Developmental Issues of Modern

Supply Chain function

Assessment of problems and studying different approaches to
decision making in the process .
Introduction
• Metrics related to different supply chain issues to be
discussed.
• Problems faced by modern enterprises due inability of
supply chain to concur challenges in competitive
environment.
• How several modern approaches help in resolving the
problems.
• How organizations can acquire competitive advantage
through the supply chain function of operations.
• Risks related to supply chain management.
• Performance of logistics is evaluated.
 Virtual dual sourcing of specialized goods
Response to Supply Chain Failures Caused by Natural Disaster
Main Issue
• In today’s uncertain business environment where small
delays in production could cost firm a fortune because of
the grave competition in the marketplace.
• That is why this paper focus on supply chain disruption
by natural disaster.
• Companies face a dilemma of either creating robustness
by building a buffer stock or building a backup production
line.
• Companies manufacturing products with integral
architecture. The products are highly customized in
design and process.
• When the supply chains of such products are disrupted,
substitution is more difficult than for standardized goods.
Organization of study
• Kumagaya plant and the relationship between these
plants when Riken faced disruptions. They produce
piston for the engine of automobile.
• Epson Atmix, a supplier of high-performing metal powder,
that goes into combustion motor of automobile suffered
the impacts of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.
Objective of article
• How the Japanese firms who make customized goods
respond to supply chain failure caused by natural
disaster?
• It shows the process and problem to build virtual dual
sourcing with relation to product/process architecture
which combats this problem.
• It examines how a firm making such products can fulfill
order deliveries in disruptive situations.
Methodology
• The research is qualitative in nature.
• Extensive site visits of major Japanese export industries
(such as automotive, electronics, chemical and so on).
• The firms were carefully selected based on three criteria:

1. The firms had major disaster-related damages.

2. Senior executives of firms were willing to share their
experiences and allow the research team to visit the
sites.
3. Selected firms were notified in advance about the
research perspective.
Literature Review
• In supply chain, there are two kinds of risks that are
identified; daily operational uncertainty and natural
disasters.
• In this case, the temporary providers of parts do not work
because the design and nature of products, such as
product complexity, uniqueness.
• Adding more buffer inventories or copying production
lines is not practical from the point of view of daily
competition.
• Building a second production line is not also feasible for
firms.
How problem is solved?
• According to recent studies, information visibility is
important for supply chain management.
• Rather than physically duplicating critical design
information in the form of production equipment, the firms
may retain the backup design information electronically
or virtually, which may be called “virtual dual tooling”.
• In terms of physically duplicating critical production lines
as a whole, they may build capability for quickly restoring
the design information either to the damaged process or
an alternate production line, which may be called “virtual
dual sourcing”.
Results
• The main finding of this research is that visualizing
design information of products is an essential step for
virtual dual sourcing strategy or effective recovery from
supply chain disruption.
• Substituting other production line is not an absolute
condition for contingent action.
• Building “virtual dual sourcing” system is one of the
effective ways of business continuity plans (BCP).
• The firm facing supply chain disruptions caused by a
disaster carefully choose either to quickly recover a
damaged line or transfer critical design information to a
substitute line.
Building competitive enterprises through supply chain
management
Objective of article
• Introduce a special issue that looks at how enterprises
could build competitive advantage through supply chain
management.
• Evaluating the relative importance of supply chain in
competitive business environment.
• How an enterprise can position itself within a supply
chain and use supply chain management principles to
gain competitive advantage.
Methodology
• The paper is presented in the annual fourth symposium
on supply chain is held each fall to bring together
researchers and practitioners from around the world.
• Six papers are presented in which two of them address
the impact of supply chain network configurations and
organizational culture on the performance of supply
chains.
• The remaining four papers provide different professional
and functional perspectives on practical aspects of
supply chain operational implementations with the goal of
achieving a competitive advantage.
• The results are deduced on the basis of six papers
presented.
Literature Review
• Cheng and Kam use agency theory to investigate the
relationship between a supply chain’s network structure
and its risk profile.
• Roh et al. look at how organizational cultures relate to
supply chain strategies; : a framework for effective
information flows.
• The study by Larson on an “Accreditation program
design: they agree that success in their profession
requires the focus on the development of general
management skills more than on specific functional and
analytical tools.
Literature Review( Contd.)
• Cho and Ogwang use principal component analysis to
study the appropriateness of the Ivey Purchasing
Managers Index (PMI). They argue that such an
improved index will equip supply chain management
professionals with more accurate tools for better-
informed forecasting and policy making.
• McLaren and Vuong work on “A ‘genomic’ classification
scheme for supply chain management information
systems”. They believe that it is important for firm to
select appropriate information technology tools to stay
competitive that are up to date. They have identified 82
prominent attributes in software, which can provide a firm
with competitive advantage.
Literature Review( Contd.)
• In the paper titled “Flexibility and revenue management
in the automotive industry” by Voigt et al. the authors
survey German automotive buyers to gain some insights
into customers purchasing behavior. They find that
manufacturers tend to over-emphasize customer
valuations for delivery and configuration flexibility. This
can reduce flexibility in the processes due to short lead
times which can hinder performance of the firm.
Results
• Competition is increasing between supply chains rather
than individual companies.
• Through conceptual models and empirical studies this
special issue's papers demonstrate how designing and
operating efficient supply chains, through the effective
use of information technology, can provide enterprises
with a competitive advantage.
Smart supply chain management: a review and implications
for future research
Objective of article
• As the traditional supply chain practices are continuously
evolving by the advent of technology.
• The purpose of the paper is to study and explore the
currents status and remaining issues of smart supply
chain management (SSCM).
• The paper provides original and relevant guidance for
SCM researchers and practitioners on developing smart
supply chains.
Literature Review
• A literature review is conducted to synthesize the earlier
work in this area, and to conceptualize and discuss the
smart supply chain characteristics.
• Further, we formulate and investigate the five key
research topics:
• Information management, IT, process automation,
advanced analytics, and supply chain integration.
• All of the key components mentioned above are
dramatically changing the processes of supply chain by
making them more streamlined by using technology.
Results
• Although information technology is playing an important
role in making organizations more competitive and
productive but still have some deficiencies that requires
human intervention to complete the processes.
• As it progresses and becomes more sophisticated, it will
change the supply chain once and for all.
Achieving supply chain resilience: the role of
procurement
Objective Of Article
• The purpose is to understand the role of procurement in
identifying and managing the intra- and inter-
organizational issues which impact supply chain
resilience.
• Achieving resilience along the supply chain in today’s
turbulent business environment requires efforts from both
internal and external elements of the extended
enterprise.
Methodology
• The systematic literature review was conducted between
2000 and 2013 with the objective being to answer the
single research question proposed.
• To do so, a content analysis based on the literature was
applied to 30 selected papers.
Results
• The study revealed that procurement activities do make
a significant contribution to creating supply chain
resilience.
• Emerging from the literature review, certain intra- and
inter-organizational issues were identified that could
impact supply chain resilience.
• The possible actions that procurement could take to
enable the enhancement of supply chain resilience were
identified.
Implementing supply chain
management in a firm: issues and
remedies
Objective of article

