Supply chain integration mechanisms for alleviating supply problems in manufacturing firms

Suppliers are expected to reduce manufacturing firm supply risks by minimizing supply failures and by resolving supply problems, even those ones resulting from firm’s actions. Integration mechanisms may enhance interaction and collaboration in the firm supply chain, especially in the buyer-supplier interface, to reach these goals. Based on case studies in four North-American manufacturing companies in the electronic and aerospace industries, we analyzed the importance of integration mechanisms for manufacturing firms to address supply problems. We also explored some drivers supporting those mechanisms. Supplier commitment was found to be a key integration factor to address supply problems. This may be accomplished by trust and power mechanisms. Internal integration between purchasing and manufacturing groups also played a significant role in supplier collaboration at the problem solving process. Customer integration seemed more important to address supply problems for contract manufacturers than for Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) firms. Although supply problems might originate several stages upstream in the supply chain, surprisingly there was no integration beyond direct suppliers in the manufacturing firm supply chain.     

Do the barriers of multi-tier sustainable supply chain interact? A multi-sector examination using resource-based theory and resource-dependence theory

In a geographically dispersed multi-tiered supply chain, managing sustainable practices throughout the entire upstream network is increasingly challenging for the lead firm. But often, it is the lead firm that is held responsible for the lack of non-sustainable practices by any of its suppliers in the network. This can potentially damage the reputation of the lead firm. Moreover, complex inter-relationship among multi-tier sustainable supply chain management (MSSCM) barriers tends to constrain the cascading of sustainability. Consequently, the strategies in overcoming the MSSCM barriers show limited impact. Thus, exploring the mutual interaction among MSSCM barriers is crucial as removing one barrier can intensify or diminish the effect of another barrier. This research unpacks the intra-firm, inter-firm, and contingency barriers for multi-tiered supplier network. A grey-based multi-criterion decision-making approach is adopted in establishing mutual relationships among MSSCM barriers. In addition, a combined resource-based theory and resource-dependence theory supports the theoretical anchoring. The MSSCM barriers are studied for supply networks which involve three lead firms, five tier-one suppliers, and ten lower-tier suppliers selected from automobile, beverage, and home appliances industries. The research provides a granularity of the MSSCM barriers’ by analysing the meaningful relationship at the individual tier-firm level and aggregated level.     

Drivers and barriers to environmental supply chain management practices: Lessons from the public and private sectors

This study explores the factors that drive or hinder organisations to implement green supply chain management initiatives. A literature review identifies the main categories of internal and external drivers of green supply chain management practices, including organisational factors, regulation, customers, competitors and society, but there is little indication of suppliers as drivers for green supply chain management. Internal barriers include cost and lack of legitimacy, whereas external barriers include regulation, poor supplier commitment and industry specific barriers. An explorative study is conducted based on interviews from seven different private and public sector organisations. Encouragingly, across the organisations, more drivers than barriers to environmental supply chain management are identified. Organisations seem to be more influenced by external rather than internal drivers. The barriers to environmental supply chain management experienced by organisations tend to be both internal and external.     

基于供应链管理的供应商选择问题初探

在现阶段的发展过程中,现代化发展已经成为企业未来发展的基本方向。作为企业实现现代化发展的关键环节,供应链的管理工作在整个企业运行过程中起到了举足轻重的作用。伴随着供应链管理的发展,供应商的选择问题越来越多,选择要点和选择内容不断丰富,并逐渐发展成为企业采购过程中所有采购员共同面对的问题。根据企业的发展现状和运营情况,选择更合适更合理的采购方案和供货商,并遵循行业准则来制定企业采购规则。     

Barriers to innovation through public procurement: A supplier perspective

Public procurement is increasingly viewed as having important potential to drive innovation. Despite this interest, numerous barriers prevent the public sector from acting as an intelligent and informed customer. This paper seeks to understand how barriers related to processes, competences, procedures and relationships in public procurement influence suppliers? ability to innovate and to reap the benefits of innovation. We address this by exploiting a dedicated survey of public sector suppliers in the UK, using a probit model to investigate the influence of structural, market and innovation determinants on suppliers? perception of these barriers.     

