Credit guarantee mechanism with information asymmetry: a single sourcing model

This study concerns small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) suppliers suffering from cash constraints in operations, money shortages with possible disruptions and cost uncertainty because of the distributor’s supply risk and the information asymmetry. Thus, this study adopts the distributor’s (buyer’s) perspective and applies a credit guarantee mechanism with an incentive contract as a risk management tool. The distributor can adopt incentive contracts to reveal the type of its supplier; the higher the inefficient supplier’s contribution to the distributor, the smaller the gap between procurement contract quantities with the efficient supplier and procurement contract quantities with the inefficient supplier. An insight into practice is that incentive contracts are tools for acquiring ideal suppliers in the supply base and help companies such as Li & Fung enhance their competitive capabilities.     

一体化供应链下的项目采购管理与供应商管理战略

本文针对汽车行业讨论了产品项目开发中采购管理的重要作用,根据目前项目采购中暴露出的问题,总结出项目采购管理其实质即为对供应商战略管理的理念,从而提出在一体化供应链下项目采购管理中对供应商管理的战略模型。该模型包括四个路径:"构造供应商库,选择和评价供应商,供应商参与项目开发,定义目标供应商平台",并体现如何应用该模型以提高一体化供应链的竞争性。     

Study on suppliers’ flexibility in supply chains: is real-time control necessary?

In a supply chain, the suppliers’ flexibility is considered as a tool to cope with the environmental uncertainties. Flexible suppliers are capable of supplying/processing other jobs in addition to the one for which they are the original supplier. In a cluster of flexible suppliers, it is expected that flexibility of suppliers be utilized more expressively through better control of the supply chain. The online real-time information system is considered as one of the tools for effective control of the supply chain. However, in a cluster of flexible suppliers, the physical and operating characteristics of alternative suppliers (available by virtue of suppliers’ flexibility) may vary from each other for doing the same operation, which may result in a different lead-time to process the same job. This paper presents a simulation study on suppliers’ flexibility level (SFL) in relation to information system automation level of the supply chain and physical characteristics of the flexible suppliers. This paper contributes an approach for decision-makers to identify the information system automation level and variations in physical characteristics of the alternative suppliers with respect to suppliers’ flexibility level that can help in improving the overall delivery lead-time. A decision-maker can reach a trade-off between benefits obtained from supplier's flexibility and the investment required to have a suitable information system automation level and physical characteristics of suppliers. Results of simulation study show that if automation level of information system is not matching to the suppliers’ flexibility level then supplier's flexibility may become counterproductive. Further, a relative change in physical characteristics of the alternative flexible suppliers as compared to the original supplier is more than a certain limit then suppliers’ flexibility may again be counterproductive. However, a cost intensive real-time information system may not be needed when suppliers’ flexibility levels are lower. Study identifies the productive and counterproductive performance regions for suppliers’ delivery lead-time.     

Collaboration in humanitarian supply chains: an organisational culture framework

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact that institutional logics and, more specifically, organisational culture can have on humanitarian supply chain (HSC) collaboration. A framework was developed that explicates buyer–supplier collaboration in a humanitarian setting. Twenty-nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with buyers and suppliers. The data indicated that in a HSC, collaborative outcomes, such as new product development, inventory management, and product/service delivery, are influenced by the buyers’ and suppliers’ organisational cultures. Based on suppliers’ characteristics, they can be classified as humanitarian suppliers, commercial suppliers, and humanitarian and commercial suppliers. These groups have distinct organisational cultures. An unexpected finding is that suppliers that serve commercial buyers primarily claim to have encountered no issues in supply chain collaboration with humanitarian buyers, although they have different types of organisational cultures. The factors that lead to successful collaboration are identified as trust, commitment, information sharing and mutual respect. Simultaneously, dominant institutional logics are observed in the dyadic relationship.     

Buyer behaviours and the performance of the supply chain: An international exploration

This paper studies the effects of buyer?supplier interaction in a supply chain environment. It focuses on the effects of buyer behaviours (such as supplier selection, number of suppliers, percentage of outsourcing, and frequency of production changes) on the performance of the supply chain. Using data collected from machine tool manufacturers around the world, the various behaviours of buyers are examined to see how they induce or mitigate the degree of uncertainty experienced by suppliers and thus affect suppliers' delivery performance. In addition, it was investigated how such buyer behaviours could further affect the supply chain's ability to perform as expected. The statistical results suggest that many buyer behaviours that have no direct effect on buyer's performance can have a significant effect on their suppliers' performance. Specifically, buyer behaviours directly manifest in supplier performance and only indirectly manifest in their own performance. This can give the buyer the false impression that the supply base is harming performance, when the real problem is the way the buyer manages the supply chain. The results vary by region of the world, suggesting that any theory that links buyer behaviours to supplier performance will need to consider a firm location.     