• The paper aims to analyze research conducted for

assessing the current state of supply chain management
practices followed by Indian organizations and identifying
important areas that need to be addressed in order to
increase their competitiveness.
Methodology

• The paper begins by proposing a framework for

evaluating the supply chain strategy of an organization
along the three key dimensions – supply chain
objectives, supply chain processes, and management
focus on supply chain activities.
• Data collected through survey questionnaire for the three
dimensions have been used to assess the alignment of
supply chain strategy with the overall business strategy
through statistical analysis.
Result

• The research Result reveal that most of the Indian

organizations have aligned their supply chain objectives
with their business objectives.
• They are now on course of aligning their processes and
management focus.
• Enhanced level of competitiveness would require Indian
organizations to manage the three‐dimensional
alignment of achieving the agenda set by the business
strategy.
Conclusion

• The supply chain alignment model suggested in this

paper provides a framework for realizing true supply
chain efficiency and competitiveness.
• Different organizations will align their objectives,
processes and management focus as per the focal areas
of their organization depending on their capabilities and
market situation.
• However, in every case Indian organizations need to act
fast to capitalize on these opportunities to be competitive
with the world market.
Implementing supply chain
management in a firm: issues and
remedies
Objective of article

• When a supply chain initiative is taken up by a firm a

number of issues come up during implementation.
• The Objective of this paper is to identify some of the
major issues related to such implementation and draw
out practices from literature to serve as remedies for
these issues.
Methodology

• The paper starts by suggesting a broad framework for

implementing supply chain management (SCM) in a firm.
• This consists of strategy formulation, identification of
areas for improving material flow, identifying issues in
these areas, and finally performance evaluation in order
to determine how well the supply chain initiative has
been implemented.
• Subsequently, the paper follows this framework step by
step and in the process identifies the issues likely to
arise in the process of SCM implementation.
• By reviewing current literature, it suggests how these
issues can be handled effectively.
Result

