I wish a sustainable year with optimal complexity for you and your family!
Friday, December 25, 2009
Happy new year
Merry christmas and happy new year to readers of this blog!
I wish a sustainable year with optimal complexity for you and your family!
I wish a sustainable year with optimal complexity for you and your family!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Ubiquitous Complexity!
I have never been so much proud of science of complexity unless Climate Smart Food conference which was held in Lund on 23-24 November. It was organized by Swedish Ministry of Agriculture on behalf of Swedish Presidency of the European Union.
The conference was about the climate impact of the entire food chain, i.e. from farm to fork to farm. At the beginning of the seminars, I really did not expect to hear anything about complexity and its themes and tools.
It was a great pleasure when Eskil Erlandsson, minister for agriculture, Johan Kuylenstierna from FAO, and Anita Wreford from Scottish Agriculture College, analyzed the role of adaptation in shadow of simplification and mitigation of effects of climate change.
In another presentation, Mr. Finn Rausing from Tetra Laval discussed about finding solution for complexity of food production and distribution as an important enabler of sustainable dairy chain.
I also tracked trace of complexity in Mads Greaker’s seminar from Statistics Norway/Göteborg University when he discoursed about Carbon leakage as one of the problems caused by imperfect climate treaties. Carbon leakage refers to the situation in which some countries efforts to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions result in increased emission elsewhere. This is a very good example of paradoxes in complex systems.
Mads mentioned also difficulties in defining boundaries of the system for ‘climate friendly’ labeling of products. In another seminar regarding launch of new climate label for food in Sweden, Anna Richert from Swedish Seal discussed about emerging paradoxes in a holistic labeling system. Science of complexity is a solid tool for investigating boundaries and paradoxes of ‘climate friendly’ labeling of food and products.
Ulf Sonesson fron SIK was another speaker who explained complexity of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a product as well as production and consumption systems of food chains. He also reminded the importance of systematic approach in simplification of the system.
Pascal Greverath, Chairman of Confedration of the Food and Drink Industries of the EU (CIAA) Environment Committee presented about ‘European Food Sustainable Consumption and Production Round Table (SCPRT)’ project. He emphasized necessity of understanding and considering complexity of the SCPRT for achieving its goals which are:
1) Establish scientifically reliable and uniform environmental assessment methodologies for food and drinks; 2) Identify suitable tools for voluntary communication to consumers and other stakeholders; 3) Promote and report on continuous environmental improvement along the entire food supply chain.
Richard Lowe, from European Livestock and Meat Trading Union (UECBV), discussed about complexity of meat supply chain and diversity of range of factors affecting Greenhouse Gas Emissions such as fertilizer use on pasture, animal feed production, land use change whether for animal feed or livestock grazing, animal waste and its treatment, methane emissions directly from ruminants as a consequence of the way they convert food to energy, meat packaging and processing, etc.
Finally, Inger Andersson, Director General of Swedish National Food Administration, raised this question that how is it possible to avoid the conflict of objectives between the limitations of environmental and climate effects and the free movement of goods? My answer to this question, undoubtedly, was analyzing such paradoxes and conflicts by complexity thinking!
As it sounds, complexity thinking is spreading in several natural and social sciences. That is why I have called this post ‘ubiquitous complexity’!
The conference was about the climate impact of the entire food chain, i.e. from farm to fork to farm. At the beginning of the seminars, I really did not expect to hear anything about complexity and its themes and tools.
It was a great pleasure when Eskil Erlandsson, minister for agriculture, Johan Kuylenstierna from FAO, and Anita Wreford from Scottish Agriculture College, analyzed the role of adaptation in shadow of simplification and mitigation of effects of climate change.
In another presentation, Mr. Finn Rausing from Tetra Laval discussed about finding solution for complexity of food production and distribution as an important enabler of sustainable dairy chain.
I also tracked trace of complexity in Mads Greaker’s seminar from Statistics Norway/Göteborg University when he discoursed about Carbon leakage as one of the problems caused by imperfect climate treaties. Carbon leakage refers to the situation in which some countries efforts to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions result in increased emission elsewhere. This is a very good example of paradoxes in complex systems.
Mads mentioned also difficulties in defining boundaries of the system for ‘climate friendly’ labeling of products. In another seminar regarding launch of new climate label for food in Sweden, Anna Richert from Swedish Seal discussed about emerging paradoxes in a holistic labeling system. Science of complexity is a solid tool for investigating boundaries and paradoxes of ‘climate friendly’ labeling of food and products.
