Special Issue

Journal of Operations Management

 

Product Safety and Security in the Global Supply Chain

 

Submission Deadline: March 1, 2010

 

Guest Editors:

Ann Marucheck, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Noel Greis,  University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Linning Cai, Tsinghua University
Carlos Mena, Cranfield School of Management

 

The Journal of Operations Management is pleased to announce a “Call for Papers” for a Special Issue focusing on the role that operations management plays in the design and improvement of the processes used in ensuring the safety and security of products used by consumers throughout the supply chain.  The special issue will focus on products, including food and pharmaceuticals, where errors or disruptions in the supply chain can endanger the safety or health of consumers.  For instance, in the United States, recent recalls of contaminated food products, such as peanuts, pistachios, and spinach, have heightened a sense of public urgency regarding the safety of food from “field to fork.”   There have been similar examples of tainted pharmaceuticals and lead-based paint in toys, making product safety and security is one of the major issues facing many of the nations in the world today.  Far from being merely a regulatory issue, the challenges of product  safety require a collaboration of government, business and the academic community in developing new models that enhance our understanding of how product  problems occur, how they can be detected, how they can be tracked throughout the supply chain, and how they can be eliminated.    These challenges are magnified by the global span of many product safety problems where “touch points” in the supply chain may occur in different countries.    

 

For example, China has become a major food exporter, with many agricultural products sourced there ending up in the food items that are sold all over the world.  Yet China is facing its own food safety crisis, having experienced several instances of tainted food leading to illnesses and even deaths.  Since problems in one food supply chain can have global repercussions, scholarly research is needed to develop solutions to the problems of food safety and to rigorously test the effectiveness of these solutions in maintaining the integrity and effectiveness of supply chains.

 

In this Special Issue, we focus on the operations management issues that span a global supply chain including safety issues that arise during sourcing, production or processing, packaging, transportation, distribution and retailing.  In addressing the problems of safety and security in supply chains, we hope to generalize lessons that will have implications for supply chains in other industries.   We seek high quality research papers using rigorous methodology which are consistent with JOM’s editorial mission of theory-driven empirical research.  Analytical models will be considered only so far as they are empirically grounded in a real-life case study or are validated using actual data from a case study.  The objectives of the Special Issue are:

 

1.      Identify the operations management challenges within the broad domain of product safety and security management.

 

2.      Promoting scholarly research in how operations management can be used to improve the safety, integrity and efficiency of global supply chains. 

 

3.      Generating academic and managerial insights that will improve the theory and practice of operations management within global supply chains.

 

Given these objectives, potential topics include (but are not limited to) the following:

 

Safety and Security in Global Supply Chains

·        Managing safety risks in a complex supply chain

·        Lot integrity in processing and manufacturing

·        Quality assurance - testing, monitoring and control

·        Inventory tracking and accuracy of record keeping

·        Traceability in a supply chain using technologies such as RFID, sensors, wireless, GIS/GPS, e-pedigree

·        Handling logistics in transportation and warehousing

·        Distribution and retailing systems

·        Environmental issues in supply chain (carbon dioxide emissions, carbon footprint, waste, water usage, etc.)

 

Supply Chain Issues Associated with Food, Pharmaceuticals, and Perishable Products

·        Managing supply and demand in supply chains with perishable products

·        Sourcing  and supplier certification of agricultural products

·        Quality assurance across integrated systems

·        Cold chain management

·        Packaging and its impact on the supply chain

·        Handling and  distribution systems for perishable or environmentally-sensitive products

·        Consumer perception and retailing

 

 

Managing Product Safety in Supply Chains

·        Inspection, quarantine and recall of products

·        Managing worker involvement in product safety errors

·        Incorporation of product safety in product design and development

·        Public-private partnerships promoting product safety and security

·        Benchmarking best practices in product safety and security

 

Manuscript Submission and Review Process

 

To be considered for publication in the Special Issue, manuscripts must be received no later than March 1, 2010.  All manuscripts must conform to JOM requirements.  Submitted manuscripts will be reviewed by the guest editors for suitability before being sent out for peer review by appropriate operations management scholars.  The guest editors, in consultation with the Editors-in-Chief, will make all decisions as to the inclusion of manuscripts in the Special Issue.

 

Manuscripts should be submitted via email to guest co-editor Ann Marucheck at ann_marucheck@unc.edu.  Please put “JOM Special Issue” as the Subject of the email submission.