Search results

This paper aims to investigate the impact of the strategic transformation of engineering to order company (ETO) at the level of the internal value-adding chain of operations on its position as a sub-supplier. The transformation is motivated and enabled by end-to-end business intelligence related to processes revolving around the product’s design, configuration and engineering. The investigation builds on case-based research following the company’s decision of converting its product portfolio to only one family of products, thus increasing process efficiency whilst at the same time enlarging its market reach by offering individualized and innovative products. By digitally integrating operations related to sales, product development and production preparation, the traditional trade-off between cost-effective solutions with high product variety and low lead-time is significantly reduced.

A design science research project has been conducted to create knowledge on the effects of integration across the value-adding chain of operations. Several design cycles illustrate how development based on business intelligence and available technological enablers for inter-operation integration influence the traditional approach towards supply chain pipeline selection strategies.

Relating to digital transformation, the consequences and means of adopting digital business intelligence for integrating several administrative and engineering operations in small-medium enterprises (SME) are studied. The product delivery performance of the SME is improved, thus, having ETO lead-time comparable to manufacturing to order company. The findings show how the adoption of state-of-the-art technological solutions for cross-operation digital integration challenges traditional supply chain, coordination models.

The conclusions are drawn based on a single case. The limitations associated with case-based research call for further work to support generalization. Furthermore, the long-term influence of the effects of increased interoperability on supply chain coordination strategies requires further investigation.

As technological solutions evolve, new opportunities for supply chain management arise, which put into question the traditional understanding that complex supply chain pipeline characteristics should be handled by complexity reducing initiatives, which opens up new competitive opportunities for companies in high-cost countries.

Enabling the use of human resources towards expanding the business (rather than running it only) are aligned with the current economic and political situation in high-cost countries like Denmark and potentially releases skilled employees from repetitive and low value-adding work and reengages them in business development.

By embracing flexibility and volatility as an opportunity, this publication exemplifies how to move beyond hedging the supply chain volatility, but systematically enable the supply chain to deal with complexity efficiently.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how high‐performing companies in the fashion industry align their supply chain strategy with their competitive priorities.

In order to answer the research question, case study research on four fashion companies most competitive in the global market. The primary sources of information for the case studies were interview data.

Based on in‐depth interviews with top managers at the companies, propositions are reached: the competitive priorities are closely linked with the firm's choice of target market, which in turn determines its supply chain strategy, including both sourcing and channel strategy.

This paper shows how in‐depth case studies based on interview data about best practices in the fashion industry can contribute to the literature by linking firm's competitive priorities with its supply chain strategy.

The research outcome enables managers to design their supply chain strategy including sourcing and channel strategy more systematically and effectively so as to be consistent with their competitive priorities.

The research framework is unique in that it combines important concepts and theories in business strategy, outsourcing, and SCM literature. Implications from the in‐depth case studies on best practices in the fashion industry can help managers make a decision on supply chain strategy more effectively.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the concept of myopia and introduce the concept of labor market myopia (LMM), as well as the role that human resources management (HRM) plays in its prevention and resolution. LMM, a more specific form of factor market myopia (FMM), is a myopic view of labor needs. LMM is only going to increase as human capital becomes increasingly scarce due to labor shortages.

This conceptual review focuses on research on factor market rivalry (FMR) in the supply chain. Using three sample job categories, the concept of myopia is applied toward the human resources context to propose a new term describing a failure to consider future labor needs.

The authors position HRM/talent management as critical in preventing and addressing LMM at both firm and industry levels and the critical role of labor markets in FMR. HR strategies are suggested to prevent LMM include: expansion of the available workforce; increasing current workforce productivity, economic remedies like paying higher wages and proactively assessing and forecasting the current and future human resource capacity and needs.

Labor needs to be considered as a factor in the same realm of importance as other resources. The HR strategies discussed are key to preventing LMM and improving organizational performance and effectiveness.

