By Sophia Schuster, supervised by Steve Tracey📧 (Master Paper Supervisor)
Master Paper, Smeal College of Business, The Pennsylvania State University, April 2023.
In our globalized economy, multinational corporations (MNCs) often work with multiple tiers of suppliers, many of them located in developing nations with poor infrastructure and fewer government regulations. The multi-tiered nature of modern supply networks creates a complex network of producers responsible for the goods of a single firm which makes tracking production and managing disruption exceedingly difficult. Adding to that challenge is the increasing demand by the MNCs’ customers for ethically sourced products and a desire to understand where and how an item is made. With each passing year and especially in the face of COVID-19 pandemic and its multitude of challenges, MNCs have made efforts to improve practices and meet ever changing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards and expectations. Common practices for ESG standards implementation, where procurement takes a central role in communicating and working with the firms’ suppliers to achieve these standards, have been well documented in the literature. These common practices that have been shown to be effective in affecting change in supplier behavior, however, are not often considered when an ESG rating organization confers its grades. By outlining the current practices and detailing several common ESG rating indices, this paper highlights the misalignment between ESG procurement practices and the rating indices that reward firms for their ESG efforts.
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The advent of social media has changed the way in which consumers shop drastically, and in turn the way in which supply chains function. TikTok, due to its unique design, has constructed an environment where products can become viral with much more ease than seen on any prior social platform. As a result, companies are met with viral videos promoting their products, entirely unbeknownst to them and without preparation. Supply chains must be agile to continue to meet customer demand in times when products cannot stay on shelves long enough to be marketed. This thesis serves to advise future companies with recommendations for best practices when it comes to viral products on TikTok.
In a world with a greater demand for accessibility and convenience, in addition to an increasing expectation of fast and reliable deliveries, quickly and easily meeting peoples’ wants and needs has never been so essential to business. goPuff, a rapidly expanding on-demand delivery service, has taken these factors into account, and has integrated meeting customer needs into every aspect of business, including its vertically integrated supply chain strategy. This thesis will analyze the impact that goPuff’s supply chain and business strategies have on the overall success of the company. The purpose is to seek out the key problems goPuff, as a whole, may be facing now and identify how the company has progressed since its start. This thesis will use the State College, PA warehouse as an example for goPuff’s successes and failures.
Companies across the country consistently work to include planned media exposure of their products, such as paid partnerships and celebrity endorsements, into their forecasting methods. Proper maintenance of inventory levels and forecasting has been seen to increase in necessity, in correspondence to the rise of unplanned media product exposure in recent years. Product exposure seen in news, entertainment, and social media platforms has shown both direct and indirect effects on product demands. Impacted products range in fields from cosmetics to basic essentials and beyond. Methodology of this topic is conducted through convenience sampling of interviews with willing company participants who have experienced the impact of unplanned media product exposure’s effect on product demand. Along with this primary source, secondary sources such as reports and articles are utilized to better understand the impacts unplanned media product exposure has on product demands and forecasting teams. Recommendations regarding how companies should work to integrate the aspect of unplanned media product exposure into current forecasting methods are formed following an analysis of obtained data.
As the global economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, the two major west coast ports in the United States, Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach, have been suffering from severe congestion, thus heavily impacting the supply chain in the United States. While imports continue to grow, it is urgent for public sectors and businesses to develop strategies to cope with congestion and minimize its subsequent impact on the supply chain. This thesis will seek to understand the underlying factors leading to the congestion by analyzing publicly available publications and data as well as evaluating the strategies adopted by businesses and public sectors in response to the issue. This thesis concludes with seven recommendations to help businesses adapt to the congestion and assist in future prevention.
Minimum Order Quantities (MOQs) are frequently set by suppliers to cover their production costs and ensure that they make a profit. This thesis explores adopting a minimum order quantity system to dictate the quantity purchased by companies. This thesis explains the development of a minimum order quantity model for a large supply chain logistics company, Company A, to find optimal order quantities for each product. Data was provided by Company A and was used to build a model that has the goal of recommending a specific minimum order quantity to send to Company A’s customers. However, data was not sufficient to fully develop a workable MOQ model. Instead, an Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) model was developed to make a recommendation for Company A. This analysis shows the quantity that should be ordered to achieve the lowest costs. The results of the EOQ model show the cost savings that can be achieved. The takeaway from this model show that shipping larger quantities of products more frequently can result in cost savings for companies like Company A.
On February 24, 2021, President Joseph Biden issued Executive Order 14017 stating that he intends to strengthen “America’s Supply Chains.” This involves an in-depth look at risks within the supply chain, specifically related to the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). The goal of this research is to analyze API production, understand why certain drugs are in shortage, and develop a framework for when the US Government should onshore critical APIs. This framework will also offer alternative solutions to onshoring, such as stockpiles, subsidies, and advanced manufacturing practices. It is a commonly accepted statistic that seventy to eighty percent of APIs are produced overseas, and copious research has been done to analyze the impact of disasters abroad on the United States’ ability to provide critical medication to its citizens. This thesis will build on prior research through interviews and case studies to develop a final framework that the government may use to determine the feasibility of onshoring API production. The utilization of this framework in manufacturing decisions will lower the risk of API shortages along the supply chain in times of future disaster.
The fast fashion industry emerged around the globe starting in the early 1990’s. The over consumption of clothing has continued to grow each decade following the birth of fast fashion due to an increase in the need for instant gratification in each new generation. This thesis will explore two large fast fashion companies, Zara and Shein, and describe their supply chain and role in the industry. This thesis will then touch upon the influence that the youngest generations have on the fast fashion industry, and the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had in perpetuating the practices of the industry. This thesis will speak on the environmental and social injustices that the fast fashion industry has been sustaining for decades without proper regulation or exigency for change. This thesis will conclude with recommendations on how to improve the supply chain processes of the fast fashion industry in order to mitigate further damage. The analysis highlights the need for a complete redesign of the end-to-end supply chain of fast fashion companies through the implementation of smart factories within the industry.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are relevant technologies that have been a topic of conversation in the business field for several years. Many strides have been made to introduce these technologies into the consumer experience and the everyday lives of the modern American. With the current supply chain limitations causing issues for firms across the world, more companies are looking to find practical uses of AI and ML that will increase supply chain efficiency and decrease costs. This thesis looks to gain a better understanding of the history and principles of AI and ML while also highlighting specific examples of use cases within firms’ supply chains. With the prevalence of research into AI and ML, a major portion of this paper contains a literature review of documents concerning the progress of AI and ML as well as examples of companies that have relevant use cases for these technologies. After an extensive literature review, this thesis contains an analysis of several conducted interviews with supply chain professionals who have considerable experience working in AI and ML. These interviews helped gain insight into real-world experiences with AI and ML in supply chain and the risks that had to be mitigated to successfully transition a process with these systems.