Developing environmental and social performance: the role of suppliers’ sustainability and buyer–supplier trust

We explore how environmental and social performance of manufacturing firms can be improved as sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) develops and evolves within a firm from internal to external practices. Importantly, this study considers how key suppliers’ sustainability performance and buyer–supplier trust mediate and moderate such a development. A conceptual framework is developed which relies on resource-based theories and emerging empirical evidence. Then, partial least square methodology is applied on survey data from a sample of Italian manufacturing firms. Results show that manufacturing firms’ sustainability performance improves as SSCM develops; however, while internal practices have a direct impact on performance, the effect of external practices on a manufacturing firm’s sustainability performance is fully mediated by key suppliers’ sustainability performance. Yet, buyer–supplier trust significantly influences the scope of such gains. Since evidence suggests that manufacturing firms are still struggling with how to leverage supply chain innovation potential for sustainable development, this study provides a timely and valuable contribution.     

Modelling of outsourcing decisions in global supply chains. An empirical study on supplier management performance with different outsourcing strategies

Outsourcing decisions in global supply chains are critical to a business’ competitiveness. This study investigates and compares the supplier management in Taiwanese enterprises under different outsourcing strategies. Base on an empirical study through questionnaires, we investigate the supplier management and critical success factors of the Taiwanese enterprises. It is shown that different outsourcing strategies should be deployed by different types of industries, and a good working relationship with suppliers and customers are paramount to success. The important issues related to supplier management include supplier capability to deliver on time, long term contract strategy with suppliers, supplier evaluation, and quality of material from suppliers.     

装配供应链上合作新产品开发管理研究

以装配供应链为研究对象,构建包含两个供应商和一个制造商的合作新产品开发成本分摊模型。讨论了供应商之间在定价和创新方面的相互影响,制造商的研发成本分摊策略以及整合成本对合作开发的影响。结果表明:任一供应商的研发投资行为,将导致另一供应商借机提高价格;任一供应商的创新能力增强,将激励另一供应商加大研发投入;制造商通过分摊研发成本能够有效激励供应商创新,最优成本分摊比例随整合成本系数递减,最大不超过二分之一。     

A multi-agent protocol for multilateral negotiations in supply chain management

Within a supply chain network, it is common for companies to engage in negotiations to resolve conflicts in task allocation and order fulfilment problems. This kind of supply chain negotiation is usually regarded as buyer–seller negotiation. In recent years, multi-agent systems have been established to automate buyer–seller negotiations. However, most have limitations in handling complex negotiation scenarios such as multilateral negotiations and multi-issue negotiations. This paper presents ECNPro (the Extended Contract-Net-like multilateral Protocol), which is a new multi-agent protocol for handling buyer–seller negotiations in supply chain management. ECNPro is designed to handle agent bargaining and interactions in complex multilateral and multi-issue negotiations in which the buyer has to negotiate with many suppliers. The multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT) approach is adopted to establish the utility functions for a set of negotiation issues in the bargaining process. It adopts a multi-threaded approach to allow the buyer to bargain concurrently with multiple suppliers. ECNPro is able to split an order to more than one supplier to achieve a better negotiation payoff. In addition, mobile agents are employed in ECNPro, the buyer sends mobile agents to sites of the sellers to conduct bargaining locally. This approach improves the negotiation efficiency significantly.     

An integrated weighted fuzzy multi-objective model for supplier selection and order scheduling in a supply chain

This paper presents a new weighted fuzzy multi-objective model to integrated supplier selection, order quantity allocation and customer order scheduling problem to prepare a responsive and order-oriented supply chain in a make-to-order manufacturing system. Total cost and quality of purchased parts as well as the reliability of on-time delivery of customer orders are regarded as the objectives of the model. On the other hand, flexible suppliers can contribute to the responsiveness and flexibility of entire supply chain in the face of uncertain customer orders. Therefore, a mathematical measure is developed for evaluating the volume flexibility of suppliers and is considered as the other objective of the model. Furthermore, by considering the effect of interdependencies between the selection criteria and to handle inconsistent and uncertain judgments, a fuzzy analytic network process method is used to identify top suppliers and consider as the last objective. In order to optimise these objectives, the decision-maker needs to decide from which supplier to purchase parts needed to assemble the customer orders, how to allocate the demand for parts between the selected suppliers, and how to schedule the customer orders for assembled products over the planning time horizon. Numerical examples are presented and computational analysis is reported.     

