Supply Chain Level Research Articles

Building supply chain resilience and efficiency through additive manufacturing: An ambidextrous perspective on the dynamic capability view

Following the COVID-19 outbreak, a wide range of scholars and practitioners have come to recognize the potential of Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology in building supply chain resilience and efficiency. However, it remains unclear how AM technology might be able to simultaneously build supply chain efficiency and resilience, given the often conflicting nature of these qualities. This paper employs an ambidextrous perspective on dynamic capability theory to investigate the potential of AM technology to solve this resilience-efficiency dilemma at the supply chain level. The research design involves a hybrid approach, combining focus groups and multiple case studies, with particular attention paid to the African supply chain context. The findings indicate that AM technology presents the potential to develop ambidextrous dynamic capabilities, leading to the reconciliation of resilience and efficiency at the supply chain level. Some determinants, such as data-driven systems, supply chain collaboration, innovation agility and knowledge are found to be critical to enable the development of those capabilities around AM-enabled manufacturing systems. The study contributes to the preparation of the global supply chain for the post-COVID era, where digital technologies such as AM will be fundamental for both building resilience and efficiency simultaneously. Practitioners in emerging economies may benefit directly from the outcomes of this study. Furthermore, managers and policy-makers in developed countries may be made aware of the significance of using AM technology in emerging countries to enhance the performance of the global supply chain.

Knowledge Management for Integration of Agricultural Supply Chain in India

Paper tries to explore the problems faced by Indian agriculture for food security in terms of inadequate infrastructure and highly inefficient supply chain in context of information technology. This paper broadly covers some of important aspects of agriculture supply chain in India-identification of issues at different levels in the supply chain; transformation in the agriculture due to various supply chain interventions; the role of information management in supply chain: and this paper also covers the suggestion to improve efficiency at different levels in supply chain. The paper concludes that information management plays very important role for development and contemporary issue for agriculture.

The value of point of sales information in upstream supply chain forecasting: an empirical investigation

Traditionally, manufacturers use past orders (received from some downstream supply chain level) to forecast future ones, before turning such forecasts into appropriate inventory and production optimisation decisions. With recent advances in information sharing technologies, upstream supply chain (SC) companies may have access to downstream point of sales (POS) data. Such data can be used as an alternative source of information for forecasting. There are a few studies that investigate the benefits of using orders versus POS data in upstream SC forecasting; the results are mixed and empirical evidence is lacking, particularly in the context of multi-echelon SCs and in the presence of promotions. We investigate an actual three-echelon SC with 684 series where the manufacturer aims to forecast orders received from distribution centres (DCs) using either aggregated POS data at DCs level or historical orders received from the DCs. Our results show that the order-based methods outperform the POS-based ones by 6–15%. We find that low values of mean, variance, non-linearity and entropy of POS data, and promotion presence negatively impact the performance of the POS-based forecasts. Such findings are useful for determining the appropriate source of data and the impact of series characteristics for order forecasting in SCs.

CONCEPTUAL MODEL DESIGN OF SUSTAINABLE PALM SHELL SUPPLY CHAIN BUSINESS PROCESSES

This study aimed to design a graphical conceptual model of the sustainable palm kernel shell processing industry in Indonesia. This study used system entity analysis and Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN 2.0) to find out the conceptual model of sustainable palm kernel shell industrial processing including procurement of palm kernel shell to be processed into several high value-added products such as coal briquette fuel, feed mixtures livestock, and road paving materials. The conceptual model in the form of a system entity model and business process was integrated with sustainable economic, social, and environmental concepts. The conceptual model can be the basis for the development of other models at the strategic, planning, and operational levels of the sustainable palm kernel shell supply chain.

