57 resultados para sourcing


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Drawing knowledge from external sources in the UK, or internationally, has become increasingly important to small and medium-sized firms (SMEs). SMEs cannot generate all they need to know to develop new products and processes within their own companies, they need to look elsewhere for new ideas and expertise. This practice is known as knowledge sourcing. This report provides a detailed review of patterns of knowledge sourcing, and the key factors influencing these patterns, particularly from a small business perspective. We present key findings from a survey of 393 UK companies and analyse the results. We also highlight case studies of UK SMEs that work closely with overseas partners and agents to widen their own knowledge.

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Purpose – This paper aims to develop an integrated analytical approach, combining quality function deployment (QFD) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach, to enhance the effectiveness of sourcing decisions. Design/methodology/approach – In the approach, QFD is used to translate the company stakeholder requirements into multiple evaluating factors for supplier selection, which are used to benchmark the suppliers. AHP is used to determine the importance of evaluating factors and preference of each supplier with respect to each selection criterion. Findings – The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated by applying it to a UK-based automobile manufacturing company. With QFD, the evaluating factors are related to the strategic intent of the company through the involvement of concerned stakeholders. This ensures successful strategic sourcing. The application of AHP ensures consistent supplier performance measurement using benchmarking approach. Research limitations/implications – The proposed integrated approach can be principally adopted in other decision-making scenarios for effective management of the supply chain. Practical implications – The proposed integrated approach can be used as a group-based decision support system for supplier selection, in which all relevant stakeholders are involved to identify various quantitative and qualitative evaluating criteria, and their importance. Originality/value – Various approaches that can deal with multiple and conflicting criteria have been adopted for the supplier selection. However, they fail to consider the impact of business objectives and the requirements of company stakeholders in the identification of evaluating criteria for strategic supplier selection. The proposed integrated approach outranks the conventional approaches to supplier selection and supplier performance measurement because the sourcing strategy and supplier selection are derived from the corporate/business strategy.

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Successful supply chain management requires the management of a complex, multi-stakeholder, multi-criteria system. Stakeholder inclusion in the supply chain design and decision making processes is an area of growing interest for companies looking to design sustainable supply chains or produce sustainable products. This paper demonstrates the use of the integrated quality function deployment and analytic hierarchy process (QFD-AHP) method for the inclusion of a wide group of stakeholder requirements into the supplier selection process. The method provides a weighted ranked list of evaluating criteria which can be used to assess potential suppliers in the UK renewable bioenergy industry. The bioenergy industry is suitable as there are many stakeholders placing various requirements upon potential biomass suppliers. The paper uses a mixture of literature review and semi-structured industry interviews to answer three research questions: which stakeholder groups are important when selecting biomass suppliers for the UK? What requirements are made by these stakeholders on the supply of biomass fuels and feedstocks? Which evaluating criteria are most important? © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

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This book contains 13 papers from the 7th Workshop on Global Sourcing, held in Val d'Isere, France, during March 11-14, 2013, which were carefully reviewed and selected from 40 submissions. They are based on a vast empirical base brought together by leading researchers in information systems, strategic management, and operations. This volume is intended for students, academics, and practitioners interested in research results and experiences on outsourcing and offshoring of information technology and business processes. The topics discussed represent both client and supplier perspectives on sourcing of global services, combine theoretical and practical insights regarding challenges that both clients and vendors face, and include case studies from client and vendor organizations.

