Supply Chain Management in the Life Science Sector: Does Trust Play a Role?

Supply chain management has emerged as cross functional, cross company concept to improve coordination of entire value chains through coordinated actions of all companies in the value chain. It has received a major push from the availability of Internet-based information and communication technologies. The conditions in certain sectors are favorable for a realization of chain wide supply chain management. In other sectors, however, conditions are more complex and companies and value chains still struggle to exploit the potentials from supply chain management, in particular when it comes to cross enterprise coordination. This paper takes a complex supply network as example and discusses improvement potentials from supply chain management and developments in their implementation as well as barriers to the realization of chain wide supply chain management.supply chain management, trust, life science sector, Agribusiness, Industrial Organization,

Supply chain intelligence: benefits, techniques and future trends

Supply Chain Management is a philosophy to manage logistical processes in complex systems, that are very difficult to integrate and analyze. Such systems can be effectively analysed by the use of Business Intelligence applications. The capability to make the right decision at the right time in collaboration with the right partners is the definition of the successful use of BI. This paper explains the need for Supply Chain Business Intelligence and introduces the driving forces for it’s implementation. New technologies such as data mining, and their role in BI systems are also discussed. Finally, key BI trends and technologies that will influence future systems are described.supply chain, business intelligence, data mining

Indian Organised Apparel Retail Sector and DSS (Decision Support Systems)

Indian apparel retail sector poses interesting challenges to a manager as it is evolving and closely linked to fashions. Appealing mainly to youth, the sector has typical information requirements to manage its operations. DSS (Decision Support Systems) provide timely and accurate information & it can be viewed as an integrated entity providing management with the tools and information to assist their decision making. The study exploratory in nature, adopts a case study approach to understand practices of organized retailers in apparel sector regarding applications of various DSS tools. Conceptual overview of DSS is undertaken by reviewing the literature. The study describes practices and usage of DSS in operational decisions in apparel sector and managerial issues in design and implementation of DSS. A multi brand local chain and multi brand national chain of apparel was chosen for the study. Varied tools were found to be used by them. It was also found that for sales forecasting and visual merchandising decisions, prior experience rather than any DSS tool was used. The benefits realized were; “help as diagnostic tool”, “accuracy of records and in billing”, “smooth operations”. The implementation issues highlighted by the store managers were; more initial teething problems rather than resistance on the part of employees of the store, need for investment of time & money in training, due to rapid technological advancements, time to time updation in DSS tools is required . Majority of operational decisions like inventory management, CRM, campaign management were handled by ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) or POS (Point of Sale). Prioritization as well as quantification of benefits was not attempted. The issues of coordination, integration with other systems in case of ERP usage, training were highlighted. Future outlook of DSS seems bright as apparel retailers are keen to invest in technology.

Enhancing the Supply Chain Performance by Integrating Simulated and Physical Agents into Organizational Information Systems

As the business environment gets more complicated, organizations must be able to respond to the business changes and adjust themselves quickly to gain their competitive advantages. This study proposes an integrated agent system, called SPA, which coordinates simulated and physical agents to provide an efficient way for organizations to meet the challenges in managing supply chains. In the integrated framework, physical agents coordinate with inter-organizations\' physical agents to form workable business processes and detect the variations occurring in the outside world, whereas simulated agents model and analyze the what-if scenarios to support physical agents in making decisions. This study uses a supply chain that produces digital still cameras as an example to demonstrate how the SPA works. In this example, individual information systems of the involved companies equip with the SPA and the entire supply chain is modeled as a hierarchical object oriented Petri nets. The SPA here applies the modified AGNES data clustering technique and the moving average approach to help each firm generalize customers\' past demand patterns and forecast their future demands. The amplitude of forecasting errors caused by bullwhip effects is used as a metric to evaluate the degree that the SPA affects the supply chain performance. The experimental results show that the SPA benefits the entire supply chain by reducing the bullwhip effects and forecasting errors in a dynamic environment.Supply Chain Performance Enhancement; Bullwhip Effects; Simulated Agents; Physical Agents; Dynamic Customer Demand Pattern Discovery

Two Studies on The Use of Information Technology in Collaborative Planning, Forecasting & Replenishment (CPFR)

In the 1st study, I seek to determine whether there are trends in the coverage of the use of Information Technology in CPFR in support of Supply Chain Management. I look at the way technology is studied along two dimensions. The first dimension is the function within CPFR—Planning, Forecasting or Replenishment. The second dimension is level at which the study addresses use of the technology, whether at the Operational, Tactical or Strategic level. Within this 3x3 matrix, I seek to prove that studies would primarily fall along a line where the higher the level functions should be served by systems which have a longer-term orientation. This was broadly true, along with an emphasis on studies at the strategic level. Additionally, I find an underrepresentation of Forecasting, especially at the strategic level. The 2nd study seeks to determine the factors affecting IT system use for CPFR, in the real world. I examine the factors affecting system use along two dimensions. The first is along the company-level dimension. There are 3 points along the company-level dimension, defined as follows. Strategic use is defined as use by upper level management who are interested in the long term view of the organization and its processes and products. The Tactical use of IT for CPFR includes use by middle managers at a departmental level for medium term decision making. Operational level IT use covers functions which directly affect individual customers and keep the business running day to day. The second dimension along which system use is examined, is the functional-dimension. There are 3 points along this dimension and they are defined as follows. Use of IT for Planning, based on the VICS standard, is usually, but not exclusively under the purview of senior managers to determine what products to manufacture and the features they should have. Forecasting is done mainly by middle-managers in order to move enough products at the right time, to the right paces, while avoiding over-stocking each product. The Replenishment function is the actual process of moving items to the customer as they are ordered on-line or bought from the shelf. This is typically the job of operational logistics personnel such as purchasing and, shipping and delivery, as well as front-line staff such as customer service, shop-floor attendants or cashiers who interface directly with customers. In examining real world IT use for CPFR, I build on Simmonds, Haines & Li (2013) which looks at the trends and gaps in the IT literature as far as use of IT in CPFR was concerned. The aim is to determine whether the literature lines up with reality, or whether researchers are inherently biased when studying how Information Technology is used to support CPFR. A survey instrument was sent to 4000 senior managers in manufacturing and distribution companies. IT use along the STO dimension (Haines, Hough, & Haines, 2010) and its relationship with Industry characteristics (clock-speed of the industry and technological orientation) will be investigated in the context of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Fred D. Davis, 1989). Product factors (such as demand variability & luxury nature of the product) which drive IT use (Attaran & Attaran, 2007) along the PFR dimension will be investigated in the context of Technology Task Fit Theory (Goodhue & Thompson, 1995). Intra-firm trust (Frazier, Johnson, Gavin, Gooty, & Bradley Snow, 2010) and its effect on use on the PFR dimension, will be looked at with managerial influence within Innovation Diffusion theory (Rogers, 2010) as a basis. Trust issues including confidence of management in competence of workers and confidence of employees in dependability of IT

