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Supply Chain Networks
Shabani, A.
2020
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Shabani, A. (2020). Supply Chain Networks: Quantitative Models for Measuring Performance.
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Supply Chain Networks:
Quantitative Models for Measuring Performance
Reading committee:
prof.dr. René de Koster prof.dr. Leen Stougie prof.dr. Mehdi Toloo prof.dr.ir Daniele Vigo dr. Martine Cools
The book is printed by Drukkerij Haveka which also formatted the cover. The illus-tration on the front cover is made by Rasool Motamedi Rad by adopting icons from
freepik.com.
This dissertation is number 49 in the ABRI series. ISBN 978 90 361 0604 7
© A. Shabani, 2020
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm or any other means, without permission from the author.
Acknowledgements
Completing this thesis, a product of 1.494806e+17 nanoseconds (0.0474 century) of work, I feel indebted to ten thousands of people who have greatly inspired and sup-ported me during my interstellar Ph.D. journey at VU Amsterdam. I am not going to name and thank all those people in this short (at least to my taste) acknowledgment, but only those without whom I would not have been able to end this adventure.
First and foremost, my sincere appreciation goes to my advisors Wout and Gábor. This thesis would not have seen the light of day without your generous support of my research. Wout, thank you for inviting me to your department, supervising my thesis, and letting me grow up beside your fantastic team. I have greatly benefited from your knowledgeable comments, right guidance at hard times, and wonderful suggestions along the way. It was a great pleasure working with you. Gábor, special thanks for your continuous scientific and spiritual support, refreshing insight, and critical questions during my research. I will never forget our 10–minute Friday’s discussions lasting +7 hours, your witty remarks turning me into screaming laughter, and your excellent description of the second law of thermodynamics. I really enjoyed our meetings and have already missed them.
Besides my advisors, I am so grateful to the chair and members of the reading committee for investing time to read my dissertation, provide constructive suggestions, and to give their approval of my work.
Furthermore, I want to express my gratitude to my co-authors, who contributed to different chapters of this thesis. Special thanks go to Sander for his insightful comments and valuable technical advice on two chapters of my thesis. Sander, this thesis would not have materialized without your guidance. I also had an excellent opportunity to know and collaborate with Daniele, Franco, and Paolo from the University of Bologna. Thank you for all your generous support leading to my first Ph.D. publication. I am also very much obliged to my former supervisor, Reza, who introduced me to the efficiency analysis topic. Reza, it has been an honor working with you in several research projects, and I would not have considered pursuing a Ph.D. without your inspiring guidance. For this, I want to express my gratitude.
I would also like to thank the former and current members of the Department of Supply Chain Analytics of the VU Amsterdam. They have made my Ph.D. candidacy an unforgettable experience. Special thank goes to my fellow PhDs Annelieke, Christos, Dung, Florian, Julian, Maaike, Marije, Michael, Mozhgan, Nienke, Nurmala, Roman, and Rosario. I cherish the time I spent with all of you in Amsterdam, for outings
Acknowledgements
and dinners, and all lunch discussions on many different topics. I appreciate the good moments we had sharing funny and smart jokes and the difficult and trying times we endured during our projects. I am also thankful to Yousef, Claudio, David, Denise, Dirk, Florence, Markus, Nadja, Pascal, Roberto, Rodrigo, Said, and Sophia for sharing your wisdom and experience. It has been a great pleasure to work and learn from you! I want to give my sincerest gratitude to my cool friend, Majid. Thank you for your constant encouragement and positive energy during our weekend Skype calls. I am so happy and proud of having such an exceptional and fantastic friend like you. Another big thank you to my excellent friends Seyed Esmaeal and Elham. Your unwavering support had started before I arrived in the Netherlands, and it is still current. We have a lot of sweet memories in common, and I am looking forward to having more and more in the future.
A special thank you goes to all my wonderful, former and current Netherlands-based, Iranian and Afghan friends who have supported me along the way and made my life pleasant: Mojdeh and Hussein, Golnaz and Abolfazl, Maryam and Mohammad, Madarjan Fooziyeh, Soodabeh and Arash, Sabereh and Hadi, Parisa and Farhad, Samira and Mahdi, Mostafa, Fereshteh and Yaser, Zahra and Hussein, Marzi and Hodjat, and Sherifeh. Thanks for your great companionship and support over the last years.
I want to express my most profound appreciation to my family: my brave and selfless mother, Tarlan, my amazingly wise father, Ramezan Ali (in memory), and my lovely, cool, kind brothers and sisters for supporting me spiritually despite the long geographical distance during my research time abroad. A special word of thanks goes to my thoughtful mother-in-law and father-in-law for enduring years away from their dear daughter and granddaughter for my scientific ambitions. I am most thankful.
At the beginning of the second year of my Ph.D., my little princess came to my life and turned it into something more beautiful and meaningful. Yas, you are the sweetest melody and the brightest ray of light in my life. Thank you for being the best thing that ever happened to me and for being the source of my energy to pursue this adventure to the end.
Saving the best for the last, I cannot express enough how fortunate I am with the unceasing love and support of Fatima. Looking back at my Ph.D., I see you genuinely shoulder to shoulder with me during this journey. Whenever I was feeling sad and lonely, whenever I was feeling low and lost, and whenever I felt like nothing is happening despite all my best efforts, you were the person who could make it all better. You always knew the right words to say. Thank you for being my source of strength, for being so supportive in all circumstances throughout the years of this Ph.D., for understanding the stress I was subject to, for having sacrificed your time for me, and for giving me the freedom to follow my scientific interests unconditionally. I could not have accomplished this without your constant love and support. With a lot of love, I dedicate this book to you.
Amir Shabani May 2020, Amsterdam
