Developing sustainable food supply chains

This paper reviews the opportunities available for food businesses to encourage consumers to eat healthier and more nutritious diets, to invest in more sustainable manufacturing and distribution systems and to develop procurement systems based on more sustainable forms of agriculture. The important factors in developing more sustainable supply chains are identified as the type of supply chain involved and the individual business attitude to extending responsibility for product quality into social and environmental performance within their own supply chains. Interpersonal trust and working to standards are both important to build more sustainable local and many conserved food supply chains, but inadequate to transform mainstream agriculture and raw material supplies to the manufactured and commodity food markets. Cooperation among food manufacturers, retailers, NGOs, governmental and farmers' organizations is vital in order to raise standards for some supply chains and to enable farmers to adopt more sustainable agricultural practices.     

Operative transportation planning in consumer goods supply chains

Transportation management in today’s consumer goods industry can be characterized by a high proportion of outsourced transportation services. Due to rising freight costs consumer goods manufacturers are looking for opportunities to increase the efficiency of their transportation network. This study presents an operational transportation planning problem typical of the consumer goods industry focusing on a network of suppliers, production facilities and warehousing locations. It comprises an analysis of freight costs in a consumer goods transportation network based on the freight rate structures. In this analysis a number of opportunities for efficiency gains are identified and consolidated in an operative transportation planning problem which is then numerically investigated. Furthermore, an overview of processes and organizational structures in transportation management is given with special focus on the integration of existing commercial Transportation Management Systems (TMS).     

Information sharing in decentralised supply chains with partial collaboration

Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal - We explore the value of information sharing for smoothing the dynamics of supply chains when some echelons do not collaborate. To this end, we study...     

Quantifying the drivers of long-term prices in materials supply chains

Raw materials costs form an increasingly significant proportion of the total costs of renewable energy technologies that must be adopted at unprecedented rates to combat climate change. As the affordable deployment of these technologies grows vulnerable to materials price changes, effective strategies must be identified to mitigate the risk of higher input costs faced by manufacturers. To better understand potential threats to deployment, a market modeling approach was developed to quantify economic risk factors including material demand, substitutability, recycling, mining productivity, resource quality, and discovery. Results demonstrate that price changes are determined by interactions between demand growth, mining productivity, and resource quality. In the worst cases with high demand and low productivity, development of material substitutes and large recycling rates help reduce the prevalence of price risk from over 90% to under 10%. Investing in these strategies yields significant benefits for manufacturers and governments concerned about costs of materials critical to decarbonization and other advanced technologies.     

Supply chain surplus: comparing conventional and sustainable supply chains

In this paper, we first define sustainable supply chain, and its value, as a paradigm which pursues the maximization of supply chain profitability while taking its environmental and societal responsibilities. Secondly, we compare the supply chain surplus between the conventional and sustainable supply chains by means of adopting the basic economic analysis based on the concept of externality and social surplus in welfare economics. Through the proposed analysis, we show the possibility of sustainable supply chains which can provide more supply chain surplus to the companies. Finally, some limitations of this paper and future research directions are also presented.     

Subsidy policies and operational strategies for multiple competing photovoltaic supply chains

Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal - In the past decade, subsidy policies aimed at demand-side of photovoltaic (PV) supply chains have created a dilemma. While they foster the growth of...     

Economic and greenhouse gas costs of Miscanthus supply chains in the United Kingdom

Miscanthus has been identified as one of the most promising perennial grasses for renewable energy generation in Europe and the United States [Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 9 (2004) 433]. However, the decision to use Miscanthus depends to a considerable degree on its economic and environmental performance [Soil Use and Management 24 (2008) 235; Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 13 (2009) 1230]. This article assessed the spatial distribution of the economic and greenhouse gas (GHG) costs of producing and supplying Miscanthus in the UK. The average farm‐gate production cost of Miscanthus in the UK is estimated to be 40 £ per oven‐dried tonne (£ odt^?1), and the average GHG emissions from the production of Miscanthus are 1.72 kg carbon equivalent per oven‐dried tonnes per year (kg CE odt^?1 yr^?1). The production cost of Miscanthus varies from 35 to 55 £ odt^?1 with the lowest production costs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the highest costs in Scotland. Sensitivity analysis shows that yield of Miscanthus is the most influential factor in its production cost, with precipitation the most crucial input in determining yield. GHG emissions from the production of Miscanthus range from 1.24 to 2.11 kg CE odt^?1 yr^?1. To maximize the GHG benefit, Miscanthus should be established preferentially on croplands, though other considerations obviously arise concerning suitability and value of the land for food production.     

