Editorial: Supply networks design and management

International audienc

From SMEs networks towards collaborative management

The main problem of small companies in a global market is to be recognized by potential customers and provide them the products at a competitive price. Their small size, in terms of design and production capacity, puts them in crisis (about 30% of small Italian enterprises have disappeared or have been greatly reduced, since 2007). Hence micro and small enterprises are forced to come together in a "enterprises network", to conclude a "network contract" and to evaluate the advantages to be collaborative members of a network. This paper discusses the problem of analyzing the types of Small Mid Enterprises (SMEs) networks that have been be established in some European countries, the evolution in time of their organization, and the contractual arrangements to establish them. A discussion of some performance indicators will show how a collaborative management can improve the SME networks strength, thus giving them a competitive advantage

Proposta teórico-metodológica fundamentada na avaliação de desempenho multicritério para a gestão do relacionamento de arranjo produtivo local (APL) e suas empresas individuais

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Produção, Florianópolis, 2013A presente tese teve como objetivo principal construir uma proposta teórico-metodológica fundamentado na avaliação de desempenho multicritério que permita a gestão do relacionamento entre o Arranjo Produtivo Local de Tecnologia da Informação do Sudoeste do Paraná (APL de TI-PR) e suas empresas participantes. Para alcançar o objetivo principal primeiramente elaborou-se o mapeamento dos artigos do portfólio bibliográfico nacional e internacional. Na sequência construiu-se um modelo de avaliação de desempenho multicritério para o APL de TI-PR e outro para uma das empresas participantes do APL. Por fim, buscou-se verificar se existia sinergia entre os objetivos e ações do APL em relação à empresa individual e da empresa individual para o APL. Para responder a pergunta de pesquisa e alcançar os objetivos da tese buscou-se apoio em procedimentos e instrumentos metodológicos alinhados as características do presente trabalho. A pesquisa caracteriza-se com exploratória e descritiva. No que se refere à natureza do artigo, a pesquisa se caracteriza com um estudo prático, pois as características do que se desejava investigar se adapta mais ao estudo aprofundado de um caso real. Em relação à coleta de dados, a pesquisa fez uso de dados primários e de dados secundários. No que se refere à abordagem do problema, a pesquisa pode ser caracterizada como quali-quantitativa. Qualitativa, principalmente na fase de estruturação dos modelos e na proposta de gestão do relacionamento e quantitativa principalmente na fase de avaliação dos modelos. O instrumento de intervenção utilizada para a construção dos modelos de avaliação de desempenho foi a metodologia multicritério de apoio à decisão construtivista (MCDA-C) dado a sua capacidade de gerar conhecimento sobre o contexto decisório. Os principais resultados são: (i) realizou-se o mapeamento dos artigos do portfólio bibliográfico que possibilitou construir maior entendimento no pesquisador sobre o tema de pesquisa; (ii) construiu-se o modelo de avaliação de desempenho para o APL de TI-PR, que resultou em 70 indicadores de desempenho distribuídos em três grandes dimensões (imagem; sinergia entre APL e empresas e sustentabilidade). Traçou-se o perfil de desempenho da situação atual do APL e a avaliação global de desempenho que ficou em 23 pontos em uma escala que 0 equivale ao nível "neutro" e 100 equivale ao nível "bom". Adicionalmente, construíram-se ações de melhoria que elevaria o desempenho global do APL para 43 pontos; (iii) construiu-se o modelo de avaliação de desempenho para a empresa individual Supera Sistemas, que resultou em 58 indicadores de desempenho distribuídos em três grandes dimensões (qualidade, mercado e sustentabilidade). Traçou-se o perfil de desempenho da situação atual da empresa e a avaliação global de desempenho que ficou em 32 pontos. Adicionalmente, construíram-se ações de melhoria que elevaria o desempenho global da empresa para 68 pontos. (iv) construiu-se uma proposta para a gestão do relacionamento entre o APL e suas empresas individuais e ilustrou-se o processo em que se identificou a existência de sinergia entre os objetivos/critérios do APL para com a empresa individual e da empresa individual para o APL. A constatação de que existe sinergia, aliada a proposta de gestão do relacionamento pode contribuir com a melhoria do desempenho do APL e das empresas individuais por meio da identificação de ações que possibilitem o "ganha-ganha" para o sucesso da cooperação. Conclui-se que a proposta da presente tese de gerenciamento do relacionamento entre o APL e suas empresas individuais contribui com o avanço da literatura científica sobre o tema e avança na discussão de criar mecanismos inovadores para alavancar o sucesso das PMEs envolvidas em cooperação.Abstract : This thesis aimed at building a theoretical and methodological proposal based on multicriteria performance evaluation that allows the management of the relationship between the Local Productive Arrangement of Information Technology in Southwest of Paraná (IT LPA- PR) and its participating companies. To achieve the main objective first it was developed the mapping of the articles of national and international bibliographic portfolio. Following it was built a model of multicriteria performance evaluation for LPA of IT-PR and another for one of the companies participating in LPA. Finally, it was sought to verify whether there was synergy between LPA goals and actions in relation to individual enterprise and from the individual enterprise to LPA. To answer the research question and achieve the goals of the thesis it was sought support on methodological tools and procedures aligned to the characteristics of this work. The research is characterized as exploratory and descriptive. Regarding the nature of the article, the research is characterized as a practical study, since the characteristics of what is wanted to investigate fits more to an actual case in-depth study. Regarding data collection, the research used primary and secondary data. With regard to addressing the problem, the research can be characterized as qualitative and quantitative. It is qualitative, especially in the structuring phase of the models and in the relationship management proposal and it is quantitative mainly in the evaluation phase of the models. The intervention instrument used for building the models of performance evaluation was the Multicriteria Decision Aid (MCDA-C) given its capacity to generate knowledge about the decision context. The main results are: (i) completion of mapping of the bibliographic portfolio articles which enabled the researcher to build greater understanding on the topic of research, (ii) building of performance evaluation model for LPA of IT-PR, which resulted in 70 performance indicators divided into three large dimensions (image; synergy between LPA and companies and sustainability). It was drafted the performance profile of the current state of LPA and overall assessment of performance that stood at 23 points on a scale where 0 is equivalent to the "neutral" level and 100 equals to the "good" level. Additionally, improvement actions were built-up that would increase the overall performance of LPA to 43 points, (iii) it was built up the performance evaluation model for the individual enterprise Supera Sistemas, which resulted in 58 performance indicators divided into three large dimensions (quality, market and sustainability). It was drafted the performance profile of the company's current situation and overall assessment of performance that stood up at 32 points. Additionally, improvement actions were built-up that would increase the overall performance of the company to 68 points. (iv) it was built up a proposal for managing the relationship between LPA and its individual companies and illustrated the process that identified the existence of synergy between the objectives / criteria of LPA with the individual enterprise and from the individual enterprise to LPA. The finding that there is synergy, coupled with the relationship management proposal can contribute to improving the performance of LPA and individual companies by identifying actions that enable the "win-win" policy for successful cooperation. It is concluded that this thesis proposal of relationship management between LPA and its individual companies contributes to the scientific literature advance on the topic and the discussion moves to create innovative mechanisms to leverage the success of the SMEs involved in cooperation

