A Strategic Framework for Agile Supply Chain Management on Global Supply Chain

A Strategic Framework for Agile Supply Chain Management on Global Supply Chain - Focusing on Agile Manufacturing Inventory Management KIM DONGWON Major in Department of Port Logostics Graduate School of Maritime Industrial Studies Korea Maritime University Abstract Changing customer and technological requirements force companies to develop agile supply chain capabilities in order to be competitive. A wealth of valuable approaches to supply chain strategic, tactical, and operational planning has been extensively developed. In this situation, agile inventory management on global supply chain has become one of the most major strategies to face stronger competition, the market pull and shorter product lifecycles. This study develops a framework to control the supply chain complexity and increase the efficiency, capability, implacability, and sustainability of decisions on how to design, plan, and run supply chains. In this paper, we especially focus on agility of inventory management on global supply chain. Futhermore, we propose to consider a strategic framework, using the crucial factors of agile supply chain managementalignment, adaptability, and visibility. In order to achieve agile supply chain management, integrated and optimal business processes are required. This research provide the opportunities for integration of business processes to a limited extend because most of them are rule based systems that control non-integrated transactions but there is no impetus for collaboration. We present one such business process framework modeling complex and its realization on global environment. Key words: Suppy chain management, Agile supply chains, Agile inventory management, Agility.1. Introduction 1 2. SCM & Business Performance 4 2.1 Factors for High Performers in SCM 4 2.2 SCM Pressures and Capabilities 8 2.3 Application Techniques for SCM Framework 16 3. Agility and Precedent Studies of Agile SCM 20 3.1 The Concept of Agility in SCM 20 3.2 The Importance of Agility 22 3.3 Limits of Precedent Studies of Agile SCM 24 4. Agile SCM framework 29 4.1 Visibility - Supply Chain Governance 32 4.2 Alignment to control complexity 38 4.3 Adaptability 43 4.4 Agile Manufacturing Inventory Management 46 5. Conclusion 6

Sustainable and agile manufacturing outsourcing partner selection: a literature review

[EN] Outsourcing to third party to manage non-core activities helps the firm to focus on core activities. Manufacturing firms are outsourcing product development, manufacturing, logistics, customer care etc. to enhance production capacity and flexibility, and to reduce operational costs, which in turn can improve profitability and competitive advantage of the enterprise. Sustainability in operations and supply chain is gaining momentum due to increased global environmental concern, pressures from consumers and communities, and enforced regulations. Volatile and uncertain business environment necessitates the adoption of agility and flexibility to effectively manage manufacturing and supply chain. Globalisation has made the market very competitive and hence manufacturing firms are adopting manufacturing outsourcing to third parties. Selecting a sustainable and agile manufacturing outsourcing partner (MPS) is crucial as it will improve sustainability, efficiency, and effectiveness of the supply chain and competitive advantage to the firm. Detailed literature review on sustainable and agile manufacturing outsourcing partner selection has been carried out from EBSCO data base and Goggle scholar. Selection criteria used are classified into agile, operational, economic, environmental and social. The techniques use are mostly multi criteria decision making methods (MCDM) while few have adopted programming techniques. Discussion, implication and the scope of future work is also provided.Akhtar, M. (2022). Sustainable and agile manufacturing outsourcing partner selection: a literature review. International Journal of Production Management and Engineering. 10(2):143-158. https://doi.org/10.4995/ijpme.2022.1680714315810

Kuluttajatuotteiden toimitusketjun kehittäminen: tapaustutkimus suomalaisessa energiayhtiössä

