With the intention of addressing product quality, machine reliability, and acceptable service level issues in real fabrication systems, this paper studies joint effects of stochastic breakdown, backorder of permissible shortage, rework, and scrap on the optimal stock replenishing policy. A decision model is developed to solve the problem, which consists of mathematical modeling, formulations, and optimization method in order to help analyze the problem, derive the system cost function, and find the optimal replenishment cycle length decision. Applicability of the research results are demonstrated by a numerical example. The proposed decision model enables production managers to not only determine the optimal stock replenishing policy, but also reveal individual impact and/or joint effects of stochastic breakdown, defective rate, backorder of allowable shortage, rework, and scrap on the replenishing decision. With such an in-depth study, diverse system characteristics become available for managerial decision-making.

This study presents a multiproduct fabrication cost-minimization model featuring external providers, commonality, rework, and postponement in the supply chain environment. Customers’ requirements simultaneously emphasize quality, variety, and fast response time in current markets. To satisfy customer needs, most manufacturers in various industries (e.g., clothing, household goods, automotive, etc.) plan their multiproduct fabrication by incorporating a postponement strategy, rework process, and an outsourcing option. Motivated by the viewpoints above, this study offers a decision support system to address customers’ external expectations while optimizing internal operating expenses and machine utilization. We propose a single-machine, two-stage delayed differentiation system under a rotation cycle policy. All needed common parts are made in stage one, and stage two fabricates different end products. An external provider is hired to supply partially needed common parts to shorten uptime. The defective items are inevitably produced in both stages. They are categorized and reworked to maintain the desired product quality. Finally, we derive an optimal cost-minimization rotation cycle for our model and use a numerical example to investigate the collective and individual influences of reworking, postponement, and outsourcing to external providers on the multiproduct fabrication problem. In summary, this study can offer an optimization solution for production planning in various modern industries.

Telecom supply chain (TSC) research has determined several risk sources can happen for sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) due to their ambiguous nature. However, investigation of these risks is relatively sparse and has primarily been independent with less combinatory research, despite their interrelationships and causality. The present study aims to address that gap by an extant literature review and analysis of relationships among risk factors using a combination of fuzzy approaches. A mixed approach was used, including empirical data from private and government firms in a developing telecom sector. This research finding confirmed that economical dimension risk is major for SSCM in the TSC. In developing countries, it could help telecom service providers in determining which risk factors are critical and those that are crucially significant. As a result, they will be able to more effectively develop strategies focussing on the most affecting risk dimension for SSCM. This is the first study using a hybrid fuzzy approach that analysed interrelationships of risk factors for SSCM. Further, it gives a comprehensive view of risk assessment in the risk management context in the supply chain.

Operating in today’s turbulent and competitive world marketplaces, manufacturers must find the best production scheme and delivery policy to meet timely client’s multiproduct requirements and minimize the total manufacturing-shipment expenses. This study proposes a two-stage delayed differentiation model for a multiproduct manufacturer-retailer coordinated supply chain featuring the adjustable-rate for making common parts and a multi-shipment policy for transporting finished goods. The aim is to help present-day manufacturers achieve their operational goals mentioned above. The mathematical techniques help us build a specific model to explicitly represent the problem and derive its overall operating expense. Then, the convexity of the total expense is verified by Hessian matrix equations. The differential calculus helps derive the cost-minimized fabrication-shipment decision. This study offers an example to demonstrate the applicability and capabilities of our proposed model numerically. The following crucial information has been made available to the managers to facilitate their operating decision makings: (1) the problem’s best fabrication-shipment policy; (2) the collective influence of various common part’s completion rates and values on the problem’s total expenses and optimal fabrication-shipment policy; (3) the impact of various adjustable-rates in stage one on utilization and stage one’s uptime; (4) the details of cost contributors to the problem; and (5) the collective impacts of critical features on the problem’s performance.

This research explores the collective impact of overtime, random breakdown, discontinuous issuing rule, and scrap on batch production planning in a supply-chain environment. In today’s global business environment, manufacturing firms encounter numerous operational challenges. Externally, they must promptly satisfy the customers’ various requests, while internally, they must cautiously manage several inevitable issues in the fabrication process. These issues might be concerned with scrap, random breakdown, etc. Resolving such issues is crucial for meeting the due dates of customers’ orders, adhering to the expected manufacturing schedules, product quality, and minimizing the total fabrication-transportation-inventory costs. The study develops a model to characterize the system’s features mentioned above and assist the manufacturers with batch fabrication planning. The model proposes a solution process with an algorithm seeking an optimal runtime for the system. Additionally, it gives a numerical illustration depicting the collective and individual impacts of these special features on the operating policy and other performance indices. This model and the research findings can facilitate manufacturers’ decision-making for green batch fabrication and enhance competitive advantage.

