Sustainable supply chain management towards disruption and organizational ambidexterity:A data driven analysis

Balancing sustainability and disruption of supply chains requires organizational ambidexterity. Sustainable supply chains prioritize efficiency and economies of scale and may not have sufficient redundancy to withstand disruptive events. There is a developing body of literature that attempts to reconcile these two aspects. This study gives a data-driven literature review of sustainable supply chain management trends toward ambidexterity and disruption. The critical review reveals temporal trends and geographic distribution of literature. A hybrid of data-driven analysis approach based on content and bibliometric analyses, fuzzy Delphi method, entropy weight method, and fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory is used on 273 keywords and 22 indicators obtained based on the experts’ evaluation. The most important indicators are identified as supply chain agility, supply chain coordination, supply chain finance, supply chain flexibility, supply chain resilience, and sustainability. The regions show different tendencies compared with others. Asia and Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa are the regions needs improvement, while Europe and North America show distinct apprehensions on supply chain network design. The main contribution of this review is the identification of the knowledge frontier, which then leads to a discussion of prospects for future studies and practical industry implementation

Resilience in an automotive supply chain: the role of cross-functional integration

Over the years, the companies have been facing many challenges, including the management of global supply chains. Besides that, managers have to deal with economic instability and political and environmental changes, a context that presents risks of disruptions in the supply chains. Thus, the literature of supply chain management has discussed about resilience, a concept related to the supply chain’s ability to cope with changes quickly, being able to recover from a disruption or other event that affects a supply chain. This is achieved by the presence of supply chain capabilities, which may reduce vulnerabilities, as well as by the knowledge gained from previous disruptions, facilitating a faster and more efficient response to certain events. Although the literature has discussed resilience broadly, few researches are focused on connecting this subject with the integration theory, especially regarding cross-functional integration. Thus, this study sought to analyze how cross-functional integration processes could be practiced in order to support supply chain resilience. A total of eighteen in deep interviews were conducted mostly with managers from six different organizations of the automotive industry: two suppliers, one focal industry and three customers. This sector is important to Brazilian economy and it is recovering from the Brazilian financial crisis occurred on 2015, being this a good opportunity to discuss the impacts of this event. Besides that, the organizations that contributed to this research are part of a global supply chain, which make it more vulnerable due to the extent of the chain. The analysis involved the identification of the main disruptions and capabilities in the automotive supply chain. In addition, many cross-functional integration factors were discussed in each company of the supply chain. All this information enabled to make links between resilience and integration literature. Findings show that the most frequent disruptions in the automotive supply chain are lack of product, interruption of production, delivery delay, organizational bankruptcy and sale loss. About the supply chain capabilities, in this study the least important is redundancy. Flexibility, Adaptability, Collaboration, Visibility and Agility matter, although the last two should be more developed in the supply chain according to some interviewees. Besides, the cross-functional integration factors highlighted among the companies are: cross-functional meetings, adequate communication, longevity of relationships, cross-functional training, recognition of interdependence and consideration to informal groups. Through these factors, among others, it’s possible to avoid disruptions in the supply chain, as well as help to develop organizational and supply chain capabilities.FAPEMIG - Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Minas GeraisDissertação (Mestrado)Ao longo dos anos, as empresas têm enfrentando muitos desafios, incluindo a gestão de cadeias de suprimentos globais. Além disso, os gestores necessitam lidar com instabilidade econômica e mudanças políticas e ambientais, num contexto que apresenta riscos de rupturas nas cadeias de suprimentos. Assim, a literatura de gestão da cadeia de suprimentos tem discutido sobre resiliência, um conceito relacionado à capacidade da cadeia de suprimentos em lidar rapidamente com as mudanças, de modo a se recuperar de uma ruptura ou outro evento que afete a cadeia de suprimentos. Isso é alcançado tanto pela existência de capabilities na cadeia de suprimentos, que podem reduzir vulnerabilidades, quanto pelo conhecimento adquirido de eventos sofridos anteriormente, facilitando uma resposta mais rápida e eficiente a determinados acontecimentos. Embora a resiliência seja bastante discutida na literatura, há poucas pesquisas focadas em conectar esse assunto com a teoria da integração, especialmente em relação à integração interfuncional. Assim, este estudo buscou analisar como os processos de integração interfuncional podem ser praticados de modo a dar suporte a resiliência na cadeia de suprimentos. Um total de dezoito entrevistas em profundidade foram realizadas com gestores de seis diferentes organizações do setor automotivo: dois fornecedores, uma indústria focal e três clientes. Este setor é importante para a economia brasileira e está se recuperando da crise financeira brasileira ocorrida a partir de 2015, sendo esta uma boa oportunidade para discutir os impactos deste evento. Além disso, as organizações que contribuíram para essa pesquisa fazem parte de uma cadeia de suprimentos global, o que a torna mais vulnerável devido à extensão da cadeia. A análise envolveu a identificação das principais rupturas e capabilities na cadeia de suprimentos estudada. Além disso, muitos fatores de integração interfuncional foram discutidos em cada empresa da cadeia de suprimentos. Todas essas informações permitiram fazer ligações entre a literatura de resiliência e integração. Os resultados mostram que as rupturas mais frequentes na cadeia de suprimentos automotiva são a falta de produto, a parada de produção, o atraso de entrega, a falência de empresa e a perda de venda. Sobre as capabilities da cadeia de suprimentos, neste estudo, a menos importante é a redundância. Flexibilidade, Adaptabilidade, Colaboração, Visibilidade e Agilidade são importantes, embora as últimas duas devam ser mais desenvolvidas na cadeia de suprimentos de acordo com alguns entrevistados. E, os fatores de integração interfuncional destacados entre as empresas são: reuniões interfuncionais, comunicação adequada, longevidade de relacionamentos, educação e treinamento interfuncional, reconhecimento de interdependência funcional e consideração a grupos informais de trabalho. Por meio desses fatores, entre outros, é possível evitar interrupções na cadeia de suprimentos, bem como ajudar a desenvolver capabilities organizacionais e capabilities na cadeia de suprimentos

How can cross-functional integration support the development of resilience capabilities? The case of collaboration in the automotive industry

Purpose: The objective of this study is to analyze cross-functional integration processes and their respective impacts on resilience capabilities, with particular emphasis on collaboration, in an automotive supply chain. Design/methodology/approach: A case study was conducted in an automotive supply chain through eighteen in-depth interviews with managers from six different companies: two suppliers, one focal manufacturer and three customers. The automotive industry is one of the most vital industries in the Brazilian economy and is still recovering from the 2015 financial crisis, making it an interesting case for this research. Findings: The findings reveal several links between resilience and cross-functional integration literatures through the analysis of three basic categories: Disruptions (lack of product, interruption of production, delivery delay, organizational bankruptcy and sales loss); Capabilities (redundancy, flexibility, adaptability, collaboration, visibility and agility); and Integration factors (cross-functional meetings, adequate communication, longevity of relationships, cross-functional training, recognition of interdependence and the consideration given to informal groups). Practical implications: This research addresses several implications for practitioners. Managers should pay attention to the cross-functional teams, which may provide internal collaboration and hence collaboration in the supply chain. Originality/value: This paper suggests a new concept for the collaboration capability. According to our results, collaboration is the capability of dealing with formal and informal factors to integrate both the internal functions and supply chain members, which can provide visibility, agility and adaptability towards supply chain resilience