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Mabel Chou is on the faculty of the National University of Singapore. She is a senior editor for Production and Operations Management and works closely with the manufacturing and service industries.
This paper highlights the mutual relationship and crucial need for sustainability in innovation and vice versa, with a focus on various companies that are leading in this aspect. Together with certain conditions in place, growing awareness of this need has led to these companies achieving groundbreaking progress in embedding sustainability into the new product innovation space via the development of an overarching roadmap supported by strategic partnerships and robust quantitative tools, to proactively expand the sustainability mindset and way of life into the company culture and ways of working. Case studies of these companies are examined, and based on the findings, the paper concludes with recommendations and next steps for businesses to take to succeed in sustainability-centric innovation.
Prateek Jain; Mabel Chou; Faith Fan; Michelle Santoso. Embedding Sustainability in the Consumer Goods Innovation Cycle and Enabling Tools to Measure Progress and Capabilities. Sustainability 2021, 13, 6662 .
AMA StylePrateek Jain, Mabel Chou, Faith Fan, Michelle Santoso. Embedding Sustainability in the Consumer Goods Innovation Cycle and Enabling Tools to Measure Progress and Capabilities. Sustainability. 2021; 13 (12):6662.
Chicago/Turabian StylePrateek Jain; Mabel Chou; Faith Fan; Michelle Santoso. 2021. "Embedding Sustainability in the Consumer Goods Innovation Cycle and Enabling Tools to Measure Progress and Capabilities." Sustainability 13, no. 12: 6662.
COVID-19 is a highly infectious respiratory virus that has posed a great threat to the general public. In order to prevent its spread, many governments have enacted stringent measures. Supply chains around the world are facing major disruptions and difficulties adjusting to the new demands and needs of a locked down world. In this paper, we will address the relationship between supply chain operations and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Given current global shortages in essential goods such as medication, we explore the connection between said shortage and supply chain issues, such as the lack of supply chain transparency and resilience, as well as unsustainable just-in-time manufacturing. To mitigate the effects of these issues and protect supply chain operations, we propose some recommendations, such as nationalizing the medical supply chains, adopting a plus one diversification approach, and increasing safety stock. These recommendations are given to not only mitigate current consequences in relation to the ongoing crisis, but also to suggest measures that will provide firms the resiliency needed to weather similar potential shortages in the future.
Guiyang Zhu; Mabel Chou; Christina Tsai. Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic Exposing the Shortcomings of Current Supply Chain Operations: A Long-Term Prescriptive Offering. Sustainability 2020, 12, 5858 .
AMA StyleGuiyang Zhu, Mabel Chou, Christina Tsai. Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic Exposing the Shortcomings of Current Supply Chain Operations: A Long-Term Prescriptive Offering. Sustainability. 2020; 12 (14):5858.
Chicago/Turabian StyleGuiyang Zhu; Mabel Chou; Christina Tsai. 2020. "Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic Exposing the Shortcomings of Current Supply Chain Operations: A Long-Term Prescriptive Offering." Sustainability 12, no. 14: 5858.
Finite horizon periodic review backlog models are considered in this paper for an inventory system that remanufactures two types of cores: buyback cores and normal cores. Returns of used products as buyback cores are modelled to depend on past demands and past sales. We derive an optimal inventory policy for the model in which returns are forecast to depend on past demands, and analyze properties of the optimal cost and optimal policy we derived. As the structure of the optimal inventory policy for the model in which returns are forecast from past sales is unlikely to be tractable, we instead consider a feasible inventory policy with a nice structure for this model. We investigate how close this policy is to optimality and find that in the worst case, the difference in system costs between the feasible policy and the optimal inventory policy is bounded by a constant that is dependent only on cost parameters, mean demands and a discount factor, and is independent of the planning horizon and initial inventories. We also perform numerical experiments to study the difference between system costs under the feasible policy and those under the optimal policy.
Mabel C. Chou; Chee-Khian Sim; Xue-Ming Yuan. Policies for inventory models with product returns forecast from past demands and past sales. Annals of Operations Research 2020, 288, 137 -180.
