What do SCM conference themes reflect? Current research topics, global concerns, the organising committee’s own research focus? Some time ago, Árni wondered whether conference themes mattered. At that time, as again in 2010, NOFOMA had no theme (neither does RIRL). Only EUROMA 2010 is “managing operations in service economies”. Otherwise, a look into future conferences shows a concern for the future.
Such as: CSCMP (Europe) is “preparing for the future” and “getting your supply chain ready for tomorrow”, while ISL wants to “configure next generation supply chains”, the German Heinz Nixdorf Symposium is “changing paradigms” for “advanced manufacturing and sustainable logistics”, POMS‘ is concerned with “operations in emerging economies” and IPSERA considers “supply management” to be a “missing link in strategic management”… A bit like the 80s movie trilogy, back to the future 
Gyöngyi
Categories: Call for papers · Conferences · Logistics · Operations management · Socks and sandals · Supply Chain Management
Today, a group of students are working on a take-home assignment in the context of BMW and one of their seat suppliers. The scene is one of their plants in Regensburg, Germany, and the supplier (called ABC in the case) is expected to delivery just-in-time into the assembly line.
Árni
Categories: Uncategorized
This is taking open source papers such as in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) and discussions (in OM more known from JOM’s discussion forum) somewhat further: user-based “academic” content to discuss online; the launch of AcaWiki. Considering Wikipedia’s success (or failure) it will be interesting to see how they’ll deal with quality assurance beyond discussion entries.
Gyöngyi
Categories: Popular science · Socks and sandals
September 29, 2009 · 3 Comments
Facility location has fascinated geographers, logisticians, and ultimately, supply chain researchers for a long time. There are all the obvious push and pull factors, proximity to suppliers and markets, transportation rates etc. But what do you do if you have some sort of reason to locate a facility in the middle of nowhere (or a legacy of being located in the middle of nowhere)? Jan Husdal has now explored this question in terms of “sparse transportation networks”. Here it is. Delightful reading.
Gyöngyi
Categories: Popular science · Socks and sandals · Transport geography
Cutting-edge crossing-boundaries interdisciplinary or even multidisciplinary research – wasn’t that what we were all interested in and encouraged to do? Sadly, our incentive systems do not correspond with this dream (as not to say utopia). Meet the deans at EABIS came with news for e.g. CSR scholars: sure, you are not going to be rewarded to do interdisciplinary research but still you should follow this path. Now that is sthg for established tenure faculty, but if your career is not advancing just because you e.g. published in the “wrong” (note, not bad, just not in your discipline) journals, you may think twice about where you submit your paper to.
Journal ranking “lists” are particularly good at giving a good last stab to this ideal. ABS encourages you to publish in your discipline only (however weirdly it may define “your” discipline for you, i.e. only OM journals count for SCM research, and if you are a geographer, do not dare to publish in any geography journal that is not on the business school list, after all, you are not an engineer or a natural scientist, are you?). Above all, it’s the death of interdisciplinary research. CSR researchers beware. Health care logistics, what’s that. The list goes on and on. The problem is, all these topics would indeed be cutting-edge and cross boundaries, with a good potential to push our limits of knowledge. But that is not what science is all about – or is it?
Gyöngyi
Categories: Journal ranking · Supply Chain Management
SCM in the news – from a different angle: this article looks at how a country’s (note, not company’s) supply chain strategy would contribute to its development. Quite a new perspective for supply chain research…
Gyöngyi
Categories: Socks and sandals · Supply Chain Management
September 11, 2009 · 2 Comments
Here we are at the Logistics Research Network conference in Cardiff. This year’s presentations were of outstanding quality. Not surprisingly there was a big green logistics track, with anything from green SCM capabilities to CO2 emissions in cities to transportation emissions represented. Other interesting (or let’s say, unusual ones) were on food supply chains and logistics education. Humanitarian logistics figured again.
A novelty at this conference was a “best poster” award. What a great idea! People had been put down about not getting into the proceedings and “just” presenting a poster. Funny that poster sessions in say, health care, or engineering, are seen as really positive, while at logistics conferences they are less appreciated. But posters have their own place at a conference, for research in its early phase, as well as to find collaborators for new projects. So why don’t SCM academics want to present posters at a conference?
Gyöngyi
Categories: Carbon management · Conferences · Humanitarian supply chains · Logistics · Supply Chain Management · Sustainability
- the do’s and don’ts of academic conferences. Here it is again, hopefully in time for e.g. LRN, CSCMP and the new academic year
Gyöngyi
Categories: Conferences · Socks and sandals
There is sthg funny about research. One should find her/his own niche (the “gap“) but still have people to discuss with. A critical mass is necessary to establish outlets and meeting places (conferences etc.), attract general interest and even funding. It’s important to know the others in the same field, but then again, how do you define “same field”? And who are the relevant (not to say significant) others, just anyone who jumped the bandwagon, or those who actually contributed to the field?
Gyöngyi
Categories: Popular science · Socks and sandals