A mathematical tri-level programming model for designing an integrated dynamic petroleum product supply chain

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to design petroleum products’ supply chain management, which includes efficient integration of suppliers, manufacturers, storehouses and retailers.Design/methodology/approachThis paper proposes that a three-level supply chain will be turned into a bi-level supply chain of petroleum products by simultaneous integration of the middle level with the upstream and downstream levels. Also, it is integrally optimized by considering the multiple managerial flows' mutual results at various supply chain levels. Also, it is integrally optimized by considering the multiple managerial flows' mutual results at various supply chain levels.FindingsThe concepts of the design, structure and outputs are led by the model's solution. The model also responds to the variations in the market via coordination in the related decisions to the distribution, production and inventory issues, and also coordinating between the demands and production.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper has limited its analysis to definite values due to the over-expansion of calculations and analysis. Future works can study other aspects of the proposed model for a multi-level petroleum product supply chain in different states of certain parameters and time zones.Practical implicationsThe designed model can directly and transparently help the oil managers and decision-makers lower the costs of manufacturing, distribution and sales with respect to the determined criteria.Originality/valueThis paper establishes that effectiveness of the dynamic petroleum materials supply chain design will increase by considering maintained and increased production costs and coordinate management flows at all levels by supply chain creation’s integration.

Managing Labor Sustainability in Digitalized Supply Chains: A Systematic Literature Review

With increasing concerns of labor issue risks within supply chains, both academia and practitioners are paying increasingly great attention to how to design and implement effective management approaches to enhance labor sustainability in supply chains. Furthermore, digitalization facilitates and brings both opportunities and challenges to this area. Using the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), we conducted a systematic literature review based on 50 selected papers from the Web of Science database. Starting from the supply chain level, this study identifies digital technology (DT)-enabled labor sustainability management practices, barriers to the adoption of DT in labor management practices, and the performance outcomes of such practices. In addition, we put forward solutions to eliminate those identified barriers to facilitate DT adoption in firms’ labor sustainability management. Last, future directions and research opportunities for both supply chain management and labor sustainability are summarized.

From supply chain resilience to supply chain disruption orientation: the moderating role of supply chain complexity

PurposeThis study aims to examine the direct and indirect effects of supply chain resilience enablers on supply chain disruption orientation per supply chain resilience. It conjointly examined the moderation of supply chain complexity on resilience enablers and supply chain resilience. It further detailed the conditional indirect effects of supply chain resilience enablers on supply chain disruption orientations via supply chain resilience at varying levels of supply chain complexity.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed a time-lagged design (three-wave) and self-administered surveys to collect data from the supply chain managers of fast-moving consumer goods firms. A sample of 214 responses was used to test the hypothesized relationships.FindingsThe results showed that supply chain resilience significantly mediated on the relationship between supply chain resilience enablers and supply chain disruption orientation. Further, supply chain complexity positively moderated on supply chain resilience enablers and supply chain resilience. The results also supported the moderated mediated hypothesis.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to prevalent theory and practices in the wake of recent disruptions faced by the firms. It persuades the managers to emphasize on structuring resilient supply chain system to recover from the disruptions and accumulate and incorporate learning gained from the disruptions to strengthen the firm's response management system.Originality/valueThis study attempted to explore the underlying antecedents and consequences of supply chain resilience in Pakistan and established boundary condition effects of supply chain complexity on the proposed relationships. This research complemented and extended the conceits of resource-based and contingent resource-based views.

