To create value in logistics services to fill the expectation of customers gets more significant than ever to sustain competitiveness in the market. In this paper, considering there is a small amount of research done in logistic service quality, we aimed to investigate how logistics services affect customer satisfaction. An empirical study was made to measure logistic service quality factors; personnel quality contact, order condition, timeliness, order discrepancy handling, and operational information sharing in logistics services. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) has been used in this paper to explore customer satisfaction by using the five constructs of logistics service quality. One of the contributions of this article is; it is the first time the effects of operational information sharing on customer satisfaction in logistics services was investigated under the logistic service quality framework. Customer satisfaction can be explained and improved by applying these five constructs of logistics service quality. Also, this research can help both practice and scholars to understand the fundamental elements of improving customer satisfaction. The results can be used in any firm to gain competitiveness in logistic services.

This paper aims to develop a conceptual model that can assist managers in the development of competitive value chain using value co-creation and integration to make the whole supply chain competitive. The model is based on theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of value co-creation, network theory, value chain, and customer value theory. The model focuses on the idea that integrated value chains with high value co-creation abilities within them would make the whole supply chain competitive. That means that if the individual firms along the supply chain work on improving their value co-creation abilities, and they are well-integrated, it will increase the whole supply chain competitiveness. It is a conceptual model that needs to be operationalized and empirically tested in the future. The model suggests high value co-creation abilities in the individual value chains with a well-integrated supply chain as a basis for supply chain competitiveness. The model includes several theoretical and conceptual views related to value co-creation. However, it may be possible to add some additional perspectives in the future research.

Supply chain problems are complex to understand and solve because of the interaction between multiple factors within and between tiers of the chain. Causal factors in business process deficiencies can be thought of as networks of factors, each of which has possible cause-effect relationship with selected other factors. The full significance of any given factor cannot be understood by evaluating just direct relationships between factors, but must be evaluated considering the total direct and indirect influences throughout the entire network of causal linkages. Because of their applicability to such general networks of relationships, sports ranking methodologies have application to cause-effect analysis. Three different matrix-based sports ranking methodologies are discussed and applied to quality cause-effect analysis: Google PageRank, Colley and Massey methods. Of these three, the PageRank and Massey methods are shown to be reasonable approaches in this application context, depending on the causal data available. All the methods are intuitive to apply and compute with spreadsheets.

The 21st century is said to have been a particularly eventful century with spectacular changes all around the world. The population is on a steady rise and as expected this rise in inhabitants has resulted in the need for the best-in-class medical facilities. This study has been undertaken to explore biomedical waste management process, practices and disposal chain adopted by selected hospitals with special reference to the city of Pune, India. There is a mandate laid down by the Government of India for the Bio-Medical waste (BMW) with regard to its proper management, collection, segregation, storage, disposal and incineration of medical waste in private as well as public hospitals. The secondary study has indicated multiple issues associated with waste handling and management, which led to healthcare and hygiene implications. So as a part of this study researcher’s aim to answer whether it is unawareness or negligence which is leading to such causalities. Also, are the processes & practices adopted at Public & Private sector hospitals varies significantly or not? A checklist was prepared to study the BMW Management process and practices followed by different hospitals in Pune City of India. The results showed a significant difference between their process & practice of Biomedical Waste Management. Also, random sampling about knowledge of BMW showed that government hospitals and their healthcare staff are casual in their approach towards implementing the Biomedical Waste Management process as compared to private sector hospital.

The present work is an attempt to design a reverse logistics (RL) network for an e-commerce firm based on one of the most frequently returned items namely fashion goods. The problem essentially revolves around the trade-off between cost and responsiveness in designing an RL network for an e-commerce firm. We have considered several large neighborhoods in the northern capital region of India and treated the same as customer indexes from which the returns originate. Several candidate nodes have been identified as initial collection centers (ICCs) in which the returns from the customer indexes are initially collected and stored for some time before being sent to the final warehouses. There are three warehouses in three different cities. We have ensured that one customer index would be assigned to only one ICC. The decision variables of the above problem include the selection of ICCs, the assignment of the customer indexes to the ICCs and finally the volume of returns to be shipped from the ICCs to all three warehouses. We have formulated the above problem as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problem with a view to minimizing the total cost of the network. We have carried out sensitivity analyses on relevant parameters and provided rich managerial insights.

A closed-loop supply chain model that incorporates environmental and economic sustainability issues into the planning process of a chain is proposed. End-of-use and end-of-life customer returns are collected through retailers and supply chain-operated collection centers (SCOCs), which are located between the retail outlets that are separated with a distance exceeding a set limit, to facilitate customer returns. Returns are dismantled into components, which are recovered through recovery service providing vendors (RSPs). As much as possible, recovered components are used to produce remanufactured products through quality enhancement. The remaining recovered components are then used to produce second-hand products. The proposed model integrates the overall operations costs and select life cycle assessment (LCA) metrics in procurement, production, collection of returns, recovery, reuse, remanufacturing, transportation, and distribution of products to attain environmental and economic sustainability. Numerical examples illustrate the model’s applicability.

Using simulation modeling, our research is the first study to investigate impact of two different stockout compensation strategies (E-SC and S-SC) compared to no-stockout compensation strategy (N-SC) on supplier’s profits and etailer’s profits in e-commerce drop-shipping supply chain. The conceptual model is a two-echelon production-inventory system with a make-to-stock supplier and an etailer. The results from this study suggests that on average, the profit difference is less than 4.0 percent in E-SC compared to N-SC for both the supplier and etailer. However, when demand variability is high, production capacity is low and service level is low, the profit difference for both the supplier and etailer is significantly higher in E-SC compared to N-SC. Also, if both the supplier and etailer pursue S-SC strategy, then on average, an increase in wholesale price by around 1.0 percent compared to wholesale price in N-SC is sufficient to offset the stockout compensation cost for the supplier.

There is increased interest in relocation to and from high-cost environments, but there remains a lack of knowledge with regard to operations capabilities in this specific context. The purpose of this study is thus to investigate critical operations capabilities in a high-cost environment. The research process is based on the investigation of an existing framework of operations capabilities through a multiple case study including five Swedish manufacturing companies. The findings reveal that all the dimensions and capabilities included in the framework were considered critical, and additional operations capabilities could be identified: service quality, supplier dependability, supplier flexibility, supply chain innovation, supply chain sustainability. The investigation underlines the dynamic nature of operations capabilities, which need to be updated constantly according to the environment in which they are developed. This study contributes on a practical level to managers by creating an overview of operations capabilities in a high-cost environment. Through the investigation of critical operations capabilities, it is possible for managers to find new areas of competitiveness, as well as to understand their current areas of excellence. The study makes several contributions, such as the identification of operations capabilities, their investigation and validation in a specific environment.