Mapping the future of supply chain management: a Delphi study

Supply chain management, a field that developed from business practice and research, is undergoing a major transformation. It is changing from tactical in nature (where the major focus is on cost and delivery) to a field that is strategic in nature. However, the future issues and challenges facing managers and executives are just now becoming understood. This paper reports these issues by drawing on the findings generated by a three-phase study consisting of a literature review, a two-round Delphi study, and a workshop. Unique in this Delphi study is that it brings together leading practitioners in supply chain management with leading supply chain management researchers. The findings show that while the focus of the current tactical supply chain view is relatively limited to issues of delivery, risk, and leadership, the supply chain view of the future (i.e., five years from now) is more complex and demanding. The findings also show that there is generally no difference between researchers and practitioners in terms of how they view the issues. Finally, the study uncovers major obstacles that must be resolved before the strategic potential of future-state supply chains can be realised.     

Dynamic supply chain design: a Delphi study of drivers and barriers

Supply chain management has both in academia and practice proven its important role to sustain and further develop companies’ competitive advantages. This is with initiatives that focus on cost-efficiencies and turnover improvement. During the last two decades, companies have faced complexity in their supply chains currently with increased global operations. The dynamic business environment forces companies to secure a competitive (re-) design of their supply chains. This paper seeks to advance the understanding on the drivers and barriers for such designs. In total, 39 experts (30 from industrial enterprises, 4 senior supply chain consultants and 5 supply chain management professors) have participated in a four-step Delphi study and have identified main drivers for dynamic supply chain design as being cost reduction, delivery reliability and change in demand for agility. The main barriers are identified as forecasting being too weak, supply chain complexity and product portfolio complexity. In addition, an explorative factor analysis has been carried out to identify how drivers and barriers can be grouped together. Finally, the paper compares the drivers and barriers underlining different competitive strategies.     

Emerging trends in supply chain architecture

This paper traces significant developments in technology, quality, measurement, and relationships that have led to the study of supply chain networks. The paper introduces five principles of supply chain networks—velocity, variability, vocalize, visualize, and value—that have moved supply chain architecture from an art to a science. Finally, the paper uses each principle to point to an important, emerging trend in supply chain architecture.     

New flexibility drivers for manufacturing,supply chain and service operations

Increasing product proliferation, customisation, competition and customer expectations, as well as supply side disruptions, pose significant challenges to firm operations. Such challenges require improved efficiency and resilience in manufacturing, service and supply chain systems. New and innovative flexibility concepts and models offer a prospective route to such operational improvements. Several emerging issues in flexibility, such as risk and uncertainty management, environmental sustainability, optimal strategies under competition, optimal operations with strategic consumer behaviours are being examined in this regard. This overview provides a concise review of these critical research issues, and discusses related papers featured in this special issue. Four major flexibility drivers are classified: disruption risks, resilience and the ripple effect in the supply chain; digitalisation, smart operations and e-supply chains; sustainability and closed-loop supply chains; and supplier integration and behavioural flexibility.     

The determinants of supply chain alliance performance: an empirical study

This paper assesses relationship characteristics in supply chain alliances and their effects on alliance performance in supply chains in the context of manufacturing firms drawing on the theory of social exchange and goal interdependence. The results from AVAS analysis show that relationship stability, trust of supplier, relational capital and commitment exert significant effects on the performance of supply chain alliances. These results offer implications for researchers examining the performance of supply chain alliances. Research limitation and future research are discussed.     

The design of an agent for modelling supply chain network dynamics

A useful insight into managerial decision making can be found from simulation of business systems, but existing work on simulation of supply chain behaviour has largely considered non-competitive chains. Where competitive agents have been examined, they have generally had a simple structure and been used for fundamental examination of stability and equilibria rather than providing practical guidance to managers. In this paper, a new agent for the study of competitive supply chain network dynamics is proposed. The novel features of the agent include the ability to select between competing vendors, distribute orders preferentially among many customers, manage production and inventory, and determine price based on competitive behaviour. The structure of the agent is related to existing business models and sufficient details are provided to allow implementation. The agent is tested to demonstrate that it recreates the main results of the existing modelling and management literature on supply chain dynamics. A brief exploration of competitive dynamics is given to confirm that the proposed agent can respond to competition. The results demonstrate that overall profitability for a supply chain network is maximised when businesses operate collectively. It is possible for an individual business to achieve higher profits by adopting a more competitive stance, but the consequence of this is that the overall profitability of the network is reduced. The agent will be of use for a broad range of studies on the long-run effect of management decisions on their network of suppliers and customers.     

