James Aitken, Cecil Bozarth and Wolfgang Garn
Existing works in the supply chain complexity area have either focused on the overall behavior of multi-firm complex adaptive systems or on listing specific tools and techniques…
Abstract
Purpose
Existing works in the supply chain complexity area have either focused on the overall behavior of multi-firm complex adaptive systems or on listing specific tools and techniques that business units (BUs) can use to manage supply chain complexity but without providing a thorough discussion about when and why they should be deployed. This research aims to address this gap by developing a conceptually sound model, based on the literature, regarding how an individual BU should reduce versus absorb supply chain complexity.
Design/methodology/approach
This research synthesizes the supply chain complexity and organizational design literature to present a conceptual model of how a BU should respond to supply chain complexity. The authors illustrate the model through a longitudinal case study analysis of a packaged foods manufacturer.
Findings
Regardless of its type or origin, supply chain complexity can arise because of the strategic business requirements of the BU (strategic) or because of suboptimal business practices (dysfunctional complexity). Consistent with the proposed conceptual model, the illustrative case study showed that a firm must first distinguish between strategic and dysfunctional drivers prior to choosing an organizational response. Furthermore, it was found that efforts to address supply chain complexity can reveal other system weaknesses that lie dormant until the system is stressed.
Research limitations/implications
The case study provides empirical support for the literature-derived conceptual model. Nevertheless, any findings derived from a single, in-depth case study require further research to produce generalizable results.
Practical implications
The conceptual model presented here provides a more granular view of supply chain complexity and how an individual BU should respond, than what can be found in the existing literature. The model recognizes that an individual BU can simultaneously face both strategic and dysfunctional complexity drivers, each requiring a different organizational response.
Originality/value
There are no other research works that have synthesized the supply chain complexity and organizational design literature to present a conceptual model of how an individual BU should respond to supply chain complexity. As such, this paper improves the understanding of supply chain complexity effects and provides a basis for future research, as well as guidance for BUs facing complexity challenges.
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Neil Turner, James Aitken and Cecil Bozarth
The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of supply chain complexity and extend this with literature developed within the project domain. The authors use the lens of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of supply chain complexity and extend this with literature developed within the project domain. The authors use the lens of ambidexterity (the ability both to exploit and explore) to analyse responses to complexity, since this enables the authors to understand the application of known solutions in conjunction with innovative ones to resolve difficulties. This research also seeks to investigate how managers respond to supply chain complexities that can either be operationally deleterious or strategically beneficial.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors develop a descriptive framework based on the project management (PM) literature to understand response options to complexity, and then use interviews with supply chain managers in six organisations to examine the utility of this framework in practice. The authors ask the research question “How do managers in supply chains respond to complexities”?
Findings
The case study data show first that managers faced with structural, socio-political, or emergent supply chain complexities use a wide range of responses. Second, over a third of the instances of complexity coded were actually accommodated, rather than reduced, by the study firms, suggesting that adapting to supply chain complexity in certain instances may be strategically appropriate. Third, the lens of ambidexterity allows a more explicit assessment of whether existing PM solutions can be considered or if novel methods are required to address supply chain complexities.
Practical implications
The descriptive framework can aid managers in conceptualising and addressing supply chain complexity. Through exploiting current knowledge, managers can lessen the impact of complexity while exploring other innovative approaches to solve new problems and challenges that evolve from complexity growth driven by business strategy.
Originality/value
This study addresses a gap in the literature through the development of a framework which provides a structure on ways to address supply chain complexity. The authors evaluate an existing project complexity concept and demonstrate that it is both applicable and valuable in non-project, ongoing operations. The authors then extend it using the lens of ambidexterity, and develop a framework that can support practitioners in analysing and addressing both strategically necessary supply complexities, together with unwanted, negative complexities within the organisation and across the supply chain.
