Search results

The purpose of this paper is to differentiate the empowering influences of critical enablers of supply chain management (SCM) along with their interrelationships. These empowering enablers are significant, as they encourage productive execution to improve organizational performance and stakeholder's satisfaction.

From the literature review, incidence of a number of SCM enablers were found and they were subjected to critical scrutiny by a considerable number of experts engaged in SCM research and application to identify significant and applicable empowering enablers by grounded interactions. By using Impact Matrix Cross-Reference Multiplication Applied to a Classification analysis, the driving and dependence power were analyzed and the empowering enablers were ordered. This was pursued by building up a structural model of the empowering enablers using interpretive structure modeling, followed with measuring cause–effect relationship using decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL).

Among these identified enablers of SCM, operational performance, green SCM, employee empowerment and motivation and strategic association came out to be strategic enablers.

The findings may help the practicing professionals to develop clarity in understanding of these essential enablers and their contextual as well as cause–effect relationship in SCM. The practicing professionals need to focus on all these enablers during implementation of SCM for enhancing the organizational performance and stake holders' satisfaction.

This study is of practical utility in real-life implementation of SCM. The algorithm used in applying the multi-criteria decision-making approach is very user-friendly, and the application of DEMATEL is an innovation compared to previous research. Further, the findings can be used as a benchmark for improving the performance of SCM by considering the cause–effect relationship.

Increasingly, private sector companies are aiming to buy and supply products and services in a sustainable way, termed “sustainable supply chain management” (sustainable SCM), using purchasing and supply to reduce negative impacts on the environment, economy and society. There is often a gap between rhetoric and reality, with companies often accused of paying green lip service to sustainable SCM. This research aims to explore sustainable SCM issues in companies that have been recognized as leaders in their sectors, and investigate what factors influence sustainable SCM, and how practice might change in the future.

Current practice in sustainable SCM and predictions for the future were explored in case studies of seven UK companies, through semi‐structured interviews with purchasers and CSR practitioners, and secondary data collection from reports and websites. Sectors included aerospace, retail, pharmaceuticals, and food and drink.

Companies were mapped onto a typology of approaches to sustainable SCM, based on internal and external enablers and barriers. Companies were classified as Internal focusers, Reserved players, External responders, and Agenda setters. Predictions for the future of sustainable SCM within the companies were also explored.

The typology could be further explored through a survey of firms from different sectors, and with firms not seen as leading in their field.

The paper draws on contingency theory and existing sustainable SCM literature to develop a typology of approaches to sustainable SCM. The paper draws useful lessons from leading companies for practitioners seeking to implement sustainable SCM.

To make their supply chains more socially responsible, many companies are implementing supplier assessment tools and collaborative practices. The aim of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review on the governance structures used to extend sustainability to suppliers. More specifically, the authors aim to answer two questions: “What is the impact of these mechanisms or governance structures on sustainable performance?” and “What are the enablers of these mechanisms?”.

A structured literature review is carried out that analyses published studies, evaluates contributions, summarises knowledge and identifies managerial implications and lines for further research.

Both assessment and collaboration have a positive impact on environmental performance and corporate social responsibility, although the most recent collaborative paradigm stresses that assessment alone is not enough. Some enablers of these practices are identified.

Although the authors believe that the right search terms have been used, the choice of these terms could be a limitation of this study. Also, the selection of the articles could be considered subjective, although the papers were reviewed by two researchers.

Supplier assessment and collaboration are effective in improving sustainability. However, the results also indicate that assessment alone is not enough. Firms also need to adopt a collaborative approach. Finally, a list of enablers to implement these practices is provided.

The paper summarises knowledge related to the impact of supplier assessment and collaboration on sustainability, and describes the enablers of such initiatives, providing some managerial implications and lines for further research.

Several studies have underlined the potential of supply chain management (SCM) in meeting the formidable challenges associated with fragmentation, adversarial relationships and insufficient customer focus in the delivery of construction projects. However, properly documented examples of successfully implemented SCM initiatives, particularly at the lower tiers of the supply chain, are scarce. The purpose of this paper is to extend the existing debates by adopting an alternative approach focusing specifically on the internal SCM organisation of both main contractor and subcontractor organisations, and their direct inter-relationships.

This study sets out to explore the enablers and barriers to the implementation of SCM at the lower tiers of the construction supply chain, particularly the problematic collaboration between main contractors and subcontractors. SC maturity levels are formulated according to relevant SCM concepts and based on Holti et al.’s (2000) seven principles of SCM organisation, and transformed into a conceptual model. An explorative study is conducted based on interviews from eight large main contractor and subcontractor organisations in the Dutch construction industry.

Discouragingly, across the organisations, more barriers than enablers to SCM are identified. Organisations are found to be particularly struggling to compete through superior value, manage costs collaboratively, and develop continuous improvement within their supply chains. The findings also underline the low SC maturity of main contractors and their inability to play the essential role of supply chain managers.

