Mapping supply chain strategy: an industry analysis
Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management
ISSN: 1741-038X
Article publication date: 1 April 2014
Abstract
Purpose
In manufacturing industries, the levels of inventories at all stages (i.e. raw material, work-in-process and finished goods inventories) indicate the firm's competitive positioning, strategies, internal processes and relationships with suppliers and downstream customers. The authors identify patterns of manufacturing industries based on levels of raw material and finished goods inventories to classify inbound and outbound supply chain strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors review literature on supply chain inventory strategy and perform cluster analysis to analyze patterns of manufacturing industries based on manufacturing industry data collected from US Census of Bureau. Following Porter's Five Forces Model, the authors perform in-depth case studies of four representative industries to analyze factors driving supply chain strategies, including industry intensity of rivalry, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes, bargaining power of suppliers, and bargaining power of buyers.
Findings
This study identifies three streams of research on supply chain strategy: Fisher's model and its variations, lean and agile paradigms, and push/pull systems. It finds that whether an industry shows low or high raw materials or finished goods inventories depending on its products, processes, and the dynamics of all forces described in the Five Forces Model.
Research limitations/implications
This study is not able to include supplier selection, production strategies, warehousing and distribution, and even product design into the analysis of supply chain strategy due to data limitation. This study classifies industries based on average inventory levels of raw materials and finished goods, while inventory levels and supply chain strategies for specific firms may vary significantly within each industry.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the supply chain management literature by providing a parsimonious framework of mapping inbound and outbound supply chain inventory strategies, and the results based on the analyses of all US manufacturing industries provide a baseline picture for supply chain management professionals with manufacturing firms.
Keywords
Citation
Nag, B., Han, C. and Yao, D.-q. (2014), "Mapping supply chain strategy: an industry analysis", Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 351-370. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMTM-06-2012-0062
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited