Supply chain performance measurement framework:case studies on the Thai manufacturers

One of the most significant paradigm shifts of modern business management is that individual businesses no longer compete as solely autonomous entities, but rather as supply chains. Firms worldwide have embraced the concept of supply chain management as important and sometimes critical to their business. The idea of a collaborative supply chain is to gain a competitive advantage by improving overall performance through measuring a holistic perspective of the supply chain. However, contemporary performance measurement theory is somewhat fragmented and fails to support this idea. Therefore, this research develops and applies an integrated supply chain performance measurement framework that provides a more holistic approach to the study of supply chain performance measurement by combining both supply chain macro processes and decision making levels. Therefore, the proposed framework can provide a balanced horizontal (cross-process) and vertical (hierarchical decision) view and measure the performance of the entire supply chain system. Firstly, literature on performance measurement frameworks and performance measurement factors of supply chain management will help to develop a conceptual framework. Next the proposed framework will be presented. The framework will be validated through in-depth interviews with three Thai manufacturing companies. The fieldwork combined varied sources in order to understand the views of manufacturers on supply chain performance in the three case study companies. The collected data were analyzed, interpreted, and reported using thematic analysis and analysis hierarchy process (AHP), which was influenced by the study’s conceptual framework. This research contributes a new theory of supply chain performance measurement and knowledge on supply chain characteristics of a developing country, Thailand. The research also affects organisations by preparing decision makers to make strategic, tactical and operational level decisions with respect to supply chain macro processes. The results from the case studies also indicate the similarities and differences in their supply chain performance. Furthermore, the implications of the study are offered for both academic and practical use.

Managing the impact on biodiversity of supply chain companies

Industrial development has had a major role in creating the situation where bio-diverse materials and services essential for sustaining business are under threat. A key contributory factor to biodiversity decline comes from the cumulative impacts of extended supply chain business operations. In order to contribute to stopping this decline, the industrial world needs to form a better understanding of the way it utilizes the business and biodiversity agenda in its wider operations. This thesis investigates the perceptions and attitudes to biodiversity from government, society and a wide cross-section of industry. The research includes the extent of corporate attention to and use of environmental business tools and guidelines in reporting on biodiversity issues. A case study of three companies from different industrial sectors is undertaken to observe procurement and related environmental management of their supply chains. The use of accredited and non-accredited environmental management systems (EMS) are analysed as frameworks for introducing biodiversity aspects into supply chain management. The outcome is a methodology, which can be used either as a bespoke in-house biodiversity management system or within an accredited ISO 14001 EMS, for incorporating the assessment and management of the potential risks and opportunities involving environmental impacts on biodiversity of supply chain companies.

Using RFID-RTE to increase efficiency in the supply chain

This paper aims to explore the application of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to Returnable transit equipment (RTE) in the supply chain. Particular attention is applied to the current structures of RTE networks as formulated by RTE providers. The problems related to RTE usage are described and the effect to the network analyzed. RFID is investigated as a tool to assist with the movement of the RTE both from the client’s and RTE provider’s point of view.

Putting e-commerce adoption in a supply chain context

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the impact of context on the adoption of e-commerce in supply chains. Design/methodology/approach – A literature review, 45 semi-structured interviews in four different supply chains in the UK healthcare sector, involving 16 different organisations, and additional documentation is used in this study. Findings – The adoption of e-commerce in supply chains is simultaneously affected by two contextual meta-variables: external pressure, which is influenced by supply chain structure, demand and industry characteristics; and internal readiness, which is influenced by IT, organisational and buying need characteristics. Different combinations of these two main variables lead to four different trade-off situations affecting adoption or non-adoption. Research limitations/implications – The empirical research has been undertaken in the specific context of the UK healthcare supply chains. It would be useful to test our findings in other sectors and countries. Practical implications – The paper helps to understand the contextual factors that affect e-commerce adoption and concludes with a framework that differentiates four situations that can improve managers' and researchers' understanding of e-commerce adoption in the future. Originality/value – The contribution of this paper is the recognition that the adoption of e-commerce is affected by factors in both an organisational and a supply chain context, which simultaneously lead to trade-off decisions. Also, unlike most other studies which refer to supply chains and are limited to an organisational perspective or at most a dyadic perspective, this paper builds up a supply chain picture of context by including perspectives from multiple actors in a chain.