The authors argue that organizations not only compete for resources downstream (i.e. customers and markets) but also upstream, such as with human resources. The authors introduced a new concept/term to frame the effect on organizations when supply chain planning and HR strategy do not take labor into consideration. This was accomplished by first narrowing the concept of marketing myopia to FMM, and in this conceptual paper, it was subsequently narrowed to introduce the term LMM.

The aim of this study is to develop a framework for measuring of service supply chain (SSC) maturity process.

The main framework of the SSC maturity was developed by reviewing the concepts and models of SSC, business excellence, maturity and supply chain performance evaluation. Then, the maturity level of each excellence criterion was defined in the proposed model by using the excellence criteria for SSC and the concept of Plan, Do, Check and Act (PDCA) cycle in combination with the process survey tools maturity model. Based on the excellence criteria and their maturity levels, a questionnaire was designed to practically measure the proposed framework.

The concepts and features of maturity levels defined for each of the excellence criteria were used to implement and operationalize the proposed framework and evaluate the SSC processes.

Through the assessment of the existing status of SSC processes, the findings allow managers to reach a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of such processes. Then, some opportunities are provided for improving each excellence criterion to enhance the performance of each process.

In fact, this study provides guidelines for organizations to measure their progress and performance and improve their management systems. The main advantages of the proposed SSC measurement framework include self-assessment facilitation, calculation of criteria scores and development of uses. The proposed model, like quality and productivity awards, can pave the way for increased competitiveness of the service industry.

In this paper, I describe two characteristics of successful global leaders: inquisitiveness and duality. First I show how being inquisitive helps global leaders learn quickly about unfamiliar environments. Inquisitive leaders create opportunities to learn and ask questions about what they see. Then I show how the dual focus of a global perspective helps leaders manage opportunities for global integration and requirements for local responsiveness.

Much has been written about the need to align the supply chain with the product/market but it has proved, elusive especially in response to a supply change transitions. The purpose of this paper is to review the established theoretical models before considering how the realignment process can be better supported in the light of a longitudinal study.

This paper uses a single apparel case where data were gathered over a five-year period involving multiple site visits, management interviews and archival data across three echelons of the supply chain. Repeated visits enabled the collection of contemporary evidence and the development and testing of the causal relationships. This case was part of a multi-case research project that explored the causal relationship between variation, uncertainty, performance trade-offs and buffering mechanisms (time, capacity and inventory).

The case analysis demonstrates how established theory and causal reasoning can be used to explain the trade-off oscillations that characterised this case. As with earlier studies, local cost considerations predominated, interspersed with strategic countermeasures. Fisher’s (1997) concept of coordinated strategies is shown to provide an effective means of clarifying the trade-off implications of the transition in support of proactive realignment. This concept is discussed in relation to other cases and literature before proposing how this could be developed and used as a basis for further research.

This research was limited to a single case and although this involving several transitions the findings require further testing.

Supply chain redesign is of growing importance and with it the need to more effectively manage such transitions. This paper clarifies the need for supply chain orientation and offers means of clarifying the implications of such transitions to management.

This paper provides case evidence of the underlying operations management issues and the associated analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the current understanding and knowledge of the demand‐supply chain management (DSCM) concept by determining its elements, benefits, and requirements, and by illustrating its occurrence in practice.

This research has utilized a literature and case study research strategy. The case study has involved an international manufacturing company from the appliance industry. Empirical data have been collected mainly from in‐depth interviews with key persons representing senior and middle management in the case organization.

This research has established that the main elements of DSCM include market orientation, coordination of the demand and supply processes, viewing the demand and supply processes as being equally important, as well as value creation, differentiation, innovativeness, responsiveness, and cost efficiency in the demand and supply processes. It has also been revealed that the main benefits of DSCM include enhanced competitiveness, enhanced demand chain performance, and enhanced supply chain performance, while the main requirements of DSCM include organizational competences, company‐established principles, demand‐supply chain collaboration, and information technology support.

This research is explorative in nature, and more empirical data, from similar and other research settings, are needed to further validate the findings. Another limitation of the research is that it is limited to one Swedish company; however, the involved case company has a large international presence and is among the top three in its industry, which provides some ground for the generalization. A final limitation of the research is that the involved company only represents one industry.