Criticality analysis and the supply chain: Leveraging representational assurance

System builders who plan to acquire information and communication technology (ICT) products must consider two key risk factors (among many) while planning for the acquisition and design of their systems. They must understand the inter-relationships of all assembled products in any new planned system in terms of its resilience under attack. These system owners will also increasingly assess the risks they may inherit from a global interconnected supply chain. To address these concerns, the recommendation in this paper is for providers of Commercial-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) technology products to perform a criticality analysis on their own products to gauge resilience, rather than later be confronted by an acquirer attempting to solely reverse engineer the system as part of supply chain due-diligence. This paper illustrates the roles that technology providers and system owners each play in following the outlined approach that highlights key risk factors of the tiered suppliers for product elements deemed most critical. ICT COTS providers who do not want to divulge sensitive information about their suppliers can use a “representational assurance” approach to convey meaningful information to potential acquirers without undue disclosure. Analytical graphics such as “Treemaps” can help all parties illustrate where to best focus their attention regarding critical operational risk and supply chain risk. The same data that providers track internally to manage product assurance can be leveraged to support meaningful representational assurance to acquirers. This approach improves the current state where data disclosure by technology providers is seen by acquirers, despite being unrealistic, as the best means to gain confidence in the technology supply chain.     

供应链剩余与并购协同效益

供应链协调机制是介于企业外部的市场交易机制和企业内部的行政权威机制之间的一种中间机制。具有完全独立自主权的单个企业以牺牲一定的独立性和控制权加入供应链并遵循供应链的协调。必然要求获得某种额外的补偿。超出供应链形成前的单个企业收益总和的供应链剩余的形成并在参与企业间的合理分配。是供应链合作关系形成的前提。收入上升、成本下降、税负减少和资本成本的降低是企业并购产生协同效益的四个主要来源。这四个来源同样是供应链剩余的主要来源。但并购协同效益与供应链剩余在四个来源的具体实现方式上存在不同。这种不同正好体现了一体化的内部协同与供应链成员企业之间的合作协同之间的差异。     

Environmental supply chain management in the construction sector: theoretical underpinnings

Environmental implications of a product/project are typically spread across its supply chain, from design through to end-of-life. This is particularly acute for construction sector because of the inherent nature and complexity of its supply chain. The sector, therefore, could benefit from the application of environmental supply chain management (ESCM), a systematic and integrated approach towards restraining the adverse environmental impacts emanating from the supply chain. Unfortunately, uptake of ESCM in construction vis-à-vis other sectors is limited and fragmented. This formed the motivation, which using 39 interviews across 20 firms in the UAE construction sector, provide systemic insights on the various facets of ESCM namely, core and facilitating environmental practices, internal and external drivers (pressures/motives) and barriers/challenges affecting environmental practices’ implementation, and relevant environmental performance measures across different firm types and stakeholders with the support of several established/emerging theories. The findings is expected to enhance the application of ESCM in construction.     

跨国企业采购中心业务研究——以A公司为例

跨国企业面对不断变化的经济环境,一直在探讨如何深入优化供应链以应对市场变化。研究的目的是希望通过调研的方法,对跨国企业的采购中心的产生历程和现状发展进行深入分析,识别出采购中心业务模型存在的问题,并给出如何实施相适应的战略采购策略来实现优化供应链的战略目标。通过A跨国企业采购中心的案例分析,得到结论:对于跨国企业实现优化供应链的目标,核心任务是采购部门一方面要投资正确的技术和资源来实现战略采购,另一方面需要从业务角度和商业模型角度寻求降低成本、提高企业价值的方法。     

The pandemic and SME supply chains: Learning from early experiences of SME suppliers in the U.S. defense industry

While the COVID-19 pandemic has been disrupting supply chains in an unprecedented fashion, one type of firms that has been particularly affected are small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We focus on these SMEs, specifically on SME suppliers to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and investigate the impact that the pandemic has had on these suppliers, as well as the effectiveness of various government procurement efforts to alleviate the challenges. In doing so, we rely on survey data collected by the National Defense Industry Association (NDIA) during the early stages of the pandemic in March and April 2020 to assess initial government responses and SME supplier receptions. To derive more granular insight, we scrutinize the results across firm size, dependence on the DoD, whether the SME is a first-tier supplier or not, and industry. Through this investigation, we for instance find that the weakest suppliers are the very small SMEs (1–49 employees), and that most government measures were judged to not be that effective—at least in these early stages of the pandemic. Overall, our study leverages insight from one of the few large-scale surveys conducted on the impact of the pandemic on SME suppliers and their relationship with government agencies in the very early phases of the pandemic.     

基于供应链的电厂煤炭采购订货优化研究

企业之间的竞争已经转变为供应链之间的竞争,而采购工作是供应链的源头,采购成本的节约是供应链成本控制的重要环节。文中针对燃料煤供需紧张问题,把供应链管理的思想引入电厂的采购订货中,采用综合考虑供应链上的供方(煤炭供应商)及需方(电厂)的一体化采购策略,以期为供需双方建立战略合作伙伴关系。通过建立供需双方的综合采购数学模型,为电厂提供了最佳的订货量,实现供应链整体利益最大化,最后利用算例验证模型的有效性。     

Sustainable evaluation and verification in supply chains: Aligning and leveraging accountability to stakeholders

