The EU Directive on Corporate Sustainable Due Diligence has sparked fierce debate about the regulation of supply chains. The directive's objectives are aligned with European values. However, it raises concerns that the compliance costs of social and environmental regulations may be privatised in...

Supply security is threatened by technical, business, natural and policy shocks, as well as geopolitical tensions. Is there a rationale for policy intervention? If yes, what are efficient and effective measures that achieve de-risking? This article first explains why private incentives do not...

At present, labour unions of waste disposal agencies and company management are at loggerheads, frequently turning out contradictory sanitation assessments. This reveals a shifting outlook of sanitation accomplishment that should be resolved. Unfortunately, there is scanty research on road...

This paper examines a stochastic model to determine optimal pricing, waiting time, output, and sizing decisions for service firms which compete on time in an uncertain environment. Sizing decisions concern optimal service capacity and maximum physical waiting room (with a given probability)....

While revenue management (RM) is traditionally considered a tool of service operations, RM shows considerable potential for application in manufacturing operations. The typical challenges in make-to-order manufacturing are fixed manufacturing capacities and a great variety in offered products,...

Opaque products enable service providers to hide specific characteristics of their service fulfillment from the customer until after purchase. Prominent examples include internet-based service providers selling airline tickets without defining details, such as departure time or operating...

Die ostdeutsche Industrie ist seit Längerem im Aufwind: Die Produktion wächst stärker als in den alten Ländern, und die Exportquote nimmt überproportional zu. Auch die Beschäftigungsentwicklung ist in Ostdeutschland günstiger als in den alten Ländern. Seit der Aufnahme der...

This paper is concerned with demand planning for internal supply chains consisting of workstations, production facilities, warehouses, and transportation links. We address the issue of how to help a supplier firmly accept orders and subsequently plan to fulfill demand. We first formulate a...

The availability of large-scale medical equipment such as computed tomography (CT), magnet resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) scanners has increased rapidly worldwide over the last decades. Among OECD countries, Germany ranks high according to the number of imaging...