The role of supply chain integration in achieving competitive advantage: A study of UK automobile manufacturers

The competitive nature of the global automobile industry has resulted in a battle for efficiency and consistency in supply chain management (SCM). For manufacturers, the diversified network of suppliers represents more than just a production system; it is a strategic asset that must be managed, evaluated, and revised in order to attain competitive advantage. One capability that has become an increasingly essential means of alignment and assessment is supply chain integration (SCI). Through such practices, manufacturers create informational capital that is inimitable, yet transferrable, allowing suppliers to participate in a mutually-beneficial system of performance-centred outcomes. From cost reduction to time improvements to quality control, the benefits of SCI extend throughout the supply chain lifecycle, providing firms with improved predictability, flexibility, and responsiveness. Yet in spite of such benefits, key limitations including exposure to risks, supplier failures, or changing competitive conditions may expose manufacturers to a vulnerable position that can severely impact value and performance. The current study summarizes the perspectives and predictions of managers within the automobile industry in the UK, highlighting a dynamic model of interdependency and interpolation that embraces SCI as a strategic resource. Full commitment to integration is critical to achieving improved outcomes and performance; therefore, firms seeking to integrate throughout their extended supply chain must be willing to embrace a less centralized locus of control

Impacts of climate change and variability on fish value chains in Uganda

This study examines the vulnerability of fish pr oduction in Uganda, particularly as it r elates to the predicted impacts from climate change, using the concept of the value chain. The value chain approach has been recommended as a useful tool to study specific challenges facing a sector resulting from various drivers of change, including climate. Critically, such analyses can reveal context-specific response strategies to enhance a sector (Jacinto and Pomer oy 2010). The specific purpose of the study was to identify curr ent and potential impacts of climate change and corresponding adaptation strategies in fish value chains. The study builds upon information fr om earlier value chain analyses on fisheries and aquaculture production in Uganda to provide a more in-depth understanding of issues facing the fish industry, in particular, those to be incorporated in the CGIAR Resear ch Program Livestock and Fish

Red meat from pasture : sustainable livelihoods for small mixed farmers in China's Yunnan Province : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Applied Science in Agribusiness Management at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

China's pattern of food consumption is changing. The demand for high quality red meat is rapidly increasing, especially in the more affluent coastal regions. The pastoral livestock farmers in Southwest China have low and declining incomes, and operate in a highly uncertain environment. This environmental uncertainty is derived from the seasonal climate, land tenure policies, and a dealer-dominated supply chain in which information is scarce, ambiguous, and untimely. The researcher spent two years in China's Yunnan Province working on a pastoral development project. During this assignment, the researcher undertook a case study of the small, mixed livestock and cropping farmers involved in the project, together with an evaluation of alternative strategies for pastoral development and enhancing livestock production. The case study also involved an overview of agricultural extension and the red meat supply chain in the study area. The current farm production systems are environmentally, financially and socially unsustainable. Farm output is low and achieved inefficiently at considerable cost to future productive potential. Farmers are not investing in farm improvements because they lack confidence in their ability to generate a return from such investments. Confidence is low because farmers do not trust other supply chain participants, and they perceive a low level of control over the operating environment. This is resulting in a vicious cycle of unsustainability. There are numerous market opportunities emerging due to changes food consumption. Farmers have three broad strategic options for taking advantage of these opportunities: invest in technologies to raise output and quality, further process to add value and increase consumer acceptance of red meat and co-operate within the supply chain. The technologies extended as part of the development project were demonstrated to yield significant benefits in terms of production and profit. However, adoption has been low because many of the technologies did not consider local constraints, extension has not widely occurred and uncertainty in the operating environment did not encourage investment. For farmers to be able to successfully implement these strategies farmers need to be empowered and a more enabling environment created. This empowerment involves changing farmers' perception of locus of control, sharing control and supply chain participants learning about each other. Co-operation between farmers and the rest of the supply chain should provide benefits along the whole chain. A model for co-operative and sustainable development is proposed and limitations of this model are discussed. Title: Red Meat from Pasture: Sustainable Livelihoods for Small Mixed Farmers in China's Yunnan Province. Degree: Master of Applied Science in Agribusiness Management Author: Alan Kent McDermott Year: 2001 Keywords: Southwest China; pastoral livestock systems; supply chain management; sustainable livelihoods; trust; perceptions of control; extension of technology

INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS AS LOCAL SYSTEMS OF INNOVATION