Managers are being challenged by multiple (and diverse) stakeholders, which have variety of expectations and informational needs about their firm’s supply chains. Collectively, these expectations and needs form a multi-faceted view of stakeholder accountability, namely the extent to which a firm justifies behaviors and actions across its extended supply chain to stakeholders. To date, sustainable supply chain management research has largely focused on monitoring as a self-managed set of narrowly defined evaluative activities employed by firms to provide stakeholder accountability. Nevertheless, evidence is emerging that firms have developed a wide variety of monitoring systems in order to align with stakeholders’ expectations and leverage accountability to stakeholders. Drawing from the accounting literature, we synthesize a model that proposes how firms might address accountability for sustainability issues in their supply chain. At its core, the construct of sustainable evaluation and verification (SEV) captures three interrelated dimensions: inclusivity, scope, and disclosure. These dimensions characterize how supply chain processes might identify key measures, collect and process data, and finally, verify materiality, reliability and accuracy of any data and resulting information. As a result, the concept of monitoring is significantly extended, while also considering how different stakeholders can play diverse, active roles as metrics are established, audits are conducted, and information is validated. Also, several antecedents of SEV systems are explored. Finally, the means by which an SEV system can create a competitive advantage are investigated.     

The impact of bullwhip on supply chains: Performance pathways,control mechanisms,and managerial levers

Even though few empirical studies have tried to actually explicate the relationship between the bullwhip effect and performance of the supplier firm, there exists a common perception for over 30 years among both practitioners and academics that the bullwhip effect naturally results in decreased firm profitability. Anecdotal evidence further suggests that this decline in profitability arises from a decline in operational performance. However, the results of our study, which empirically examines the bullwhip effect across supply chain partners through an analysis of 383 actual customer base-supplier dyads, challenge this commonly held position by suggesting that while traditional bullwhip often yields reduced ROA, it ultimately has no relationship with the firm's operating margin. Additionally, our results also call into question whether or not production coordination between customers and suppliers can minimize the need for inventory and capacity buffers, which are the two commonly utilized methods for battling the bullwhip effect. Thus the relationship between bullwhip and firm performance is far more nuanced and complicated than previously believed. We also show how the managerial bullwhip levers of coordinating production across supply chain partners, or deploying inventory and capacity buffer control mechanisms, can help maximize a firm's performance along different dimensions.     

Joint decision of procurement lot-size,supplier selection,and carrier selection

The joint decision making of procurement lot-size, supplier selection, and carrier selection has potential to reduce buyer's purchasing expenditures. Furthermore, the total logistics cost can also come down through economies of scale in the purchasing and transportation costs, and reduction in supply chain disruptions such as rejections and late deliveries. We study a procurement setting in which a buyer needs to purchase a single product from a set of suppliers over finite discrete time periods to satisfy service level requirements. The suppliers offer all-unit quantity discounts, and transportation cost depends on carrier capacity as well as geographical location of suppliers. This paper proposes an integer linear programming model to simultaneously determine the timings of procurement, lot-sizes, suppliers and carriers to be chosen so as to incur the least total cost over the planning horizon. A numerical example is included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model in establishing tradeoffs among purchasing cost, transaction cost, and inventory holding cost. Sensitivity analysis has been carried out to understand the effects of the model parameters on the purchasing decisions and total cost. Managerial insights of this study serve as a reference for decision makers to develop effective procurement strategies.     

Participation of suppliers in greening supply chains: An empirical analysis of German automotive suppliers

The public increasingly holds companies accountable for environmental misbehavior in their supply chains. To offset that risk corporations start initiatives to green their supply chains. Yet suppliers often fail to properly participate in these initiatives. This paper presents a conceptual framework to explain supplier participation in green initiatives, by investigating customer requirements, supplier readiness, relational norms and customer investment as possible drivers. The framework and hypotheses were tested using survey data of 54 German automotive suppliers. Partial least squares methodology was deployed for hypothesis testing. The study found supplier readiness and customer requirements to be significant drivers in supplier participation. Relational norms and customer investment did not per se yield significant importance for explaining supplier participation, but when taking into account firm size, the data suggests that cooperative relation norms and customer investment work as an additional driver in green supply chain management for larger suppliers. This research is one of the few studies that explore drivers for supply chain participation at the supplier's level.     