Ulf Sonesson fron SIK was another speaker who explained complexity of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a product as well as production and consumption systems of food chains. He also reminded the importance of systematic approach in simplification of the system.
Pascal Greverath, Chairman of Confedration of the Food and Drink Industries of the EU (CIAA) Environment Committee presented about ‘European Food Sustainable Consumption and Production Round Table (SCPRT)’ project. He emphasized necessity of understanding and considering complexity of the SCPRT for achieving its goals which are:
1) Establish scientifically reliable and uniform environmental assessment methodologies for food and drinks; 2) Identify suitable tools for voluntary communication to consumers and other stakeholders; 3) Promote and report on continuous environmental improvement along the entire food supply chain.
Richard Lowe, from European Livestock and Meat Trading Union (UECBV), discussed about complexity of meat supply chain and diversity of range of factors affecting Greenhouse Gas Emissions such as fertilizer use on pasture, animal feed production, land use change whether for animal feed or livestock grazing, animal waste and its treatment, methane emissions directly from ruminants as a consequence of the way they convert food to energy, meat packaging and processing, etc.
Finally, Inger Andersson, Director General of Swedish National Food Administration, raised this question that how is it possible to avoid the conflict of objectives between the limitations of environmental and climate effects and the free movement of goods? My answer to this question, undoubtedly, was analyzing such paradoxes and conflicts by complexity thinking!
As it sounds, complexity thinking is spreading in several natural and social sciences. That is why I have called this post ‘ubiquitous complexity’!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Running!
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up;
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up;
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or gazelle:
When the Sun comes up, you had better be running. (Adopted from Jim Wixom)
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up;
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or gazelle:
When the Sun comes up, you had better be running. (Adopted from Jim Wixom)
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
"TRUST" - Glue of organizations
I heartily love this five-letter word: "TRUST"!
I do believe that trust is glue of organization. This organization can be a family, a group, a company, a supply chain, a country or any other assembly of entities.
Have you ever wondered that why managers, governors, or politicians are so much sensitive to what mass media reflect? Undoubtedly, media are powerful tools for building or destroying a trustful atmosphere in society and peoples’ brains.
By reading and pondering history of nations, I estimate that deterioration and lack of trust between people and their governors have been major reasons of revolution and turmoil in societies. On the other hand, lack of trust between countries has been an important cause of several wars and battles.
Analogically, trust between supply chain’s orchestrator and other agents of the chain plays a significant role in solid management of the system. Trust glues entities of the supply chain together. This is “trust” that enables supply chain relationships from co-operation and co-ordination to integration, then to collaboration, and finally to adaptation. How can supply chain entities collaborate and adapt with each other without a solid trustful atmosphere in the system?
I think that role of logistics service providers and third parties are very important in creation of trust in the system. I will explain this issue in another post.
Lack of trust is also a main source of non-value adding complexity in supply chains. Non-trustful entities in supply chains reveal non-trustful patterns of behavior during time. In this way, learning from emerging patterns and as a result adaptation and co-adaptation becomes harder and perplexing. Dissipative behavior and relationship amplifies chaos in the system. Later on, I will explain the relation between complexity, chaos, and evolution in complex systems like supply chains.
I do believe that trust is glue of organization. This organization can be a family, a group, a company, a supply chain, a country or any other assembly of entities.
Have you ever wondered that why managers, governors, or politicians are so much sensitive to what mass media reflect? Undoubtedly, media are powerful tools for building or destroying a trustful atmosphere in society and peoples’ brains.
By reading and pondering history of nations, I estimate that deterioration and lack of trust between people and their governors have been major reasons of revolution and turmoil in societies. On the other hand, lack of trust between countries has been an important cause of several wars and battles.
Analogically, trust between supply chain’s orchestrator and other agents of the chain plays a significant role in solid management of the system. Trust glues entities of the supply chain together. This is “trust” that enables supply chain relationships from co-operation and co-ordination to integration, then to collaboration, and finally to adaptation. How can supply chain entities collaborate and adapt with each other without a solid trustful atmosphere in the system?
I think that role of logistics service providers and third parties are very important in creation of trust in the system. I will explain this issue in another post.
Lack of trust is also a main source of non-value adding complexity in supply chains. Non-trustful entities in supply chains reveal non-trustful patterns of behavior during time. In this way, learning from emerging patterns and as a result adaptation and co-adaptation becomes harder and perplexing. Dissipative behavior and relationship amplifies chaos in the system. Later on, I will explain the relation between complexity, chaos, and evolution in complex systems like supply chains.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Teamwork!
