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This research provides a literature review in the field of uncertainty dampening methods for manufacturing systems, and proposes a new model to improve materials management effectiveness in materials requirements planning environments. The literature review gives rise to a classification framework of the models along nine structural dimensions that refer to the safety buffer treatment, the environmental characteristics and the type of approach. On the basis of the classification framework, the proposed model provides guidelines for approaching the problem of dimensioning, positioning and managing safety stocks against demand uncertainty. The effectiveness of the proposed model has been tested by comparing it to the traditional approach, through a computer‐based simulation.

Supply chain management (SCM) is explored from an operational perspective, following a threefold approach. The article introduces a set of management techniques and supporting tools that can be used to analyse and describe SCM strategies. It proposes a new normative tool and uses it to examine a large set of relevant SCM case studies pertaining to seven industries: apparel, automobile, grocery, white goods, pharmaceuticals, computers and book publishing. The article develops a new conceptual framework for SCM strategies and test it based on empirical evidence. The new schemes proposed here provide a normative tool to define and represent supply chain strategies, a contingency model to support managers in designing supply chain strategies, and some hints for further research.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the role of organizational and cultural tools to increase supply chain security within the intermodal rail and road industry. Three main research questions are set, regarding: what organizational and cultural tools are used by companies within the intermodal rail and road industry; how these tools impact on security performance; and what environmental factors trigger the use of each tool.

In total, 13 companies within the intermodal rail and road industry have been studied in detail through in-depth case studies.

Results suggest that organizational and cultural tools impact positively on supply chain security, by reducing collusion and both operative and planning mistakes. In particular, such tools mitigate the effect of lack of cooperation and communication between partners and of inadequate partners.

Results point out that the ability of organizational and cultural tools to increase supply chain security has not been fully exploited yet. Tools to mitigate the negative effects on security of inadequacy of partners are not popular or they are not considered as powerful enough, despite it has been highlighted as the most relevant causal factor of lack of security.

This paper introduces a thorough overview of the effects of cultural and organizational tools on supply chain security and a detailed study of these tools in the area of intermodal rail-and-road transport.

The purpose of this paper is to theorise and develop seven dimensions (strategic supplier partnership, level of information sharing, quality of information sharing, customer service management, internal lean practices, postponement and total quality management) into a supply chain management (SCM) practices (SCMPs) construct and studies its causal relationship with the conceptualised constructs of supply chain performance (SCP) and manufacturing firms’ performance (MFP). The study also explores the causal relationship between SCP and MFP.

Data were collected through a survey questionnaire responded by 249 Jordanian manufacturing firms. The relationships proposed in the developed theoretical framework were represented through three hypotheses: H1 – there is a significant relationship between SCMPs and SCP; H2 – there is a significant relationship between SCMPs and MFP; and H3 – there is a significant relationship between SCP and MFP. Linear regression, ANOVA and Pearson correlation were used to test the hypotheses. The results were further validated using structural equation modelling.

The results indicate that SCMPs have a positive effect on SCP (H1), which in turn also positively affect MFP (H3). Despite this intermediary positive effect of SCMP on MFP through SCP, the study also suggests that SCMPs have a direct and positive effect on MFP (H2).

This study provides hard evidence indicating that higher levels of SCMPs can lead to enhanced supply chain and firms’ performance. It also provides SC managers of manufacturing firms with a multi-dimensional operational measure of the construct of SCMPs for assessing the comprehensiveness of the SCMPs of their firms.

This study is among the very first SCM researches conducted on the Jordanian manufacturing sector, particularly, in relation to the practices that manufacturing firms in this country need to adopt to make their supply chains a solid competitive vehicle for their development. The results have broader implications for all manufacturing companies, particularly in developing economies where the growth of manufacturing and the development of integrated supply chains are key stages in economic development.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between specific supply chain practices and organizational performance and whether this relationship is moderated by the role that a company assumes in its respective supply chain.

This paper uses regression analysis and the relative weights method to analyze a set of survey data from respondents within the non‐academic, North American membership of the Institute of Supply Management.

The results show that the supply chain role for a company makes a difference in terms of the specific supply chain practices that lead to better performance. Further, there is a clear indication that the relative importance of a specific practice varies across the supply chain roles thereby indicating that a general link between practice and performance may be erroneous without considering the specific context of the company concerned.

Supply chain practices are complex constructs. While this study shows the effect of broadly‐accepted supply chain practices on performance, not all possible practices are covered in the study. Additional practices not considered may have an effect on company performance and future research may improve upon the findings by extending the analysis to include an expanded segmentation of supply chain role.

The results of the study serve as a practical guideline for managers that not all practices would be effective for all companies. Managers must look at the role‐specific context of their organization in the supply chain before deciding which practices are likely to be appropriate.

This paper expands the current body of research in the supply chain area by examining the supply chain roles of manufacturer, distributor, retailer and service provider. This is a much broader construct than the more common dyadic treatment of a supply chain consisting only of a customer and supplier, and adds a new contextual dimension to supply chain research. In addition, service provider as a supply chain role has been hardly researched before.

