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The purpose of this paper is to take the first step in solving environmental supply chain management issues. It proposes a green supply chain management (GSCM) model which would provide environmental benefits to the Thai rubber industry. To this end, a GSCM optimisation model was formulated, whereby the manufacturing processes of rubber products, along with their distribution and transportation, could be improved. The expected result is that total greenhouse gas emissions would be minimised and environmental performance maximised.

Linear programming was chosen as the mathematical programming for investigation into the problem of finding the association of quantity of rubber product flow between the supply chain entities (farmer, trader group, and factory) and the transportation mode and route, with a view to minimise total greenhouse gas emissions.

The results indicate that by using the proposed model, GHG emissions could be minimised to 1.08 tons of GHGs per ton of product.

A GSCM model developed in this research can be used as a decision support tool for Thai rubber policy makers. This would allow them to better manage the Thai rubber industry to achieve environmental benefit.

This research is among the first attempts to develop a GSCM model for the Thai rubber industry. It can contribute to providing a basis for a GSCM modelling framework, along with a formulation for research development in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the recent developments in the natural rubber industry and identify the major factors that will likely determine the sustainability of Thailand's competitive advantage in this area.

Data were gathered through in depth interviews with industry experts both in the private and public sectors. The obtained information was then analyzed under the standard framework of national competitiveness widely referred to as the Diamond Model.

The recent success of the Thai rubber industry stems from the competitiveness of local firms in the upstream industry and the leadership of foreign firms in the downstream sector. To further strengthen competitiveness, a more concerted effort to encourage innovation and technology absorption by local downstream firms is required.

This research provides a comprehensive overview of one of Thailand's most significant agricultural exporting industries. It systematically analyzes the sector's strengths and weaknesses and offers recommendations for policy makers to manage future opportunities and threats.

There are several important strategic projects in the field of renewable energy in Egypt. Benban project is considered as one of the largest solar generation facilities in the world, which aims to increase clean energy produced, provide electricity needs for citizens and help to increase the volume of Egypt's electricity exports. The purpose of this paper is to explore the most important drivers and barriers that affect the implementation of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices in the field of solar energy production.

It is an exploratory research that conducts a case study about solar energy companies operating in Benban, south Egypt. It adopts a mixed approach; qualitative and quantitative research strategy to test the relationship between dependent and independent variables through a survey.

This research concluded that normative drivers involving stakeholder pressure are of the greatest drivers of GSCM practice, while external barriers including lack of government regulations and government support, poor supplier commitment, customers’ unawareness of sustainable green products, lack of markets receiving and manufacturing recycled materials, lack of renewal or technological innovation in markets and lack of human resources or expertise in market are among the biggest barriers to GSCM implementation.

The researchers collected 30 responses during the field survey, which is a nonrandom sample that does not allow generalization. In addition, samples are only from companies in the solar energy sector only.

As there is a need for research that addresses sustainability practices and solutions in developing countries, especially in Egypt, this paper theoretically contributes to literature by proposing a conceptual framework that identifies the drivers and barriers of GSCM from the existing literature, then investigates and measures their impact on the implementation of GSCM on an Egyptian case study. As regards the practical contribution, this research is a trial to experimentally test the importance of top management’s role in motivating and training employees to improve the brand image of their company and making them aware of the benefits of the successful GSCM implementation.

The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the barriers associated with the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in agricultural supply chains.

The study initially identified thirteen barriers by conducting a literature review and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. Subsequently, these barriers were validated and modeled using an integrated Fuzzy Delphi-ISM approach. Finally, MICMAC analysis was employed to categorize the barriers into distinct clusters.

The results provide considerable insights into the hierarchical structure and complex interrelationships between the barriers as well the driving and dependence power of barriers. Lack of information about technologies and lack of compatibility with traditional methods emerged as the two main barriers which directly and indirectly influence the other ones.

The robust hybrid Fuzzy Delphi and ISM techniques used in this study can serve as a useful model and benchmark for similar studies probing the barriers to Industry 4.0 adoption. From a theoretical standpoint, this study expands the scope of institutional theory in explaining Industry 4.0 adoption barriers.

The study is timely for the post-COVID-19 recovery and growth of the agricultural sector. The findings are helpful for policymakers and agriculture supply chain stakeholders in devising new strategies and policy interventions to prioritize and address Industry 4.0 adoption barriers.

It is the first comprehensive, multi-country and multi-method empirical study to comprehensively identify and model barriers to Industry 4.0 adoption in agricultural supply chains in emerging economies.

This study aims to fundamentally focus on the comparative advantage measurement and the trend of change in the international competitiveness of five Thai economic products exporting to the People’s Republic of China during the first half of the 2010s via the analysis of the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index and market share.

The RCA index has been computed to show the comparative advantages of the product to a certain extent: whether it is cost-effective to produce that product in a certain location compared to opportunity cost of the resources in producing that product. The data set of number and value of five important export products from Thailand to China during 2010-2013 has been obtained from the Thai Ministry of Commerce and Thai-Chinese Business Information Centre.

The study reveals that of these five important economic products, cassava has the highest comparative advantage and continues to have a rapid growth trend, whilst computer equipment and components have been shown to have comparative disadvantage and the lowest comparative advantage index scores.

Measuring with various sophisticated indices may provide clearer results. Also, according to unavailability of data set, the four-year period may not be able to show the long-term trend of competitiveness. Future studies are encouraged to study in the longer-term period with numerous indices.

