Innovation in a Complex, Uncertain World: Clarifying the Questions, Seeking the Answers

Innovation has at least 40 definitions, many of which can lay claim to being reliable and valid guidelines for organizations to make improvements by doing something new and different. Towards the goal of providing insights to facilitate fruitful pursuit of supply chain, the Third Annual World Class Supply Chain Summit focused on the theme of Innovation in a Complex, Uncertain World. At this invitation-only summit on May 9th, 2018 in Milton, Ontario, executives, scholars, and students discussed a range of innovation topics. The core of those discussions sought clarity on the following: The complexities, uncertainties, and challenges that are prompting the need for innovation in contemporary supply chains Effective ways for tapping into the potential to innovate New ideas from the next generation of researchers and practitioners Questions that demand rigorous research about innovation in supply chains The summit addressed those four issues with two keynote presentations, a panel discussion, and three-minute lightning talk presentations by five students (from the doctoral through to the undergraduate level). In addition to giving voice to the next generation (via the students’ 3-minute presentations), the summit was also designed to uncover perspectives from business disciplines outside of supply chain management (SCM). This was reflected mainly in the inclusion of panelists whose expertise on the subject of innovation was built in the field of entrepreneurship. Incorporating perspectives from the next generation and from beyond the traditional scope of SCM proved useful in generating some insightful conclusions. Among those conclusions, four of the main ones are: Effective usage of supply chain analytics has the potential to yield meaningful returns for transportation services providers The creativity necessary for innovation can be learned so employers should invest in cultivating creativity and its application to challenges of interest, particularly for new and young employees Though seemingly bewildering, the complexity and challenges in modern supply chains represent opportunity for innovation Innovations need not be revolutionary in order to be of real value to an organization firm and its stakeholders This white paper reports on (a) the underlying details of those points (e.g., specific real world examples presented to reinforce those points), (b) some critical unanswered questions that surround those points, and (c) potential research projects to address those questions. These helped to solidify the summit as a valuable contributor to industry-academia deliberations of relevance to the SCM field

Actionable Supply Chain Management Insights for 2016 and Beyond

The summit World Class Supply Chain 2016: Critical to Prosperity , contributed to addressing a need that the Supply Chain Management (SCM) field’s current discourse has deemed as critical: that need is for more academia-­‐industry collaboration to develop the field’s body of actionable knowledge. Held on May 4th, 2016 in Milton, Ontario, the summit addressed that need in a way that proved to be both effective and distinctive in the Canadian SCM environment. The summit, convened in partnership between Wilfrid Laurier University’s Lazaridis School of Business & Economics and CN Rail, focused on building actionable SCM knowledge to address three core questions: What are the most significant SCM issues to be confronted now and beyond 2016? What SCM practices are imperative now and beyond 2016? What are optimal ways of ensuring that (a) issues of interest to SCM practitioners inform the scholarly activities of research and teaching and (b) the knowledge generated from those scholarly activities reciprocally guide SCM practice? These are important questions for supply chain professionals in their efforts to make sense of today’s business environment that is appropriately viewed as volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. The structure of the deliberations to address these questions comprised two keynote presentations and three panel discussions, all of which were designed to leverage the collective wisdom that comes from genuine peer-­‐to-­‐peer dialogue between the SCM practitioners and SCM scholars. Specifically, the structure aimed for a balanced blend of industry and academic input and for coverage of the SCM issues of greatest interest to attendees (as determined through a pre-­‐summit survey of attendees). The structure produced impressively wide-­‐ranging deliberations on the aforementioned questions. The essence of the resulting findings from the summit can be distilled into three messages: Given today’s globally significant trends such as changes in population demographics, four highly impactful levers that SCM executives must expertly handle to attain excellence are: collaboration; information; technology; and talent Government policy, especially for infrastructure, is a significant determinant of SCM excellence There is tremendous potential for mutually beneficial industry-academia knowledge co-creation/sharing aimed at research and student training This white paper reports on those findings as well as on the summit’s success in realizing its vision of fostering mutually beneficial industry-academia dialogue. The paper also documents what emerged as matters that are inadequately understood and should therefore be targeted in the ongoing quest for deeper understanding of actionable SCM insights. Deliberations throughout the day on May 4th, 2016 and the encouraging results from the pre-­‐summit and post-­‐summit surveys have provided much inspiration to enthusiastically undertake that quest. The undertaking will be through initiatives that include future research projects as well as next year’s summit–World Class Supply Chain 2017

New Product Development and Product Supply Within a Network Setting: The Case of the Chilled Ready-Meal Industry in the UK