Price transmission in milk supply chain in Ukraine

Purpose. The purpose of the study, which results are submitted in the article, is to analyze the vertical price transmission along the milk supply chain in Ukraine and identify whether this price transmission is symmetric or asymmetric in terms of direction, magnitude, speed. 
 Methodology / approach. To achieve the purpose of the study, we used the following research methods: logical operations (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction) – to determine the structure of the milk supply chain, to make conclusions about main findings; the correlation analysis – to identify the tightness of links between farm’, processors’ and retailers’ prices; the trend modelling – to build the functions of the trend of prices of different levels of the milk supply chain; the regression modelling – to construct the regression functions of prices of downstream sectors of the milk supply chain; graphic – for visual presentation of main tendencies, pricing and price dynamics in the milk supply chain. The research was performed on the basis of the statistical data of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine for 2013–2020.
 Results. This paper presents the empirical evidence of asymmetric price transmission along the milk supply chain in Ukraine. The results of modelling proved asymmetric magnitudes of price growth at the organizational and technological stages of the milk supply chain: in the case of the farm prices of raw milk increase the processors’ and retailers’ prices grow up by a much bigger magnitude. There is no leg in price transmission in the milk supply chain, the price shocks at the farm level instantly pass to processors’ and retailers’ prices. The evidence of asymmetry of price transmission testifies the weaknesses of the market positions of farmers and consumers in the milk supply chain in Ukraine, points out the threats for the food security and sustainable development of all agents of this chain. 
 Originality / scientific novelty. For the first time, the quantitative assessments of the magnitude and speed of the price changes in the process of price transmission in the milk supply chain in Ukraine were obtained. The asymmetry of the magnitudes of the vertical price transmission in the milk supply chain in Ukraine was identified. The hostage position of farmers in the case of price shocks was further proved.
 Practical value / implications. This paper provides a better understanding of arrangements of market forces in the milk supply chain, the consequences of price chocks in the upstream sector of the milk supply chain. The practical value is the methodological and empirical support for the development of regulative measures to improve the milk supply chain’s functioning and sustain food security. Assessment and analysis of the mechanism of price transmission reveals the weak parts of the food supply chain, contributing to the scientific foundation of elaborating the necessary policy actions for harmonization of relations between producers of different stages of the milk chain.

Drivers, barriers and supply chain variables influencing the adoption of the blockchain to support traceability along fashion supply chains

The critical role of blockchain technology in ensuring a proper level of traceability and visibility along supply chains is increasingly being explored in the literature. This critical examination must focus on the factors that either encourage or hinder (i.e. the drivers or barriers) the implementation of this technology in extended supply chains. On the assumption that the blockchain will need to be adopted at the supply chain level, the enabling factors and the contingent variables of different supply chains must be identified and analysed. The appropriate identification of supply chain partners is becoming a critical factor of success since the globalization of supply chains makes their management and control increasingly difficult. This is particularly true of the fashion industry. Five blockchain providers and seven focal companies working in the fashion industry were interviewed to compare their different viewpoints on this topic. The results highlight which drivers, barriers, and supply chain variables impact the implementation of the blockchain and specific research propositions are formulated.

The co-evolutionary relationship between digitalization and organizational agility: Ongoing debates, theoretical developments and future research perspectives

This study is the first to provide a systematic review of the literature focused on the relationship between digitalization and organizational agility (OA). It applies the bibliographic coupling method to 171 peer-reviewed contributions published by 30 June 2021. It uses the digitalization perspective to investigate the enablers, barriers and benefits of processes aimed at providing firms with the agility required to effectively face increasingly turbulent environments. Three different, though interconnected, thematic clusters are discovered and analysed, respectively focusing on big-data analytic capabilities as crucial drivers of OA, the relationship between digitalization and agility at a supply chain level, and the role of information technology capabilities in improving OA. By adopting a dynamic capabilities perspective, this study overcomes the traditional view, which mainly considers digital capabilities enablers of OA, rather than as possible outcomes. Our findings reveal that, in addition to being complex, the relationship between digitalization and OA has a bidirectional character. This study also identifies extant research gaps and develops 13 original research propositions on possible future research pathways and new managerial solutions.

