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Background and Aim: The tourism industry plays a very important role in the economic cycle of society. Medical tourism, as one of the types of tourism industries, has a direct result in globalizing health care. Therefore, by strengthening the supply chain in this area, a very high added value can be achieved. For this reason, the present study provides a conceptual framework for predicting the demand for medical tourism supply chain by determining the relationship between medical tourism demand and economic, medical, and welfare-service components of Zahedan city. Materials and Methods: The present study is a descriptive-analytical and applied research. Data were collected using a questionnaire and field and library methods. The statistical population of interest was specialist doctors in Zahedan city, and 97 people were selected using simple random sampling with Morgan’s table. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts and its reliability was obtained using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient with SPSS software more than 0.7. Data analysis was performed using the tangent sigmoid neural network algorithm, linear regression criteria, and mean square error. For this purpose, SPSS software was used to examine the correlation between the data, and MATLAB software was used to design the neural network. Results: There was anerrore in The basis for the optimality of the answers, linear regression criteria and mean square error. The results showed that the values related to regression, education, and health were more than 0.8 and were 0.9033, 0.8818, and 0.9985, respectively. The highest priorities of the respondents related to medical equipment, education, and health were 0.5657, 0.5558, and 0.20726, respectively. Conclusion: According to the results obtained from the proposed model, the neural network has a high accuracy in predicting the demand for medical tourism supply chain in terms of education, health, and welfare. It is also predicted that the demand for medical tourism has been constant during the one-year period of research and it is expected that medical tourism in Zahedan city will decrease in future. Therefore, it is recommended that officials pay attention to the development and improvement of medical tourism to promote it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to propose a systematic view of how Circular Supply Chain Management (CSCM) captures and evolves the state-of-the-art advances in this field. Multiple analyzes have been performed with two tools of VOSviewer and open-source R-package ‘bibliometrix”. Also, a network and bibliometric analysis of the Co-Occurrence, Co-Authorship, and Co-Citation has been made on CSCM using bibliometric and scientometrics methods on the literature available on the Web of Science and Scopus databases. Design/methodology/approach: Bibliometric, network structure, and descriptive analysis have been used to investigate publications on the subject of circular supply chain management. For this purpose, a systematic review has been performed using the Prisma review protocol. After defining the research objectives and questions, the relevant keywords for the sources and database and search codes have been used for an online search. Then, the initial search has been conducted. The next step involved screening the study results. 116 published articles have been selected from Scopus for analysis. The potential papers were then downloaded in CSV format for bibliometric analysis and synthesis. The final data for this research has been selected from 2010 to 2021. All the data was exported in CSV format to the Bibliometrix and Vosviewer software for data analysis. Also, Co-Authorship, word Co- Occurrence, and Co-Citation analysis have been generated using VOSviewer. Findings: This study analyzed the annual publication trends, the most productive authors, the most cited articles, the most productive affiliations, the most important journals, the most productive countries, and keywords. Collaboration, co-occurrence, co-authors, co-citation, and historiographical analysis were also performed in this study. Findings indicated that "Perona, M" and "Mina, H" with six and five articles were the most productive authors in the development of this field. Also, Geissdoerfer's article was the most cited article with 231 citations, and it can be considered a pioneering work in the field of CSCM development. Farooq's article was also the most cited local article. Govindan et al.'s (2020) article were the most important in co-citation analysis. Great Britain and Italy were the most productive countries with 70 and 66 publications. Cambridge University was the most productive university in England. The "Journal of Cleaner Production" and "Sustainability" were the most visited journal with 24 and 8 articles. The most dominant keywords were "circular economy" and "circular supply chain". The main keywords shared in the most advanced cluster were "circular economy", "circular supply chain", and "supply chain". The main common keywords in cluster 2 included "supply chain management" and "circular supply chain management", and the main common keywords in cluster 3 included "sustainability, and “closed loop supply chain". Also, major cooperated countries included Great Britain, Italy, and China. Strong cooperation between Iran and Denmark, China and Australia, and Britain, and India was also observed. A significant number of articles were written by Iranian researchers, and the number of citations received by foreign researchers was higher. The authorship of the articles included two, one, and three authors, respectively. The results indicated the existence of the development of CSCM with quantitative modeling approaches, proficient algorithms, optimization techniques, and integrated multi-criteria decision-making techniques. Also, CSCM research must identify enablers, drivers, Critical Success Factors (CSF), obstacles and barriers, innovative frameworks, and circular business models. Research limitations/implications: The papers were merely reviewed in the form of scientific and English language journal articles. Other datasets and conference