Purpose – In an era of downsizing and financial cutbacks, the operational efficiency of third party logistics providers (3PLs) dictates their competitiveness and/or survival. In an effort to help 3PLs enhance productivity and price leverage in the increasingly competitive third party logistics...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to profile the successful implementation of a corporate‐wide supplier diversity program utilized by Caterpillar, Inc., one of the Fortune 500 companies. Caterpillar's supplier diversity program can be a blue‐print for other companies which would like...

To stay competitive, hotels need to develop a viable customer retention strategy. Since a key to the successful development of such a strategy rests with customer relationship management, hotels should identify the most profitable ways to build and maintain a loyal customer relationship. In an...

Purpose – Over the last few years there have been several articles published in public health and urban planning journals that point to a possible link between neighborhood design and the level of obesity in such neighborhoods. The main contention is that neighborhoods that are conducive to...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to illuminate light on the assessment of operating efficiency of specialty coffee retailers from the perspective of socially responsible global sourcing. This paper evaluates the impact of socially responsible sourcing on the operating efficiencies of...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to help shippers determine a negotiation yardstick for transportation price and formulate wise transportation outsourcing strategies by examining the presence of freight rate differentials for shippers and identifying their main causes. This paper also...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to find ways to develop more efficient mass transit systems across the USA and, thus, make the best use of state/federal/municipal government funds and taxpayers’ monies. This paper conducts benchmarking studies. In doing so, this paper identifies the...

In pursuit of zero‐defect quality, a growing number of JIT manufacturing firms often consider a line‐stop strategy that allows workers to stop the assembly line when abnormalities occur during production process, and to repair defects immediately as they occur. The line‐stop strategy...

As the Clinton administration recently released its plan for developing world‐wide information superhighways and making electronic communications a national priority, a growing number of firms have shown increased interest in electronic commerce (EC) as an effective business‐to‐business...

Recognising the enormous potential of just‐in‐time (JIT) concepts for boosting productivity and quality, an increasing number of US and European firms consider adopting JIT concepts in manufacturing. However, the transfer of a manufacturing policy from traditional to JIT always requires...