Weather and supply chain performance in sport goods distribution

Past event — 28 October 2015
12:3013:30 

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Prof. Ari-Pekka Hameri

Professor

University of Lausanne

Abstract

We study several business units selling sporting goods and equipment differing in supply chain structure, product variety and seasonality, and how weather conditions affect demand and supply chain performance in terms of delay in urban and resort areas. We analyse longitudinal data on supply chain transactions and match them with location specific weather data. Our underlying hypothesis is that changes in weather affect demand, which in turn impacts supply chain performance. In general, the results indicate that an increase in temperature in winter and spring seasons decreases order volumes in resorts, while for larger retailers in urban locations ordering volumes increase. Further, an increase in volumes of non-seasonal products in general reduces delays in the supply chain, while higher volumes of seasonal products significantly increase delays. In all, weather affects demand volumes and lower volumes do not generally improve supply chain performance, but larger volumes can make delays worse. From the management point of view well managed supply chains should prepare for demand fluctuations caused by changes in weather. Weekly weather forecasts could be used when planning operations at product family level to improve supply chain performance.

About the presenter

Dr. Ari-Pekka Hameri is full professor of operations management at University of Lausanne, Switzerland. He has been involved with numerous international research and consulting projects dealing with production and supply chain management. He has published over 70 articles in international management journals concerning the management of production, projects and supply chains.

More info about Prof. Hameri

About the Seminar

The KLU research seminar series is a regular meeting of PhD students, Post-Docs and professors who conduct research in the field of logistics and supply chain management. The research seminar is open to the public and we happily welcome guests.