papers, reports, and books can be considered for future study, but they were not included in the structural literature review. Practical implications: CSCM is rapidly developing in supply chain sustainability and can operate as a guide for companies. To apply CSCM, three questions need to be answered: i) which business/supply chain models should companies choose (closed loop or circular)?; ii) how does it cover supply chain operations to achieve a zero-waste perspective?; and iii) how does the company redesign its supply chain and implement a circular supply chain? Social implications: The application of the results of this study and circular supply chain indicators have positive effects on the sustainability and circular economy. Originality/value: This research is one of the early attempts to analyze the structure of social networks in CSCM using bibliometric and scientometric methods. In previous studies relevant to CSCM, mainly the structured literature review, content analysis, and integrated framework have been used, and few studies have addressed CSCM using bibliometric analysis. In this paper, the R-software was used for the first time as a tool for bibliometric data statistics (open-source R-package tool ‘Bibliometrix’ supplemented by VOS viewer, which is used for clustering and data visualization). Also, the results of the analysis of the two software were compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Cross-docking deals with the goals of lean supply chain management. It is a distribution strategy. In this structure, goods are shipped from inbound to outbound trailers on the same day or overnight without putting them into storage. Cross-docking can realize transport efficiencies at reduced material handling and storage costs by eliminating the storage and order-picking activities from the main warehouse operations. These advantages make cross-docking an interesting logistic strategy that can give companies considerable competitive advantages. This paper aims to introduce cross-docking, its characteristics and its problem types, comprehensively. The focus of this study is on distinguishing research gaps. Design/methodology/approach: Systematic review is "review research by explicit, rigorous and accountable methods". Reviews and their findings can vary on many aspects of the 'dimensions of different'. One such review is the 'review of reviews'. A systematic review of primary research is the second level of research analysis. A review of reviews (sometimes called 'overview' or 'umbrella' review) is a tertiary level of analysis. It is a systematic map and/or synthesis of previous reviews. The 'data' for such reviews of reviews are previous reviews rather than primary research studies. This can be an efficient method for examining previous research. In this paper, cross-docking literature systematic review (review of reviews method) has been discussed by introducing, clustering crossdocking decision problems, and drawing future research directions. Findings: Bibliography, cross-dockings, and classified characteristics of cross-docking based on the decision levels (strategic, tactical and operational levels) were the major findings of this study. Also, the cross-docking problem types were addressed and the gaps in the field of cross-docking were determined. This study highlighted two frequent gaps that would need to be filled by focusing on the research areas of taking deadlines for the trucks into account and dealing with uncertainty. Research limitations/implications: Book chapters and conference papers were excluded from this research. Reviewed papers were published in a certain period and the English language. Practical implications: Today firms use different types of distribution strategies. Cross-docking with eliminating the storage and order-picking activities from the main warehouse operations is an interesting logistics strategy. products with predictable, high cubic volume flow, and perishable products are ideal candidates for cross-docking. Cross-docking is nowadays used by many companies and industries such as the retail industry, automotive industry, telecommunications and electronics industries. Social implications: Cross-docking results in smaller volumes of more visible inventories that are delivered faster and more frequently. Several other advantages of cross-docking are addressed in the literature compared to traditional distribution centres. Some advantages are reduced cost (warehousing costs, inventory-holding costs, handling costs, labour costs), shorter delivery lead time (from supplier to customer), improved customer service, reduced storage space, faster inventory turnover, fewer overstocks, and reduced risk for loss and damage. Originality/value: Due to the advantages and extensive applications of cross-docking, in this paper a "review of reviews" was performed, and after introducing cross-docking terminals and their problem types, distinguish research gaps were determined for the future research study. Therefore, researchers were suggested to concentrate on the addressed gaps in their models to get closer to real-life constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Today, the manufacturing industry, with the expansion of the physical constraints of trade worldwide, has adopted modern information technologies to optimize the business process and achieve integration with geographically dispersed supply chain partners. Traditional supply chain models focus on optimizing physical flows. However, it is equally important to ensure that physical units can process appropriate information. This paper aims to propose a model for the optimization of information process performance in the IoT-based virtual supply chain. