Browsing by Author "Yates, Nicky"

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    A collective mindfulness perspective of information sharing in the blood supply chain.
    (Cranfield University, 2018-11) Lusiantoro, Luluk; Yates, Nicky; Varga, Liz
    Purpose: This thesis aims to determine and unravel the underlying mechanisms of how inter-organisational information sharing influences blood safety and availability in the dyadic blood supply chain in normal, high tempo, and emergency conditions. Design/methodology/approach: Grounded in the critical realism paradigm and the perspective of high reliability theory particularly the collective mindfulness concept, this thesis uses an embedded multiple case study designed for theory elaboration. A combined retroductive-abductive and the basic qualitative description has been adopted as a research strategy. Two contrasting cases with three embedded cases for each main case are selected using convenient and context-based approaches, representing a centralised and tightly regulated blood supply chain in the UK as well as a decentralised and loosely regulated blood supply chain in Indonesia. The data are collected using the triangulation of semi- structured interviews, walkthroughs, and other supporting documents including artefacts and archives. Template analysis coupled with within-case and cross- case analyses are then used to analyse the data. Findings: This thesis finds that inter-organisational information sharing influences blood safety and availability through the dynamic enactments of collective mindfulness principles that reflect the inter-organisational information sharing behaviour across the operational conditions. It also finds that the blood supply chain actors in the centralised and tightly regulated context are collectively more mindful when sharing information than those in the decentralised and loosely regulated context, so that more positive changes in the blood safety and availability performance are observed in the former compared to that in the latter context. Interestingly, whilst the data reveal an emerging mechanism of heedful interrelating across a range of operational conditions, this thesis also reveals the fact that inter-organisational information sharing does not necessarily lead to positive changes in blood safety and availability. In fact, negatively enacted collective mindfulness principles can lead inter-organisational information sharing to unimproved and even potentially worse blood safety and availability performance. Originality/value: The primary contribution of this thesis lies in understanding the underlying mechanisms of how inter-organisational information sharing influences blood safety and availability in the dyadic blood supply chain across a range of operational conditions. Whilst offering practical and conceptually relevant knowledge to the blood supply chain literature, it informs the wider supply chain literature on the different collective mindfulness principles that make inter- organisational information sharing influence supply chain performance across a range of operational conditions. The use of the collective mindfulness concept offers a novel perspective that extends the current discussion on the effectiveness of that information sharing for supply chains.
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    Embracing scepticism as a non-physical form of redundancy: lessons learnt from the UK blood supply chain
    (Taylor & Francis, 2023-05-29) Lusiantoro, Luluk; Yates, Nicky
    This paper seeks to understand how supply chain actors demonstrate scepticism as a non-physical form of redundancy to maintain supply chain resilience. It provides lessons learnt from three case studies of dyadic blood supply chains involving three blood centres and twelve hospitals in England. This paper identifies three key elements of scepticism, namely information duplication, warranting, and cross-evaluation. These elements act as preventive mechanisms, avoiding the unwanted consequences of routine behaviour, and averting mindless actions resulting from reactive operations. We argue that scepticism can be adopted as a complement to supply chain redundancy practices, increasing the robustness and agility of supply chain operations, and therefore enhancing supply chain resilience. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to address the notion of scepticism, emphasizing the pivotal role of human behaviour in the supply chain resilience literature. Despite its specific context, the findings could potentially be applied in other industries.
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    Exploring the social impacts of adopting autonomous vehicles in the supply chain
    (CILT, 2022-09-09) Gu, Chengzhen; Reefke, Hendrik; Yates, Nicky
    Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have served the logistics sector in the form of automated guided vehicles (AGVs) for decades. With the advent of Industry 4.0 (In 4.0 – the Fourth Industrial Revolution) in 2011, significant advances have been witnessed (Schwab, 2016). Rapid development of innovations such as robots and drones indicates wider adoption across the industry (Tang and Veelenturf, 2019). Logistics giants such as Alibaba and JD.com in China, and DHL and Amazon in Europe and the USA are applying or testing autonomous vehicles for use in supply chain processes including distribution and storage (Merlino and Sproģe, 2017; Mohamed et al., 2020). Further, Zipline is a successful drone delivery service provider in medical supplies for African countries (Scott and Scott, 2017). However, compared with the rapid progress of technology, current academic research and development of knowledge in this area is lagging behind (Van Meldert and De Boeck, 2016; Monios and Bergqvist, 2020), especially in freight transport (Flämig, 2016; Van Meldert and De Boeck, 2016). Previous studies have focussed particularly on developing the drone Vehicle Routine Problems (VRP) or Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP), to minimise costs and negative environmental externalities from a number of perspectives (Murray and Chu, 2015; Ha et al., 2018). These studies have demonstrated significant positive economic and environmental sustainability performance (Tang and Veelenturf, 2019). The social perspective has received less focus.
