similar strategic orientation, product portfolio similarity and process similarity. If the knowledge-sending and knowledge-receiving plants meet at least one of these requirements, then knowledge transfer is facilitated. Plant age, functional ties and geographical proximity do not seem to be important in lateral knowledge transfer.

The results come from a single case study, limiting their generalisability. Further research should consider the influence of the network’s coordination mechanism on lateral knowledge transfer.

The paper investigates prerequisites for lateral knowledge transfer in manufacturing networks, shedding light on the fundamental factors that must be in place at the knowledge-sending and knowledge-receiving plants.

This research determines and updates industry’s use of plant charters and their characteristics in terms of plant structure differences, competitive priorities, manufacturing improvement initiatives, and performance. Industry differences are identified and compared to a 1982 study. The most predominant plant charter strategy remains a product plant charter assignment. Responses to a survey indicated that plants are created differently, i.e. there are structural differences between the plant charter strategy types. However, in general, the competitive priorities, efforts to improve manufacturing effectiveness, and resulting performance are essentially the same. This suggests seemingly similar manufacturing strategies regardless of the plant structure being used.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how integral and modular product architectures influence the design properties of the global operations network.

The authors perform a multiple-case study of three global manufacturing companies, using interviews, seminars and structured questionnaires to identify ideal design properties.

The authors find that the choice of integral vs modular product architecture lead to significant differences in the preferred design properties of global operations networks concerning number of key technologies in-house, number of capable plants, focus at assembly plants, distance between assembly plant and market, and number of key supplier sites. Two of these were identified through this research, i.e. the number of capable plants and number of key supplier sites. The authors make a distinction between component and assembly plants, which adds detail to the understanding of the impact of product architecture on global operations. In addition, they develop five propositions that can be tested in further survey research.

This study is restricted to three large manufacturing companies with global operations. However, the authors investigated both integral and modular products at these three companies and their associated global operations network. Still, further case or survey research involving a broader set of companies is warranted.

The key aspects for integral products are to have many key technologies in-house, concentration of production at a few capable plants, and economies-of-scale at assembly plants, while long distances between assembly plants and markets as well as few key supplier sites are acceptable. For modular products, the key aspects are many capable plants, economies-of-scope at assembly plants, short distance between assembly plants and markets, and many key supplier sites, while key technologies do not necessarily have to reside in-house – these can be accessed via key suppliers.

This paper is, to the authors’ knowledge, the first study on the explicit impact of product architecture on global operations networks, especially considering the internal manufacturing network.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of changes at the manufacturing plant level on other plants in the manufacturing network and also investigate the role of manufacturing plants on the evolution of a manufacturing network.

The research questions are developed by identifying the gaps in the reviewed literature. The paper is based on three case studies undertaken in Danish manufacturing companies to explore in detail their manufacturing plants and networks. The cases provide a sound basis for developing the research questions and explaining the interaction between different manufacturing plants in the network and their impact on network transformation.

The paper highlights the dominant role of manufacturing plants in the continuously changing shape of a manufacturing network. The paper demonstrates that a product or process change at one manufacturing plant affects the other plants in the same network by altering their strategic roles, which leads to the subsequent transformation of the manufacturing network.

A review of the existing literature investigated different elements of a manufacturing network independently. In this paper, the complex phenomenon of a manufacturing network evolution is observed by combining the analysis of a manufacturing plant and network level. The historical trajectories of manufacturing networks that are presented in the case studies are examined in order to understand and determine the future shape of the networks. This study will help industrial managers make more knowledgeable decisions regarding manufacturing network management.

Plant-based eggs have recently been developed to provide consumers with a healthier, animal-friendlier and more sustainable alternative to conventional eggs. The purpose of this paper is to investigate intrinsic and extrinsic attribute preferences for three prototypes of plant-based egg, namely the liquid, powder and egg-shaped.

Nine focus groups in the United Kingdom and nine in Italy were conducted, with a total of 180 participants. A thematic analysis of results was conducted.

In terms of intrinsic product attributes, consumers' preferences for colour, shape, taste, ingredients, nutrients, method of production and shelf-life for plant-based eggs were revealed. Regarding the extrinsic attributes, preferences for price, packaging, country of origin and product naming emerged. Similarities and differences between consumers from the two countries are also discussed. Differences in preferences also emerged between vegan and non-vegan consumers.