This paper analyses inter-organizational networks that link together firms operating in the food processing and distribution industry in the UK. In doing so, the paper draws on insights recently developed by Mark Casson that treat inter-firm networks as an institutional response to the changing costs and opportunities of information management. Detailed analysis of product innovation and supply chain management issues within the industry, exemplified by the growth of chilled ready-meals, leads to the identification of two distinct but complementary inter-firm networks: a network of control and a network of innovation. In each case, the study finds that the critical information is derived from the retailers’ interface with consumers and thus that these information-based networks are effectively controlled by the leading supermarket chains. The study’s conclusions are considered in relation to the recent findings of the Competition Commission following its investigation into grocery retailing in the UK

Innovation in a Complex, Uncertain World: Clarifying the Questions, Seeking the Answers

Innovation has at least 40 definitions, many of which can lay claim to being reliable and valid guidelines for organizations to make improvements by doing something new and different. Towards the goal of providing insights to facilitate fruitful pursuit of supply chain, the Third Annual World Class Supply Chain Summit focused on the theme of Innovation in a Complex, Uncertain World. At this invitation-only summit on May 9th, 2018 in Milton, Ontario, executives, scholars, and students discussed a range of innovation topics. The core of those discussions sought clarity on the following: The complexities, uncertainties, and challenges that are prompting the need for innovation in contemporary supply chains Effective ways for tapping into the potential to innovate New ideas from the next generation of researchers and practitioners Questions that demand rigorous research about innovation in supply chains The summit addressed those four issues with two keynote presentations, a panel discussion, and three-minute lightning talk presentations by five students (from the doctoral through to the undergraduate level). In addition to giving voice to the next generation (via the students’ 3-minute presentations), the summit was also designed to uncover perspectives from business disciplines outside of supply chain management (SCM). This was reflected mainly in the inclusion of panelists whose expertise on the subject of innovation was built in the field of entrepreneurship. Incorporating perspectives from the next generation and from beyond the traditional scope of SCM proved useful in generating some insightful conclusions. Among those conclusions, four of the main ones are: Effective usage of supply chain analytics has the potential to yield meaningful returns for transportation services providers The creativity necessary for innovation can be learned so employers should invest in cultivating creativity and its application to challenges of interest, particularly for new and young employees Though seemingly bewildering, the complexity and challenges in modern supply chains represent opportunity for innovation Innovations need not be revolutionary in order to be of real value to an organization firm and its stakeholders This white paper reports on (a) the underlying details of those points (e.g., specific real world examples presented to reinforce those points), (b) some critical unanswered questions that surround those points, and (c) potential research projects to address those questions. These helped to solidify the summit as a valuable contributor to industry-academia deliberations of relevance to the SCM field

A framework for green manufacturing practicies in small and medium enterprises in Malaysia

Green Manufacturing Practices (GrMP) is a term used to describe manufacturing practices that do not harm the environment during any part of the manufacturing process. It emphasizes the use of processes that do not pollute the environment or harm consumers, employees, or other members of the community. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are moving toward sustainable alternatives through GrMP method. It stresses on critical factors such as organisational style, eco-knowledge, business environment, society influences, supply chain management and technology network. Large size industries are more compelled to do so compared to SMEs due to the fact that they are more influential with better organizational management and good financial stability compared to SMEs. However, SMEs are trying to adapt GrMP as a mandatory process, but lack of proper framework which guide them for implementation. Therefore, this study developes the framework of GrMP for local SMEs. The study involves enablers and barriers in implementing GrMP from previous literatures. This work formulate a framework based on relationship between criticals factors with enablers and barriers. 59 of respondents from local industries in Malaysia were selected as respondents based on six of critical factors divided into two parts which are enablers and barriers. The questionnaire are designed based on this. Survey were evaluated by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23, in terms of correlation, reliability, central tendency and variability testing. The finding on this study in the term of framework will help SMEs to implementing GrMP. Framework formulate relates the critical factors from previous literature and enablers and barriers from survey based on perception of industries expert. GrMP for SMEs are the first step of environmental awareness and ecological responsibilties

Supply Chain Simulation: A Survey

This paper provides a survey of simulation in supply chain management.It reviews four types of simulation, namely spreadsheet simulation, system dynamics, discreteevent simulation, and business games.Which simulation type should be applied, depends on the type of managerial question to be answered by the model.Moreover, this paper summarizes novel sensitivity and robustness analyses.This sensitivity analysis yields a shortlist of the truly important factors in large simulation models with (say) a hundred factors.The robustness analysis optimises the important factors controllable by management, while accounting for the noise created by the important non-controllable, environmental factors.Both analyses are illustrated by a case study involving the simulation of a supply chain in the mobile communications industry in Sweden.In general, simulation is important because it may support the quantification of the benefits resulting from supply chain management.simulation;logistics;performance measurement;risk analysis;uncertainty;bifurcation;supply chain management