产品生命周期过程(横向集成)供应商选择模型研究

通过分析集成化供应链管理环境下供应商选择过程,给出了选择指标体系及选择步骤。在此基础上,建立了“横向”集成型企业供应商选择的模糊综合评价选择模型。应用此模型可对选择最满意的供应商做出相应的决策。     

消费者绿色偏好、参考价格效应与供应链绿色创新

在竞争性的市场环境中引入消费者绿色偏好和参考价格效应,考虑这两种消费者行为特征如何交互作用于供应链上下游的绿色创新活动,进而影响绿色创新活动的绩效结果和利润分配。通过构建集中决策、分散决策和成本分担情境下的供应链绿色创新微分博弈模型,分别求得均衡条件下的供应链成员最优绿色创新努力水平与利润,并通过数值仿真结果进一步探讨消费者行为特征与供应链成员绿色创新努力水平之间的关系。研究表明,消费者偏好特征变化是激发供应链成员作出绿色创新努力的重要因素。制造商可以通过对供应商进行成本补贴来激发其绿色创新积极性,且当供应商边际利润与制造商边际利润的关系达到一定阈值,这种绿色创新成本补贴的激励效果更加显著,因而更有可能实现绿色创新基础上的供应链系统利润最优。     

Developing a resilient supply chain through supplier flexibility and reliability assessment

In this study, we examine the optimal allocation of demand across a set of suppliers in a supply chain that is exposed to supply risk and environmental risk. A two-stage mixed-integer programming model is used to develop a flexible sourcing strategy under disruptions. Our model integrates supplier selection and demand allocation with transportation channel selection and provides contingency plans to mitigate the negative impacts of disruptions and minimise total network costs. Finally, a numerical example is presented to illustrate the model and provide insights. The findings suggest that developing contingency plans using flexibility in suppliers’ production capacity is an effective strategy for firms to mitigate the severity of disruptions. We also show that flexibility and reliability of the suppliers and regions play a significant role in determining contingency plans for during disruption. Findings generally show that highly flexible suppliers receive less allocation, and their flexible capacity is reserved for disruptions. For firms that do not incorporate risk management into supplier selection and allocation, the recommendation is to source from fewer, more reliable suppliers with less risk of disruption. Our findings also emphasise that the type of disruption has important implications for supplier selection and demand allocation. This study highlights the supply chain risk management strategy of regionalising as a means for minimising the impact of environmental disruptions.     

Global supplier selection: a fuzzy-AHP approach

Global supplier selection has a critical effect on the competitiveness of the entire supply chain network. Research results indicate that the supplier selection process appears to be the most significant variable in deciding the success of the supply chain. It helps in achieving high quality products at lower cost with higher customer satisfaction. Apart from the common criteria such as cost and quality, this paper also discusses some of the important decision variables which can play a critical role in case of the international sourcing. The importance of the political-economic situation, geographical location, infrastructure, financial background, performance history, risk factors, etc., have also been pointed out in particularly in the case of global supplier selection. Supplier selection problem related to the global sourcing is more complex than the general domestic sourcing and as a result it needs more critical analysis, which could not be found properly in past available literatures. This paper discusses the fuzzy based Analytic Hierarchy Process (fuzzy-AHP) to efficiently tackle both quantitative and qualitative decision factors involved in selection of global supplier in current business scenario. The fuzzy-AHP is an efficient tool to tackle the fuzziness of the data involved in deciding the preferences of the different decision variables involved in the process of global supplier selection. The triangular fuzzy numbers are used to transform the linguistic comparison of the different decision criteria, sub-criteria and performance of the alternative suppliers. The pairwise comparison matrices help in deciding the synthetic extent value of each comparison and finally, the priority weights of one alternative over another are decided in this paper. An example from a manufacturing industry searching for the global supplier for a critical component is used to demonstrate the effective implementation procedure of proposed fuzzy-AHP technique. The proposed model can provide the guidelines and directions for the decision makers to effectively select their global suppliers in the current competitive business scenario.     

