Strategic, tactical decisions and information in Rapid Manufacturing supply chain

The efficiency and agility of its supply chain is vital to the commercial success of any product. Sharing strategic and tactical information effectively within the supply chain is often a key factor in achieving this goal. This paper proposes a framework to identify strategic, tactical decisions and information. The framework is used to conduct a sector based analysis of the Rapid Manufacturing (RM) industry. The decisions and information identified include amongst others various supply chain strategies and technical information

Determinants of Information Sharing in Supply Chain among Manufacturing and Trading companies in Albania: A Discriminant Analysis

The competition among enterprises has gradually become the competition between supply chains, and it is more and more important for the cooperation among members of the supply chain to improve supply chain performance. Information sharing among members of supply chain can have an impact on supply chain integration. This article studies the determinant factors of the level of information sharing in supply chain. The population of this study is manufacturing and trading companies in Albania. A questionnaire survey was conducted to study the level of information sharing by the targeted companies. This study reveals that top management support, trust in partners, and commitment of partners are significant variables in determining the level of information sharing and in distinguishing between the organizations with high levels of information sharing and information quality and those with low levels of information sharing among supply chain partners. Manufacturing and trading organizations should be given strategic attention to information sharing because accurate, reliable and in time information can contribute to the improvement in organizational performance and competitive advantage

Supply Chain Management Practices and Supply Chain Performance in the Manufacturing Industries of Bangladesh: An Empirical Study

Purpose: The paper aims to examine the association between supply chain management practices (SCMP) and supply chain performance (SCP) in the manufacturing industries of Bangladesh. SCMP was classified as strategic supplier partnership (SSP), customer relationship (CR), information sharing level (IS), information quality level (IQ), and postponement (POS). Methods: It is a quantitative research based on a survey questionnaire. Supply chain management practices were measured by items adapted from Li, Nathan, and Rao (2006), while supply chain performance was measured by using key supply chain performance indicators suggested by Ambe (2013). Using convenience sampling technique, data were collected from 203 executives involved in supply chain activities working in different manufacturing organizations in two major cities of Bangladesh (Dhaka and Chittagong). Descriptive statistics, bivariate correlation, and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Results: Results demonstrated a positive correlation between supply chain management practices and supply chain performance (r=0.67**). However, strategic supplier partnership, customer relationship, and postponement are more strongly related to improving supply chain performance than information sharing level and information quality level. Implications: A significant implication of the study is that manufacturing organizations should develop supply chain management capabilities to improve supply chain performance and they should begin with developing their level of information sharing and level of information quality. Limitations: The use of the convenience sampling technique limits the generalizability of the findings. The small sample size (n=203) also warrant caution in interpreting the results.&nbsp

Supply Chain Management and Organizational Performance: The Moderating Effect of Supply Chain Complexity

This study investigates the relationship between various factors in supply chain management (customer relationship, level of information, sharing postponement, sharing quality of information, and strategic supplier partnership) and their impact on organizational performance. This research relies on primary data collected through the use of questionnaires. The research will concentrate on Jordans tourist industry. Only 261 were approved and examined using SmartPLS.The results of the study indicate that sharing postponement, sharing quality of information, and strategic supplier partnership have a strong positive impact on organizational performance. However, the relationship between customer relationship and organizational performance is not statistically significant. The relationship between level of information and organizational performance is statistically significant. These findings suggest that organizations can improve their performance by implementing strategies to manage and optimize these factors in their supply chain. This study also evidenced that Supply Chain Complexity as moderator helps increase organiizational performance by interacting with Strategic Supplier Partnership, Level of Information, Sharing Quality of Information, Sharing Postponement. However, it should be noted that there is some inconsistency in the results compared to previous studies, and the relationship between these factors and organizational performance is still not fully understood. This highlights the need for further research in this area to gain a better understanding of how these factors impact organizational performance

The Effect of Supply Chain Management Practices on Strategic Flexibility: Applied Study on the Jordanian Manufacturing Companies

The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of supply chain management practices on the strategic flexibility of Jordanian manufacturing companies listed in Amman stock exchange and working in international markets, which amount (47) companies. The sample of study composed of (93) managers working in the target companies. In order to achieve the study objectives, the researcher designed a questionnaire consisting of (32) paragraph to collect the required data from study sample. The multiple regression analysis was used to testing the hypotheses. Empirical results found that the supply chain management practices has a positive impact on strategic flexibility, and the highest impact was for the relationship with customers, while the lowest impact was for the quality of information sharing. Also the study results found that the information sharing level has the highest impact on market flexibility and the strategic partnership with supplier has the highest impact on production flexibility, while the relationship with customers has the highest impact on competitive flexibility. Keywords: Supply Chain Management, Supply Chain Management Practices, Strategic Flexibility, Market Flexibility, Production Flexibility, Competitive Flexibility