An impact of manufacturing flexibility and technological dimensions of manufacturing strategy on improving supply chain responsiveness: Business environment perspective

The main objective of this research is to investigate the impact of manufacturing flexibility and technological dimensions of manufacturing strategy on responsiveness in the supply chain. Based on the theoretical background of dynamic capability, this study also examines the role of the business environment on the relationship between manufacturing flexibility and supply chain responsiveness. 144 structured surveys were collected and the partial least squares of structural equation modelling approach were utilised for data analysis. The result establishes relationships among various dimensions of manufacturing flexibility. Although the technological dimensions in manufacturing strategy of such advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) and e-procurement do not have any direct impact on new product and market flexibility, they increase supply chain responsiveness, which helps to react quickly against supply chain disruptions. More importantly, the business environment has a moderating effect on the relationship between market flexibility and supply chain responsiveness.     

Efficiency analysis of supply chain processes

We present an integrated benchmarking approach. To analyse the performance of inter-organizational (supply chain) processes at company level we combine dependency analysis and data envelopment analysis (DEA). DEA has been proven to be a powerful tool for benchmarking processes and for identifying the most efficient ones. Before using DEA analysis the inputs and outputs as well as the relevant dependencies have to be identified. To support the determination of input and output variables we propose to use dependency analysis. We illustrate the application of this integrated approach by analysing the results of an empirical benchmarking study of 65 European and North American companies. The study shows that make-to-stock is still the predominating manufacturing strategy of the analysed industries. Therefore, we utilize different DEA models with weight restrictions only for companies with a make-to-stock strategy. The results support our basic hypotheses that efficient supply chains lead to high financial performance. Furthermore they indicate improvement potential for the benchmarked supply chain processes.     

An inductive framework for enhancing supply chain integration

We report the inductive development of a framework for enhancing the integration of supply chains. The framework has been motivated by the need to enhance the participation of small and medium enterprise (SME) suppliers and resellers in the supply chain. Extant diagnostics are geared towards enabling enterprises to evaluate or benchmark themselves on a self-administered rating scale in relation to their peers. In contrast, the present framework aims to enable small-sized suppliers and resellers to systematically imbibe supply chain integration practices, to the extent applicable, from their more advanced trading partners, after possibly adapting them to their own business circumstances. The broad approach has been to first conduct in-depth case study research into enterprises that excel in one or more facets of integration (customer integration, supplier integration etc.) and then induce items pertaining to various themes and sub-themes of supply chain integration. The resulting framework is thus an empirically well-grounded and fine-grained, actionable complement to extant, broader-brushed mechanisms and diagnostics for supply chain integration.     

Reconfigurable supply chain: the X-network

Research on supply chain (SC) digitalization, resilience, sustainability and leagility has remarkably progressed, most of it focused on the individual contributions of these four major frameworks. However, a lack of integration spanning these individual frameworks can be observed. In this conceptual paper, we hypothesize that reconfigurability can be considered such an integral perspective that consolidates the research in SC adaptation to ever changing environments. We theorize a new notion – a Reconfigurable SC or the X-network – that exhibits some crucial design and control characteristics for complex value-adding systems in highly vulnerable environments. We support our argumentation and conceptual viewpoints by a literature analysis along with tertiary studies to review and structure contextual factors of designing the X-networks. We propose respective frameworks and discuss the implementation principles and technologies at the macro and micro levels. Two novel concepts – dynamic SC meta-structures and dynamic autonomous services – are introduced. Distinctively, we go beyond the existing knowledge to predict proactively the future directions in the reconfigurable SCs. Our results can be of value for decision-makers to decipher chances and barriers in contemporary SC transformations.     