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Despite the importance given to manufacturing focus in theliterature, the subject area continues to suffer from three interrelatedproblems: lack of agreement with regard to the…
Abstract
Despite the importance given to manufacturing focus in the literature, the subject area continues to suffer from three interrelated problems: lack of agreement with regard to the meaning of “focus” the absence of a conceptual framework for integrating the existing body of research; and uncertainty with regard to the appropriate direction of future research. These problems should be addressed if the focus literature is to continue to mature, and if the true role of focus is to be understood in the light of the “newer” strategic imperatives, such as time‐based competition and flexible manufacturing. Introduces a conceptual model of focus specifically designed in response to these problems. The conceptual model identifies three distinct dimensions of focus, and relates these to the competitive factors facing manufacturing organizations. It is designed specifically to serve as a tool with which researchers and managers can discuss the impact of focus at the firm level. A review of key works in manufacturing focus is also included to justify the structure of the model, and to show how the model integrates previous conceptual and empirical research on focus.
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Cecil Bozarth and Steve Chapman
The growing time‐based competition (TBC) literature coincides with an increased emphasis on time in manufacturing organizations. In a 1993 survey, 93 per cent of US and European…
Abstract
The growing time‐based competition (TBC) literature coincides with an increased emphasis on time in manufacturing organizations. In a 1993 survey, 93 per cent of US and European managers identified reliable delivery times as having above average importance, while overall delivery speed was cited by 88 per cent and 89 per cent, respectively. At the same time, 82 per cent of Japanese managers rated rapid new product introduction as having above average importance. Highlights potentially different sources of time‐based advantages. The factors described above are linked by a common emphasis on time, but the driving strategies and tactics used to achieve them can differ or possibly conflict. Presents a framework of time‐based competition for manufacturers. Demonstrates how differences between engineer‐to‐order, make‐to‐order, assembly‐to‐order and make‐to‐stock manufacturers result in the need to use different approaches to implement TBC.
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To compare actual company ERP implementation practices with the prescriptions found in the strategic information systems planning (SISP) and IT‐enabled change management…
Abstract
Purpose
To compare actual company ERP implementation practices with the prescriptions found in the strategic information systems planning (SISP) and IT‐enabled change management literature.
Design/methodology/approach
The case study method is used to study ERP specification, selection, and implementation efforts at three companies. The main sources of data were structured face‐to‐face interviews with key personnel, and supporting internal documents provided by the study companies.
Findings
All three companies did an adequate job linking the ERP decision to higher‐level IS and supply chain strategies, although mid‐level managers dominated the strategic debate. However, two of the companies fell far short in the specification and selection processes, particularly with regard to achieving broad participation and managing stakeholder commitment. As such, these two companies missed an opportunity to think independently about their long‐term information requirements and capabilities, proactively manage the debate with the vendors, and obtain early buy‐in from key users.
Research limitations/implications
The case study method limits the sample size, but allows more depth than would be possible using survey instruments or secondary sources. In time, follow‐up research will examine the ultimate success of the companies' efforts.
Practical implications
An important insight is the importance of involving key users in the specification and selection process, especially when the new system promised radical change to current work methods.
Originality/value
This research provides a concise comparison of the ERP efforts across three companies, and pulls together the OM‐based ERP research, SISP, and IT‐enabled change literatures. It is suitable for practitioners and students, as well as researchers.
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Robert B. Handfield, Gary Graham and Laird Burns
Using the constructal law of physics this study aims to provide guidance to future scholarship on global supply chain management. Further, through two case studies the authors are…
Abstract
Purpose
Using the constructal law of physics this study aims to provide guidance to future scholarship on global supply chain management. Further, through two case studies the authors are developing, the authors report interview findings with two senior VPs from two multi-national corporations being disrupted by COVID-19. This study suggests how this and recent events will impact on the design of future global supply chains.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors apply the constructal law to explain the recent disruptions to the global supply chain orthodoxy. Two interviews are presented from case studies the authors are developing in the USA and UK – one a multi-national automobile parts supplier and the other is a earth-moving equipment manufacture. Specifically, this is an exploratory pathway work trying to make sense of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on supply chain scholarship.
Findings
Adopting the approach of Bejan, the authors believe that what is happening today with COVID-19 and other trade disruptions such as Brexit and the USA imposing tariffs is creating new obstacles that will redirect the future flow of supply chains.
