This research is based on the premises that teams can be designed to optimize its performance, and appropriate team coordination is a significant factor to team outcome performance. Contingency theory argues that the effectiveness of a team depends on the right fit of the team design factors to...

In this dissertation, we consider an inventory sharing and rationing problem in continuous-review, infinite-horizon, distribution networks. Unlike previous literature on inventory sharing, we model inventory sharing as a multiple demand classes problem in which each dealer faces two classes of...

In today's global economy, firms are seeking any and every opportunity to differentiate from competitors by reducing supply chain costs and adding value to end customers. One increasingly popular option, under growing consumer awareness and increasing legislation, is to reintegrate returned...

Worldwide, the idea of "person-less" banks, and full-service (financial services) institutions which compete with "non-bank" financial services organizations, are becoming the new way of doing business. To meet global competition, the Canadian Financial Services Industry has a need to conduct...

Quality management has had considerable success in terms of its acceptance in organizations worldwide. Quality management is one of the most talked about areas for research and teaching. Due to its short history, however, there is still much confusion surrounding the effects of ISO 9000...

Managers of agricultural firms that process specialty crops into consumer products operate in a unique environment that affords little control over uncertainties, making the discovery of optimal sourcing decisions especially complex. These complexities make the explicit incorporation of...

Supply chain management is very critical in today's global business environment. With the development of modern communication methods the costs of communication have gone down considerably and have opened new horizons for improvement in the domain of supply chain management. The direct/indirect...

The interaction between two demand-streams sharing a common manufacturing capacity is a commonly observed phenomenon in the business-world. This study aims to analyze the business situations where the two demand-streams differ in their variability. A prime motivation for this study comes from...

The most commonly used techniques in statistical process control are parametric, and thus require assumptions regarding the statistical properties of the underlying process. For example, all traditional methods of statistical process control, Shewhart control charts, CUSUM charts, and EWMA...

In this thesis, we identify the critical operational characteristics for various distribution strategies, and then develop integrated distribution network design models by taking into account those operational factors. The first part of this thesis presents a crossdocking network design problem...