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This edited book is intended for use by students, academics and practitioners who take interest in the outsourcing and offshoring of information technology and business services and processes. The book offers a review of the key topics in outsourcing and offshoring, populated with practical frameworks that serve as a tool kit for practitioners, academics and students. The range of topics covered in this book is wide and diverse, and represents both client and supplier perspectives on sourcing of global services. Various aspects related to the decision making process (e.g., asset transfer), learning mechanisms and organizational practices for managing outsourcing relationships are discussed in great depth. Contemporary sourcing models, including cloud services, are examined. Client dependency on the outsourcing provider, and social aspects, such as identity, are discussed in detail. Furthermore, resistance in outsourcing and failures are investigated to derive lessons as to how to avoid them and improve efficiency in outsourcing. Topics discussed in this book combine theoretical and practical insights regarding challenges that both clients and vendors face. Case studies from client and vendor organizations are used extensively throughout the book. Last but not least, the book examines current and future trends in outsourcing and offshoring, placing particular attention on the centrality of innovation in sourcing arrangements, and how innovation can be realized in outsourcing. The book is based on a vast empirical base brought together through years of extensive research by leading researchers in information systems, strategic management and operations.

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In this paper, we review recent developments in the field of outsourcing and offshoring and the implications for engineering management. We examine three aspects involved in outsourcing and offshoring, namely, sourcing models, coordination, and value extracted from outsourcing projects. We conclude that additional research is needed on recent trends in outsourcing and the impact of such change process on the practice of engineering management. © 2011 IEEE.

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Strategic sourcing has increased in importance in recent years, and now plays an important role in companies’ planning. The current volatility in supply markets means companies face multiple challenges involving lock-in situations, supplier bankruptcies or supply security issues. In addition, their exposure can increase due to natural disasters, as witnessed recently in the form of bird flu, volcanic ash and tsunamis. Therefore, the primary focus of this study is risk management in the context of strategic sourcing. The study presents a literature review on sourcing based on the 15 years from 1998–2012, and considers 131 academic articles. The literature describes strategic sourcing as a strategic, holistic process in managing supplier relationships, with a long-term focus on adding value to the company and realising competitive advantage. Few studies discovered the real risk impact and status of risk management in strategic sourcing, and evaluation across countries and industries was limited, with the construction sector particularly under-researched. This methodology is founded on a qualitative study of twenty cases across Ger-many and the United Kingdom from the construction sector and electronics manufacturing industries. While considering risk management in the context of strategic sourcing, the thesis takes into account six dimensions that cover trends in strategic sourcing, theoretical and practical sourcing models, risk management, supply and demand management, critical success factors and the strategic supplier evaluation. The study contributes in several ways. First, recent trends are traced and future needs identified across the research dimensions of countries, industries and companies. Second, it evaluates critical success factors in contemporary strategic sourcing. Third, it explores the application of theoretical and practical sourcing models in terms of effectiveness and sustainability. Fourth, based on the case study findings, a risk-oriented strategic sourcing framework and a model for strategic sourcing are developed. These are based on the validation of contemporary requirements and a critical evaluation of the existing situation. It contemplates the empirical findings and leads to a structured process to manage risk in strategic sourcing. The risk-oriented framework considers areas such as trends, corporate and sourcing strategy, critical success factors, strategic supplier selection criteria, risk assessment, reporting, strategy alignment and reporting. The proposed model highlights the essential dimensions in strategic sourcing and guides us to a new definition of strategic sourcing supported by this empirical study.

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The focus of this paper is the importance of regions in technology transfer by the multinational firm. Specifically, we focus on an issue that has become known as knowledge or technology sourcing via 'reverse spillovers', i.e. productivity effects running from domestic firms to foreign establishments. Traditionally this issue has presented a challenge for international business scholars, both in terms of identifying the phenomenon and in terms of determining the success of the strategy. In this paper we examine these questions within the context of the debate on globalization/regionalization. For a set of some 4500 subsidiaries of multinationals across a wide range of countries we show that reverse productivity spillovers via technology sourcing are significant but that they tend to be concentrated within 'triad regions' rather than across them. We also find that reverse spillovers from host country multinational enterprises are greater than those from other host country firms or from other foreign affiliates. © 2013 British Academy of Management.