This study employs mathematical modeling to explore the effects of overtime option, rework, and discontinuous end-item issuing policy on the economic manufacturing quantity (EMQ) model. Conventional EMQ model assumed that all products fabricated are of good quality and are issued under continuous policy. In real world, however, nonconforming items are randomly produced, due to diverse unexpected factors in fabrication process. When finished items are to be distributed to outside locations, discontinuous multi-shipment policy is often used rather than continuous rule. In addition, with the intention of increasing short-term capacity or shortening replenishment cycle length to smooth the production planning, adopting overtime option can be an effective strategy. To cope with the aforementioned features in real production systems, this study incorporates overtime option, rework, and multi-shipment policy into the EMQ model and explores their joint effects on optimal lot size and number of shipments, and on other relevant system parameters. Mathematical modeling and Hessian matrix equations enable us to derive the optimal policies to the problem. Through the use of numerical example, the applicability of research result is exhibited and a variety of significant effects of these features on the proposed system are revealed.

Project management tools and techniques provide the efficiency and effectiveness in managing and handling the projects. Many tools and techniques have been discovered and applied widely for a long period of time among project managers around the world with great contributions to the success of projects. Vietnam is a developing country and has become an attractive hub for national and international business opportunities. Consequently, there has been an increasing development and expansion of business projects in Vietnam. The purpose of this study is to analyze the use of project management tools and techniques in Vietnam. More specifically, this study aims at investigating: 1) the awareness of business people related to projects, 2) the application of project management tools and techniques within the organization and 3) the challenging obstacles that have prevented organizations in using the tools and techniques. The mixed-method methodology is employed to collect and analyze the data. This study uses interview and questionnaire techniques to collect the data for the study. Several companies in different industries in Vietnam participated in collection of the data. The findings of the study indicate lack of indepth understanding and recognition of project and project management tools and techniques in Vietnamese businesses. The term “project” has not yet become popular in Vietnam. Hence, companies in Vietnam have been facing many obstacles with the application of project management tools and techniques affected on the performance of the projects. The study suggests that the definition and recognition of Project Man-agement should go beyond the current assumption of the Vietnamese business people. Better exercises and practices of the concept of Project Management can benefit the local and international companies. Achieving higher awareness of projects and project management tools can significantly improve economic success of Vietnam.

The two-tier board system practiced in Indonesia provides greater opportunity for the majority shareholders to place representative on board which may expropriate interest of minority share-holders and increase information asymmetry. This study looks at the influence of family ownership on firm’s performance, by differentiating the influence of family ownership from family involvement in companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Family ownership is measured based on family’s equity ownership in the firm and family’s involvement. This study explores family in-volvement in threefold: involvement in the board of commissioners, involvement in the board of directors and involvement in both boards. Firm performance is measured based on Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAIC) which comprises of capital employed efficiency, human capital efficiency, and structural capital efficiency. Data was collected for a period of three years from 2007 to 2009 on 155 firms which were identified as family firms. The findings show that family ownership has a positive influence on firm performance. Family involvement, however, shows mixed results. Family involvement in the board of commissioners has a positive but insignificant influence on firm’s performance. Family involvement in the board of directors has a negative influence on firm’s performance. Family involvement in both boards has a positive influence on firm performance. The findings suggest that family involvement in both boards creates a balance between the supervisory function and the management function, thus resulting in a more effective monitoring of firm’s management.

This paper presents a joint economic lot size model for a single manufacturer-a single buyer. The purposed model involves the greenhouse gas emission from industrial and transport sectors. We divide the emission into two types, namely the direct and indirect emissions. In this paper, we consider the Government’s penalty and incentive policies to reduce the emission. We assume that the demand of the buyer is normally distributed and partially backordered. The objective is to minimize joint total cost incurred by a single manufacturer-a single buyer and involves the transportation costs of the freight forwarder. Transportation costs are the function of shipping weight, distance, fuel price and consumption with two transportation modes: truckload and less-than-truckload shipments. Finally, an algorithm procedure is proposed to determine the optimal order quantity, safety factor, actual shipping weight, total emission and frequency of deliveries. Numerical examples and analyses are given to illustrate the results.

This study explores the impact of board characteristics and ownership structures on the strategic decisions taken for R&D investment. The study employs a sample comprising 1736 firm-year observations of 434 technological firms listed on the Taiwanese Stock Exchange (TWSE) between 2014 and 2017. Contrary to extant research, the findings reveal that board independence plays a crucial role relative to R&D intensity, as strong evidence reflects a positive and significant relationship thereon. Moreover, the empirical results demonstrate negative and significant relationships between CEO Duality, Board size (in big companies), Executive & Manager, Board of Directors and Top Blockholders; ownership structures, and firm R&D intensity. Interestingly, the ownership structure results emerging from this Taiwanese contextual study support, and are consistent with the predictions of the ‘entrenchment argument’ and are counter to the ‘convergence of interest’ argument. The findings emerging from this research provide an opportunity for further discussion and analysis regarding corporate governance principles and regulations. Firms seeking to optimize their R&D policy imperatives may benefit from such a study.