This study adds to the existing knowledge on consumers' preferences for new plant-based food alternatives and identifies future quantitative approaches based on qualitative findings.

Results from this study can assist plant-based egg manufacturers in improving their products in line with consumers' expectations, which may help reducing risk of product failure.

This study is the first to investigate consumers' preferences, expectations and needs for new food products like plant-based eggs and provides information that can be practically applied by manufacturers, as well as suggestions for future research.

Freight consolidation across time and customers, use of warehouses, and direct LTL distribution systems are compared on distribution costs and delivery times for selected product characteristics and demand patterns. The results can assist managers in determining whether using freight consolidation is a viable alternative to direct shipments from plants or warehouses.

Process flexibility (PF) is seen as a hedging instrument against demand uncertainty. This paper aims to examine capacity decisions for both flexible and dedicated processes under production policies such as make-to-order and make-to-stock. The study identifies some relative benefits, in terms of expected profit, of the process flexible plant over the dedicated ones. Furthermore, the advantage appears to be contingent upon the decision on the preset service level.

Using the sample-based optimization procedure, a detailed computational analysis is undertaken to identify the conditions under which a flexible plant is preferred over a dedicated plant. A combination of genetic algorithm and sample-based optimization procedure is used to capture the effects of preset service level. The factors controlled in this paper include the demand variance, demand correlation, capacity investment cost and the product price.

According to this study, in a dedicated process changing to a flexible process is not justified for the same level of demand correlation even with high demand variance. In fact, a strict control on the preset service level prefers the dedicated strategy. The advantage of a flexible plant increases as the demand correlation decreases, product price decreases, price asymmetry increases or capacity investment cost increases. With a preset service level constraint, a flexible process should be preferred to a dedicated one only when the capacity investment cost is high or the products have low contribution margins.

The PF index is introduced in this paper to measure the benefit of a flexible plant over a group of dedicated plants. The benefits were found to be contingent upon the decision on the required service level.

The purpose of this paper is twofold; first, to investigate whether the manufacturing specializations of network plants fulfilling similar strategic plant roles (Ferdows, 1997) are common in type. Second, to examine current strategic manufacturing network management practice and develop a map of this process.

Three multisite manufacturing businesses participated in this case research. The first phase of the study consisted of an initial visit made to the headquarters of each firm to be briefed on its manufacturing network strategy and to collect company manufacturing performance data. Visits were then made to 11 network plants to collect site manufacturing performance data and to research the manufacturing specialization of each site and the degree of autonomy of its management team. The second phase of the research comprised a number of additional visits to the headquarters of one of the three case study firms to investigate the process employed to downsize its existing manufacturing network capacity in response to a significant decline in customer demand.

Three common types of manufacturing specialization have been identified in the networks of plants studied and the case research findings have enabled the development of a process for manufacturing network strategy deployment.

The proposed process for the strategic management of a manufacturing network is based upon the findings of a single case study and thus the generalizability of the findings is limited.

Auditing the manufacturing specialization of network sites is an essential preparatory procedure for determining a manufacturing network strategy. How this information is used to facilitate the management of manufacturing network configuration and coordination and for manufacturing network strategy deployment is detailed in the paper.

A process map has been developed that includes a review of current network configuration and coordination policies, in combination, as these underpin manufacturing network strategy deployment. Such a process map has not been detailed previously in the literature.

The rising number of food recalls has raised concerns about complexity, globalization and weak governance in the food supply chain. This paper aims to investigate the recall of plant-based products with data from the US Food and Drug Administration.

Introducing the structural topic modeling method allowed us to test theories on recall in the context of sustainable food consumption, enhancing the understanding of food recall processes. This approach helps identify latent topics of product recalls and their interwoven relationships with various stakeholders.

The results answer a standing research call for empirical investigation in a nascent food industry to identify stakeholders’ engagements for food safety crisis management for corporate social responsibility practices. This finding provides novel insights on managing threats to food safety at an industry level to extend existing antecedents and consequences of product recall at a micro level.

For practitioners, this empirical finding may provide insights into stakeholder management and develop evidence-based strategies to prevent threats to food safety. For public policymakers, this analysis may help identify patterns of recalls and assist guidelines and alarm systems (e.g. EU’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed) on threats in the food supply chain.

Two detected clusters, such as opportunisms of market actors in the plant-based food system and food culture, from the analysis help understand corporate social responsibility and food safety in the plant-based food industry.