Transforming the supply chain

Abstract

Purpose

Today's business environment emerges the need for organizations to continuously transform themselves, in order to maintain and reinforce their ability to compete successfully. The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of the transformation process of supply chain in order to provide a modular structured management tool for planning, implementing and measure the effectiveness of supply chain transformation process (SCTP), in relation to overall organizational performance and business strategy.

Design/methodology/approach

The focal concepts upon which the overall approach is based are the strategic planning process, the human resources management techniques, the link between organizational structure and culture, the marketing integration and the importance of quality evaluation.

Findings

The success of such efforts depends on a number of correlated parameters, among which, those of top management commitment and behavioural issues of human resources are the most critical. The tool proposed in this paper for the transformation of the supply chain, provides a flexible sequence of project phases, linked together in a loop and continuously assessed against specific evaluation criteria, to assure the project quality and the continual transformation dynamics.

Practical implications

The pilot implementation of the tool to a big furniture organization led to the development of an integrated supply chain function, which would integrate planning, purchasing, production, warehousing distribution and transportation processes. The customer satisfaction rate had an increase of 25 percent, six months after the fulfilment of the transformation and three key suppliers reported a significant decrease of the duration of the overall purchasing process.

Originality/value

The paper presents a modular tool to facilitate the management of a SCTP as a project, taking under consideration the critical sensitivity factors of a transformation process.

Citation

Fassoula, E.D. (2006), "Transforming the supply chain", Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 17 No. 6, pp. 848-860. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410380610678837