This note explores the applicability of evaluation criteria to the problem of evaluating the supply chain strategy (SCS) of an organization. A discussion of SCS evaluation is relevant today, as the validity of the dominant approach – proposed two decades ago and based on matching types – has come into question. While evaluation criteria have a long history in other disciplines, they are new to SCS evaluation. To help supply chain (SC) scholars assess the applicability of evaluation criteria to SCS, this note proposes a tentative set of criteria and provides insights derived from the authors’ recent experience. We propose that the use of criteria for the evaluation of SCS may be a useful alternative, or at least a complement, to the dominant approach. These proposed criteria are currently being validated in a project with a company in Uruguay; we invite further empirical validation by third parties.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a practical method to elicit – in a manner grounded in fact – the “as is” supply chain strategy that a business unit currently has in place. It also proposes a framework to represent the supply chain strategy of a business unit in a clear and actionable manner.

A framework to represent the supply chain strategy of a business unit was developed through inductive theory generation. A method to elicit the current, “as is” supply chain strategy of a business unit was developed through collaborative management research projects and validated by several third-party projects.

In different projects – many conducted by third parties – the method was found to be a useful approach to elicit the “as is” supply chain strategy of a business unit. Practitioners found value in representing a supply chain strategy as a conceptual system serving as a logical bridge between the overall strategy and the supply chain operations of the business units.

The proposed framework may have limited scalability beyond a single business unit. The proposed method may be less useful when the supply chain strategy is undergoing a dramatic transformation, or when the participants from the company are either not fully engaged in the exercise or knowledgeable about the strategic rationale behind activities.

The paper provides an innovative approach to tap into the tacit knowledge of the organization to reveal the patterns of decisions underpinning its current supply chain strategy and to characterize the supply chain strategy of a business unit as a conceptual system.

The study aims to define a research agenda for creating resource-efficient supply chains (RESCs) by identifying and analysing their key characteristics as well as future research opportunities.

We follow a systematic review method to analyse the literature and to understand RESC, taking a substantive theory approach. Our approach is grounded in a specific domain, the agri-food sector, because it is an intensive user of an extensive range of resources.

The review shows that works of literature has looked at the use of resources primarily from the environmental impact perspective. There is a need to explore whether or not and how logistics/supply chain decisions will affect the overall configuration of future food supply chains in an era of resource scarcity and depletion and what the trade-offs will be.

The paper proposes an agenda for future research in the area of RESC. The framework proposed along with the key characteristics identified for RESC can be applied to other sectors.

Our research should facilitate further understanding of the implications and trade-offs of supply chain decisions taken on the use of resources by supply chain managers.

The paper explores the interaction between supply chains and natural resources and defines the key characteristics of RESC.

This paper aims to focus on the outsourcing facilities management (FM) services in small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs).

The paper employs a Define‐Measure‐Analyze‐Improve‐Control (DMAIC) methodology. A survey in Italy, a country quite representative when talking about SMEs, is first presented and evidence from the field is discussed. Stemming from the evidence, a road‐map is presented to overcome these criticalities and to support, also in SMEs, the diffusion of the outsourcing of the FM services, whose benefits in terms of higher efficiency and better service are already being experienced by larger companies. The proposed model is then validated through the extensive survey on small and medium‐sized Italian enterprises.

The survey shows that the current level of adoption of advanced outsourcing practices is very low: less than 5 percent of the companies in the sample resort to a single supplier delivering multiple FM services. The adoption rate of such practices is hence very low, and the survey has pointed out three different levels of causes: size‐related, cultural, and managerial.

The survey used in this paper is based on a questionnaire but does not consider non‐respondents. The database of companies provided by IFMA – Italian Chapter – could also possibly introduce bias.

Starting with the early recognition that the main problem in the field implementations of result‐oriented approaches lies in determining whether the expected results have been achieved and that two key tools are available (i.e. the service level agreement and the reporting system), the model suggests a new organizational and managerial structure, even simpler than the traditional (i.e. not integrated) approach. To design the kernel of the control system, DMAIC has been used, after a specific customization.

Results show a widespread outsourcing of the facilities‐related services in the larger organizations and some hurdles of the smaller ones in exploiting all the opportunities offered, so that – on average – the management of facilities‐related services represents an opportunity to exploit rather than an actually implemented methodology.

Only a few international contributions refer to local environments: here an extensive survey involving more than 1,000 Italian companies is presented.

The standpoint of this research lies in the study of the CPFR process for trading partners (belonging to the same supply chain) who are willing to collaborate in exchanging sales and order forecast. This points out the need for providing a collaboration process with an intelligent tool to optimise negotiation.

A literature review and classification has been carried out concerning autonomous agents used to manage supply chain processes. To evaluate the strengths coming from an intelligent system embedded within the CPFR process, several experiments in different conditions were conducted using simulation tool.

The analysis of experimental results points out that the agent‐driven negotiation process (by comparison to CPFR without intelligent agents) benefits in terms of costs, inventory level, stock‐out level and sales.

The study represents a one‐to‐one scenario, in which only two trading partners collaborate. Further, research has been identified to extend the work.

The study represents a first step towards the analysis of a multi‐agent system being used to automate and optimise collaboration along a supply chain.

The study represents a novel approach to resolving exceptions concerning sales and forecast data.