Supply Chain Management Innovation Research Articles

Enacting outsourcing: An innovation process perspective

Much research has been done on outsourcing. However, we still know little about outsourcing based on a social process view on innovation. Outsourcing is an innovation as a logistics-related process that is perceived as new by the adopter. We will explore and analyse an outsourcing idea, its development and implementation, from an innovation perspective. The development is studied in a qualitative, long-term process study. The analysis draws on Hoholm’s (2009) model of innovation processes. It extends the applicability of this innovation model and its methodology of following the action into logistics and supply chain management (SCM) research. The outsourcing process is an innovation that develops in a rational way based on the incremental process because of its actor-network and simultaneous reflection. Interactions and confrontations come about because of involved contrary forces such as competing objectives. The model explains the practice of SCM innovation and increases the understanding of dynamics and complexity. The process study brings insights to cause-effect relations in the development of outsourcing that are consequential to innovative logistics and SCM.

Wireless Sensor Network Technology and Its Application Potentials for Service Innovation in Supply Chain Management

The growing awareness of the strategic value of service along with higher product performance expectations has directed many industries to adopt service centric competitive strategies in managing their supply chains. Service innovation based on currently available advanced technologies has become critical in improving enterprises’ competitive strengths. Wireless sensor network (WSN) technology, which can provide a mobile, scalable, and reliable monitoring solution, is emerging as a tool for service innovation in supply chain management. This paper provides an overview of wireless sensor network technology and discusses how it can benefit modern industries. The fundamental theories of WSN are introduced as well as an overview of the development. The impact of information technologies on supply chain management and service innovation is then briefly discussed. Much emphasis is placed on the feasibility, procedures, and critical challenges of implementing WSN in supply chain management innovation. Current and future applications of WSN are also provided, followed by a case study demonstrating the application potentials of WSN for service innovation in the healthcare industry.

Características estruturais, relacionais e gerenciais na cadeia de suprimentos de um condomínio industrial na indústria automobilística

Nas últimas décadas, a contribuição da indústria automobilística tem sido muito representativa em termos de inovações na gestão da cadeia de suprimentos, tais como aquelas contempladas nos modelos de consórcio modular e de condomínio industrial. Este artigo apresenta os resultados de uma pesquisa envolvendo diferentes configurações na estrutura de relacionamento entre uma montadora de automóveis e alguns de seus fornecedores, em uma cadeia de suprimentos da indústria automobilística que utiliza o modelo de condomínio industrial. O propósito principal foi verificar, empiricamente, algumas das implicações que a configuração da cadeia de suprimentos exerce sobre elementos importantes na sua gestão, tais como: tipos de relacionamentos, processos logísticos, planejamento de produtos, gestão da produção e medição de desempenho. Os resultados corroboram que a configuração da cadeia é fator determinante na forma como se conduz o relacionamento da montadora com seus fornecedores, influenciando, significativamente, os elementos considerados na análise.

Diffusing Supply Chain Innovations at Hewlett-Packard Company: Applications of Performance Technology

Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) is a global electronics company that employs an internal, self-funding consulting lab to create supply chain management innovations for its businesses. The lab is challenged to diffuse new technologies effectively across HP's worldwide organizations. This paper outlines how the lab follows Everett Rogers and Diane Dorniant's principles to accelerate the diffusion and adoption of their innovations. Performance technologists are members of the consulting lab, and the paper discusses how their competence in supply chain engineering methods allows them to improve the diffusion process. The performance technologists work with their engineering colleagues to modify innovations to ease diffusion, define the client adoption path, create resources to lead clients through adoption, and improve the diffusion process. Examples of results from the lab's efforts are shown and arguments are presented on why this approach is superior to alternative diffusion techniques that have proven less successful at Hewlett-Packard.