• The major issues related to SCM implementation are in

the areas of logistics, outsourcing/partnerships, and
environment.
• Apart from these issues the prerequisite for
implementation is formulation of strategy while the final
step in the exercise is performance evaluation.
• These two activities need to be handled carefully also.
Conclusion

• The value of this paper which is based on extensive

literature review lies in: suggesting a framework to
implement SCM, identifying likely issues, and suggesting
ways to handle them.
• The summary diagrams would definitely facilitate
understanding.
• This can be of interest to SCM personnel in the industry.
• Major contributions by researchers relevant to handling
the issues have been tabulated at the end which can be
useful for academicians.
Managing supply chain
uncertainty with emerging ethical
issues
Objective of article

• The Objective of this paper is to empirically investigate

effective management strategies for 14 sources of supply
chain uncertainty, with a particular emphasis on
uncertainties or strategies that involve ethical issues.
Methodology

• Manufacturing strategy theory, underpinned by alignment

and contingency theory, is used as the theoretical
foundation.
• Multi-case study data are collected from 12 companies in
the Indonesian food industry, including four focal
manufacturers, four first-tier suppliers, and four first-tier
customers (retailers).
Result

• Within the context of appropriately aligned management

strategies to address 14 sources of uncertainty, three
ethical issues are empirically identified: first, collusion
amongst suppliers to ration supplies and increase prices;
second, unethical influences on government policy; and
third, “abuse” of power by large retailers at the expense
of smaller competitors.
• Joint purchasing is argued to be a key strategy for
combatting the first of these ethical issues.
Conclusion
• This study is unique in its in-depth case study-based
empirical investigation of the management of multiple
supply chain uncertainties; and in its discussion of ethical
issues in this context.
Managing long supply chain
networks: some emerging issues
and challenges
Objective of article
• The paper presents not only an exhaustive literature
review to identify the complexities, gaps and challenges
associated with long supply chains but also the emerging
enabling technologies to support these gaps and
challenges.
Methodology
• The approach takes the form of an interview of
industrials, researchers and a literature review.
Results
• The paper presents a vision of the future technical issues
relating to long supply chains and an insight into the
future scientific and industrial advances required to meet
future market and public demands.
Conclusion remarks
• This research work highlights the research issues and
discusses the key enabling features, which will need to
evolve and be perfected in industry in the future
manufacturing networked enterprises and especially long
manufacturing supply chains.
An analysis of supply chain issues
relating to information flow during
the automotive product
development
Objective of article
• The purpose of this paper is to identify measure and
priorities the perceived importance of supply chain issues
within the automotive industry related to information flow
during product development (PD).
Methodology
• This study analyses empirical data captured from semi-
structure interviews with 15 multinational companies
operating in the automotive sector. Data collected are
analyzed using a standard methodology identified from
the literature.
• Individual issues captured are classified against 14
clusters that represent the core and the fundamental
supply chain issues of information flow.
Results
• This study showed that half of the issues captured are
related to the inadequate information systems used.
• The cluster that had the majority of individual issues is
related to suppliers that are not directly connected with
their customers through an enterprise system.
• However, it was identified that two fundamental clusters
justify the decision of not being directly connected.
Conclusions and remarks
• By identifying, measuring and prioritizing the importance
of supply chain issues this study provides researchers
and practitioners guidance in developing better tools and
defining more efficient processes.
Logistics collaboration in supply
chains: practice vs. theory
Objective of article
• This paper aims to present results from a survey that
investigates the situation in real world supply chains
concerning logistics collaboration.
Methodology
• Based on supply chain management literature, a
questionnaire was developed covering important topics
from the literature.
• The questionnaire was sent to the logistics manager at
Swedish manufacturing companies and a net response
rate of 37.8 percent (177/482) was achieved.
• Apart from purely descriptive statistics, factor analysis,
cluster analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and
cross tabulations with χ 2 tests were used for the
analysis.
Results
• From the results, three major conclusions are drawn.
• First, there is a clear relationship between the intensity of
the collaboration and the positive effects experienced
from the collaboration.
• Second, the results indicate that top management is an
important driver for higher intensity collaboration.
• Third, there are serious differences between supply
chain management (SCM) theory and practice, due to
the absence of strategic elements in the collaboration
and the different ways in which supplier and customer
collaborations are managed.
Synergetic success factors of total
quality management (TQM) and
supply chain management
(SCM)
Objective of article
• Purpose of this paper is twofold. First, set critical factors
of total
• Quality management and supply chain management
second, identify relation b/w them.
Methodology
• Authors identified papers on TQM and SCM and
observed how these practices improve business
performance of organization.
Results
• It was found that management support, commitment,
customer focus and interaction are common practices in
the supply chain management.
Research limitations
• The study use data research which considered India
manufacturing industry as well as other countries which
may not provide clear picture.
Practical implications
• Manufacturing industry can improve its competitive
image through synergy of TQM AND SCM.
Originality value
• Much attention given to TQM AND SCM practices, very
few studies undertaken to integrate TQM and SCM.
Improving SME logistics
Performance through
benchmarking.
Purpose
• To discuss the current benchmarking proposals for small
and medium sized enterprise (SMES).
Methodology
• Paper start by outlining why logistics function is of
increasing importance for SMEs.
Findings
• The paper suggests conceptual framework for logistics
benchmarking in SMEs.
Research limitations/Implications
• Conceptual framework has been only developed in
selected cases companies.
Practical implications
• Developed framework provides practical fi SMEs that
want to embark on logistics.
Research and industry
perspective on automotive
logistics performance
Purpose
• Purpose of this is to assess the current state of
performance measurement (PM) and automotive supply
chain.
Methodology
• Author use combination of systematic literature review
(SLR) an industry survey. SLR is used to identify
literature on design aspects.
Findings
• Finding from SLR indicates that there is broad base of
literature regarding design aspects for PMS.
• Literature on PMS logistics is nevertheless rare.
Research limitations/ implications
• Due to select survey approach additional search is
required to obtain more generalizable results.
Supply chain risk management,
understanding business
requirements
Purpose
• Seek to understand business requirements for supply
chain risk management ( SCRM) from practitioner
perspective.
Methodology
• Based on finding from an exploratory quantitative
surveys and qualitative focus group discussions with
supply chain mangers.
Findings
• Survey showed that 44 cent of all at responding
companies expect of vulnerability of their supply chain to
increase in the next five years.
Originality/value
• The paper contributes to our knowledge on SCRM by
presenting business requirements from a practitioner
perspective and by deriving structure.
Supply chain management at the
base of the pyramid
Objective
• The Objective of this paper is to compile a set of articles
tackling supply chain issues in BOP contexts that
address both demand and supply.
• Solutions are needed for global sustainability problems
from medical aid and food availability to the ability to
participate in supply chains for the global poor.
Methodology

