{"id":101828,"date":"2025-04-25T15:41:02","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T15:41:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=101828"},"modified":"2025-04-25T16:25:24","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T16:25:24","slug":"flows-reimagined-how-uri-scholars-are-reshaping-supply-chain-flows-concept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2025\/04\/flows-reimagined-how-uri-scholars-are-reshaping-supply-chain-flows-concept\/","title":{"rendered":"Flows Reimagined: How 溏心vlog免费B站 scholars are reshaping supply chain flows concept"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mehmet Yalcin, associate professor of supply chain management in the College of Business at the 溏心vlog免费B站. (Credit: Muhammad Ashraf)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 25, 2025 \u2013 Whether it\u2019s empty shelves<\/a> at the grocery store or delayed holiday packages<\/a>, disruptions in the flow of goods impact everyday life. But when shelves go bare, it\u2019s not just goods that are missing\u2014it can also signal a shortage of truck drivers, grounded aircrafts, or broken processes behind the scenes. What if our understanding of what \u201cflows\u201d through a supply chain has been too narrow all along?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That question sparked a major research effort by Muhammad Hasan Ashraf<\/a>, a former doctoral student at the 溏心vlog免费B站, and his advisor, Mehmet G. Yalcin<\/a>, a research-active faculty of supply chain management in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s College of Business<\/a>. Together, they examined the most foundational element in supply chain management: the concept of \u201cflow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Muhammad Hasan Ashraf, assistant professor of management in the College of Business at California State University Long Beach. (Credit: Muhammad Ashraf)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cOne of our jobs as scholars is to try to ask questions that other folks aren’t asking, and to provide value by working to develop solutions based on what we learn,\u201d said Yalcin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At its most basic level, \u201csupply chain flows\u201d refer to the forward and backward movement of products, materials, and finances through the supply chain. However, this conventional understanding is exactly what Ashraf and Yalcin challenged; arguing that it offers a constrained and suboptimal view. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need these flows for the supply chains to operate,\u201d says Ashraf, who is now a tenure-track faculty member at California State University Long Beach. \u201cHowever, we felt like there was an opportunity following COVID-19 to expand boundaries and explore other flows that hadn\u2019t been recognized before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea began to take shape while Ashraf was working on a separate project examining tensions in the U.S. logistics industry. As he observed the COVID-19 pandemic disrupt global supply chains, it became clear that the breakdown wasn\u2019t solely due to disruption in the flow of materials, it was also a result of halted human movement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile goods were sitting in warehouses and systems were still running, it was clear something else was missing,\u201d says Ashraf. \u201cThat \u2018something\u2019 was people. We realized human flow is just as critical\u2014 and it was being completely overlooked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ashraf brought this insight to Yalcin, questioning why human movement wasn\u2019t formally recognized as a supply chain flow and whether other critical flows might be missing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Yalcin already had a hunch about human flow through his prior work in humanitarian logistics, he realized this presented a golden opportunity to acknowledge and recognize human flow as essential (immigration, labor markets). To their surprise, they also found that the field of supply chain management had never actually defined what a \u201csupply chain flow\u201d is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a shared passion for advancing supply chain theory,\u201d says Ashraf. \u201cAnd we realized that this question of \u2018what is a flow?\u2019\u2014is where that work needs to begin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the supervision of Yalcin, Ashraf pursued this line of inquiry as part of his doctoral dissertation\u2014work that is now published in The International Journal of Logistics Management<\/em><\/a>. Their research introduces a new framework called SCFLOWS (see below), which redefines how supply chain flows are understood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 1:<\/strong> SCFLOW framework (Ashraf et al, 2024<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To develop the framework, they employed a rigorous multi-method approach including in-depth interviews and other qualitative assessments with logistics professionals, supply chain scholars, and senior executives from the airline industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the framework, Ashraf and Yalcin were better able to define supply chain flows and expand the original concept. They were able to identify seven different dimensions of supply chain flow:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.<\/strong>    Boundary <\/strong>\u2013 Defines the limits within the supply chain network.
2.<\/strong>    Location <\/strong>\u2013 Encompasses nodes, and links within the network.
3.<\/strong>    Components <\/strong>\u2013 Differentiates between resources, and elements. 
4.<\/strong>    Direction <\/strong>\u2013 Includes unidirectional, bidirectional and multidirectional flows.
5.<\/strong>    Activity <\/strong>\u2013 Covers movement\/transfer, exchange, sharing, storing, and transforming.
6.<\/strong>    Occurrence <\/strong>\u2013 Addresses continuous, temporary, interrupted and seasonal flows.
7.<\/strong>    Impact<\/strong> \u2013 Evaluates the valuable or non-valuable impact of flows<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most notably, their research proposes two additional flows that have long been overlooked: human<\/strong> and capital equipment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we shared the framework with airline executives, they helped us identify what was missing,\u201d Ashraf explains. \u201cAircrafts were grounded not because of unavailable parts or faulty data\u2014but because there were no pilots [human]. Similarly, cargo movement was stalled due to a shortage of trucks [capital equipment] and delivery drivers [human]. These are real, critical flows.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their work represents a significant step in building supply chain management theory by introducing new dimensions and flows. According to Yalcin, the framework has the potential to reshape how supply chain management is taught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese research studies\u2014and this is important to note\u2014end up in textbooks,\u201d says Yalcin. \u201cSo, in 10 years what we’re looking at right now will probably end up being distilled into a supply chain textbook.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a world where empty shelves and delayed packages signal far more than missing goods, Ashraf and Yalcin\u2019s work offers a timely and necessary shift in thinking. By broadening what we recognize as flowing through a supply chain, their work will help organizations better anticipate disruptions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cOur goal is to help supply chain managers and organizations think more holistically.\u201d says Ashraf. \u201cIf we can understand what really flows\u2014and what needs to flow\u2014for supply chains to work, we\u2019re in a better position to make them resilient.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In highlighting the utility of the framework, Yalcin adds \u201cThere is a supply chain in everything and as academics and managers we all are better equipped to describe, evaluate and also manage them with the SCFLOWS.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 25, 2025 \u2013 Whether it\u2019s empty shelves at the grocery store or delayed holiday packages, disruptions in the flow of goods impact everyday life. But when shelves go bare, it\u2019s not just goods that are missing\u2014it can also signal a shortage of truck drivers, grounded aircrafts, or broken processes behind the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":101831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101828"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101836,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101828\/revisions\/101836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}