Why Do They Share Information with Supply Chain Partners? A Comparison of Supplier and Buyer Perspectives

To realize the anticipated benefits of inter-firm relationships, firms need to leverage information flows within the supply chains. While the initiatives to foster collaboration have gained momentum with the availability of advanced interorganizational information systems to support information sharing among supply chain partners, building such systems needs a better understanding of how firms share information across organizational boundaries and whether suppliers and buyers share the same view on this issue. Drawing on strategic management of interorganizational relationships, resource dependence perspective, and institutional theory, we examine strategic, power, and institutional factors that affect information sharing in supply chains. We test the proposed research model using separate supplier and buyer samples. While we have found general support to the proposed model from both samples, the results reveal that suppliers and buyers hold different opinions on how these factors affect their information sharing with supply chain partners. Implications are discussed based on the results

The Impact of Supply Chain Management as Mediator between Strategic Orientations and Supply Chain Performance

Studies in supply chain have stated that strategic orientation can be employed to enhance supply chain performance (SCP). However, in the effort of enhancing SCP, there are still on-going issues such as, supply chain coordination, bullwhipped effect, information sharing and collaborative behaviours that need to be managed well. Therefore, in order to manage the issues, several authors have recommended supply chain management (SCM) to mediate the relationship between strategic orientation and SCP. SCM offers the opportunity to capture the synergy of intra and intercompany integration. The importance of SCM as a mediator can be considered as an important element to increase performance. Therefore, this conceptual paper proposes to study the importance of SCM as a mediator to SCP. It further explores the relationship of strategic alignment between two strategic orientations: market orientation (MO) and supply chain orientation (SCO). To investigate the strategic alignment relationship, this study proposes the complementary approach. The relationship and the complementary approach can be empirically tested for future research

Supply Chain Analysis and Local Beef Cattle Competitiveness in South Sulawesi

The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between supply chain  and the competitiveness of native beef cattle in South Sulawesi Province.  A conceptual model was developed to examine how supply chain, including : strategic supplier partnerships, market information sharing, knowledge technology in beef cattle production sharing are related to the competitiveness of native beef cattle. A survey questionnaire based on 64 farmers and intermediary traders from Bone Regency, South Sulawesi Province conducted to collect empirical data for testing the formulated hypothesis. Spearman's correlation coefficient analysis was conducted to test the hypothesized relationship. The study  result showed that strategic supplier partnerships have a significant and positive relationship with competitive native beef cattle, while market share of information and knowledge technology in beef cattle production was  not significant and positively associated with competitive native beef cattle.  The study limitations/implications is  other important dimensions for supply chain partnerships, namely information sharing, goal congruence, decision synchronization, incentive alignment, and resource sharing should also be involved for future research. Since this study was limited to the province of South Sulawesi, the findings of this study cannot be generalized to supply chain practices in Indonesia and developing countries. Therefore future research should be carried out in other provinces in Indonesia or in other developing countrie

Supply Chain Management in Service-based Firms: Empirical Study of Nigeria Telecommunication Sector

The study examined service supply chain management practices adopted by the Nigerian Telecommunication industry. It also evaluated the relationship between organizational performance and service supply chain management in the Nigerian Telecommunication Industry. A sample size of 368 respondents was selected using a simple random sampling technique. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics - regression analysis. Results from the study showed that customer relationship, strategic supplier partnership, quality of information sharing, and extent of outsourcing were the supply chain management practices adopted by the telecommunication companies. Also, certain financial performance such as market share, adjusted operating profit, revenue, and related organic growth was the highest. Finally, results showed that strategic supplier partnership and customer relationship all had a significant and positive influence on organizational performance, while the quality of information sharing, the extent of outsourcing, and postponement all had no significant influence on the performance of the organization. The contribution of this study is that it expounds on the existent supply chain methodologies from a service-based enterprise perspective with empirical validation. While extant studies have focused majorly on supply chain issues in manufacturing enterprises, this study examined the concept in the service industry of an emerging market.