Supply Chain Configuration Revisited – Challenges and Strategic Roles for Western Manufacturers (original) (raw)
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Global supply chain configurations and management: evidences from the electric motors industry
Supply chains (SC) globalization significantly grew in the last years and this pushed companies to find ways to manage international supply networks effectively. However, in the literature, very few contributions addressed the problem considering the whole SC. The aim of this paper is therefore to study global SC configurations and management through a set of case studies in the electric motor industry. Moreover, we interpreted the results under the light of a set of contextual variables ranging from competitive priorities to the value chain that characterizes the industry.
Strategies for supply chain configurations
2012 18th International ICE Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation, 2012
The increasing globalization of the past decades forces the companies to update its supply network strategy in line with the new and challenging context of a competitive market and additional uncertainty. This research, through the development of a model, wants to shed light on which are the most important determinants that influence the supply chain configuration and strategy and how they impact on the performance of the whole supply chain.
International Journal of Production Economics, 2014
Although a responsive supply chain is an integral part of order-winning manufacturing strategies, it has not been clear how firms build a responsive supply chain in global manufacturing environments. Built upon a synthesis of the existing literature and relevant theories, this paper presents a research model that defines the drivers, strategy, and practices of a responsive supply chain and the performance outcomes. This paper is one of the rare empirical studies that identify key variables relevant to the implementation of a successful responsive supply chain. The effective implementation of a responsive supply chain requires a careful definition of a responsive supply chain strategy in terms of the product range, and the frequency and innovativeness of the product offerings. Firms also need to provide key implementation practices (i.e., sharing of information with customers, collaboration with suppliers, use of advanced manufacturing technology) to achieve pull production to achieve responsiveness to the market. This study also suggests that the key contextual factors that influence the extent of implementation of a responsive supply chain strategy are mostly the size of firms, industry characteristics, and customer and supplier bases, rather than the location of manufacturing firms. This paper shows that the effective implementation of a responsive supply chain strategy involves the integration of inter-organizational resources (i.e., socio-relational and techno-process integration) across the global supply chain to enhance pull production capabilities.
A taxonomy for selecting global supply chain strategies
The International Journal of Logistics Management, 2006
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to address the increasingly important question of supply chain design for global operations. With the rise of off-shore sourcing and the simultaneous need for improved responsiveness to customer demand, the choice of supply chain strategy is critical. Design/methodology/approach -The paper draws its conclusions from case-based research supported by survey data. Findings -The paper provides evidence that the choice of supply chain strategy should be based upon a careful analysis of the demand/supply characteristics of the various product/markets served by a company. It presents the basis for a taxonomy of appropriate supply chain strategies.
A global supply chain framework
Industrial Marketing Management, 2004
The relationship between supply chain competencies and performance has been somewhat elusive. The 21st Century Logistics framework, developed at Michigan State University is currently assessed as to its global relevance, particularly relating to performance. A sample of U.S. firms is compared to a sample of Australian and New Zealand firms to assess the robustness of the framework across different business environments as well as to better understand the supply chain competencies/performance relationship. Results suggest that the framework is reasonably robust across environments, although some improvements in future versions of the framework are suggested. Additionally, results confirm that supply chain competencies do lead to improved performance. Interestingly, supply chain competencies appear to be employed in different ways to create different performance advantages across the various business environments.
Strategic design of global supply chain configuration : a literature research and empirical study
2013
The aim of this thesis is first to investigate the global supply chain design problem by deep analysis and classification of research papers by special focus on the topics of global supply chain configurations and affecting drivers and second to extract the global supply chain configurations of some global companies by means of case studies. Literature review is made by clustering the papers into three main categories which are qualitative, quantitative and integrated papers. The summary tables of the reviewed papers are showed in the Appendix part. After the general literature review, we focused our attention to the contemporary literature about existing global supply chain configurations and drivers affecting global supply chain design. In configurations part, possible configurations are discussed and a model which shows all these configurations on it is proposed in order to use it in case studies part of the thesis. In drivers' part, 32 drivers affecting the supply chain design decision is dealt and measurement method for each of them is given. For the case studies part, 47 leading companies in their industry sectors are investigated to extract the global supply chain configurations of them and place the configuration on the model that we developed. Also, with the practice of this study we aim to have a judgment on how companies decide to adopt the most suitable supply chain configuration for them considering their business areas, strategies, constraints and drivers. As a result, the findings related with supply chain practices of the companies are presented and general opinion based on the relation between industry and configuration selection is discussed.
Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to analyze the intersection of two literature streams: that of strategy and supply chain management (SCM). This review should create a better understanding of "strategic SCM" by focussing on relevant theories in the strategic management field and their intersection with SCM to develop a joint research agenda. Design/methodology/approach-The authors conducted a correspondence analysis on the content of 3,402 articles from the top SCM journals. This analysis provides a map of the intellectual structure of content in this field to date. The key trends and changes were identified in strategic SCM research from 1990-2014 as well as the intersection with the key schools of strategic management. Findings-The results suggest that SCM is key to a successful deployment of strategy for competing in the global marketplace. The main theoretical foundations for research in this field were identified and discussed. Gaps were detected and combinations of theoretical foundations of strategic management and SCM suggest four poles for future research: agents and focal firm; distributions and logistics strategic models; SCM competitive requirements; SCM relational governance. Research limitations/implications-Scholars in both the strategy and the SCM fields continue to search for competitive advantages. Much recent research indicates that strategic SCM can be a critical source for that advantage. One of the limitations of the research is that the analysis does not include every journal that published an article mentioning SCM. However, the 34 journals selected are reputed to be the most influential on SCM and focussed primarily on SCM. Practical implications-The map of the intellectual structure of research to strategic SCM highlights the need to combine different theoretical approaches to the complex phenomenon of SCM. Practitioners should consider the supply chain as an informal organization and should devote time and resources to build a shared advantage across the supply chain. They should also consider the inherent benefits and risks that sharing. Originality/value-The paper demonstrates that strategic SCM needs a balanced and rigorous combination of theoretical approaches to deliver more theory-driven evidences. The research combines both a qualitative analysis and a quantitative methodology that summarizes gaps and then outlines future research from a large sample of articles. This methodology is an original contribution to this field and offers some assistance for enlarging the sample of future literature reviews.
Global supply chain adaptations to improve financial performance
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Supply chain management as the key to a firm’s strategy in the global marketplace
International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 2015
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the intersection of two literature streams: that of strategy and supply chain management (SCM). This review should create a better understanding of “strategic SCM” by focussing on relevant theories in the strategic management field and their intersection with SCM to develop a joint research agenda. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a correspondence analysis on the content of 3,402 articles from the top SCM journals. This analysis provides a map of the intellectual structure of content in this field to date. The key trends and changes were identified in strategic SCM research from 1990-2014 as well as the intersection with the key schools of strategic management. Findings – The results suggest that SCM is key to a successful deployment of strategy for competing in the global marketplace. The main theoretical foundations for research in this field were identified and discussed. Gaps were detected and combinations of t...