Doing the right thing or doing things right: what is better for a successful manufacturing reshoring?

The article concerns the revision of earlier decisions to offshore production activities (so called “relocation of second degree”); more specifically it is focused on the “reshoring” (also referred as “relocation to the home country”, “back-reshoring” or “back-shoring”). The research aims are to investigate what types of mistakes occur along the decision-making and implementation process and how they affect the outcome, in terms of success or failure, of a relocation strategy. A multiple case study involving four companies in the fashion industry from Portugal and Italy was conducted. The cross-case analysis allowed to differentiate decision-making mistakes from implementation ones and to assess differences and similarities among the cases in terms of content of the relocation, drivers and outcomes. The research contributes to previous literature on reshoring by bringing evidence of different types of mistakes to be considered, thus requiring further conceptualization of the reshoring process. Managers and entrepreneurs should consider the importance of doing the things right also during the implementation, too often underestimated. The present article is the first one in the reshoring literature bringing evidence of cases of failure in the relocation decisions and discriminating among different kinds of mistakes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Collaborate for what: a structural topic model analysis on CDP data

[EN] The aim of this paper is to understand why firms engage with their suppliers to collaborate for sustainability. To this purpose, we use the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Supply Chain dataset and apply the Structural Topic Model to 1) identify the topics discussed in an open-ended question related to climate-related supplier engagement and 2) estimate the differences in the discussion of such topics between CDP members and non-members, respectively focal firms and first-tier suppliers. The analysis highlights that the two most prevalent reasons firms engage with their suppliers relate to several aspects of the management of the supply chain, and the services and goods mobility efficiency. It is further noted how first-tier suppliers do not dispose of established capabilities and, therefore, are still in the course of improving their processes. On the contrary, focal firms have more structured capabilities so to manage supplier engagement for information collection. This study demonstrates how big data and machine learning methods can be applied to analyse unstructured textual data from traditional surveys.Salvatore, C.; Madonna, A.; Bianchi, A.; Boffelli, A.; Kalchschmidt, M. (2022). Collaborate for what: a structural topic model analysis on CDP data. En 4th International Conference on Advanced Research Methods and Analytics (CARMA 2022). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 139-146. https://doi.org/10.4995/CARMA2022.2022.1507413914

The impact of organizational structures on forecasting practices and performances: evidences on the GMRG database

Attention is here paid to the relationship between organizational configurations, forecasting practices and performances. Attention is at first paid on the relationship between the forecaster organizational position and how companies evaluate future demand, and, on a second hand, focus is paid towards the impact of the forecasting organizational structure and companies performances. Empirical evaluations are developed by means of the Global Manufacturing Research Group database concerning practices among 200 international companies by means of ANOVA analyses. This work contributes to current knowledge claiming that when a forecasting approach is developed (mainly in terms of forecasting technique and data collected), attention should also be paid towards who is going to use this approach. From a managerial point of view this work helps companies in better understanding how to structure their forecasting process to gain better performances.demand forecasting, survey analysis, organizational structure

Best practices in demand forecasting: tests of Universalistic, contingency and configurational theories

While the literature on demand forecasting has examined the best practices in the field, the interpretation and definition of best practices can be difficult due to the different perspectives that the literature has adopted. First, a universalistic perspective can be considered because some specific practices are really best regardless of the context, the forecasting problems, etc. Some other contributions have also taken a contingent approach, which states that best practices depend on the specific kind of company considered or the forecasting scenario. A third potential perspective is the configurational one, which asserts that best practices depend on a set of factors. In this work, we plan to study which of these perspectives really holds true and to what extent they do so. Analysis is conducted by collecting data of more than 500 companies in different countries via the GMRG IV questionnaire. The impact of forecasting is studied in terms of operational performance by designing and testing different sets of propositions that underline the three aforementioned perspectives.forecasting, GMRG, universalistic theory, contingency theory, configuration theory

A Journey through manufacturing and supply chain strategy research. A tribute to Professor Gianluca Spina

The original paper investigated, on a large sample of manufacturing firms, the adoption of Internet-based tools to support supply chain processes. Four strategies are identified, according to the level of adoption of e-commerce, e-procurement and e-operations. The four strategies are subsequently analysed according to contingent factors and supply chain integration mechanisms. Results show a clear relationship between the use of Internet-based tools and the adoption of integration mechanisms. The commentary shows that the paper has been widely cited in both operations, supply chain and ICT literature, recognizing its seminal contribution to the analysis of the impact of Internet technologies on supply chain processes, their relations with supply chain integration and their impact on performance. The research directions suggested in the original papers are discussed analyzing the subsequent literature, including the replication studies performed by the original authors. The importance of investigating emerging topics, as well as observing their evolution over time, is highlighted

Moderating the impact of global sourcing on inventories through supply chain management

In the last years companies have paid growing attention towards the management of their supply chain at a global level. Considering the upstream part of the supply chain, the need for better suppliers, the research of specific competences and the international competition have forced companies to improve their ability to cope with suppliers located in different countries around the world. Literature suggests that the geographical distance of suppliers should cause higher inventory levels primarily because of longer and more uncertain lead times. However, as this paper aims at demonstrating, companies can limit this effect by means of specific investments in the supply chain and in the relationships with suppliers. Results show that companies performing global sourcing have invested in supply chain management, thus keeping their inventories at an acceptable level, even if slightly higher than those performing local sourcing. Data from the last edition of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS) project are used.Global sourcing, inventories, supply chain management, IMSS

The impact of aggregation level on lumpy demand management

Spare parts management is a rather complex issue. One of the reasons of its complexity is the lumpy pattern of the demand that spare parts frequently present. Several methods have been proposed to cope with this particular kind of problem and improvements have been proved compared to classical forecasting techniques. Literature has however devoted minor attention to the choice of aggregation level when demand is lumpy. This paper aims at studying whether aggregating data when demand is lumpy may be beneficial in terms of impact on inventory performances. An installation stock inventory model is considered and aggregation over time is taken into account; in particular for a single item different time buckets are considered and performances are evaluated in terms of service and inventory level. Based on simulation experiments on real demand data coming from the spare parts unit of a multinational white goods manufacturer, we identify that aggregation of data can significantly impact on inventory management performances. A contingency analysis based on demand characteristics allows us to draw some guidelines on when aggregation over time can be beneficial.

Moderating the impact of global sourcing on inventories through supply chain management

In recent years, companies have paid growing attention to supply chain management at a global level. With regard to the upstream part of the supply chain, the need for better suppliers, the research into specific competences and concerns related to international competition have forced companies to improve their ability to cope with suppliers located in different countries around the world. The literature suggests that the geographical distance of suppliers should create higher inventory levels primarily because of longer and more uncertain lead times. However, as this paper aims to demonstrate, companies can limit this effect by means of specific investments in the supply chain and in their relationships with suppliers. The empirical analysis is based on data from the last edition of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS). The results show that companies performing global sourcing have invested in supply chain management (SCM) and that this has been helpful in keeping their inventories under control.Global sourcing Inventories Supply chain management International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS)