Supply chain context

Terzi, S. and Cavalieri, S. (2004) Simulation in the supply chain context a survey. Computers in Industry, 53 (1),... 

Gravity model is easy to solve and a good start for location decision evaluation. However, it does not fit supply chain context very well. 

This chapter focused on examples of supply chains and their underl dng supply chain architecture, using a Four C conceptual framework. The Four Cs refer to chain structure and ownership, capacity, coordination, and competitiveness. The supply chain audit permits an understanding of current choices and an approach to evaluate alternate choices for supply chain architecture. The goal of this chapter was to explain the Four C choices made in different successful supply chain contexts. 

The key message is that in many supply chain contexts coordinating agreements can deliver significant improvements that all involve expanding the supply chain profit pie, thus enabling Pareto-improving profit situations. 

In this chapter we define globalization simply as doing business across country boundaries. In the supply chain context, this includes upstream sourcing and downstream channels to customers, or both at once. To many, globalization means the export of jobs. C.K. Prahalad, a business professor at the University of Michigan, refers to it differently. He suggests... 

ABC requires definition of supply chain activities, including a cost driver for each. The cost driver is the principal variable associated with the activity. The next subsections are brief descriptions of how this might be done in the supply chain context. Chapter 32 provides additional details. 

Globalization Doing business across country boundaries. In the supply chain context, this can include upstream sourcing and downstream charmels to customers, or both. 

I continue to view my role as interpreting the models and viewpoints from a number of disciplines into a supply chain context. Then I recommend for consideration a plan for acting on these insights. The goal is to reduce confusion and make the work of supply chain managers both faster and more on target with actual needs. 

Given the supply-chain context of this book, we will consider only the management of independent-demand items—i.e., those items that move between firms in the supply chain. Throughout this book, we focus on issues related to node-to-node relationships in the supply chain, consistent with the framework developed in Chapter 1 that defines a supply chain as a network of nodes. Dependent demand involves "within-node" effects and is outside the scope of this book, but is discussed extensively in books on production/operations planning and control systems (e.g., Vollmann et al., 2005 or Chapman, 2006, which also contains an excellent discussion on hybrid systems that combine appropriate elements of MRP and kanban control). Note, however, that the classification of an item as an independent-demand item or a dependent-demand item is not an absolute characterization. Rather, it only makes sense in context. For example, to the company that assembles the cell phones, the keypad is clearly a dependent-demand item, provided that its only demand is derived from the production schedule for cell phones (i.e., not from sales of keypads as stand-alone items). To the firm that produces the keypads and sells them to various cell phone manufacturers, however, the keypad is an... 

Supply Chain Processes in a Differentiated Supply Chain Context—The case of Dell... 

Showing the relevance of CRM for the supply chain context, the Global Supply Chain Forum (GSCF) has set CRM as the first of eight identified key processes of supply chain management (Cooper et al. 1997). Here, CRM is seen as a means to provide a structure for the development and maintenance of the relationship with the customer (Croxton et al. 2001). 

Table 8.2 shows a list of different alternatives which can be implemented in the development of a strategy or initiative in the supply chain context. It represents a selection of possibilities for institutionalizing supply chain management. In the table the boards and committees are listed on the action level with the relevant group of participants and their goals as well as possible results. 

Project Management Within the Supply Chain Context... 

This section highlights both "tried and true" and more recent models and concepts centered on reducing costs in the supply chain. Active company practitioners and consultants promote and practice many of the approaches described here, so these will probably be familiar to readers of this book. Often overlooked, however, is the emergence of supply chain management and the added "twist" it brings. Our revisiting of these techniques will add a supply chain context. We expect tiiat many approaches will gain new life or be done in different ways as competition between supply chains heats up. 

What does flow mean in a supply chain context Explain how material flow relates to information flow in a supply network. 

Explain what is meant by the term value in a supply chain. How can value best be measured in a supply chain context ... 

To have a more comprehensive view of supply chain collaboration, organizational culture, as an important organizational context, must be incorporated into the understanding of the phenomenon (Orlikowski 1993). Four elements of collaborative organizational culture are investigated collectivism, long-term orientation, power symmetry, and uncertainty avoidance (Table 3.3). They are firm-level equivalents of the national-level dimensions proposed by Hofstede (1980, 1991). Hofstede s (1980) another dimension, masculinity, is not included in this study because it is difficult to adapt it to the supply chain context. Kumar et al. (1998) have tried to tailor masculinity to the firm level as earning power and dominance, which is captured by the dimension of power symmetry in this study. 

Peck, H., Juttner, U. (2000). Strategy and relationships Defining the interface in supply chain contexts. International Journal of Logistics Management, 11(2), 33 14. 

The remaining 19 chapters in the Handbook all provide different examples of supply chain risks including those Usted above and others more specific to different supply chain contexts (e.g. risks associated with the transportation of dangerous goods). The authors also outhne the nature of the impact these risks have on the focal organization and others in the supply chain. In each case the chapters conclude with potential solutions, presented and evaluated as part of the SCRM process. 

This leads to (i) increased and stmctuicd awareness of the vulnerability in the given supply chain context and the SCM thereof (ii) ability to analyse the vulnerabihty of one s SC and SCM context in a stmctuicd way, and finally (iii) a conscious treatment of acceptable vulnerability. 

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