The research also provides policy implications and measures to develop each sector to enhance competitiveness.

This is the original attempt to use both indices to assess the competitiveness of important Thai exports to the Chinese market.

Industry 4.0 is recognised as a competitive strategy that helps implementers optimise their value chain. However, its adoption poses several challenges. This study investigates and ranks the drivers and barriers to implementing Industry 4.0 in the Thai sugar industry, the world's second-largest sugar exporter. It also evaluates the industry's readiness for Industry 4.0.

The drivers and impediments were identified based on a systematic literature review (SLR) and further investigated using a questionnaire, expert interviews, Pearson's correlation and nonparametric statistical analyses. The IMPULS model was used to assess the industry's readiness.

Most companies expect to minimise costs, develop employees and improve various elements of operational performance and data tracking capability. Thai sugar producers are still at a low readiness level to deploy Industry 4.0. High investment is the major challenge. Small businesses struggle to hire competent employees, collaborate with a highly credible technology provider and adapt to new solutions.

The findings can serve as a benchmark or guide for sugar manufacturers and companies in other sectors, where Industry 4.0 technologies are not yet widely utilised, to overcome existing roadblocks and make strategic decisions. They can also assist governments in developing policies that foster digital transformation and increase national competitiveness.

There is a scarcity of research on Industry 4.0 execution in the sugar industry. This study addresses this gap by investigating the reasons for the hesitancy of sugar producers to pursue Industry 4.0 and proposing solutions.

This chapter analyses the how, who, where and why of rapid rise in intra-regional investment by companies from ASEAN since 2009.

The chapter analyses the push and pull factors of intra-regional investment in ASEAN, the resulting patterns of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the accompanying rise of strong regional players.

The region’s FDI landscape is changing in terms of investment sources, players, FDI trends and dynamics of the region. This trend is strongly affected by stepped up efforts by ASEAN governments to encourage their national companies to invest in the region and the influence of the ASEAN Economic Community.

Regional integration and emerging business opportunities are providing an impetus not seen before in driving intra-regional investment. As more ASEAN companies position and prepare for AEC 2015, this intra-regional investment wave is likely to gather force.

The chapter lists the regional and global ‘footprint’ of the top 50 largest ASEAN companies by revenues. The thus identified companies include companies operating in oil and gas, mining, agri-business, telecommunications, food and beverages, manufacturing, banking, power generation, infrastructure, real estate and healthcare services

In this era of globalisation, as competition intensifies, providing quality products and services has become a competitive advantage and a need to ensure survival. The Six Sigma's problem-solving methodology DMAIC has been one of the several techniques used by organisations to improve the quality of their products and services. This paper aims to demonstrate the empirical application of Six Sigma and DMAIC to reduce product defects within a rubber gloves manufacturing organisation.

The paper follows the DMAIC methodology to systematically investigate the root cause of defects and provide a solution to reduce/eliminate them. In particular, the design of experiments, hypothesis testing and two-way analysis of variance techniques were combined to statistically determine whether two key process variables, oven's temperature and conveyor's speed, had an impact on the number of defects produced, as well as to define their optimum values needed to reduce/eliminate the defects.

The analysis from employing Six Sigma and DMAIC indicated that the oven's temperature and conveyor's speed influenced the amount of defective gloves produced. After optimising these two process variables, a reduction of about 50 per cent in the “leaking” gloves defect was achieved, which helped the organisation studied to reduce its defects per million opportunities from 195,095 to 83,750 and thus improve its sigma level from 2.4 to 2.9.

This paper can be used as a guiding reference for managers and engineers to undertake specific process improvement projects, in their organisations, similar to the one presented in this paper.

This study presents an industrial case which demonstrates how the application of Six Sigma and DMAIC can help manufacturing organisations to achieve quality improvements in their processes and thus contribute to their search for process excellence.

Thai domestic automotive parts companies have to manage their technology and human resources effectively and efficiently. This paper attempts to identify the key factors for management of their technology and human resources.

Questionnaires were sent to, and interviews conducted in, Thai domestic automotive parts companies.

Enhancement of employee support is useful for domestic companies and there are significant differences among companies of Tier 1 or 2 and Tier 3 in quality management and the number of proprietary and management technologies adopted.

It can be said that Thai domestic automotive parts companies should adopt higher level quality management tools as well as more proprietary and management technologies in order to raise their technology level.

The paper analyzes the responses of questionnaires directly mailed to Thai domestic automotive parts companies and direct interviews to some of them. It was found that Thai domestic automotive parts companies have to enhance employee support and to improve their technology level to increase their product quality.

The key findings on implementing ISO 9000 standard in the seafood industry, which is recognized as the leading export industry in Thailand, have been presented. The purpose of this study was to describe the current situation in ISO 9000 implementation, the characteristics, the strengths, the weaknesses, and problems of implementing a quality standard. Reports the finding of a mail questionnaire survey conducted on 178 selected seafood companies. The analysis of the survey data suggested that about 94 percent of companies obtained at least one quality standard. With further analysis, we also found that there are some different characteristics in terms of product type, production process, and purchasing policies among these selected companies. Results indicated that Thai seafood companies still lack enthusiasm regarding ISO 9000, compared with other countries in Asia. Finally, we found major problems in implementing ISO 9000 such as lack of understanding this quality standard and lack of support from the staff and management.