Research limitations/implications
It is clear that the COVID-19 response introduced a bullwhip effect in the manufacturing sector on a scale never-before seen. For scholars, the authors would suggest there are four pathway topics going forward. These topics include: the future state of global sourcing, the unique nature of a combined “demand” and “supply shortage” bullwhip effect, the resurrection of lean and local production systems and the development of risk-recovery contingency strategies to deal with pandemics.
Practical implications
Supply chain managers tend to be iterative and focused on making small and subtle changes to their current system and way of thinking, very often seeking to optimize cost or negotiate better contracts with suppliers. In the current environment, however, such activities have proved to be of little consequence compared to the massive forces of economic disruption of the past three years. Organizations that have more tightly compressed supply chains are enjoying a significant benefit during the COVID-19 crisis and are no longer being held hostage to governments of another country.
Social implications
An implicit assumption in the press is that COVID-19 caught everyone by surprise, and that executives foolishly ignored the risks of outsourcing to China and are now paying the price. However, noted scholars and epidemiologists have been warning of the threats of pandemics since the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus. The pundits would further posit that in their pursuit of low-cost production, global corporations made naive assumptions that nothing could disrupt them. Both the firms the authors have interviewed had to close plants to protect their workforce. It was indicated in the cases the authors are developing that it is going to take manufacturers on average one month to recover from 4–6 days of disruption. These companies employ many thousands of people, and direct and ancillary workers are now temporarily laid off and face an uncertain future as/when they will recover back to normal production.
Originality/value
Using the constructal law of physics, the authors seek to provide guidance to future scholarship on global supply chain management. Further, through two case studies, the authors provide the first insight from two senior VPs from two leading multi-national corporations in their respective sectors being disrupted by COVID-19. This study is the first indication to how this and recent disruptive events will impact on the design of future global supply chains. Unlike the generic work, which has recently appeared in HBR and Forbes, it is grounded in real operational insight.
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Fazli Idris and M. Muzamil Naqshbandi
The purpose of this study is to explain the components of competitive priorities of Indian service firms, to find out the competitive priorities of different service industries in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explain the components of competitive priorities of Indian service firms, to find out the competitive priorities of different service industries in India and to find out how these competitive priorities change across low- and high-performing service firms.
Design/methodology/approach
An empirical study of 166 firms from five different service industries is undertaken in New Delhi and its surroundings.
Findings
The results reveal the presence of three competitive priorities in the services sector in India: cost, flexibility and quality/delivery, with quality/delivery being the most distinctive competitive priority. Hotel and auto-repair industries are found to be focused on controlling costs, while hospitals, banks and private colleges prioritized quality/delivery. For high-performing firms, cost is the top most competitive priority, followed by quality/delivery and flexibility, while for low-performing firms, quality/delivery remains the top most competitive priority, followed by flexibility and cost.
Originality/value
The paper enhances the understanding of competitive priorities in the Indian services sector. The identification of competitive priorities of different service industries in India and their dynamics across different industries add value to the current literature and fill an important research gap. Additionally, surveying diverse industries in this paper reveals a holistic picture of the Indian service industry and helps achieve some degree of cross-industry perspective.
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Hyeon‐Soo Ahn, Hee‐Don Jung, Byong‐Hun Ahn and Seung‐Kyu Rhee
Addresses the issue of supply chain competitiveness from the manufacturing capability perspective. Six supply chains are analysed, based on three manufacturers in the Korean home…
Abstract
Addresses the issue of supply chain competitiveness from the manufacturing capability perspective. Six supply chains are analysed, based on three manufacturers in the Korean home appliance industry. The case study findings demonstrate the strong connection between capability requirements of suppliers of critical parts and competitive priorities of manufacturing customers. For suppliers of non‐critical items, delivery and cost are the most important capability dimensions. The factors influencing congruence between customer requirements and the capabilities of constituent firms are also examined. Mutual co‐operative behaviour, specificity of transaction‐related assets, and “criticalness” of traded parts are identified as the key factors influencing congruence.