Reversible ultrastructural changes in human fibroblasts grown in hepes buffered MCDB-104 supplemented with human serum

Summary Prolonged maintenance of human dermal fibroblasts in McDB-104 medium supplemented with pooled human serum or platelet factor deficient preparations of human serum led to appearance of a large number of membrane bound inclusions, resembling lysosomes, and proliferation of small, Golgi associated vesicles. These inclusions did not appear if the cells were grown in Dulbecco-Vogt's modification of Eagle's minimal essential medium or in minimal essential medium supplemented with the same human serum fractions. Cells that acquired inclusions during a 10 d incubation in MCDB-104 subsequently lost these inclusions when transferred to Dulbecco-Vogt's mediumfor 4 d. Similar reversal of effects of MCDB-104 was also produced by MCDB-104 buffered with bicarbonate instead of HEPES. This research was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, National Institute of Health Grants RR 00166, AM 02456, AM 15312, AM 17047, and HL 07312, and by R. J. Reynolds Industries. Inc.     

Pyridoxine supply in human development

Vitamin B(6) has an important role in the function of the human nervous system. Experimental data are not generally available on the role in human development, but significant conclusions may be made from studies of the effect of disorders of B(6) vitamer metabolism. Vitamin B(6) comprises seven compounds - pyridoxal, pyridoxine, pyridoxamine and their respective 5' phosphates. The common active form in human tissue is the 5'-phosphate form of pyridoxal (PLP) most of which is found in muscle bound to phosphorylase. Like many vitamins, B(6) can function both as a co-enzyme and as a chaperone. Pyridoxal-5'-phosphate is the metabolically active form and is involved in 100 enzymatic reactions including carbohydrate, amino acid, and fatty acid metabolism. There is evidence that in some situations B(6) vitamers can function as antioxidants. The fetus is dependent on the placenta for supply of vitamin B(6) and the demand correlates with amino acid metabolism. Few reports are available on the role of B(6) in embryogenesis. Studies of human disorders where B(6) metabolism is blocked show a major role in neurotransmitter function with secondary cerebral and cerebellar hypoplasia. Pyridoxine potentiates vitamin A teratogenicity and an excess leads to peripheral nerve cell degeneration. The key role of vitamin B(6) in the developing human is in metabolism, especially of the neurotransmitters.     

The greenhouse gas emissions performance of cellulosic ethanol supply chains in Europe

Background  

The production of fuel-grade ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass resources has the potential to increase biofuel production capacity whilst minimising the negative environmental impacts. These benefits will only be realised if lignocellulosic ethanol production can compete on price with conventional fossil fuels and if it can be produced commercially at scale. This paper focuses on lignocellulosic ethanol production in Europe. The hypothesis is that the eventual cost of production will be determined not only by the performance of the conversion process but by the performance of the entire supply-chain from feedstock production to consumption. To test this, a model for supply-chain cost comparison is developed, the components of representative ethanol supply-chains are described, the factors that are most important in determining the cost and profitability of ethanol production are identified, and a detailed sensitivity analysis is conducted.     

Why academics should study the supply chains of individual corporations

Although fields such as industrial ecology have advanced our understanding of how cleaner technologies, recycling, and lifestyle changes can reduce the impacts of production and consumption on people and planet, environmental deterioration and social injustices stubbornly persist. New strategies are needed to achieve change in an era of increasing urgency. This paper proposes that academics study the supply chains of individual corporations and link them to environmental and social impacts in geographically specific areas. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have used this approach successfully, issuing reports about corporate activity related to deforestation, sweatshops, and other issues of social concern. But academics, by and large, have studied generic products, industries, and sectors. To verify this, after reviewing approximately 11,000 studies on supply chains, we identified just 27 academic papers that focused on individual corporations. These were primarily by NGOs and social scientists, with no studies by industrial ecologists meeting our review criteria. To uncover corporate supply chains, researchers used two distinct methodological approaches: in situ (interviews, surveys, and surveillance) and ex situ (trade data, document analysis, and maps). In this paper, we explain why and how academics should study the supply chains of individual corporations. This is done by combining approaches from industrial ecology, with those from geography, sociology, and other social sciences to develop a political‐industrial ecology of supply chains. This both physically links actual product flows with their environmental impacts, and explores how they affect justice, equity, and welfare. The work we propose offers clear collaborative linkages with NGOs, industry, and the media.     