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    Exploring the social sustainability implications of autonomous vehicle adoption in supply chains
    (Cranfield University, 2023-08) Gu, Chengzhen; Reefke, Hendrik; Yates, Nicky
    Adopting autonomous vehicles (AVs) in supply chains has shown significant potential for economic and environmental benefits, however, they are still not widely deployed in supply chains. In order to gain social approval for wider AV adoption in supply chains, it is crucial to understand the social implications. Currently, there is a lack of comprehensive discussion about the social impacts of AV adoption, and how to improve the social sustainability performance in this scenario. Therefore, this thesis aims to explore the social impacts and social sustainability aspects of deploying AVs in supply chains, and the actions organisations enact to improve social sustainability performance and hence achieve wider social approval for adopting AVs in supply chains. Using the paper- based structure, this thesis comprises three interconnected papers which collectively fulfil this overall research aim: the first paper systematically reviews the literature in this research domain, and papers two and three present empirical studies that discuss supply chain social sustainability (SCSS) implications and the actions needed to improve the SCSS performance of AV adoption in supply chains. Paper one titled “Exploring the Social Impacts of Autonomous Vehicle adoption in Supply Chains: a systematic literature review” aims to identify the positive and negative social impacts of AV adoption in supply chains as well as the actions taken by organisations that address the impacts enabling wider AV adoption in supply chains based on a systematic literature review (SLR). Through reviewing 58 identified papers, this paper identified 13 positive and 7 negative social impacts of AV adoption in the supply chain. Based on these impacts, a conceptual model categorising the social impacts under six context-specific SCSS indicators that are derived from seminal social sustainability literature is formed to measure the social sustainability performance of AV adoption in supply chains in aspects including Health and safety, customer satisfaction, employment, transparency, diversity and equality, and welfare. Stakeholder as an essential element in analysing SCSS received limited focus in this context, which serves as a research gap for the second paper to fill. In addition, this paper identifies 20 suggested actions for organisations to enact for wider AV adoption. These actions are synthesised into four groups including pilot experiments, regulation improvement, chain-wide considerations, and education, promotion, and training. However, wider AV adoption requires wide social approval, which requires the social impacts to be addressed for improved SCSS performance. The actions are mentioned to facilitate wider AV adoption, but the existing literature does not clarify how to address the social implications of achieving wider AV adoption in supply chains. This means that the actions taken by organisations to address social implications are currently missing. Therefore, the actions organisations employ to address social impacts for wider AV adoption serve as the research gap for the third paper to fill. Paper two titled “Investigating the Social Sustainability of Autonomous Vehicle Adoption in Supply Chains: A Delphi Study” refines the social implications identified from the literature, and discusses stakeholder roles in the AV adoption context. Based on a three-round Delphi study with 39 experts, 19 positive and 15 negative social impacts are identified and their importance is ranked. In addition to the existing six identified indicators, “Reputation” is recognised, extending the concept of SCSS to the AV adoption context. This study also identifies 9 internal and 17 external stakeholders and evaluates the degree to which they affect or are affected by AV adoption in supply chains. This finding fulfils the first research gap of this thesis. Paper three titled “Improving Supply Chain Social Sustainability in the Autonomous Vehicle adoption context: A Delphi study with expert interviews” empirically investigates the actions that organisations take to address the social impacts of AV adoption in supply chains. The three-round Delphi study suggests eight categories of actions, which are further validated through 14 follow-up interviews to evaluate the key SCSS indicators these actions address. Identifying these actions fills the second research gap of this thesis. To understand how the organisations at various stages of AV adoption act to improve SCSS performance, this paper adopts the Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory to align the action categories with the organisational innovation process. This theory structures the actions on the basis of the AV adoption stages of the organisations in a logical sequence. The eight categories of actions provide organisations at various innovation adoption levels with an action plan to address the social impacts of AV adoption to improve their SCSS performance. This thesis contributes to knowledge regarding SCSS concepts through an in- depth investigation of context-specific SCSS indicators and actions for organisations to enact to improve SCSS performance. It defines the SCSS of AV adoption in supply chains with a conceptual framework, highlights the degree of influence of internal and external stakeholders in this context, and defines and evaluates the actions that address the social impacts for improved SCSS performance in the AV adoption context. This thesis provides a novel use of the DOI theory by tailoring the Innovation Process (IP) model with the identified action categories that apply to the AV adoption context, a continuous improvement cycle, and the inclusion of the internal/external stakeholders that enact the actions to improve SCSS. This thesis contributes to practice by offering an overview of social issues and a structured action plan to address these issues to improve SCSS performance when adopting AVs in supply chains. First, the identified social impacts and stakeholders support organisations in the development of social indices for the performance measurement of their operations when adopting AVs. Then, the action plan guides organisations to develop tailored business models to improve SCSS performance when adopting AVs. Regulators can use the action plan as a trail of evidence to check whether the organisations achieve SCSS performance improvement in the AV adoption context by actually implementing the actions or not.