Competitive benefits & incentivisation at internal, supply chain & societal level circular operations in UK agri-food SMEs

Circular operations offer embedded environmental and economic benefits, with promise to tackle ecological degradation. Circular operations also offer competitive benefits for the firm or supply chain, but these have been widely overlooked. Competitive benefits are important, helping to mitigate barriers of cost and risk and incentivise implementation of circular operations. Adopting a qualitative multi-method approach, this study explores implementation of the circular economy at internal, supply chain and societal levels in UK agri-food SMEs. A natural-resource-based view theoretical lens underpins exploitation of competitive benefits at each level and explains their role in incentivisation. Whilst environmental-economic benefits remain embedded, competitive benefits are brought to the fore. This supports the argument that circular operations can be implemented to purposefully seek competitive gain rather than as an environmental obligation. This new competitive perspective promotes appeal and approachability to circular operations, particularly for agri-food SMEs where implementation may be problematic.

Impact of transformational leadership on green learning and green innovation in construction supply chains

PurposeThis study aims to examine the impact of transformational leadership on green innovation and green learning in construction supply chains.Design/methodology/approachA theoretical framework of research hypotheses between transformational leadership, green learning and green innovation is developed. Using a survey questionnaire, data are collected from construction firms in Vietnam. Structural equation modeling is used to test the research hypotheses.FindingsThe results indicate that transformational leadership promotes both green learning and green innovation (i.e. green product innovation and green process innovation) while green learning positively affects green process innovation. Furthermore, it is found that green learning mediates the linkage between transformational leadership and green process innovation.Research limitations/implicationsThis study contributes to the development of leadership research in construction by showing the significance of leadership at the supply chain level.Originality/valueLeadership is regarded as a key factor for most organizations' success and competitive advantages. In construction, leadership has been widely studied at the project and organizational levels while its important role is also explored at the supply chain level. Nevertheless, in terms of construction supply chains, there has been still very limited evidence about the effects of transformational leadership. Thus, this study fills the gap in knowledge by empirically examining the relationships between transformational leadership, green learning and green innovation.

Functionality‐based life cycle assessment framework: An information and communication technologies (ICT) product case study

AbstractLife cycle assessment (LCA) has been widely applied to assessing the environmental impacts of information and communication technologies (ICT) products throughout their lifetime. Building upon LCA methodology, this study proposes a user‐oriented, functionality‐based LCA (FLCA) framework that evaluates the environmental impact of multifunctional ICT products such as smartphones. Incorporating the quality function deployment and LCA literature, we develop an approach that highlights the linkages among user behavior, product functionalities, and product environmental footprints. We use matrix algebra to outline a computational method and a streamlined process to operationalize such analysis. FLCA analyzes the impact of materials in the context of how they are used. To illustrate the concept with a simple example, our first case study calculates the manufacturing GHG emissions of a well‐known multifunctional product, a Swiss Army knife. In the second case study, we estimate the functionality‐based GHG emissions of a hypothetical smartphone. We consider various scopes of impact, including at the levels of device, infrastructure, and supply chains. Extending from LCA methods, FLCA moves away from a general understanding of functionality to a more granular perspective to accommodate the complexity in modern ICT products. Our study advances a user‐oriented perspective to understand product sustainability impacts. Additionally, it offers a method to provide empirical evidence of the “hidden” impacts of industrial products during consumption, enabling more precise linkage of the production‐consumption relationship through LCA toward better design to uncover and address users' needs.

Quality level and outsourcing strategies in a three-tier low-carbon supply chain

Abstract We analyze the quality risk and outsourcing strategies in a three-tier low-carbon supply chain comprising an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), a contract manufacturer (CM) and a supplier under two competitive scenarios. The following two outsourcing strategies that are currently implemented by OEM are considered: consignment and turnkey. Under the consignment strategy, the OEM procures the components from the supplier and then outsources the product manufacturing to the CM. Under the turnkey strategy, the OEM outsources the component procurement and product manufacturing to the CM and CM procures the components from the supplier. We compare the quality level and two outsourcing strategies under non-competitive scenario in which the CM does not have its own brand products and competitive scenario in which the CM sells its own brand production. It is shown that, in the non-competitive scenario, OEM prefers the turnkey strategy than the consignment strategy in the low-carbon supply chain. In the competitive scenario, the OEM’s outsourcing strategy depends on the CM’s quality investment cost coefficient.