The study underlines the need for a greater degree of main contractor leadership and improved internal organisation of both types of firms in order to achieve greater collaboration at the lower tiers of the construction supply chain.

The study contributes to the subject of SCM in construction in two respects. First, the findings should prove valuable to both policy-makers and industry practitioners interested in the delivery of performance improvement in construction. Second, the developed SC maturity model can form the conceptual basis for the development of an applicable improvement framework towards successful SCM implementation.

The vision of Industry 4.0 concept is to create smart factories that will change the current processes of production and manufacturing system using smart machines to produce smart and intelligent products. The main aim of this research is to explore the enablers with regard to Industry 4.0 application in manufacturing industry in India as the available literature shows that manufacturing sector is still doubtful about the implementation of Industry 4.0.

Seventeen enablers that can affect the adoption of Industry 4.0 in the manufacturing industry in India have been explored through an extensive review of available literature and viewpoints of industry and academic experts. Total Interpretive Structural Modelling methodology (TISM) has been used to evaluate the interrelationships among these factors. A TISM model has been developed to extract the key enablers influencing Industry 4.0 adoption.

The result shows that Internet facility from government at reduced price, financial support and continued specialized skills training are the major enablers as they have strong driving power.

Proper understanding of these enablers will help the managers and policymakers to explore the impact of each enabler on other enablers as well as the degree of relationships among them and to take concrete steps so that Industry 4.0 can be implemented successfully in the manufacturing sector in India.

This study is pioneer in exploring the enablers Industry 4.0 which is the most advanced concept that has the capability to change the future of Indian manufacturing sector if implemented judiciously and cautiously.

The purpose of this study is to understand the concept of “Low Code No Code” applications and study its scope of application for web designing, rapid application development (RAD) and supply chain digitization (SCD).

A qualitative exploratory study was conducted for this exploratory study. A semi-structured open-ended questionnaire was prepared by the authors. Based on the questionnaire in-depth interviews were conducted with subject matter experts having more than 10 years of experience in the domain of supply chain management and digitization. The study questionnaire focused on the current reach and future potential of “Low Code No Code” platforms. A total of 20 responses were collected from experts as post this point thematic saturation was reached. A non-probabilistic convenience sampling was applied to identify the experts The data was content analyzed for themes.

The major findings that emerged from the study was that “Low Code No Code” platforms applications could be used across end-to-end SCD. The study also revealed that RAD through “Low Code No Code” platforms could reduce organizations dependency on coders. In the case of procurement, “Low Code No Code” applications could improve vendor and supplier management by streamlining processes. The cost-effective and easy-to-maintain “Low Code No Code” application development could help Medium and Small-Scale Enterprises level the playing field against large organizations. The lack of adoption strategy and low perceived usefulness was identified as major barriers to the adoption of “Low Code No Code” applications by organizations.

“Low Code No Code” application-based automation would enable better utilization of organizational supply chain (SC) resources and capabilities. This would improve the sustainability performance of the firm. Furthermore, it would also enable the provision of SC services at a lower cost level, thus benefiting customers.

“Low Code No Code” application-based automation would help organizations to reduce the dependency on coders and Information Technology developers SCD. This could also allow SC managers to make more apps to be built in less time without the need of complex coding. This could potentially reduce app development costs toward digitizing SCs.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this was one of the very first studies regarding how “Low Code No Code” applications could revolutionize the SC using these app development capabilities. This study also provided an extensive study of Diffusion of Innovations and Technological Organizational Theory frameworks for in the context of “Low Code No Code” technology adoption.

The aim of this study is to identify and prioritize a list of key digitization enablers that can improve supply chain management (SCM). SCM is an important driver for organization's competitive advantage. The fierce competition in the market has forced companies to look the past conventional decision-making process, which is based on intuition and previous experience. The swift evolution of information technologies (ITs) and digitization tools has changed the scenario for many industries, including those involved in SCM.

The Best Worst Method (BWM) has been applied to evaluate, rank and prioritize the key digitization and IT enablers beneficial for the improvement of SC performance. The study also used additive value function to rank the organizations on their SC performance with respect to digitization enablers.

The total of 25 key enablers have been identified and ranked. The results revealed that “big data/data science skills”, “tracking and localization of products” and “appropriate and feasibility study for aiding the selection and adoption of big data technologies and techniques ” are the top three digitization and IT enablers that organizations need to focus much in order to improve their SC performance. The study also ranked the SC performance of the organizations based on digitization enablers.

The findings of this study will help the organizations to focus on certain digitization technologies in order to improve their SC performance. This study also provides an original framework for organizations to rank the key digitization enablers according to enablers relevant in their context and also to compare their performance with their counterparts.