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    Implementation of digital twins in the food supply chain: a review and conceptual framework
    (Taylor & Francis, 2024-01-31) Huang, Ying; Ghadge, Abhijeet; Yates, Nicky
    Digital Twins (DTs) hold significant promise in addressing the challenges faced by food supply chains (FSCs). This paper aims to provide critical insights into the potential for Digital Twins to meet the key challenges of the FSC and establish a comprehensive conceptual framework for their implementation. Following a systematic literature review (SLR), the study identified 81 peer-reviewed, high-quality papers published over the last decade (2012–2023). The typology-driven thematic analysis emphasises the emergent nature of DTs within FSCs, highlighting their key characteristics including monitoring, real-time simulation, and scenario analysis. The identified characteristics, applications, implementation drivers and barriers of Digital Twin form the basis for a novel conceptual framework for implementing DTs in FSCs. Leveraging insights from Innovation Adoption Theory and the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, the study outlines a structured five step implementation process divided into three stages. Notably, technology assessment and performance evaluation emerge as two innovative steps necessary for the successful implementation of DTs specifically, not previously considered by the theory. The study identifies promising avenues for future research. These findings provide invaluable guidance to researchers and practitioners seeking to embrace the potential of Digital Twin within the food industry.
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    Information integration and decision-making uncertainty in supply chain management: a relational framework
    (CILT, 2022-09-09) Xue, Yufei; Yates, Nicky; Ghadge, Abhijeet
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    The relationship between decision-making uncertainty and information integration in FMCG supply chains.
    (Cranfield University, 2023-02) Xue, Yufei; Yates, Nicky; Ghadge, Abhijeet
    The relationship between decision-making uncertainty and information integration is important for supply chain stakeholders. However, the detailed interactions in this relationship have received limited explanation. This study empirically identifies the key factors in the relationship and investigates their interactions. Based on three papers, the thesis captures the relationships and interactions between decision-making uncertainty and information integration, offering empirical evidence on the nature of these relationships. The first paper develops a theory-based relational framework for the relationship between decision-making uncertainty and information integration. A systematic literature review (SLR) approach is conducted, and 86 articles published between 2001–2022 are reviewed. The findings support the concept of fit in information processing theory (IPT), demonstrating that information processing needs and capabilities must match to positively impact supply chain performance. The paper also indicates that the high level of environmental and industry uncertainty in decision-making uncertainty increases supply chain stakeholders’ willingness to implement information integration. Simultaneously, supply chain stakeholders implement Industry 4.0 information and communication technologies (ICTs) to support technology-based information integration and to reduce the impact of decision-making uncertainty in the supply chain. The relationship between decision-making uncertainty and information integration has also been shown to impact supply chain performance. The second paper uses the Internet of Things (IoT) to represent ICTs in Industry 4.0. The study conducted a multiple-case study in the fast fashion industry in China to investigate the relationship between decision-making uncertainty and information integration affected by the implementation of the IoT. Consequently, environmental complexity, richness, and the bullwhip effect are identified as the key factors in decision-making uncertainty; information accuracy, quality, efficiency, and security are identified as the key factors in information integration; and management cost and asset utilisation in supply chain costs, alongside response speed, product flexibility, and efficiency in production operations, are identified as supply chain performance. Moreover, the findings highlight that the alignment between decision-making uncertainty and information integration is important and consists of several interactions among environmental complexity, environmental richness, the bullwhip effect, and information accuracy, quality, and efficiency. This research elaborates on the theory-based relational framework developed in Paper 1 and it provides empirical support to several conceptual studies on implementing IoT applications. The third paper assesses the interactions identified in Paper 2 and their impact on supply chain performance. After analysing the data collected from the supply chain stakeholders of the fast fashion industry in China through structural equation modelling (SEM), the analysis results confirm the importance of key factors in decision-making uncertainty (environmental complexity, environmental richness, and bullwhip effect) and IoT-based information integration (information quality, information accuracy, and information efficiency). The interactions between information accuracy and environmental complexity, information accuracy and environmental richness, information quality and the bullwhip effect, and information efficiency and the bullwhip effect are identified as the key interactions in the alignment between decision-making uncertainty and information integration. The study also emphasises decision-making uncertainty’s direct impact on supply chain performance. It concludes that the interactions between decision-making uncertainty and IoT-based information integration partially mediate the relationship. This paper is the first empirical study to explain the detailed interactions between information integration and decision- making uncertainty, and it provides empirical evidence for theoretical associations.