Flexibility measure analysis of supply chain

This paper is intended to explore a new method of measuring supply chain flexibility from two dimensions (resources and time) when the supply chain is coordinated. Under the assumptions that the node enterprises’ marginal costs increase with their outputs, firstly this paper analyses the coordination problem of a supply chain with buyback contract, then formulates the resource allocation with the entropy concept in the case of supply chain coordination, puts forward the concepts of resource output elasticity and time output elasticity, analyses the resources’ dynamic matching problem from the two dimensions of resource and time in order to respond to the change of market demand. Finally, based on the above discussion, this paper proposes a method of measuring supply chain flexibility by integrating the resource flexibility and time flexibility. The method not only considers the resources and time required to respond the market’s change, but also takes into account the coordination relationship between the node enterprises.     

Structural-aware simulation analysis of supply chain resilience

Supply chain resilience (SCRES) refers to the ability of a supply chain (SC) to both resist disruptions and recover its operational capability after disruptions. This paper presents a simulation model that includes network structural properties in the analysis of SCRES. This simulation model extends an existing graph model to consider operational behaviours in order to capture disruption-recovery dynamics. Through structural analysis of a supply chain network (SCN), mitigation strategies are designed to build redundancy, while contingency strategies are developed to prioritise recovery of the affected SCN. SCRES indexes are proposed by sampling SC performance measures of disruption for each plant and aggregating the measures based on the criticality of the plants in the SCN. The applicability of this simulation model is demonstrated in a real-world case study of different disruption scenarios. The application of mitigation and contingency strategies is shown to both improve recovery and reduce the total costs associated with disruptions. Through such simulation-based analysis, firms can gain insight into the SCRES of their existing SCNs and identify suitable strategies to improve SCRES by considering recovery time and costs.     

Incorporating cellular manufacturing into supply chain design

This paper presents a mathematical model. The model is used to integrate the design of cellular manufacturing systems with the design of a production network. The objective of the model is to minimize the sum of production and supply-chain costs. The model selects production (facility) locations and forms cells in the selected locations. Two heuristic procedures are presented to solve the model. These procedures are used to generate solutions for several test problems. The test shows the heuristic procedures generate solutions in a reasonable time frame. The results also show that the best solutions were generated by a tabu search procedure. The proposed approach is also compared with an approach that independently selects locations and then forms cells. This second test shows that reduced costs can be obtained using the integrated model.     

Lean versus agile production: flexibility trade-offs within the automotive supply chain

Given the recent dynamics of the automotive industry in the UK, the ability for a firm to be flexible has often taken priority over other performance indicators. Using the notion of distinct business models and trade-offs as our theoretical lens, the purpose of this study was to: (1) Distinguish lean and agile firms based upon production methods; and (2) Compare lean and agile levels of external flexibility (EF) and supply chain flexibility (SCF). Data was obtained from 140 automotive firms in the Midlands (UK) via a survey which was sent by emails. Findings supported the theoretical notion of trade-offs, as firms implementing agile production methods were found to be more flexible in comparison with firms implementing lean production methods. More importantly, the agile firms that possessed high EF levels and SCF levels were predominantly positioned at the lower end of the automotive supply chain, whereas the lean firms were largely found to be operating at the top of the supply chain. First, we provide an innovative way in which lean and agile firms can be conceptualised. Second, as flexibility levels were assessed on actual numerical values, as opposed to using opinion based Likert Scale questions, a methodological contribution is made. Third, as flexibility is in its infancy stage of theoretical development we make an empirical contribution by developing a taxonomy that distinguishes each production concept. Finally, given the supply chain position to where lean and agile firms were found, we invoked a power perspective better understand this phenomenon.     