Improving supply chain performance through improved visibility

Purpose – This paper seeks to investigate the links between different types of visibility, joint initiatives and business performance using the concepts of transparency as a measure of visibility in supply chains. The prognosis that increased supply chain visibility can be achieved through suppliers and customers working on joint initiative(s), the deployment of which leads to collaborative successes, is tested. Design/methodology/approach – Lamming et al.'s transparency concept was used as a basis for the development of a framework for assessing the visibility gaps between the focal company – Rolls-Royce (RR) – and their suppliers. The framework was applied to a particular supplier to identify visibility gaps; subsequently a joint initiative was launched across the supply chain and the benefits measured and assessed. A case study approach was followed due to the contemporary nature of the work undertaken. Findings – The supply chain's performance vis-à-vis schedule adherence was significantly improved as a result of the initiative launched. Additionally, there were improvements in visibility across capacity planning, material ordering and inventory management. Practical implications – The study demonstrated the value of using the developed transparency framework in a structured manner to generate improvements in the supply chain. RR will look to extend its use across other supply chains; the approach could also be extended out to other sectors. Originality/value – The development and application of the transparency frameworks in the aerospace sector are unique and have shown the value of the approach. The work has demonstrated tangibly that the exchange of high-quality information as part of an improvement initiative does lead to significant improvements in the overall performance of the supply chain.

Integrated strategic supply chain positioning for SME's:an empirical study

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on an investigation into the selection and evaluation of a suitable strategic positioning methodology for SMEs in Singapore. Design/methodology/approach – The research methodology is based on critical review of the literature to identify the potentially most suitable strategic positioning methodology, evaluation and testing of the methodology within the context of SME's in Singapore, and analysis to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology and opportunities for further research. Findings – This paper illustrates a leading integrated strategic positioning decision making process, which has been found to be potentially suitable for SMEs in Singapore, and the process is then applied and evaluated in two industrial case studies. Results in the form of strengths, weaknesses and opportunities are evaluated and discussed in detail, and further research to improve the process has been identified. Practical implications – A practical and integrated strategic supply chain positioning methodology for SMEs to define their own competitive space, among other companies in the manufacturing supply chain, so as to maximize business competitiveness. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the knowledge of the strategic positioning decision process as well as identifies further research to adapt the process for SMEs in Singapore.

Supply chain strategies for competitive manufacture

Few people would argue that there is one single solution to the design of a manufacturing supply chain. Relatively recent concepts such as strategic outsourcing and partnership sourcing are extremely valuable to some manufacturing organisations. This paper presents the findings of a comprehensive survey of manufacturing sourcing practices in the UK. This study has set out to understand current and intended practices that manufacturing companies have with their key suppliers, and also the decision processes and circumstances that have caused these relationships to occur.

Using min-sum loopy belief propagation for decentralised supply chain formation

Modern business trends such as agile manufacturing and virtual corporations require high levels of flexibility and responsiveness to consumer demand, and require the ability to quickly and efficiently select trading partners. Automated computational techniques for supply chain formation have the potential to provide significant advantages in terms of speed and efficiency over the traditional manual approach to partner selection. Automated supply chain formation is the process of determining the participants within a supply chain and the terms of the exchanges made between these participants. In this thesis we present an automated technique for supply chain formation based upon the min-sum loopy belief propagation algorithm (LBP). LBP is a decentralised and distributed message-passing algorithm which allows participants to share their beliefs about the optimal structure of the supply chain based upon their costs, capabilities and requirements. We propose a novel framework for the application of LBP to the existing state-of-the-art case of the decentralised supply chain formation problem, and extend this framework to allow for application to further novel and established problem cases. Specifically, the contributions made by this thesis are: • A novel framework to allow for the application of LBP to the decentralised supply chain formation scenario investigated using the current state-of-the-art approach. Our experimental analysis indicates that LBP is able to match or outperform this approach for the vast majority of problem instances tested. • A new solution goal for supply chain formation in which economically motivated producers aim to maximise their profits by intelligently altering their profit margins. We propose a rational pricing strategy that allows producers to earn significantly greater profits than a comparable LBP-based profitmaking approach. • An LBP-based framework which allows the algorithm to be used to solve supply chain formation problems in which goods are exchanged in multiple units, a first for a fully decentralised technique. As well as multiple-unit exchanges, we also model in this scenario realistic constraints such as factory capacities and input-to-output ratios. LBP continues to be able to match or outperform an extended version of the existing state-of-the-art approach in this scenario. • Introduction of a dynamic supply chain formation scenario in which participants are able to alter their properties or to enter or leave the process at any time. Our results suggest that LBP is able to deal easily with individual occurences of these alterations and that performance degrades gracefully when they occur in larger numbers.