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The deployment of bioenergy technologies is a key part of UK and European renewable energy policy. A key barrier to the deployment of bioenergy technologies is the management of biomass supply chains including the evaluation of suppliers and the contracting of biomass. In the undeveloped biomass for energy market buyers of biomass are faced with three major challenges during the development of new bioenergy projects. What characteristics will a certain supply of biomass have, how to evaluate biomass suppliers and which suppliers to contract with in order to provide a portfolio of suppliers that best satisfies the needs of the project and its stakeholder group whilst also satisfying crisp and non-crisp technological constraints. The problem description is taken from the situation faced by the industrial partner in this research, Express Energy Ltd. This research tackles these three areas separately then combines them to form a decision framework to assist biomass buyers with the strategic sourcing of biomass. The BioSS framework. The BioSS framework consists of three modes which mirror the development stages of bioenergy projects. BioSS.2 mode for early stage development, BioSS.3 mode for financial close stage and BioSS.Op for the operational phase of the project. BioSS is formed of a fuels library, a supplier evaluation module and an order allocation module, a Monte-Carlo analysis module is also included to evaluate the accuracy of the recommended portfolios. In each mode BioSS can recommend which suppliers should be contracted with and how much material should be purchased from each. The recommended blend should have chemical characteristics within the technological constraints of the conversion technology and also best satisfy the stakeholder group. The fuels library is made up from a wide variety of sources and contains around 100 unique descriptions of potential biomass sources that a developer may encounter. The library takes a wide data collection approach and has the aim of allowing for estimates to be made of biomass characteristics without expensive and time consuming testing. The supplier evaluation part of BioSS uses a QFD-AHP method to give importance weightings to 27 different evaluating criteria. The evaluating criteria have been compiled from interviews with stakeholders and policy and position documents and the weightings have been assigned using a mixture of workshops and expert interview. The weighted importance scores allow potential suppliers to better tailor their business offering and provides a robust framework for decision makers to better understand the requirements of the bioenergy project stakeholder groups. The order allocation part of BioSS uses a chance-constrained programming approach to assign orders of material between potential suppliers based on the chemical characteristics of those suppliers and the preference score of those suppliers. The optimisation program finds the portfolio of orders to allocate to suppliers to give the highest performance portfolio in the eyes of the stakeholder group whilst also complying with technological constraints. The technological constraints can be breached if the decision maker requires by setting the constraint as a chance-constraint. This allows a wider range of biomass sources to be procured and allows a greater overall performance to be realised than considering crisp constraints or using deterministic programming approaches. BioSS is demonstrated against two scenarios faced by UK bioenergy developers. The first is a large scale combustion power project, the second a small scale gasification project. The Bioss is applied in each mode for both scenarios and is shown to adapt the solution to the stakeholder group importance and the different constraints of the different conversion technologies whilst finding a globally optimal portfolio for stakeholder satisfaction.

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Strategic sourcing plays an important role in organisations' performance. Strategic sourcing has been researched extensively using empirical studies as well as review work, such as strategic sourcing importance, issues and challenges, processes, source selection criteria and framework. However, there is no research on critical success factors for strategic sourcing specific to industry and country. This research aims to qualitatively evaluate and understand the current role of strategic sourcing, the critical success factors for business performance and its relationship with strategic sourcing, and strategic supplier evaluation criteria from multiple stakeholders' perspectives specific to industry and country. This research studies twenty organisations from Germany and the United Kingdom (UK) covering two industry sectors - electronics manufacturing and construction. We consider five organisations from each industry sector and each country. The findings from twenty case studies reveal comparative analysis of strategic sourcing practices of two countries and two industries.

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Knowledge accessing from external organisations is important to firms, especially entrepreneurial ones which often cannot generate internally all the knowledge necessary for innovation. There is, however, a lack of evidence concerning the association between the evolution of firms and the evolution of their networks. The aim of this paper is to begin to fill this gap by undertaking an exploratory analysis of the relationship between the vintage of firms and their knowledge sourcing networks. Drawing on an analysis of firms in the UK, the paper finds some evidence of a U-shaped relationship existing between firm age and the frequency of accessing knowledge from certain sources. Emerging entrepreneurial firms tend to be highly active with regard to accessing knowledge for a range of sources and geographic locations, with the rate of networking dropping somewhat during the period of peak firm growth. For instance, it is found that firms tend to less frequently access knowledge sources such as universities and research institutes in their own region during a stage of peak turnover growth. Overall, the results suggest a complex relationship between the lifecycle of the firm and its networking patterns. It is concluded that policymakers need to become more aware that network formation and utilisation by firms is likely to vary dependent upon their lifecycle position.