Examining the interrelationships between supply chain integration scope and supply chain management efforts

In this article, we study the concept of supply chain integration scope by comparing firms that involve immediate supply chain partners in their strategic efforts (narrow supply chain scope) versus firms that involve supply chain partners beyond the immediate level, for example second tier suppliers and end customers (broad supply chain scope). By relying on Coordination Theory and expanding upon Frohlich and Westbrook's (2001 Frohlich, MT and Westbrook, R. 2001. Arcs of integration: an international study of supply chain strategies. Journal of Operations Management, 19(5): 185–200.  [Google Scholar]) ‘arcs of integration’ principle, we propose that supply chain integration scope and the type of supply chain management efforts deployed by firms are correlated. We use data from a large sample of US and European firms to explore the association between supply chain integration scope and supply chain management efforts. The results show that supply chain integration scope can be predicted by a firm's supply chain management efforts. The implications of our results for practising managers are also offered. Our results suggest that supply chain managers should consider the practices identified in this study while deciding on the appropriate level of supply chain integration scope, i.e., which extended supply chain members to include in their strategic planning efforts.     

Issues on the reduction of demand variance in the supply chain

To streamline an agile manufacturing system of a global firm facing a high demand of market service, supply chain management (SCM) plays an important role. In SCM, a phenomenon called ‘the bullwhip effect’ has attracted considerable attention. This study examines the bullwhip effect caused by order variance from retailers. It shows that based on portfolio theory, supplier's demand variance can be reduced by adjusting the order quantities of retailers through co-ordination. The results indicate that our approach can be a useful means for alleviating the bullwhip effect.     

Fuzzy QFD for supply chain management with reliability consideration

Although many products are made through several tiers of supply chains, a systematic way of handling reliability issues in a various product planning stage has drawn attention, only recently, in the context of supply chain management (SCM). The main objective of this paper is to develop a fuzzy quality function deployment (QFD) model in order to convey fuzzy relationship between customers needs and design specification for reliability in the context of SCM. A fuzzy multi criteria decision-making procedure is proposed and is applied to find a set of optimal solution with respect to the performance of the reliability test needed in CRT design. It is expected that the proposed approach can make significant contributions on the following areas: effectively communicating with technical personnel and users; developing relatively error-free reliability review system; and creating consistent and complete documentation for design for reliability.     

Value of information exchange and synchronization in a multi-tier supply chain

We investigate the value of various information exchange mechanisms in a four-echelon supply chain under a material requirements planning framework. In the absence of any information sharing, each echelon would develop its own forecasts and plan its inventories based on the history of actual demand from its downstream customer (or echelon). Through a simulation study, we compare this policy with policies where each echelon has access to (i) the end-user demand history and (ii) the planned order schedule of the downstream echelon. Among all the demand information exchange mechanisms, planning inventories based on the planned downstream order schedules resulted in the lowest average inventory level for the entire supply chain. However, use of end-user demand history to forecast and plan inventories at all echelons resulted in the lowest total cost. In addition to the information exchange mechanisms, a simple synchronized replenishment system was considered and evaluated in the study. In the synchronized system, the retailer determines a fixed order interval and the upper echelons replenish only at integer multiples of this interval. The study found that synchronized inventory replenishments among the echelons, even without any exchange of demand information, can bring about more benefits and cost reduction than any of the information exchange mechanisms.     

A graph-based model to measure structural redundancy for supply chain resilience

Globalisation and lean initiatives increase the vulnerabilities of the supply chains (SC), where disruptions in any plant in a supply chain network (SCN) can propagate throughout the whole SCN. Redundancy is part of the SC re-engineering to improve supply chain resilience (SCRES). This paper presents a conceptual model of an SCN using graph theory, considering the relationships between plants and materials. Based on the model, the structural redundancy of the SCN is measured, which is used to assess SCRES. This assessment approach focuses on the resilience of the SCN against disruptions. Case studies are discussed to illustrate the applicability of this model and show that increasing structural redundancy of the SCN improves SCRES against disruptions.     

Making supply chain design the rational differentiating characteristic of the OEMs

For more complex products that require customers to undertake learning in order to retrieve or realize the products’ true values, the product design and supply management decisions are different from those of less complex products. Nonetheless, in spite of the undeniable significance of coordinating decisions across product design and supply chain structures, we know very little about how to do so in practical ways. In this paper, we build on previous findings and offer a framework to enable the application of the supply chain structure design early in the new product introduction process. The proposed framework is based on a field study of the common practices in one of the major North American automakers, but we believe that it is widely applicable in other industries.