Can Oil Filters Improve Health Care?

For millions of people across Africa, motorcycles can be a key to effective health care. A well-maintained fleet of vehicles and motorcycles to connect patients, medical expertise, and medicine is sometimes the most vital link in the health delivery supply chain. A new case written for the Stanford Global Supply Chain Management Forum describes one successful program.

Strategic Spot Trading Benefits Supply Chains Supply chains can create greater profits for themselves and lower costs to consumers by developing a strategy to purchase needed materials with fixed-priced contracts negotiated in advance plus buying in real time on the open market.

The Best Way to Construct Unenforceable Contracts Strong relationships rather than iron clad legal agreements can be the most practical way for firms to outsource key operational activities, says associate professor Erica Plambeck. The threat of loss of future business is a stronger incentive in many cases than a legal document. (April 2007)

Tighter Supply Chain Security Also Improves Company Performance Supply chain security measures, created to guard against interruptions such as terrorist attacks or natural disasters, not only keep material moving, they also produced benefits for the companies involved, according to study by researchers at Stanford University's Global Supply Chain Management Forum. The 14 companies studied saw benefits including a 38 percent reduction in theft, a 29 percent reduction in transit time, and a 30 percent improvement in on-time shipment to customers. (July 2006)

Supply Chains Adapt to Disruptions When There is No Time for a Huddle Whether it’s a natural disaster or an equipment problem, supply chains today are focused on being flexible to emergencies than on product design to maximize efficiency. Stanford’s 10-year-old Global Supply Chain Management Forum has studied the progress. (June 2005)

Sense and Respond, the New Business Model Instead of broadcasting information to a wide audience, businesses can pinpoint a message, product, or service using sense and respond business model. The full effects won't be felt for a while, says Prof. Jin Whang, but it is coming. (May 2005)

Taking the Risk Out of Supply Chains Doing business in today's turbulent world means that companies both downstream and upstream in the supply chain need a good solid plan B to turn to when trouble strikes that can close a factory or fill a warehouse with useless parts. (February 2005)

Coping with Security Costs of Terrorist Threats to Supply Chain Management The potential for terrorist attacks today has made containers that flow in and out of ports feeding supply chains potential weapons. Stanford Business School researchers call for increasing security inspections early in the process at factories, distribution centers, or ports of departure rather than when the containers arrive at their destinations. (January 2004)

The Bullwhip Effect Can Cause Havoc in Supply Chains As information about demand for a product moves up the manufacturing supply chain it can become distorted, causing overproduction or other problems. A paper written nearly ten years ago that first identified this "bullwhip effect" has been named one of the 10 most influential papers ever published in the journal Management Science. (June 2004)

Foundations of Stochastic Inventory Theory Evan Porteus, Stanford University Press, 2002 The book serves as an advanced textbook designed to prepare doctoral students to do research on the mathematical foundations of inventory theory and as a reference work for those already engaged in such research. All chapters conclude with exercises that either solidify or extend the concepts introduced. (August 2002)

Slow Growth for Business-to-Business Online Buying Business-to-Business online sales haven’t reached the heights once forecast, but researchers predict the growth will be steady and the cost savings substantial. (September 2002)

Reshaping Industries with Internet Supply Chains excerpted from the book by Garth Saloner and A. Michael Spence, John Wiley and Sons, 2001. This book on electronic commerce is divided into two parts: "Perspectives" provides an overview of these important issues in electronic commerce; "Cases" written under the supervision of Stanford faculty provide real world insight. Both parts contain a wealth of information about technologies, industries, firms, strategies, and organizational structures as well as issues that the challenge of electronic commerce poses for practitioners. (August 2001)

Managing Supply Chain Key Link to Growth Exactly what is Supply Chain Management? A primer on this growing field of research. (November 2000)

Online Data Exchange Make Supply Chains More Efficient The Internet and other forms of rapid data exchange are creating more efficient supply chains. Researchers exchange strategies for accomplishing this at a conference sponsored by the Global Supply Chain Forum. (June 2000)

Sharing Information to Boost the Bottom Line For years, companies have used their internal information systems to increase productivity. Today they are putting more emphasis on data systems that are tightly linked with outsiders, such as subcontractors or delivery agents. (March 1999)