This study seems to be the first of its kind in which 25 digitization enablers categorized in four main categories are ranked using a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) tool. This study is also first of its kind in ranking the organizations in their SC performance based on weights/ranks of digitization enablers.

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual model that defines the essential components shaping the new Digital Supply Chains (DSCs) through the implementation and acceleration of Industry 4.0.

The scope of the present work exposes a conceptual approach and review of the key literature from 1989 to 2019, concerning the evolution and transformation of the actors and constructs in logistics and Supply Chain Management (SCM) by means of examining different conceptual models and a state-of-the-art review of Industry 4.0’s concepts and elements, with a focus on digitization in supply chain (SC) processes. A detailed study of the constructs and components of SCM, as defined by their authors, resulted in the development of a referential and systematic model that fuses the inherent concepts and roles of SCM, with the new technological trends directed toward digitization, automation, and the increasing use of information and communication technologies across logistics global value chains.

Having achieved an exploration of the different conceptual frameworks, there is no compelling evidence of the existence of a conceptual SCM that incorporates the basic theoretical constructs and the new roles and elements of Industry 4.0. Therefore, the main components of Industry 4.0 and their impact on DSC Management are described, driving the proposal for a new conceptual model which addresses and accelerates a vision of the future of the interconnectivity between different DSCs, grouped in clusters in order to add value, through new forms of cooperation and digital integration.

This research explores the gap in the current SCM models leading into Industry 4.0. The proposed model provides a novel and comprehensive overview of the new concepts and components driving the nascent and current DSCs. This conceptual framework will further aid researchers in the exploration of knowledge regarding the variables and components presented, as well as the verification of the newly revealed roles and constructs to understand the new forms of cooperation and implementation of Industry 4.0 in digitalized SCs.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, analyze and orient the enablers of Six Sigma to enhance supplier capability for an Indian manufacturing supply chain (SC).

In total, nine enablers of Six Sigma were identified through an extensive literature review and discussion held with managers/senior managers in different Indian manufacturing companies. The interpretative structural modeling (ISM) approach is applied to the Indian auto ancillary company for developing and analyzing the structural framework of enablers to enhance the supplier capability.

The enablers such as top management commitment and leadership, supply chain management, standardization, training and education, human resource management and project selection and execution methodology of Six Sigma related to supplier capability have emerged as the prominent enablers, which are driving force in the system for the Indian manufacturing SC.

This study is restricted to only one Indian manufacturing company. Therefore, the outcomes of the study should not be generalized. Further studies may be carried out for several Indian manufacturing industries to get a more comprehensive implementation approach, their validity and their variation across the different industries.

The simplicity and clarity of the proposed structural framework of Six Sigma helps in the identification and orientation of enablers for the successful implementation of Six Sigma in the SC. The proposed structural framework can be applied to different manufacturing SCs by allowing managers to structure the enablers considering their unique implementation constraints, which can reflect their priority considerations.

The study goes beyond the conceptual discussion of supplier capability issues. The supplier capability cannot be seen as a standalone approach irrespective of the constraints from the supplier domain as it is in synchronization with the entire SC performance. The enablers and their orientation with respect to the SC are providing a unique contribution toward supplier management planning. The outcomes from the proposed structural framework are used for developing action plans for organization “A” or other organizations to build suitable supplier capability in the SC.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the supply chain management enablers (SCMEs) and establish relationships among them using interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and find out driving and dependence power of enablers, using fuzzy MICMAC (Matriced' Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée á un Classement) analysis.

A group of experts from industries and academics was consulted and ISM is used to develop the contextual relationship among various SCMEs for each dimension of SCM implementation. The results of ISM are used as an input to fuzzy MICMAC analysis, to identify the driving and dependence power of SCMEs.

This paper has identified 24 key SCMEs and developed an integrated model using ISM and the fuzzy MICMAC approach, which is helpful to identify and classify the important SCMEs and reveal the direct and indirect effects of each SCME on the SCM implementation. The integrated approach is developed, since the ISM model provides only binary relationship among SCMEs, while fuzzy MICMAC analysis provides precise analysis related to driving and dependence power of SCMEs.

The weightage for ISM model development and fuzzy MICMAC are obtained through the judgment of academicians and a few industry experts. It is only subjective judgment and any biasing by the person who is judging the SCMEs might influence the final result. A questionnaire survey can be conducted to catch the insight on these SCMEs from more organizations.

This study has strong practical implications, for both practitioners as well as academicians. The practitioners need to concentrate on identified SCMEs more cautiously during SCM implementation in their organizations and the top management could formulate strategy for implementing these enablers obtained through ISM and fuzzy MICMAC analysis.

This is first kind of study to identify 24 SCMEs and further, to deploy ISM and fuzzy MICMAC to identify and classify the key SCMEs that influence SCM implementation in the organization.