How I am Spending my Sabbatical or
Some New Developments for Supply Chain
Management
Michael Magazine
After
four years as an administrator I have been granted a sabbatical for the
calendar year 2006. My intention this year is to embark on some new areas (at
least for me) of relevance to the supply chain field.
Three
years ago at this conference I discussed RFID as a new technology that may/will
have an impact on supply chains. There is no question that RFID has started to
impact many firms because of the Wal-Mart initiative. I will give a brief
overview of this activity. The interesting question of how OR/MgtSci research will be impacted by this innovation is
still unclear. I hope this can generate discussion.
I
am attempting to build a Center at UC related to service supply chains. I want
to discuss first, what we mean by this term as it has different interpretations.
It isn’t necessarily supply chains for service firms nor is it necessarily
after sales service as it is often interpreted. Once again, given we agree that
this opens an interesting area for research I hope we can start building a
research agenda in this area.
A
specific service supply chain relates to healthcare. I am working with a
hospital to investigate ways supply chain activities can be improved. Much of
what is viewed as SC for the hospital relates to a traditional view of supply
chains—how do I get goods into the hospitals in an efficient and effective
manner. Our goal is to extend the thinking to how the service can be delivered
to the patient.
As
indicated, my sabbatical has just begun but I believe there are interesting
areas to pursue. Developing an agenda for quant research I hope to solicit your
views.