This master’s thesis studies how a non-manufacturing firm should design and manage a supply chain for consumer products in a global environment where the firm has limited experience and competence on managing material flows to consumer customers. Existing literature on supply chain design and management is highly focused on manufacturing companies and thus, this study tries to fill this knowledge gap by addressing non-manufacturing companies with purchasing-intensive operations. The study follows a problem-solving focused research approach, design science, by dividing the research into two main phases. First, a literature review is conducted focusing on the themes of supply chain design and management in order to highlight the major elements is prior research and to form a theoretical foundation for the practical solution. Second, a case study is conducted in a Finnish utility company to develop, test and evaluate the solution’s applicability in the context of the case company. Research indicates that supply chain design process starts by analyzing product types, customer needs and marketplace requirements, and linking the supply chain strategy and type to the firm’s context. It was found that a supply chain combining lean and agile, leagile, was most suitable for the case company. After determining the supply chain type, the actual supply chain structure is formed. A primary decision factor is the degree of logistics postponement which determines the number and location of warehouses and distribution channel choices in the supply chain. Finally, supply chain management must be ensured by defining the basic processes and the required level supply chain integration with external actors. The proposed solution provides concrete guidelines and decision factors related to supply chain design and management to be utilized in a purchasing-intensive supply chain environment solving the case company’s problem. Additional benefits for the case company include increased supply chain understanding, more efficient and simple material flows, and probable operational performance improvements. Research partly confirms existing theory by showing that certain elements in traditional supply chain design and management theory can also be applied in a purchasing-intensive environment lacking manufacturing operations. In addition, research identifies elements and decisions factors that are relevant especially for non-manufacturing companies such as the high focus on inventory management.Diplomityö tutkii miten hankintaan keskittyvän yrityksen tulisi suunnitella ja hallita toimitusketjuaan ympäristössä, jossa sillä ei ole aikaisempaa kokemusta tuotteiden toimittamisesta kuluttaja-asiakkaille. Aikaisempi tutkimus toimitusketjun suunnittelun ja hallinnan alueilla on painottunut valmistaviin yrityksiin, joten tutkimus pyrkii luomaan uutta tietoa tutkimalla yrityksiä, joilla ei ole omaa valmistusta ja näin keskittyen valmiiden tuotteiden hankintaan toimittajilta. Tutkimus noudattaa suunnittelutieteen (design science) lähestymistapaa pyrkien ratkaisemaan yrityksen konkreettisen ongelman ratkaisuehdotuksella. Tutkimusprosessi aloitettiin kirjallisuuskatsauksella keskittyen pääosin toimitusketjun suunnitteluun ja hallintaan liittyvään kirjallisuuteen tavoitteena tunnistaa tutkimusalueen pääteemat sekä luoda teoreettinen pohja ratkaisuehdotukselle. Tutkimuksen toinen vaihe suoritettiin tapaustutkimuksena suomalaisessa yrityksessä, missä ratkaisuehdotusta kehitettiin edelleen ja lopulta sen toimivuutta arvioitiin tapausyrityksen kontekstissa. Tutkimus osoittaa, että toimitusketjun suunnittelu tulee aloittaa tuotetyyppien, asiakastarpeiden sekä toimintaympäristön analysoinnilla. Lisäksi on tärkeää, että toimitusketjustrategia ja -tyyppi linkitetään aina yrityksen kontekstiin. Tehokasta (lean) ja ketterää (agile) yhdistävän toimitusketjutyypin havaittiin olevan paras ratkaisu tapausyritykselle. Toimitusketjutyypin valitsemisen jälkeen määritetään ketjun varsinainen rakenne, joka hankintaan keskittyvillä yrityksillä liittyy vahvasti siihen kuinka paljon logistiikkaa viivästytetään. Viivästyttämisen aste pääosin määrittää varastojen määrä ja paikan sekä jakelukanavat toimitusketjussa. Viimeisenä on määritettävä prosessit toimitusketjun hallintaan sekä missä määrin on tarpeen tehdä yhteistyötä yrityksen ulkopuolisten toimijoiden kanssa. Esitetty ratkaisu tarjoaa tapausyritykselle konkreettisia suuntaviivoja ja ohjeita toimitusketjun suunnitteluun ja hallintaan hankintaan painottuvassa toimintaympäristössä. Ratkaisu tarjoaa lisäksi yritykselle lukuisia käytännön hyötyjä kuten lisääntyneen toimitusketjutuntemuksen, tehokkaammat ja yksikertaisemmat materiaalivirrat sekä todennäköisesti kasvavan toimitusketjun suorituskyvyn. Tutkimus osaltaan vahvistaa olemassa olevaa teoriaa näyttäen, että valmistaviin yrityksiin keskittyvää teoriaa ja malleja voidaan hyödyntää myös hankintaan keskittyvässä toimitusketjussa. Lisäksi tutkimus tuottaa uutta hyödyllistä tietoa mitkä elementit ja kriteerit ovat erityisen tärkeitä nimenomaan hankintaan keskittyville yrityksille ilman omaa tuotevalmistusta

Performance optimization of a leagility inspired supply chain model: a CFGTSA algorithm based approach

Lean and agile principles have attracted considerable interest in the past few decades. Industrial sectors throughout the world are upgrading to these principles to enhance their performance, since they have been proven to be efficient in handling supply chains. However, the present market trend demands a more robust strategy incorporating the salient features of both lean and agile principles. Inspired by these, the leagility principle has emerged, encapsulating both lean and agile features. The present work proposes a leagile supply chain based model for manufacturing industries. The paper emphasizes the various aspects of leagile supply chain modeling and implementation and proposes a new Hybrid Chaos-based Fast Genetic Tabu Simulated Annealing (CFGTSA) algorithm to solve the complex scheduling problem prevailing in the leagile environment. The proposed CFGTSA algorithm is compared with the GA, SA, TS and Hybrid Tabu SA algorithms to demonstrate its efficacy in handling complex scheduling problems