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, information processing performance in the closed-loop virtual supply chain has been optimized to maximize profit and information processing speed by considering costs of virtual, information security, and energy consumption. The final programming model has been optimized using meta-heuristic algorithms, the Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II), and the Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm (SPEA-II). Findings – The results indicated that there is an inverse relationship between virtual supply chain profit and information processing speed (delay). The results of model solving using NSGA-II and SPEA-II algorithms underlined the virtual supply chain profit of 9.93×106 and 4.23×106, and the data processing speed of 337.48 and 94.07, respectively. Thus, the NSGA-II algorithm contributes more to the supply chain profitability. Research limitations/implications - The proposed model can be used in manufacturing industries equipped with IoT. Unavailability of practical examples and insufficient data are the two main limitations of the study. Practical implications:- The proposed model improves the production process and helps managers to plan better for their supply chain management and make timely decisions by sharing information across the supply chain and being aware of the flows of products and associated parts. Social implications - The Internet of Things in the virtual supply chain provides an opportunity to manage logistics systems and results in efficient online delivery with minimal cost. The information flow integrates all links and participants in the virtual supply chain. It enables each member to obtain the accurate information needed for logistics capability, reduces resource wastage, and improves customer satisfaction. Originality/value: One of the innovative aspects of this research is the use of IoT in the virtual supply chain for the integration and transparency of information in the supply chain, considering the importance of information in the virtual supply chain and examining the impact of IoT usage on closed-loop virtual supply costs and target functions. In addition to considering the physical flow costs of the closed-loop, including production costs, separation costs, repair, disposal, recycling, etc., in the cost objective function, virtual flow costs included IoT usage costs and information security costs. Energy consumption was also included in the objective function. Also, due to the virtualization of the supply chain and the significant role of information, optimization of information processing speed was considered in modeling the supply chain performance, which is another innovative aspect of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aimed at identifying and analyzing supply chain risks of Saipa automotive company to determine those seemly critical and the appropriate decision for each category to be made. To this end, first, according to company’s documents and interviews with experts, and using theme analysis method, the identification and categorization of supply chain risks are addressed. In the second step, by using of SNA approach, the most important risks in terms of the effects they have on emerging other risks in the risks’ relationship network are determined. The results are analyzed using the IPM matrix and the necessary decisions are made according to this matrix. According to the results, 48% of the total risks are categorized in financialeconomic, suppliers, information, and transportation categories. Therefore, it seems that paying particular attention to these areas can result in significant improvement in system’s status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iran is a country where the rate of natural disasters is high comparing with other countries. Therefore, humanitarian supply chain management before, during and after disasters is of great importance. Performance assess humanitarian supply chain is one of the important activities in humanitarian supply chain management which specifies the performance and how to improve it. At the beginning, performance dimensions and indicators of the earthquake supply chain in the country were identified. For this purpose, the output of the master's thesis in Tehran University was used and weights of performance dimensions and indicators by normalization factor loadings were obtained. Then, the selected earthquakes were assessed by gray approach. Two scenarios were used to assess reasonably and appropriately. In the first scenario, Just earthquake information was used, but in the second scenario, after setting the standard in qualitative and quantitative indicators, this information is entered in the calculations in the form of a hypothetical earthquake. Results are based on the second scenario which is more complete than the first one. They are: humanitarian supply chain performances in Dashti and Ahar earthquakes were equal and were better than that in Bashagard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a suitable tool to improve economic, social and environmental performance. SCM assessment is an important task for all types of organizations. The DEA method has been widely used to evaluate SCM. By attention supply chain as network data envelopment analysis (DEA) can calculate the efficiency of supply chain with multiple stages. This study examines the efficiency and returns to scale (RTS) of supply chain management of resin manufacturing companies based on network DEA models. We determine returns to scale of resin manufacturing companies as a two-stage process, with crisp and fuzzy data. Fuzzy DEA model is based on α-cut approach to measure the efficiency and RTS of supply chain. The proposed models are used to evaluate the efficiency and RTS of supply chain of 27 resin production companies. The six companies were network efficient in the investigation with crisp data, while there are three network efficient companies with fuzzy data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a bi-objective integrated of production distribution planning problem model in a multi echelon supply chain is presented. This model is considered in a four echelon supply chain includes suppliers, manufactures, distribution centers and customers with several types of raw material and product in multi-time period. In addition to minimize the total cost of supply chain including transportation and supply of materials costs, preparation and production of products, inventory holding of materials and products in manufacture and distribution centers, transportation and purchase of products for distributors and customers, and backorder cost, the second