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Creative sourcing strategies, designed to extract more value from the supply base, have become a competitive, strategic differentiator. To fuel creativity, companies install sourcing teams that can capitalize on the specialized knowledge and expertise of their employees across the company. This article introduces the concept of a team creativity climate (TCC) - team members' shared perceptions of their joint policies, procedures, and practices with respect to developing creative sourcing strategies – as a means to address the unique challenges associated with a collective, cross-functional approach to develop value-enhancing sourcing strategies. Using a systematic scale development process that validates the proposed concept, the authors confirm its ability to predict sourcing team performance, and suggest some research avenues extending from this concept.

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This book constitutes the revised selected papers from the 10th Global Sourcing Workshop held in Val d’Isère, France, in February 2016. The 11 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 47 submissions. The book offers a review of the key topics in outsourcing and offshoring of information technology and business services offering practical frameworks that serve as a tool kit to students and managers. The range of topics covered is wide and diverse, but predominately focused on how to achieve success in shared services and outsourcing. More specifically, the book examines outsourcing decisions and management practices, giving specific attention to shared services that have become one of the dominant sourcing models. The topics discussed combine theoretical and practical insights regarding challenges that industry leaders, policy makers, and professionals face or should be concerned with. Case studies from various organizations, industries and countries such as UK, Italy, The Netherlands, Canada, Australia and Denmark complete the book.

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Purpose - The purpose of the work discussed in this paper is to understand, analyse and benchmark the "Packing and Filling" processes within BASF. A benchmarking project is described in detail which aimed to cover sites in different countries that supplied many different variants of finished goods in order to establish best practice and then to generate some options for their implementation. Design/methodology/approach - The project used an adaptation of accepted benchmarking methodology combined with other techniques (such as rich picture generation, and cluster analysis) to maximise the insight generated. Findings - The findings of the research showed that one of the main factors effecting the process was how third parties were used (e.g. extent and nature of out-sourcing, and its degree of centralisation). Research limitations/ implications - The exercise was challenged by the selection of suitably similar benchmarking candidates because the environment was complex and highly varied; the paper explains practical solutions for dealing with this challenge. Practical limitations - Strategic and tactical options are outlined at the end of the paper and will have applicability to other organisations and industries that are looking to find the answers to frequently asked questions about how to successfully implement an internal process benchmarking project in a large complex organisation that has high variety in end products and delivery methods. Originality/value - The methodology described in this paper is of a proprietary and unique nature. The paper is structured around some key questions commonly asked of benchmarking, and the answers are provided via a real in-depth case study from BASF that spans 4 sites in 3 countries using 15 different filling lines. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

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E-grocery is gradually becoming viable or a necessity for many families. Yet, most e-supermarkets are seen as providers of low value "staple" and bulky goods mainly. While each store has a large number of SKU available, these products are mainly necessity goods with low marginal value for hedonistic consumption. A need to acquire diverse products (e.g., organic), premium priced products (e.g., wine) for special occasions (e.g., anniversary, birthday), or products just for health related reasons (e.g., allergies, diabetes) are yet to be served via one-stop e-tailers. In this paper, we design a mathematical model that takes into account consumers' geo-demographics and multi-product sourcing capacity for creating critical mass and profit. Our mathematical model is a variant of Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (CVRPTW), which we extend by adding intermediate locations for trucks to meet and exchange goods. We illustrate our model for the city of Istanbul using GIS maps, and discuss its various extensions as well as managerial implications.