This essay examines the situation and the lines of development of industrial districts from the point of view of local systems of innovation. First of all, this article points out to the modernity factors of the district model – which are ascribable to the supply chain economy, to entrepreneurial dynamics and to the importance of geography as a competitive resource – through the analysis of recent contributions of economic literature that examined the emerging organizational models in knowledge economy. Secondly, the outcomes of recent research on leading companies of Italian industrial districts will be presented, looking at three particularly topics of ongoing changes: the process of international opening of the value chain, the technological conditions of competitive advantage, the relationship between strategies and economic performance. Finally, some considerations on the issue of policies will be developed. Such considerations underline the need to re-think the traditional models of local governance of development and suggest to look at the new external district economies, based on service economies, on much more considerable investments in training, technological and cultural activities and, finally, on more aware institutional actions with reference to the association of companies in innovation projects.Industrial districts, Innovation Systems, Entrepreneurship, Global Value Chain

Spillovers, Subsidies and Multilateral Cooperation Addressing Concerns Over Industrial Subsidies. Bertelsmann Working Paper 29/02/2020

Negative international spillovers created by nontariff policies are a rising source of trade tensions and conflicts. The WTO does not include rules for subsidies for services industries, state-owned enterprises or investment in-centives. Existing disciplines on industrial policies are increasingly seen to be inadequate by many WTO members. Efforts to revisit and expand rules for contested policies must recognize the changing nature of international production. A first step in addressing trade conflicts associated with industrial policies is to determine where negative international competition spillovers are both large and systemic in nature. Doing so requires going be-yond trade ministries and bringing in finance and line ministries, as well as competition agencies and international organizations with expertise in collecting information on subsidies and analyzing their effects

Trade induced growth impacts of corporate entry in the food sector: A case study of fruits and vegetables sub sector in the Punjab State of India

Study indicated that the entry of corporate sector in the Punjab State is both in retail and wholesale trade of the fruits & vegetables sub sector. At the organized retail stores these companies have provided its consumers a single window service for the various product assortments while within the fruits & vegetables category (have minuscule scales) widened the product selection choices. Corporate entry in wholesale trade has linked several product specific production belts with medium to high income consumers through various market segments such as organized stores, traditional wholesale/retail markets and the food service. These companies have also provided product variety through imports while opportunities for crop diversification towards higher value crops through exports. In the fruits & vegetables sub sector companies engaged in the retail trade have adopted for short to medium while those in wholesale trade for medium to long-term more sustainable approaches for the sourcing of supplies to build up competitive advantages. This has started generating growth in the Punjab state that has manifested in terms of higher incomes for as the partner farmers and creation of employment for the skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled manpower throughout the supply chain. As the market sizes of these companies expand and diversify in the domestic/global markets it shall enhance growth thereby magnify its impacts. --Fruits & vegetables trade,corporate groups,growth

Supply chain management in industrial production. A retrospective view

The article presents a retrospective review on key-issues about how the management discipline evolved up to the current view about supply-chain management (SCM) in industrial production. Specifically, the article resumes: a) the reasons that led to the transition from the traditional procurement policies to the SCM approach, b) the variables involved in the process of defining SCM relations and c) the key managerial principles underlying SCM policies and strategies. In the manufacturing industry the problem of organizing and managing firm’s relationships with supplier has recently become of an unprecedented complexity. The evolution of production systems started around the ‘80s, with the shift from the “flexible” paradigm to the “lean” one, has increased dramatically the intricacy of product and process architecture.. At the same time, the opportunities brought by the technological hybridization of products (that is: opportunities deriving from incorporating complementary technologies within products so to enhance its features and performance) gained a critical role as a competitive advantage. In our view supply chain management, as well as others managerial areas, has undergone a profound change; indeed, in the last 30 years the evolution of the industrial competitive environment has deeply modified the reference framework of supply-chain relationships even in common procurement and/or routine contracts. In the attempt to give an adequate response to changes in the competitive environment, supply policies evolve to become articulate relational strategies based on the strategic assessments of the role and the relevance of the various suppliers. The traditional approach to procurement management is combined with a perspective of value creation, a perspective that goes beyond the traditional “make-or-buy” criteria, since it introduces principles for the assessment of the strategic capability of the suppliers to create value for customer rather than to be able to fulfill its task for the firm. In such a view, firms operating in the same value-chain coordinate their strategies with a view to increase the overall value rather than compete for the allocation of the existing one. Firms’ network of suppliers and the relational capabilities assume a critical role in order to coordinate the value creation processes within the chain.Supply chain management, industrial management

Strategic Research Agenda for organic food and farming

The TP Organics Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) was finalised in December 2009. The purpose of the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) is to enable research, development and knowledge transfer that will deliver relevant outcomes – results that will contribute to the improvement of the organic sector and other low external input systems. The document has been developed through a dynamic consultative process that ran from 2008 to 2009. It involved a wide range of stakeholders who enthusiastically joined the effort to define organic research priorities. From December 2008 to February; the expert groups elaborated the first draft. The consultative process involved the active participation of many different countries. Consultation involved researchers, advisors, members of inspection/certification bodies, as well as different users/beneficiaries of the research such as farmers, processors, market actors and members of civil society organisations throughout Europe and further afield in order to gather the research needs of the whole organic sector