Process control in agile supply chain network.

The work comprises a new theoretical development applied to aid decision making in an increasingly important commercial sector. Agile supply, where small volumes of high margin, short life cycle innovative products are offered, is increasingly carried out through a complex global supply chain network. We outline an equilibrium solution in such a supply chain network, which works through limited cooperation and coordination along edges (links) in the network. The links constitute the stochastic modelling entities rather than the nodes of the network. We utilise newly developed phase plane analysis to identify, model and predict characteristic behaviour in supply chain networks. The phase plane charts profile the flow of inventory and identify out of control conditions. They maintain quality within the network, as well as intelligently track the way the network evolves in conditions of changing variability. The methodology is essentially distribution free, relying as it does on the study of forecasting errors, and can be used to examine contractual details as well as strategic and game theoretical concepts between decision-making components (agents) of a network. We illustrate with typical data drawn from supply chain agile fashion products.

An overview of research activities and achievement in Geotechnics from the Scottish Universities Geotechnics Network (SUGN)

Design of geotechnical systems is often challenging as it requires the understanding of complex soil behaviour and its influence on field-scale performance of geo-structures. To advance the scientific knowledge and the technological development in geotechnical engineering, a Scottish academic community, named Scottish Universities Geotechnics Network (SUGN), was established in 2001, composing of eight higher education institutions. The network gathers geotechnics researchers, including experimentalists as well as centrifuge, constitutive, and numerical modellers, to generate multiple synergies for building larger collaboration and wider research dissemination in and beyond Scotland. The paper will highlight the research excellence and leading work undertaken in SUGN emphasising some of the contribution to the geotechnical research community and some of the significant research outcomes.