Integrating supply chains: An investigation of collaborative knowledge transfers

This paper aims to empirically investigate the impact upon performance of explicit knowledge transfer in the integrated supply chain between a manufacturer and its external suppliers and customers. Literature derived hypotheses were evaluated using International Manufacturing Strategy Survey data from 338 companies. Valid and reliable scales were created via confirmatory factor analysis, and effects upon inventory performance tested via regression techniques. Whilst knowledge transfers from upstream and downstream directions were positively related to a manufacturer's performance, knowledge derived from customers was more powerful. Furthermore, integrated knowledge transfer- the combination of knowledge emanating from both suppliers and customers- had the strongest link to performance. The implications for practioners are that integrating knowledge across supply chains could be more far reaching than the exchange of assets, data and information usually considered in supply chain literature. Furthermore the current generalized approach to managing external knowledge is inadequate. This study expands upon existing literature by including directional implications as to which knowledge inflows are most valuable. For academics, this paper supports and extends existing literature by considering the supplier-manufacturer-customer triad in unison. The focus goes beyond asset, data and information exchange towards the leveraging of external knowledge. Relevant perspectives and dimensions were adopted from the knowledge management stream in order to add conceptual depth. Several areas of knowledge-based supply chain research have been identified as potential opportunities for further investigation.Supply Chain; Knowledge Management; Empirical Research:

Measurement for supply chain collaboration and supply chain performance of manufacturing companies

Supply chain management (SCM) has changed from a strategically decoupled to strategically coupled area of research, as such partners have to improve relationships with one another. Although success of a supply chain (SC) depends on the integration of people, technology, and information, collaboration remains critical to these capabilities and processes. Thus, the aim of this study is to model and measure the relationship between the trust-intertwined SC collaborative process and supply chain performance (SCP) of manufacturing companies. This study followed a post-positivism epistemology based on a crosssectional survey. Previous measurements of SC collaborative process were investigated, integrated, and tested among 286 top managers of manufacturing companies. These companies are members of the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN). Questionnaires were distributed through face-to-face methodology with aid from trained research assistants. Cluster and stratified random sampling were used to select the respondents. SPSS was used during the exploratory factor analysis while covariance structural equation modeling was used to confirm the study’s measurement and structural models. Both models had satisfied recommended threshold values. This study found a significant and statistical relationship between supply chain collaboration (SCC) and SCP. The data and findings of this study fit the social exchange theory (SET). Thus, this study has implications for theory testing in SCC as well as guidance on ways to pursue collaboration by managers of manufacturing companies

Framework and Development of a Collaborative Supply Chain Model

One of the most critical issues of inventory management is Customer demand (intermittent demand, request for change in product, process or phase in / out). Variation in demand increases the difficulty of determining the precise amount of inventory both to avoid stockout and to satisfy the customer fill rate. The inventory control problem is getting complicated by the fact that demand is uncertain or the variation of demand is highly volatile. [1]. Many practical systems such as manufacturing and inventory systems applications are mostly used to model categorical data sequences. [2]. Results indicate that firms that focus on flexibility, quality, and delivery should develop strategic collaboration with suppliers & customers to achieve market and innovation improvement. Cost- and quality-focused firms should develop operational collaboration to achieve resource efficiency. The model allows understanding the right alignment of external suppliers and customers being pursued to for key performance development and continuous improvement insight

Supply chain uncertainty:a review and theoretical foundation for future research

Supply-chain uncertainty is an issue with which every practising manager wrestles, deriving from the increasing complexity of global supply networks. Taking a broad view of supply-chain uncertainty (incorporating supply-chain risk), this paper seeks to review the literature in this area and develop a theoretical foundation for future research. The literature review identifies a comprehensive list of 14 sources of uncertainty, including those that have received much research attention, such as the bullwhip effect, and those more recently described, such as parallel interaction. Approaches to managing these sources of uncertainty are classified into: 10 approaches that seek to reduce uncertainty at its source; and, 11 approaches that seek to cope with it, thereby minimising its impact on performance. Manufacturing strategy theory, including the concepts of alignment and contingency, is then used to develop a model of supply-chain uncertainty, which is populated using the literature review to show alignment between uncertainty sources and management strategies. Future research proposed includes more empirical research in order to further investigate: which uncertainties occur in particular industrial contexts; the impact of appropriate sources/management strategy alignment on performance; and the complex interplay between management strategies and multiple sources of uncertainty (positive or negative)