In order to beat the competition, access new markets, and respect operational, social, and environmental constraints, enterprises establish collaborations with many other business entities. Furthermore, with costs and information sharing, organizations have the opportunity to optimize their logistics activities. However, each enterprise has its own objectives and typically makes its own planning decisions to meet these objectives. Therefore, it becomes crucial to determine how business entities will work together as well as the value of the collaboration. Specifically, it is necessary to identify how logistics activities will be planned and executed, who will take the leadership of the collaboration, and how benefits will be shared. In this article, we explain how to efficiently build and manage inter-firm relationships. Moreover, we propose five coordination mechanisms that contribute to ensure information sharing, the coordination of logistics activities, and the sharing of benefits. Case studies are used to demonstrate the utility of the framework. decision-making process and ensure the stability of the relationship. Partners will typically be ready to collaborate if they can obtain greater benefits than those obtained individually. Therefore, it becomes crucial to determine how to build and manage collaborations efficiently, as well as how to share benefits equitably to ensure the long-term stability of the collaboration. In particular, it is necessary to determine which entity or entities should lead the relationship, what are the specific objectives, and which information should be shared to support the collaboration. It is also essential to identify the value of the collaboration as well as how benefits will be shared.In this paper, we explore how to build and manage profitable logistics collaborations (Fig. 1). Specifically, we first explain the main stages for building an inter-firm relationship, namely the objectives to reach, the organization of the collaboration to implement, and the partners to select. We then describe how to manage collaborations in order to ensure profitable long-term relationships. Therefore, different types of leadership are examined. Five generic coordination mechanisms (CMs) are also proposed to support information sharing, the planning and execution of logistics activities, and benefit sharing. These mechanisms aim to help managers in designing their collaboration schemes. Moreover, the nature of the information to share and the tools to implement so as to support the partnership are analyzed. Finally, we present three case studies that show how enterprises have implemented logistics collaborations in practice and we relate these case studies to the generic CMs proposed. Some concluding remarks conclude the paper.

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Steel and concrete are traditionally used as structural materials for nonresidential and multi-housing buildings. However, wood can meet the same structural property requirements, and a variety of multi-story buildings have recently been built all over the world using this key material. In this study, the main motivations and barriers to wood adoption for structural uses in non-residential buildings are highlighted, based on an analysis of grey literature concerning some well-known buildings and on scientific literature. The motivations found were linked to sustainability, lack of expertise, costs, rapidity of erection, and aesthetic of wooden structures. In contrast, the barriers preventing its use encompass building code implementation, technology transfer, costs, material durability and other technical aspects, culture of the industry, and material availability. Furthermore, an analysis of nonresidential timber building meeting minutes for nine projects is also presented to support the identification of problems and concerns related to site assembly issues, the conception of the building, the scheduling, and stakeholders' relationships. With a better understanding of the expectations and challenges concerning wood usage in non-residential construction projects, companies will be able to adapt their business models and use the resource even more in the future to develop innovative structures. Keywords: Non-residential buildings; Timber buildings; Structural material; Motivations; BarriersContact information : a: CIRCERB, Pavillon Gene-H.-Kruger, 2425, Rue de la Terrasse, Québec, Québec, G1V 0A6, Canada; b: CIRRELT, Pavillon André Aisenstadt, bureau 3520, 2920, Chemin de la Tour, Montréal, Québec, H3T 1J4, Canada; *Corresponding author: pierre.blanchet@sbf.ulaval.ca INTRODUCTIONThe construction industry in Canada employs more than 1.3 million workers, making it the fifth-largest employer of the country and accounting for 7.3% of jobs among all industries (StatisticsCanada 2016). In the Province of Quebec, it also accounts for investments worth approximately $45.4 billion in 2014, representing 12% of Quebec's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It creates 257,800 direct jobs on average every month, accounting for one out of 20 jobs in the province, without counting the thousands in related sectors (CCQ 2016). Indeed, the construction industry is closely linked to the forest products industry, which is a $58 billion dollar a year industry that represents 2% of Canada's GDP. The industry is one of Canada's largest employers, operating in 200 forest-dependent communities from coast to coast, and directly employing 230,000 Canadians across the country (FPAC 2016).A more intensive use of wood in non-residential buildings would create a stronger demand for engineered wood products, resulting in a positive impact for job creation in the forest industry across Canada. While in recent years there has been an inclination PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLE bioresources.com Gosselin et al. (2017). "Wood for large buildings," BioResource...

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Hospitals, as the main customers of medications, typically adopt conservative inventory control policies by keeping large quantities of drugs in stock. Given the perishable nature of medications, such strategies lead to the expiration of excess inventory in the absence of patients' demand. Consequently, producers are faced with governmental penalties and environmental reputation forfeit due to the negative impact that disposing expired medications pose to the environment. This article aims to improve the sustainability of a pharmaceutical supply chain using a real case study. An analytical model is proposed to explore the effect of implementing a Vendor-Managed Inventory (VMI) system in minimizing the quantity of the expired medications at hospitals. Further, a set of Monte-Carlo simulation tests are conducted to investigate the robustness of the VMI model under demand uncertainty. Experimental results on a real case study under deterministic demand show the efciency of the VMI model in eliminating the amount of expired medications without compromising customer's satisfaction. The results also demonstrate that the safety stock (SS) level and the capacity assigned to the customer are crucial factors in the overall cost of the pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC). The PSC cost could be reduced by 19% when reducing the SS level by 50%. Moreover, the producer is recommended to increase the capacity assigned to the customer by a factor of 1.5 so as to fully satisfy the customer's demand. Finally, the simulation results conrm the efciency and robustness of embracing a VMI system under random demand scenarios. More precisely, zero amount of expired medications is obtained in 93% of cases. Thus, adopting this strategy could minimize drug wastage and ultimately improve the reputation of the producer in the market in terms of implementing Lean and sustainable practices.