Supply chain finance schemes in the procurement of agricultural products

Product, information, and finance flows are all interrelated within the modern supply chain; thus, it is now more than ever of paramount importance for practitioners to integrate procurement and financial decisions. This challenge is exemplified in many agricultural supply chains, where operational risks are significant and access to capital differs sharply across firms. We study three management tactics that some large food/beverage manufacturers – situated downstream in these chains – have used to meet the challenge: ordinary fixed price contracts (or soft tolling) with direct suppliers, hard tolling and contract farming where the manufacturer intervenes upstream, providing capital, and coordinating procurement decisions. We place these upstream intervention schemes in the theoretical context of supply chain finance (SCF) and model their application to a three-echelon agricultural supply chain. We perform a numerical study in order to understand how the structure of capital constraints in the chain may influence the manufacturer's choice of SCF scheme. The numerical study is based on a business case that reflects the barley–malt supply chain of Heineken N.V. Despite greater coordination opportunities, we show that upstream intervention is not necessarily preferable for the manufacturer. Nevertheless, the preferred SCF scheme can be inferred on the basis of relatively simple characterization of the capital constraints in the supply chain.     

Linking sustainable business models and supply chains — Toward an integrated value creation framework

Extant literature on sustainable business models highlights that value creation stems from resources exchanged in relationships between a focal firm and its stakeholders. In this context, the literature has, so far, focused on direct relationships. However, despite the acknowledged relevance of sustainability issues in supply chains, this relational view of the focal company and its direct stakeholders has not been extended toward value creation for and with indirect stakeholders, such as stakeholders of suppliers. Addressing this gap, this conceptual article integrates a relational view of sustainable supply chain management into the management of sustainable business models. It extends the scope of sustainable business models from relationships between the focal firm and its direct stakeholders to indirect relationships with stakeholders of suppliers. A framework is developed that supports analysis and management of value-creating relationships between the focal firm, suppliers, and stakeholders of suppliers. By extending the conceptualization of sustainable business models to consider relationship chains beyond direct relationships, this article proposes that a focal firm has to actively manage interactions both with suppliers and with suppliers' stakeholders.     

Circular economy and the policy: A framework for improving the corporate environmental management in supply chains

The transition to the circular economy (CE) creates value through the closed-loop systems, reverse logistics, product life cycle management, and clean production in terms of corporate environmental management. During this transition process, the organization faces many barriers such as financial, organizational, technology-based, social, policy-related, market-based, and logistics-based barriers. The objectives of this study are to propose a framework highlighting policy-related barriers for a supply chain in the transition to CE and finally discuss potential implications on enhancing corporate environmental performance of a business. Further, this study evaluates the causal relationships between the policy-related barriers using fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method. The application was conducted in an apparel firm in Turkey. From findings, lack of legislation for efficient CE (C4), lack of mandatory requirements and responsibilities for manufacturers/suppliers for the CE (C17), and lack of government support for environmentally friendly policies (C2) are revealed as the most important barriers, respectively. It is found that lack of attitude and awareness about CE in government institutions (C19) is the most influencing factor, whereas lack of effective recycling policies to achieve quality in waste management (C8) is the most influenced factor. The recommendations were developed for enhancing the corporate environmental performance of businesses through incentives and unique rewards, improving communication among stakeholders, the government's perception of CE and current linear economy, cooperation with nongovernmental organization (NGOs) and civil actions, the vision of government towards circular principles, the circular public procurement, the local governments in circular policymaking, and awareness of bureaucracy and government officials.     

Improving resilience of the healthcare supply chain in a pandemic: Evidence from Europe during the COVID-19 crisis

The severe scarcity of critical medical supplies caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led to considerable procurement challenges in the healthcare supply chain (HCSC). As ensuring the availability of such supplies during disruptions is critical, the debate on how to increase supply chain resilience in healthcare has gained new momentum. We present empirical evidence from a multi-tier case study spanning nine European medical supplies manufacturers and hospital groups. Based on the resource dependence theory, we investigated procurement-related strategies to improve medical supplies availability. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 39 procurement and supply chain management experts and derived seven propositions on buffering and bridging approaches for managing evolving resource dependencies and thereby strengthening supply chain resilience in a pandemic. Overall, we confirm the resource dependence theory's applicability for explaining companies' mitigation measures in a pandemic disruption. We find that bridging measures within the healthcare supply base, such as offering procurement support for suppliers or leveraging long-term buyer-supplier relationships, are more effective for securing medical supplies than buffering measures. Complementing bridging with buffering, such as extended upstream procurement or resource sharing among hospitals, can lead to superior risk mitigation as capacities of the present supplier base may not suffice. Furthermore, we extend the resource dependence theory by showing that the severity of disruptions caused by a pandemic triggers new forms of buffering external to the HCSC. Both traditional and new buffering measures establish novel flows of medical supplies in the HCSC that can enable higher supply security in a pandemic.     

基于BP人工神经网络的供应商评价研究

供应商评价的最终目的是为了让企业选择值得信赖的供应商作为合作伙伴,从而在激烈的竞争中构建高效的供应链体系。本文构建了一种基于BP人工神经网络原理的企业供应商的评价模型,以MATLAB软件为平台进行学习,提高了供应商选择过程的客观性。