Supply Chain Performance: Collaboration, Alignment and Coordination

Citation

Waheed, Z. (2012), "Supply Chain Performance: Collaboration, Alignment and Coordination", Facilities, Vol. 30 No. 3/4, pp. 177-178. https://doi.org/10.1108/02632771211202888

Firms tend to have complicated forms of dependencies with their suppliers and with companies for whom they supply goods and services. Because of these dependencies, firms remain vulnerable to risks unless there are strong mechanisms in place that create trust, build positive mutual dependencies and make the co‐ordination of activities with suppliers easier. This holds true for the service sector (including the FM service sector) as well as the manufacturing sector.

The issues surrounding these dependencies and the nature of relationships between the various firms in the supply chain is the focus of Supply Chain Performance: Collaboration, Alignment and Coordination. The book is a collection of ten chapters presenting the research output from two European research projects on supply chain management. These two projects brought together more than fifty researchers from seven research laboratories and six practitioners from four companies. The book is truly reflective of this diversity of input. It presents a wide range of issues surrounding supply chain co‐ordination and the use of appropriate technology. Despite the diversity of ideas, these empirical findings are presented in a highly readable and coherent collection.

The book is divided into three parts: part one focuses on the collaborative practices themselves (information sharing, industrial practices); part two on the use of information systems in the collaboration process; and part three on the co‐ordination mechanisms (behaviours, trust, uncertainty and demand information sharing) that are contextually important in order for such collaborative processes to develop. The chapters within each of these parts further cover a specific aspect of the bigger theme. The contributions are crisp; the arguments are presented logically; and never is the primary focus of the collection lost (which sometimes tends to be the case in similar collections of research output). Chapters in one part of the book create linkages to other parts while chapters within each part build up on issues raised in the prior.

Firms need to continually evaluate their FM supply chain strategy as much as their product/process supply chain strategy in order to satisfy their various internal and external stakeholders. This book is probably a better addition to the supply chain researcher's repertoire (rather than the practitioner's) given its academic nature. It nevertheless brings together significant streams of thought regarding supply chain co‐ordination, and this makes it a good read for anyone wishing to increase their understanding of the mechanisms and tools surrounding supply chain management.