AMA StyleMabel C. Chou, Chee-Khian Sim, Xue-Ming Yuan. Policies for inventory models with product returns forecast from past demands and past sales. Annals of Operations Research. 2020; 288 (1):137-180.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMabel C. Chou; Chee-Khian Sim; Xue-Ming Yuan. 2020. "Policies for inventory models with product returns forecast from past demands and past sales." Annals of Operations Research 288, no. 1: 137-180.
When selling products with highly uncertain demands and short life cycles, it is common for a manufacturer to offer some form of returns policy to entice the distributors to increase their order quantities. In this paper we consider a multi-item returns policy called “pooled” (or joint) returns policy under which the distributor can return any combination of the products up to R percent of the total purchases across all products. We analyze the distributor's optimal profit and order quantity under the pooled returns policy, and compare these operating characteristics to the case when a single-item “non-pooled” returns policy is instituted. Under the non-pooled returns policy, the distributor can only return on individual items using item-specific return limits. We show an intuitive result that the distributor will always achieve a higher profit under the pooled policy. However, the manufacturer could actually obtain a lower profit under the pooled policy due to a counter-intuitive result: the distributor may order less under the pooled policy even though the pooled policy offers more flexibility. This counter-intuitive result motivates us to determine the conditions under which the distributor would order less under the pooled policy. Finally, we develop a heuristic for determining the distributor's optimal order quantities associated with the n-product case under the pooled policy.
Alexander Brown; Mabel C. Chou; Christopher S. Tang. The implications of pooled returns policies. International Journal of Production Economics 2008, 111, 129 -146.
AMA StyleAlexander Brown, Mabel C. Chou, Christopher S. Tang. The implications of pooled returns policies. International Journal of Production Economics. 2008; 111 (1):129-146.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlexander Brown; Mabel C. Chou; Christopher S. Tang. 2008. "The implications of pooled returns policies." International Journal of Production Economics 111, no. 1: 129-146.
In this paper, we study a software-focused products and service supply chain based on the practice of two leading electronic manufacturing services providers in the world and their major corporate clients. We discuss the common and unique issues that a software-focused supply chain has compared with a traditional supply chain. We also indicate the research challenges and opportunities for a software-focused supply chain
Mabel C. Chou; Hengqing Ye; Xue-Ming Yuan; You Neng Cheng; Li Chua; Yiwen Guam; Siew Ee Lee; Yee Chen Tay. Analysis of a Software-Focused Products and Service Supply Chain. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics 2006, 2, 295 -302.
AMA StyleMabel C. Chou, Hengqing Ye, Xue-Ming Yuan, You Neng Cheng, Li Chua, Yiwen Guam, Siew Ee Lee, Yee Chen Tay. Analysis of a Software-Focused Products and Service Supply Chain. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics. 2006; 2 (4):295-302.
Chicago/Turabian StyleMabel C. Chou; Hengqing Ye; Xue-Ming Yuan; You Neng Cheng; Li Chua; Yiwen Guam; Siew Ee Lee; Yee Chen Tay. 2006. "Analysis of a Software-Focused Products and Service Supply Chain." IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics 2, no. 4: 295-302.
In this paper, we present a case study on the software focused supply chain of e-learning services. This research highlights various differences and similarities between traditional and software focused supply chains and the relationship to the operations of the company under study. We also identify possible problems in this software focused supply chain and discuss ways of improvement.
Chengxuan Cao; Sutanto Cecilia; Huilin Chia; Mabel C. Chou; Cindy Tan; Min Tau Teh; Seok Mui Sim; Heng-Qing Ye; Xue-Ming Yuan. Key Issues of a Software Focused Supply Chain. 2006 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics 2006, 747 -752.
AMA StyleChengxuan Cao, Sutanto Cecilia, Huilin Chia, Mabel C. Chou, Cindy Tan, Min Tau Teh, Seok Mui Sim, Heng-Qing Ye, Xue-Ming Yuan. Key Issues of a Software Focused Supply Chain. 2006 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics. 2006; ():747-752.
Chicago/Turabian StyleChengxuan Cao; Sutanto Cecilia; Huilin Chia; Mabel C. Chou; Cindy Tan; Min Tau Teh; Seok Mui Sim; Heng-Qing Ye; Xue-Ming Yuan. 2006. "Key Issues of a Software Focused Supply Chain." 2006 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Informatics , no. : 747-752.