Complexity Analysis of Pricing, Service Level, and Emission Reduction Effort in an e-Commerce Supply Chain Under Different Power Structures

This paper constructs an e-commerce supply chain (ECSC) that includes one e-commerce platform and one low-carbon manufacturer. Based on bounded rationality, the complexity of pricing, service level, and emission reduction effort decisions in an ECSC is investigated in two scenarios: horizontal Nash (HN) game and long-term platform Stackelberg (LPS) game. Finally, the effects of different adjustment speeds and critical parameters on decision variables, profits, and system stability are analyzed through various numerical simulations. The study revealed that the price adjustment parameters have a more noticeable impact on the stability and profit of ECSC in both scenarios. It is interesting that the chaos caused by the adjustment speed of the platform’s decisions leads to a decrease in the platform’s profits. However, it causes continuous fluctuations in low-carbon manufacturers’ profits. In the HN game, when the increase of critical parameters is beneficial to low-carbon manufacturers, the system’s stability will decrease. In addition, the system’s stability in the LPS game is only affected by the adjustment speed of the platform’s decisions. By comparison, we find that the adjustment of the platform’s price plays a vital role in the ECSC under different power structures. Finally, the adaptive adjustment mechanism is used to control the chaos caused by the price of the platform in the ECSC system.

A trade war and a pandemic: Disruption and resilience in the food bank supply chain

Supply chain turbulence has become the new normal – and understanding supply chain resilience is essential for business-to-business firms. Dynamic capabilities theory provides the foundation for examining three literature gaps on supply chain resilience: resource reconfiguration during high impact disruptions; resilience across multiple supply chain levels; and resilience when government is involved. The food bank supply chain is examined during the turbulence of 2018–2020 from the U.S.-China trade war and the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the trade war, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) shifted agricultural commodities intended for export to food banks, creating scale and scope supply shocks, and this was followed by food demand and supply shocks from the pandemic. In-depth interviews were conducted with supply chain members, from farmers to processing firms to food banks. Qualitative analysis provides detailed perspectives on three stages of supply chain resilience: anticipating, adapting and responding, and recovery and learning. The trade war responses built resilience during the pandemic by leveraging dynamic capabilities and frugal innovation, and by building social capital and public/private partnerships. From the specific insights for food banks emerged broader insights for business-to-business firms, in the form of twelve propositions for building supply chain resilience to high impact disruptions.

Investigating the Integration of Industry 4.0 and Lean Principles on Supply Chain: A Multi-Perspective Systematic Literature Review

The development of digital technologies in all aspects of human life leads to increasing the necessity for investigating them in the Supply Chain (SC) as the main channel to provide products. Moreover, Lean principles, with the aim of reducing wastes, could be one of the main research streams in SC in recent years. Therefore, it is valuable to figure out the mutual effects of Lean principles and digital technologies as two growing areas in SC. Previous works did not pay attention to investigating this relationship at the SC level and were more focused on the production level. However, the present work addresses this issue by conducting a multi-perspective Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Additionally, in the present SLR, the impact of individual Industry 4.0 technologies in relation to Lean principles was investigated from various SC perspectives. The results reveal the necessity of studying single SC processes in Lean Digital SC. Moreover, the applicability of each technology should be illustrated to alleviate SC operational and organizational issues. The results provide useful insights about applying single digital technologies as well as a combination of them to each SC process to solve specific issues.