• The accepted articles in the special issue used a range

of qualitative and quantitative methodologies to answer
research questions in a variety of base of the pyramid
(BOP) contexts.
• These approaches and Findings distinguish between
demand (BOP market) and supply, or base of the chain
(BOC), perspectives.
Findings
• The Findings in the eight accepted articles are interesting
and applicable across different BOP contexts.
• Compilation of the articles into the special issue and the
accompanying editorial led to a comprehensive future
research agenda that addresses demand-side issues by
investigating the customers in BOP markets, and supply-
side issues focusing on the suppliers and intermediaries
(BOC) who supply BOP markets.
• Future research ideas include a focus on supply chain
design issues situated at the intersection of the demand
(BOP) and the supply (BOC) concerns that address the
needs of the world’s poorest populations.
Conclusion
• The overall conceptual framework and positioning of the
final papers into the BOP market, BOC suppliers and a
combination of the two is novel and helps provide
guidance to both scholars and managers.
Australian food retail supply chain
analysis
Purpose

• The Australian retail food sector, comprising mostly small

enterprises, is undergoing change as a result of the
innovative supply chain approach adopted.
• This change has implications across the entire food
value chain in Australia.
• The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate
the adoption of supply chain management practices on
small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Australian
food retail industry.
Design/methodology/approach

• The study surveys 120 SME retailers in the food sector. A

stepwise multiple regression using SPSS version 14.0
was performed on the data.
Findings
• Statistical results suggest that lean thinking and the
quality of information shared can lead to greater efficient
supply chain performance.
Research limitations/implications

• The small sample is the main limitation.

• The findings bear important implications for further
research as understanding these dimensions can help to
position key changes and industry improvement that will
increase revenue and reduce cost to the SMEs in the
food retail supply chain
Practical implications

• Adopting lean thinking and improving information sharing

in the supply chain can reduce the cost for SMEs.
Social implications

• This study has unique implications for social

sustainability, especially the smaller food enterprises,
which are hard pressed to combat the challenges within
the food sector.
Originality/value
• Innovative supply chain management helps SMEs to see
beyond the silo mentality and helps them to focus on
greater value addition in the supply chain.