Peroxisomes--functions and disturbances in human metabolism

Peroxisomes, classical compartments of eucaryotic cells have significant functions in cellular metabolism, which beta-oxidation fatty acids and detoxification of H2O2 are the most important biochemical process. Defects in genes encoding for peroxisomal proteins result in biochemical malfunctioning of these organelles and constitute base for severe human's inherited diseases. This article presents the most important aspects concerning peroxisomal biogenesis, biochemical functions and their disturbance.     

Multi-criteria decision making approaches for green supply chains: a review

Designing Green Supply Chains (GSCs) requires complex decision-support models that can deal with multiple dimensions of sustainability while taking into account specific characteristics of products and their supply chain. Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) approaches can be used to quantify trade-offs between economic, social, and environmental criteria i.e. to identify green production options. The aim of this paper is to review the use of MCDM approaches for designing efficient and effective GSCs. We develop a conceptual framework to find relevant publications and to categorise papers with respect to decision problems, indicators, and MCDM approaches. The analysis shows that (1) the use of MCDM approaches for designing GSCs is a rather new but emerging research field, (2) most of the publications focus on production and distribution problems, and there are only a few inventory models with environmental considerations, (3) the majority of papers assume all data to be deterministic, (4) little attention has been given to minimisation of waste, (5) numerous indicators are used to account for eco-efficiency, indicating the lack of standards. This study, therefore, identifies the need for more multi-criteria models for real-life GSCs, especially with inclusion of uncertainty in parameters that are associated with GSCs.     

The impact of operations redesign on the safety stock investment in supply chains

This study is motivated by a real problem encountered in the manufacturing and distribution process at a local electronic manufacturer of security devices. We investigate the impact of operations redesign (i.e., operations merging) on the cost of safety stock in a supply chain. A simple safety stock method is used to derive a model for estimating safety stock levels. Our result shows that operations redesign can have a significant impact on safety stock investment. We extend and complement the existing literature in the following aspects: (i) we address the issue of safety stock deployment, i.e., we not only investigate the problem of how many operations should be delayed, but also determine which operations need to be delayed, (ii) we provide an efficient heuristic algorithm to determine which operations need to be merged, and (iii) we find the optimal operations redesign strategies under some special cases. Our analysis also reveals some important conditions and insights for better operations redesign, which enable us not only to decide when an operations redesign is appropriate, but also to suggest the scale and the format of the operations redesign.     

Laminin chains in developing and adult human myotendinous junctions.

In addition to being the specialized site for transmission of force from the muscle to the tendon, the myotendinous junction (MTJ) also plays an important role in muscle splitting during morphogenesis. An early event in the formation of the MTJ is a regional deposition of basement membranes. We used immunocytochemistry to investigate the distribution of laminin chains during the development of MTJs in human limb muscle at 8-22 weeks of gestation (wg) and in adult MTJs. We used polyclonal antibodies and a new monoclonal antibody (MAb) against the human laminin alpha1 G4/G5 domains. At 8-10 wg, laminin alpha1 and laminin alpha5 chains were specifically localized to the MTJ. Laminin alpha1 chain remained restricted to the MTJ at 22 wg as the laminin beta2 chain had appeared, whereas the laminin alpha5 chain became deposited along the entire length of the myotubes from 12 wg. In the adult MTJ, only vestigial amounts of laminin alpha1 and laminin alpha5 chains could be detected. On the basis of co-distribution data, we speculate that laminin alpha1 chain in the forming MTJ undergoes an isoform switch from laminin 1 to laminin 3. Our data indicate a potentially important role for laminin alpha1 chain in skeletal muscle formation. (J Histochem Cytochem 48:201-209, 2000)