Leanness and agility as means for improving supply chains. A case study on Egypt

Supply chain management has received greater attention from the academics and the practitioners, however the literature review lacks a comprehensive view for supply chain management practices and how its members should act to contribute to its overall success (Li el at., 2005). In this era, where the business organisations are working in several challenging threats and opportunities, greater attention is given to supply chain management. Nowadays, companies are always searching for means to improve their supply chains. The main aim of this research is to show "how leanness and agility approaches can be used within the same enterprise as complementary means for improving its supply chain". To achieve this research objective, the research has provided an assessment and summarised the literature on the supply chain management, lean thinking and agility thinking including their importance; their definitions; their practices and the relationship between lean and agility. The resulted proposed framework deduced from the literature has been applied in the Egyptian Manufacturing Business to show the relationship between the agility principles, lean principles, entity performance and the successful supply chain

Buyer-supplier partnership in agile supply chains: A conceptual view

The purpose of this paper focuses on achieving agility within the supply chain and seeks to examine the impact of developing an integrated buyer-supplier partnership on achieving agility. It also aims to investigate the moderating role played by information sharing and technology in achieving such a goal. Supply chain management and agility have both been received great attention in recent years. In a highly dynamic and complex business market place the customer is demanding more choice and companies need to possess the means to rapidly adjust to market changes in order to satisfy its customers in an effective manner. Agility has been introduced to the supply chain context to enable companies to face the business environmental changes and deal with them effectively. The methodological approach used in this paper is an analysis and critique to the existing literature, as an initial step for developing the empirical study for the paper

Exploring the supply chain agility attributes in fast moving consumer goods industry: A case study in the Middle East

During the 1990s, supply chain management and agility have both received great attention. This is due to the fact that the business market place is characterized by being highly dynamic and complex. This paper aims to explore the need and the attributes of supply chain agility in FMCG business industry working in the Middle East markets. A case study of a multinational company working in the Middle East was chosen, where it faces the challenges of its business environment and its rapid changes in its markets. The findings show the case study supply chain working within such type of industry needs to be agile and that the attributes required for achieving agility within FMCGs supply chain includes: responsiveness; Customer service; flexibility; innovation; speed; quality; efficiency; and responsible people thinking

Lean and green – a systematic review of the state of the art literature

The move towards greener operations and products has forced companies to seek alternatives to balance efficiency gains and environmental friendliness in their operations and products. The exploration of the sequential or simultaneous deployment of lean and green initiatives is the results of this balancing action. However, the lean-green topic is relatively new, and it lacks of a clear and structured research definition. Thus, this paper’s main contribution is the offering of a systematic review of the existing literature on lean and green, aimed at providing guidance on the topic, uncovering gaps and inconsistencies in the literature, and finding new paths for research. The paper identifies and structures, through a concept map, six main research streams that comprise both conceptual and empirical research conducted within the context of various organisational functions and industrial sectors. Important issues for future research are then suggested in the form of research questions. The paper’s aim is to also contribute by stimulating scholars to further study this area in depth, which will lead to a better understanding of the compatibility and impact on organisational performance of lean and green initiatives. It also holds important implications for industrialists, who can develop a deeper and richer knowledge on lean and green to help them formulate more effective strategies for their deployment

The relevance of outsourcing and leagile strategies in performance optimization of an integrated process planning and scheduling

Over the past few years growing global competition has forced the manufacturing industries to upgrade their old production strategies with the modern day approaches. As a result, recent interest has been developed towards finding an appropriate policy that could enable them to compete with others, and facilitate them to emerge as a market winner. Keeping in mind the abovementioned facts, in this paper the authors have proposed an integrated process planning and scheduling model inheriting the salient features of outsourcing, and leagile principles to compete in the existing market scenario. The paper also proposes a model based on leagile principles, where the integrated planning management has been practiced. In the present work a scheduling problem has been considered and overall minimization of makespan has been aimed. The paper shows the relevance of both the strategies in performance enhancement of the industries, in terms of their reduced makespan. The authors have also proposed a new hybrid Enhanced Swift Converging Simulated Annealing (ESCSA) algorithm, to solve the complex real-time scheduling problems. The proposed algorithm inherits the prominent features of the Genetic Algorithm (GA), Simulated Annealing (SA), and the Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC). The ESCSA algorithm reduces the makespan significantly in less computational time and number of iterations. The efficacy of the proposed algorithm has been shown by comparing the results with GA, SA, Tabu, and hybrid Tabu-SA optimization methods

Shipbuilding 4.0 Index Approaching Supply Chain

The shipbuilding industry shows a special interest in adapting to the changes proposed by the industry 4.0. This article bets on the development of an index that indicates the current situation considering that supply chain is a key factor in any type of change, and at the same time it serves as a control tool in the implementation of improvements. The proposed indices provide a first definition of the paradigm or paradigms that best fit the supply chain in order to improve its sustainability and a second definition, regarding the key enabling technologies for Industry 4.0. The values obtained put shipbuilding on the road to industry 4.0 while suggesting categorized planning of technologies