Ex post demand information sharing between differentiated suppliers and a common retailer

We consider ex post demand information sharing in a two-echelon supply chain in which two suppliers sell differentiated products through a common retailer. We model three scenarios of information sharing to characterise the conditions under which information sharing may benefit or hurt different players: (1) no supplier is informed; (2) only one supplier is informed; and (3) both suppliers are informed. We find that the retailer may voluntarily share the low demand information when the product differentiation and demand magnitude satisfy certain conditions. In contrast, the retailer has no incentive to share the high demand information, even though this information benefits the suppliers. To achieve information sharing, we propose a side payment mechanism, which allows benefitted players to subsidise hurtful players. Finally, we extend our model by considering a situation where the suppliers have limited capacity and may invest to ramp up production capacity to satisfy a high demand.     

Horizontal cooperation and information sharing between suppliers in the manufacturer–supplier triad

In this paper, we analyse a collusion and information-sharing problem between two suppliers in a manufacturer–supplier triad. The manufacturer treats one supplier as a strategic supplier and the other as a backup. While the strategic supplier offers modules of good quality but longer lead times, the backup supplier offers modules with inferior quality but shorter lead times. If there are urgent orders, the manufacturer must turn to the backup supplier. However, it is difficult for the manufacturer to estimate whether the urgent supplier has put extra effort into their production. We formulate this problem by assuming that the urgent supplier has either low or high production costs. To take advantage of the competition between two suppliers, the manufacturer can design a contract menu that defines total payment and lead times, under which both suppliers may be worse off. Meanwhile, it is possible for the suppliers to tacitly form a coalition, and to even share the private cost information. We study this problem by formulating it as a three-stage game. Furthermore, we investigate the variation of profits for each part of the supply chain. We find that the manufacturer is worse off when suppliers cooperate or share private information. Both suppliers, however, can benefit from cooperation and information sharing.     

激励供应商R&D努力的最优补贴策略研究

构建了一个由两个竞争的供应商、一个采购商和最终消费者组成的供应链模型,采购商通过招标方式向供应商采购物品,供应商的R&D活动可以降低自己的制造成本.分别考虑了对供应商总额补贴、对供应商单位补贴和对消费者单位补贴三种不同情形下,政府R&D补贴对供应商的R&D努力和社会福利的影响.研究发现,对供应商的总额补贴并不能激励供应...     

Maintenance supplier selection considering life cycle costs and risks: a fuzzy goal programming approach

In this study, we address a new variant of supplier selection problem named maintenance supplier selection problem faced by a manufacturer. The production system consists of different multi-component equipments whose maintenance activities require several components (parts) each of which could be provided by multiple suppliers. A multi-objective mathematical model is developed to decide about the supply base of each part as well as the purchasing quantity of each part from each selected supplier. The model accounts for the total life cycle costs of purchased parts and various risks threatening the candidate suppliers. A fuzzy/soft lexicographic goal programming approach with soft priorities between objectives is proposed to enable the decision-maker to make preferred trade-offs between objectives by which the effects of various risks in each phase of life cycle of procured parts are investigated. The capability and effectiveness of the proposed model is validated through a case study. Some sensitivity analyses are also carried out for investigating the impact of cost, risk and objectives’ priorities on the final preferred compromise solution. Finally, some managerial insights and concluding remarks are provided.     

A study of the quality management methods employed by U.K. automotive suppliers

This paper reports on the results of a postal questionnaire survey of quality management methods, awareness and attitudes of suppliers to three major companies in the U.K. automotive industry. The main issues discussed include the quality management systems operated by suppliers, the methods by which quality improvement is pursued, quality-related training, and suppliers' interaction with both their own customers and vendors. The findings to specific questions were disappointing and illustrate the poor state of quality management development in some suppliers; overall the survey evidence indicates that many suppliers have a traditional attitude towards quality management. For example: it is possible to inspect quality into a product; component quality can be graded at different levels according to individual customer requirements; if the customer does not return the product then quality must be satisfactory; the quality manager is responsible for the quality improvement programme. Quality management tools and techniques are often seen as an end in themselves rather than a means to an end, that of improvement. It is clear that a number of suppliers assume that introducing statistical process control is the same as developing a total approach to quality management. There also appears to be a dilution of the quality message as requirements are passed down the supply chain, and in general communication and feedback between customer and supplier is poor.