Key performance indicators to assess the collaborative potential of SME networks

The paper proposes a procedure for the analysis of collaboration inside Industrial Networks. The procedure is based on a constitutive model of a SME network that describes the interactions among firms and their socio-economic environment. After a description of data collection procedure, a practice intended to analyze industrial networks using both quantitative and categorical data is presented. Data refer to several industrial networks spread all over Italy. Said data, collected during the CODESNET EU project (www.codesnet.polito.it), will allow to extract useful indicators of the network productive and logistic potentiality. The approach here proposed can be used by an industrial manager to find out either critical points that can hinder the SME collaboration, or focal points to reinforce their interactions

Key performance indicators to assess the collaborative potential of SME networks

The paper proposes a procedure for the analysis of collaboration inside Industrial Networks. The procedure is based on a constitutive model of a SME network that describes the interactions among firms and their socio-economic environment. After a description of data collection procedure, a practice intended to analyze industrial networks using both quantitative and categorical data is presented. Data refer to several industrial networks spread all over Italy. Said data, collected during the CODESNET EU project (www.codesnet.polito.it), will allow to extract useful indicators of the network productive and logistic potentiality. The approach here proposed can be used by an industrial manager to find out either critical points that can hinder the SME collaboration, or focal points to reinforce their interactions

Analysing industrial district performances: A structured approach

The goals of an organization of data and information collected from the European industrial systems and concerning networks of enterprises, mainly small-mid enterprises (SMEs), are many: (a) to offer an intelligent support system (ISS) to industrial analysers when they try to understand if a SME network, either cluster or industrial district, could be enforced by proper financing, or it cannot give sufficient assurance for a new development; (b) to offer to political people a support in understanding the dynamics of these SME networks, in order to be able to take decisions about public politics; (c) to give tools for analysing the performance of these industrial bodies to industrial people, mainly technicians and managers, such to be able to apply new strategies for their improvement; (d) to give information and data to researchers operating in university and RTD centers, such to be able to improve their knowledge about these so important industrial bodies. To reach this goal, the aim of the EU-funded CODESNET (COllaborative DEmand & Supply NETwork) project is to give new ideas and concepts sufficient to drive the attention of the above-mentioned different types of people towards the SME networks and districts. To this aim, a crucial problem must be approached and solved: which model of a SME network should be stated and used as the basis for developing a clear and useful ISS, that is, able to collect information and data from existing SME networks and transfer such data into standard formats, easy to be read by both industrial people and scientific researchers. The present paper describes the theoretical methodology on which the data organization and interpretation adopted in the CODESNET project is based. The application of an original meta-model of SME network, developed in the mentioned project, is detailed according to the following steps. After the meta-model formulation (in Section 2), it is shown how the variables to be measured (such to have a clear understanding of the network status), have to be selected, and how the main issues concerning the design and management of the network has to be classified (Section 3). Then, it will be shown how the archive of both data/information from existing SME networks (for purpose of comparison-based analysis) and the catalogue of technical/scientific reports (for purpose of justifying the analysis considerations) has been organized in an integrated form. The scope is to give at disposal of industrial people the mentioned ISS which allow them to approach some main issues concerning the network design and management (Section 4). An example of ISS application in an Italian industrial district will be presented, such to illustrate the CODESNET results' usefulnes