Coming together is a begining;
Keeping together is progress;
Working together is success. (Henry Ford)
Keeping together is progress;
Working together is success. (Henry Ford)
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Enjoy studying complex supply chains!
During NOFOMA 2009 conference, hosted by Jönköping University in Sweden, I had a nice discussion with a friend of mine about human’s enjoyments.
In initial parts of the discussion, my friend insisted that in limited time of life, we must just do what we individually enjoy. I to some extent agreed with him although reminded him that it is important to bear in mind that our enjoyments do not be in contrast with our societies’ enjoyments.
For example, a thief or a radical :( may really enjoy what he/she does but is it really what most people in the society adore?
This story resembles very much to story of supply chains. Analogically, each person can be considered as ‘actors’ of the chain and enjoyment as ‘value’ in the chain (network). Actors can be defined as suppliers, focal companies, distribution centers, etc.
Effectively, the holy grail of science of “supply chain” is managing the system in a way which maximizes (optimizes) enjoyments (value) of each actor in the way of chain’s value. This is basis of several concepts and tools in supply chain management like collaboration, coordination, information sharing, game theory, etc.
I personally believe that “Science of complexity” is one of the best tools for studying and analyzing behavior of supply chains and networks. The holy grail of science of complexity is to figure out how groups of entities (agents) work together. This necessitates thorough perception of each agent’s behavior as well as emergent behaviors of agents’ interactions.
As supply chains are complicated and complex systems, themes and tools of science of complexity should be even applicable in context of supply chains. In some of the future posts, I am going to explain some tools, themes and techniques in details.
In initial parts of the discussion, my friend insisted that in limited time of life, we must just do what we individually enjoy. I to some extent agreed with him although reminded him that it is important to bear in mind that our enjoyments do not be in contrast with our societies’ enjoyments.
For example, a thief or a radical :( may really enjoy what he/she does but is it really what most people in the society adore?
This story resembles very much to story of supply chains. Analogically, each person can be considered as ‘actors’ of the chain and enjoyment as ‘value’ in the chain (network). Actors can be defined as suppliers, focal companies, distribution centers, etc.
Effectively, the holy grail of science of “supply chain” is managing the system in a way which maximizes (optimizes) enjoyments (value) of each actor in the way of chain’s value. This is basis of several concepts and tools in supply chain management like collaboration, coordination, information sharing, game theory, etc.
I personally believe that “Science of complexity” is one of the best tools for studying and analyzing behavior of supply chains and networks. The holy grail of science of complexity is to figure out how groups of entities (agents) work together. This necessitates thorough perception of each agent’s behavior as well as emergent behaviors of agents’ interactions.
As supply chains are complicated and complex systems, themes and tools of science of complexity should be even applicable in context of supply chains. In some of the future posts, I am going to explain some tools, themes and techniques in details.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
The path ahead of us!
A warm hi to lovers of supply chains!
From this week, I am going to start writing new posts. I have a good mind to update this blog occasionally.
In initial posts, I would like to discuss more about basic concepts and importance of supply chain mangement, sustainable development as well as science of complexity. Later, I will discourse more about future trends and evolution of these areas.
In order to post valid and reliable texts, I greatly require your feedback and reflection. Please do not hesitate to contact me or leave a comment.
From this week, I am going to start writing new posts. I have a good mind to update this blog occasionally.
In initial posts, I would like to discuss more about basic concepts and importance of supply chain mangement, sustainable development as well as science of complexity. Later, I will discourse more about future trends and evolution of these areas.
In order to post valid and reliable texts, I greatly require your feedback and reflection. Please do not hesitate to contact me or leave a comment.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Welcome to 'SCC' Blog!
Hi !
Welcome to 'Supply Chain Complexity & Sustainability' blog.
This blog aims to reflect novel and innovative achievments in supply chains, sustainability, as well as science of complexity.
It also considers to advance the research and practice of supply chain management as well as sustainable development by applying novel perspectives, methods, tools and thinking from the science of complexity.
Welcome to 'Supply Chain Complexity & Sustainability' blog.
This blog aims to reflect novel and innovative achievments in supply chains, sustainability, as well as science of complexity.
It also considers to advance the research and practice of supply chain management as well as sustainable development by applying novel perspectives, methods, tools and thinking from the science of complexity.
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