Supply Chain Management: A Case Study of an Integrated Lean and Agile Model

Purpose – To describe the evolution of an integrated ‘lean’ and ‘agile’ supply chain process that employed Just‐in‐time (JIT) lean manufacturing approaches at an electronics company. Design/methodology/approach – A case study was designed to examine the links between specific efficiencies and cost savings that derived from transitions in the evolution of the integrated lean and agile supply chain. The case study focused on the company's supply chain management innovations that led to specific improvements in production processes that in turn resulted in enhanced financial outcomes. Findings – The data revealed how specific quality enhancing and lean manufacturing components evolved over a period of seven years in a two stage transition from a ‘lean’ supply chain to one that represented an integrated lean and agile paradigm based on the decoupling point approach (Christopher & Towill, 2001). Research limitations/implications – A single site case study limits the generalizability of the findings. Additional research is necessary to replicate the findings in other firms/industries. Practical implications – By incorporating improvements in production processes in the supply chain, managers can determine how inefficiencies in the supply chain process can be tracked and eliminated to improve a firm's financial performance. Originality/value – Research that documents links between different managerial functions, e.g. supply chain management, improved manufacturing processes, and accounting issues (e.g. cost reduction and improved profitability), is particularly useful.

Organizational Values as 'Attractors of Chaos': An Emerging Supply Chain Management Change Designed to Overcome Organizational Complexity

This paper considers supply chain management organizations with the aid of 'chaotic systems theory' developed originally in physics and mathematics. Since innovations in supply chain management are vital for organizational survival 'complex systems theory' may assist in fine-tuning managerial philosophies that provide stability in supply chain management because it is on the boundary of chaos that the greatest innovational creativity occurs. Neither 'management by rigid objectives' (MBO) nor 'management by instruction' (MBI) will be suitable for the information society of the twenty-first century because chaotic social systems will no longer be effectively managed. However, the capacity for self-organization will be derived essentially from how supply chain management members accept a shared set of values or principles for action-'management by values' (MBV). Complex systems theory deals with systems that show complex structures in time or space, often hiding simple deterministic rules. This theory holds that once these rules are found, it is possible to make effective predictions and even to control the apparent complexity. The state of chaos that self-organizes is attributable to the appearance of the 'strange attractor' and provides the ideal basis for creativity and innovation in the twenty-first century. In the self-organized state of chaos, social members are not confined to narrow roles and gradually develop their capacity for differentiation and relationships, growing progressively towards their maximum potential contribution to the efficiency of the organization. In this meaning, values act as organizers of 'attractors' of disorder, which, in the theory of chaos, are systems represented by usually regular geometric configurations that predict the long-term behavior of complex systems. In supply chain management organizations (as in all kinds of social systems) the initial principles end up as the final principles in the long term. An attractor is a model representation of the behavioral results of the system. The attractor is not a force of attraction or a goal-oriented presence in the system; it simply depicts where the system is heading based on its rules of motion. In supply chain management organizations that cultivate or shares values of autonomy, responsibility, independence, innovation, creativity, and proactivity, the risk of short-term chaos is mitigated by external complexities that organizations are currently confronting. The strategy is to alter the supply chain management's surroundings so that they can benefit from management by values (MBV).

Strategic and technological innovations in supply chain management

Having achieved significant improvements in manufacturing, many firms are now focusing their attention on their supply chains. With increased globalisation, supply chains for most products have become longer both on the input as well as the output sides. This, combined with the trend towards proliferation of products makes management of the supply chain a very challenging task. In this paper, we review some of the recent strategic and technological innovations in the management of manufacturing supply chains. We specifically discuss innovations in management of product and information flows in the supply chain. In the management of product flows, the innovations include concepts such as modularisation, postponement, mass customisation and flexible automation, time-based logistics, and cross docking. In the management of information flows, the innovations include the use of information technologies and strategic partnerships to improve the transparency of information. We also review the specific strategies that use the enhanced information flows such as continuous replenishment, vendor managed inventory, quick response and efficient consumer response.

Coordinating an innovation in supply chain management

The importance of a long-term relationship between a manufacturing firm and its supplier(s) has been emphasized in the literature on supply chain management. Essential to such a relationship is the coordination among participants in a supply chain. In order to sustain the relationship, the coordination should enhance the profitability of not only the manufacturer, but also the supplier(s). In this paper, we consider a particular supply chain situation in which the manufacturer coordinates, e.g., supports, its supplier's innovation that can eventually lead to supply cost reduction. Developing a mathematical model, we show that although the coordination could improve the manufacturing firm's own profitability, it might not be attractive to the supplier unless the supply cost reduction should ultimately increase the market demand to a certain extent. Under particular circumstances, if the market demand stays constant, the manufacturer's profit increase due to the coordination equals the amount of profit loss to the supplier. The analysis presents exact mathematical criteria to determine whether the coordination strategy can be agreeable to both the manufacturer and the supplier. Numerical examples are employed to show the applicability of the criteria.