SEPs licensing across the supply chain: an antitrust perspective

The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the development of 5G are set to add a new layer of complexity to the current practice of standard essential patents (SEPs) licensing. While, until recently, the debate has centred on the nature of fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) commitments and the mechanisms to avoid hold-up and reverse hold-up problems between licensors and licensees, a new hotly-debated issue has now emerged. At its core is the question of whether SEP holders should be required to grant a FRAND licence to any implementer seeking a licence, including component makers (the so-called ‘licence-to-all’ approach), or if they should be allowed freely to target the supply-chain level at which the licence is to be granted (the so-called ‘access-for-all’ approach). After providing an up-to-date overview of the current legal and economic debate, this article focuses on the most recent antitrust case law dealing with the matter on both sides of the Atlantic and argues that no sound economic and legal bases which favour licence-to-all solutions can be identified. * The authors would like to thank the anonymous referees, Luigi Federico Signorini and the participants in the 2021 Annual Conference of European Policy for Intellectual Property (EPIP), in the 38th Annual Conference of the European Law and Economics Association (EALE), in the TILTing Perspectives 2021 (Tilburg University), and in the 16th Annual Conference of the Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA). The study was conducted as part of the research activities promoted by the DEEP-IN (Digital Ecosystem, Economic Policy and Innovation) Research Network. The author is grateful for the financial support received. Any opinions expressed in this paper are personal and are not to be attributed to the Bank of Italy. The first is Half-Causation Branching, which allows the logical mapping of the inventing space, within which the imaginary invention is located. Implementing this tool reveals two alternative nearby inventions, which if left out of the sought patent protection would render any eventually granted patent practically worthless. Following that, Half-Causation Encapsulation comes to the rescue by allowing the encapsulation of the original imaginary invention, plus the two alternative nearby ones, all in a manner that provides the all-important unity of invention On the one hand, patent agents are not supposed to contribute to their client’s inventive concept to the extent that they become co-inventors. On the other hand, scientists and engineers are not supposed to dedicate so much time and effort to learning about complex patent laws as to become patent agents. Arguably, each should aim to excel in their discipline. However, a structured dialogue should be considerably helpful to each and to the patent process as a whole. It is proposed that Half-Causation, with its logical structure, can provide a basis for such a dialogue. Besides targeting a readership in patent practices and theory, this paper should be of interest to multiple readerships, for example in engineering design, medical discovery and philosophy of technology.

Forecasting Methods to Reduce Inventory Level in Supply Chain

Based on the two-level supply chain composed of suppliers and retailers, we assume that market demand is subject to an ARIMA(1, 1, 1). The supplier uses the minimum mean square error method (MMSE), the simple moving average method (SMA) and the weighted moving average method (WMA) respectively to forecast the market demand. According to the statistical properties of stationary time series, we calculate the mean square error between supplier forecast demand and market demand. Through the simulation, we compare the forecasting effects of the three methods and analyse the influence of the lead-time L and the moving average parameter N on prediction. The results show that the forecasting effect of the MMSE method is the best, of the WMA method is the second, and of the SMA method is the last. The results also show that reducing the lead-time and increasing the moving average parameter improve the prediction accuracy and reduce the supplier inventory level.

Improving Product Quality Based on Supply Chain Effectiveness and T-JIT Production Implementation

Success at the supply chain level requires a supply chain management strategy and its ability to handle organizational management and as result of that has effect on product quality. The research results show that T-JIT as a sustainable strategy, from supply chain management as a factor affecting product quality and supply chain capability as factors affecting product quality. Therefore, organizations that are willing to compete on the supply chain level are recommended to be among the JIT-productions, JIT-buyers, JIT-sellers and suppliers of JIT-information. In summary, production managers must take advantage of a T-JIT production strategy. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of T-JIT production system implementation and supply chain effectiveness on improving product quality. Statistical population of this research is 305 managers, supervisors and administrative staff of production industries. Data were collected using a questionnaire and analyzed with SPSS and AMOS software. Finally, it was observed that supply chain management strategy has a positive and significant effect on product quality, supply chain capability and T-JIT production. On the other hand, T-JIT production has a positive and significant effect on product quality and supply chain capability, and also the positive and significant effect of supply chain capability on product quality was confirmed.