This paper provides insights useful to researchers and practitioners on how to develop a demand‐supply oriented business. It highlights that firms should organize themselves around understanding how customer value is created and delivered and how these processes and management directions can be coordinated. The demand and supply processes have to be considered as equally important and the firm needs to be managed by the demand side and supply side of the company jointly in a coordinated manner.

The need to coordinate the demand and supply processes has been emphasized in both the demand and supply chain literature but still remained relatively unexplored; thus, this paper contributes by investigating this matter further.

Coordinated supply chain is concerned with managing dependencies between various members and joint efforts of all members to achieve mutually defined goals. The purpose of this paper is to identify and prioritize the factors for a coordinated supply chain.

Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to prioritize the factors for a coordinated supply chain. By using AHP global desirability index of five strategic factors for coordinated supply chain their 23 sub‐factors have been calculated and compared.

In this study 23 factors affecting coordination in a supply chain are considered. These factors are grouped under five strategic factors such as top management commitment, mutual understanding, relationship and decision‐making, flow of information and organizational factors. It is observed that the global weightage of top management commitment is highest among strategic factors and agreed vision and goal of supply chain members among sub factors.

AHP has some limitations. A major limitation is that the rating scale used in the AHP analysis is conceptual and there are chances of bias while giving relative weightage to different factors.

Top management should strive for an agreed vision and a common goal among all members of the supply chain to have effective coordination.

This study prioritizes factors for a coordinated supply chain in the Indian context and the findings will be significant while formulating strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework for a hybrid simulation model that can be used to study the decision making and behaviors of humanitarian logistics actors to determine how/whether certain coordination mechanisms enable better relief chain efficiency and effectiveness over time.

The agent-based portion of the model is used to represent human decision making and interactions in a more realistic way than has been done previously, and the discrete-event simulation (DES) portion of the model allows the movement of vehicles, materials, and information throughout a supply network to be represented in a way that allows for dynamic and stochastic behavior.

Coordinated efforts by actors in humanitarian logistics operations involve complex interactions and adaptations over time, which can be capture and explored via hybrid agent-based model (ABM)-DES modeling.

This paper describes a framework for a hybrid ABM-DES model. The actual development and implementation of the model, including input data collection and analysis, model development, experimentation, and output data collection and analysis, will be the subject of future work.

The hybrid model framework provides other researchers with a starting point for model development.

This paper provides a basis for future modeling and assessment of coordination in humanitarian logistics, an area that is in need of research.

The hybrid simulation modeling framework presented in this paper is a novel application of a new modeling methodology to the problem of coordination in humanitarian logistics.

Multiple stages of procurement for a product in a supply chain (SC) altogether form a “multi-Tier” supply network. The purpose of this paper is to develop and verify a systematic solution approach to ascertain the realistic cost advantage of a coordinated centralized sourcing strategy as compared to an isolated decentralized sourcing strategy for a multi-tier supply network under demand uncertainty.

The proposed systematic solution approach consists of seven steps to compare and contrast the cost advantage of a centralized coordinated sourcing strategy over a decentralized stage-wise sourcing strategy for a multi-tier supply network. A real-life automotive industry case analysis of two distinct products provides sufficient empirical evidence on the expected cost advantage of centralized coordinated sourcing strategy under demand uncertainty.

The case analysis affirms the practicability of the proposed seven-step solution approach to determine the realistic cost advantage of coordinated sourcing.

The scope of this research is restricted to a single product and two-tier supply network analysis. This research work also considers a restrictive assumption of negligible coordination cost.

The suitability of the proposed solution approach is verified using real-life case examples. This research provides theoretical insights and factual evidence to SC practitioners, so as to adopt a centralized sourcing strategy in a varied manufacturing environment.

There is no evidence of a systematic step-by-step solution approach to determine the cost advantage of a coordinated sourcing strategy over an isolated decentralized sourcing strategy for a multi-tier supply network under demand uncertainty.