objective is to decrease the transfer time of products in order to increasing the service level for customers. Two Pareto-based multi-objective metaheuristic algorithms namely non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) and nondominated ranking genetic algorithm (NRGA) are proposed to solve the model. Since the solution quality of all meta-heuristic algorithms severely depended on their parameters, Taghuchi method has been utilized to tune the parameters of algorithms. Finally, computational results obtained by implementing the algorithms on several problems of different sizes demonstrate the performance of proposed methodologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, integrated production and batch delivery scheduling problem for make to order production system and one customer in supply chain has been addressed. One manufacture received n orders from one customer. Orders must be processed by single machine and sent in batches to customer. Sending several jobs as a batch leads to less transportation cost but may increase the cost of tardiness jobs. The objective is determining the production and delivery scheduling so that the related costs is minimized. The problem is strongly NP-hard. In this paper, one new math programming model including Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) model, Ant Colony System (ACS) and Elastic Ant System (EAS) are presented for solving it. In order to evaluate the efficiency of these two methods computational tests based on full factorial experimental design has been conducted. Computational test is performed for evaluation of these methods. The obtained results show that the heuristic algorithm is efficient which has been verified by using. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique. The results showed that the ACS is the most efficient method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several factors had led to increase competition among companies and then transferring this competition to supply chain. While the competition is getting more intense, the quick response to demand changing becomes increasingly important and agility will be a key strategy for the survival and persistence in competitive market. The concept of agile supply chain had developed as a means of achieving the capability of quick responding to demand changing in challenging competitive environment. The Success of operation in an agile supply chain relies heavily on choosing the most suitable partner in any condition. The aim of this research is to identify partner selection criteria and represent the relations between them. For these purposes we have used a tree-stage model. In the first stage, we extracted the criteria from literatures. Second stage was done to reduce the criteria to a lower number by interviewing with top managers of the company and using Fuzzy screening method. In the last stage interpretive structural modeling was used to identify the relationships between criteria and MICMAC analysis was used to classify them. After data analysis, variables were categorized in eight levels and then the ISM digraph was plotted. After the MICMAC analysis was done, the criteria was classified to independent, dependent and linkage variable and no criteria were identified as autonomous variables. Determination of the relationships between variables and types of variables can lead to a better perception of the issue and make appropriate decisions in the selection of partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today, one of the tools for Environmental sustainability, along with increasing manufacturers' performance is Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM). In this way, the purpose of this paper is to study "Identifying & prioritizing the effective factors on Green Supply Chain Management in chemical and detergents manufacturers by using Path Analysis Approach". The empirical data used in this study consists of questionnaire responses from 36 managers chemical and detergents manufacturers. Statistical analysis of data was done in two stages; Kendall's Tau-b Correlation study and use of statistical method of Path Analysis. The results show the rejection of influence on internal drivers on Green Supply Chain Management practices (third hypothesis), while the influence of external drivers on internal drivers and GSCM practices have been approved. This indicates that external drivers can provide positive bias of internal drivers towards a GSCM practice and manufacturers have to do this in order to stay in this competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dynamic nature of global business makes it necessary for supply chains to be adaptable to changes. Also, complexities of the working environment and increasing competition in different industries have led to unstableness of the competitiveness factors. Creating and maintaining competitiveness need capabilities which create value for costumers based on the organization capacities. In the present study, a model of supply chain resilience is presented for competitiveness in Iranian automotive companies. It is expected that by its application, automobile firms not only have an effective method for controlling incidents, but also get to competitiveness. For this purpose, first by extensive review of the literature, a preliminary conceptual framework was extracted for supply chain resilience in order to create competitiveness. Then, using experts' views (Delphi method), interview, and doing the survey, the research model was formed and finalized based on the conditions of Iranian automobile industry. The results of the study showed that Iranian automobile firms can create the required flexibility for encountering the most important vulnerabilities of the firms by creating or improving capabilities like flexibility in sourcing, efficiency, security, flexibility in fulfillment, adaptability, and collaboration, and then using these opportunities they create competitiveness. The vulnerabilities of the firms include things like exchange and price fluctuations, international sanctions, weakness in know-how, low quality of the products, and weak services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]