The relation between supply chain performance and supply chain governance practices

The relation between corporate governance practices and firms’ performance is a common research subject for academics. This article goal is to present theoretical details regarding the possible relation between supply chain governance practices and supply chain performance, one issue less discussed at an international level. The first section of the article is related to supply chain governance as a new research area for academics. The main benefits of this approach, in comparison to corporate governance, are presented. The second section contains aspects concerning supply chain performance, reflecting the impacts of extended governance – ensuring a good reputation on the market and increase financial performance. The last part of the article addresses an overlapping question: are there any ways of modeling the relation between supply chain governance practices and its performance?financial performance, reputation, supply chain governance, supply chain performance.

Business Process Innovation using the Process Innovation Laboratory

Most organizations today are required not only to establish effective business processes but they are required to accommodate for changing business conditions at an increasing rate. Many business processes extend beyond the boundary of the enterprise into the supply chain and the information infrastructure therefore is critical. Today nearly every business relies on their Enterprise System (ES) for process integration and the future generations of enterprise systems will increasingly be driven by business process models. Consequently process modeling and improvement will become vital for business process innovation (BPI) in future organizations. There is a significant body of knowledge on various aspect of process innovation, e.g. on conceptual modeling, business processes, supply chains and enterprise systems. Still an overall comprehensive and consistent theoretical framework with guidelines for practical applications has not been identified. The aim of this paper is to establish a conceptual framework for business process innovation in the supply chain based on advanced enterprise systems. The main approach to business process innovation in this context is to create a new methodology for exploring process models and patterns of applications. The paper thus presents a new concept for business process innovation called the process innovation laboratory a.k.a. the Ð-Lab. The Ð-Lab is a comprehensive framework for BPI using advanced enterprise systems. The Ð-Lab is a collaborative workspace for experimenting with process models and an explorative approach to study integrated modeling in a controlled environment. The Ð-Lab facilitates innovation by using an integrated action learning approach to process modeling including contemporary technological, organizational and business perspectivesNo; keywords

Supply Chain Greening versus Resilience

The relationship between supply chain resilience and environmental sustainability (greening) has been a topic of peripheral discussion in the research literature. The aim in this paper is to investigate, from a supply chain modeling perspective, the extent to which supply chain greening and resilience strategies are supportive of each other. A strategic supply chain design model is introduced that utilizes an environmental performance scoring approach and a new robustness measure, called “elastic p-robustness”, to (1) explore the relationship between greening and buttressing (building resilience), and (2) identify potential tradeoffs to develop “resiliently green” and “greenly resilient” supply chains. Utilizing real data from a multinational apparel company, our analyses and investigations arrive at important practical implications and managerial insights and set the stage for additional research in this area

Comparison of Supply Chain Process Models based on Service-oriented Architecture

With the passage of time, supply chain processes have shifted toward IT-based business processes regarding service-oriented architecture (SOA) to augment the agility, integration, and flexibility of IT-based applications in enterprise networks. SOA, as a fast-growing paradigm in IT, uses Web service technologies and provides new pattern integration and interoperability in processes, services, and data. Consequently, many reference models have been developed in the field of SC processes to support the requirements for the related modeling, as well as to apply the development and implementation of supply chain information systems. The aim of this paper is to compare six main supply chain reference models regarding SOA and its underlying concepts and to identify which reference model can support different stages of information system development. The results show that no supply chain reference model can support both the coordination and interaction of process models in more detail and with a service-oriented approach in supply chain process modeling. Moreover, there is a need for a plausible methodology for business process modeling based on the service-oriented approach in the domain of supply chain management (SCM)

Holism versus reductionism in supply chain management: An economic analysis

Since supply chains are increasingly built on complex interdependences, concerns to adopt new managerial approaches based on collaboration have surged. Nonetheless, implementing an efficient collaborative solution is a wide process where several obstacles must be faced. This work explores the key role of experimentation as a model-driven decision support system for managers in the convoluted decision-making process required to evolve from a reductionist approach (where the overall strategy is the sum of individual strategies) to a holistic approach (where global optimization is sought through collaboration). We simulate a four-echelon supply chain within a large noise scenario, while a fractional factorial design of experiments (DoE) with eleven factors was used to explore cause-effect relationships. By providing evidence in a wide range of conditions of the superiority of the holistic approach, supply chain participants can be certain to move away from their natural reductionist behavior. Thereupon, practitioners focus on implementing the solution. The theory of constraints (TOC) defines an appropriate framework, where the Drum–Buffer–Rope (DBR) method integrates supply chain processes and synchronizes decisions. In addition, this work provides evidence of the need for aligning incentives in order to eliminate the risk to deviate. Modeling and simulation, especially agent-based techniques, allows practitioners to develop awareness of complex organizational problems. Hence, these prototypes can be interpreted as forceful laboratories for decision making and business transformation

Ensuring supply for emergency services – modelling supply chains with incomplete sets of data

To ensure material availability for public health and safety services, supply chain simulation could be used to identify the risk of bottlenecks due to disruptions in global supply chains. However, these stakeholders do not have the detailed knowledge about their supply chains required for reliable simulation results. A new approach is presented in this article, which enables the modeling of a supply chain without full knowledge about each process node. It consists of generic data containers, each representing typical nodes within a supply chain with plausible process parameters, boundaries, and distributed values. We present the conceptual feasibility of the approach through a case study and demonstrate the methodology for modelling a supply chain for detailed bottleneck analysis and automated risk assessment of a public health and safety supply chain

Technical Paper Session I-B - The NASA Human Space Flight Supply Chain, Current and Future

The current NASA Human Space Flight transportation system, the Space Shuttle, is scheduled for final flight in 2010. The Exploration initiative will create a new capability with a combination of existing systems and new flight and ground elements. To fully understand and act on the implications of such change it is necessary to understand what, how, when and where such changes occur and more importantly, how all these interact. This paper presents Human Space Flight, with an emphasis on KSC Launch and Landing, as a Supply Chain of both information and materials. A supply chain methodology for understanding the flow of information and materials is presented. Further, modeling and simulation projects funded by the Exploration initiative to understand the NASA Exploration Supply Chain are explained. Key concepts and their purpose, including the Enterprise, Locations, Physical and Organizational Functional Units, Products, and Resources, are explained. It is shown that the art, science and perspective of Supply Chain Management is not only applicable to such a government & contractor operation, it is also an invaluable approach for understanding, focusing improvement and growth. It is shown that such commercial practice applies to Human Space Flight and is invaluable towards one day creating routine, affordable access to and from space

The NASA Human Space Flight Supply Chain, Current and Future

The current NASA Human Space Flight transportation system, the Space Shuttle, is scheduled for final flight in 2010. The Exploration initiative will create a new capability with a combination of existing systems and new flight and ground elements. To fully understand and act on the implications of such change it is necessary to understand what, how, when and where such changes occur and more importantly, how all these interact. This paper presents Human Space Flight, with an emphasis on KSC Launch and Landing, as a Supply Chain of both information and materials. A supply chain methodology for understanding the flow of information and materials is presented. Further, modeling and simulation projects funded by the Exploration initiative to understand the NASA Exploration Supply Chain are explained. Key concepts and their purpose, including the Enterprise, Locations, Physical and Organizational Functional Units, Products, and Resources, are explained. It is shown that the art, science and perspective of Supply Chain Management is not only applicable to such a government & contractor operation, it is also an invaluable approach for understanding, focusing improvement and growth. It is shown that such commercial practice applies to Human Space Flight and is invaluable towards one day creating routine, affordable access to and from space