Unlocking the Supply Chain to Build Competitive Advantage

2000 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Walker ◽  
David Bovet ◽  
Joseph Martha
2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 34-35

Purpose This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings This research paper concentrates on the capacity of procurement digitalization to pump up supply chain effectiveness and competitive advantage levels. Data from the examination of the strategic actions of an environmental charity, an IT multinational, and an Australian SME reveal that increasing procurement effectiveness translates into marked performance enhancements in terms of productivity gains and reduced costs. Wiping away boundaries between buyers and suppliers produced procurement processes with greater scalability, agility, and flexibility, all of which also enhanced the firms' capability to mitigate their risks. Originality/value The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.


2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (7) ◽  
pp. 1511-1534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chih-Jou Chen

Purpose Developing agility and innovativeness as dynamic capabilities are important for firms to sustain their competitive advantage in today’s global economy. The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a framework to investigate how the supply chain agility and innovativeness are achieved through IT integration and trust in members of supply chain and how these, in turn, can enhance firms’ competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach This research employs a survey method and data are collected from senior managers working in the supply chain or IT area. The model and hypotheses are tested utilizing data from 204 usable Taiwan manufacturing firms via structural equations modeling methodology. Findings The study demonstrates that both IT integration and trust in supply chain members significantly enhance supply chain agility and innovativeness, which in turn positively affect firm’s competitive advantage. The results indicate that IT integration and trust are antecedents and major joint partnership resources for improving supply chain agility and innovativeness. Research limitations/implications Data are collected from manufacturing industry in Taiwan and single respondent from each firm, the generalizability of current findings to other industries or countries should require additional investigation. Practical implications The study suggests that a firm should focus on IT integration and trust in supply chain members to achieve supply chain agility and innovativeness. To take advantage of supply chain agility and innovativeness, through maximizing firm’s competitive advantage, firms should continually adapt to the fast changing business environment and search for creative ways to satisfy new market needs. Originality/value Given the attention paid to supply chain agility and innovativeness in terms of importance to responding to business uncertainty and competitiveness, and more recently, as important capabilities in managing supply chain management, this paper investigates how IT integration and trust can contribute to supply chain agility and innovativeness. Provide evidence regarding the impact of IT integration and trust on agility of supply chains, innovativeness and competitive advantage.


2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-6
Author(s):  
Richard Calvi

Purpose According to Christopher (2000), in a lot of sectors, the competition is a question of supply chain against supply chain. The winner in term of competitive advantage should be the one, who is able to obtain more than the competitor from the available resources. In strategic literature, Dyer and Singh (1998) are the first who introduced the concept of “relational competency” to explain why some companies gain their competitive advantage not directly from their internal resources but mainly because they are able better to combine external resources. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a case study. Findings The author describes the different phases and strategic decisions in the building of a real supplier eco-system. Research limitations/implications It is a sole case study. Practical implications This study is a description of a success story. Originality/value This study is a description of an external resource management in action.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 84
Author(s):  
Juan José Uchuya Lopéz ◽  
Raad Yahya Qassim

Brazil and the United States are the leading soybean grain producing and exporting countries in the world. Although crop production cost is significantly lower in Brazil than in the United States due to more advanced crop production technology, this competitive advantage vanishes in view of the higher logistics costs in Brazil than in the United States, in view of the dominance of road transportation in Brazil, whilst river and rail transportation are prevalent in the United States. In order to regain its competitive advantage, there is a clear need for a redesign of the inland supply chain in Brazil through the use and expansion of existent inland waterways and rail networks. In this paper, an optimal supply chain redesign methodology is presented to achieve the aforesaid objective, with a focus on Mato Grosso which is the largest producer and exporting state in Brazil. This methodology is in fact applicable to multiply echelon global supply chains in general.


Author(s):  
P. Boonyathan ◽  
L. Al-Hakim

Today’s managers are turning to the functions of the supply chain to improve margins and gain competitive advantage. The explosion of the Internet and other e-business technologies has made real-time, online communication throughout the entire supply chain a reality. Electronic supply chain management (e-SCM) is a reference to the supply chain that is structured via electronic technology-enabled relationships. This chapter concentrates on the development of a procedure referred to as eSCM-I for e-SCM process improvement. The procedure focuses on process mapping and relies on principles of coordination theory. It is based on SCOR to standardize the process and take advantage of this technique of benchmarking/best practices potential. The procedure employs IDEF0 technique for mapping the processes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wulandari Wulandari ◽  
Ria Nelly Sari ◽  
Al Azhar L

This research aims to examine the effect of supply chain management on firm performance. In this study, the effect of supply chain management on firm performance is intervened by competitive advantage. The sample of this study is manufacturing firms listed on Bursa Efek Indonesia (BEI) 2014. By using total sampling procedure, 137 firms were selected as a sample and questionnaires were sent to finance,production or marketing manager through corporate secretary. From 137 set questionnaires were sent, 64 sets were returned and due to missing data/incomplete answer so only 59 sets were analyzed. Data was analyzed by using SPSS program version 20.0. This study found that supply chain management positively effect firm performance. The findings showed that supply chain management positively effect the firm’s competitive advantage. Further, analyzed found that competitive advantage positively effect firm performance. Meanwhile, the results proved that ß value of relationship between the supply chain management and firm performance after entered by competitive advantage was decreased from 0.825 to 0,412. This research conclude that competitive advantage has a role as partial mediation variable.


2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-374
Author(s):  
Marcos Livato ◽  
Gideon Carvalho de Benedicto

The new "molds" of competitiveness have suggested that the attentions should be focused on an efficient management of the supply chain in the supermarket departments, starting from the producer until the end user of the products, reducing the operational costs. It's known that the elimination of some of these stages of intermediation of the ways of distribution can represent to the small and mediums retailers an important competitive advantage, with the elimination of the additional costs charged by the intermediaries. The objective of this work is to propose a model of restructuring  of the ways of distribution in the brazilian retail of  food through of the strategy, inducing the elimination of the intermediaries. The search of the bibliography was used like basement to the definition of the methodology of this search, that was realized through of an observational study realized with nineteen Central Business Supermarket s in the state of São Paulo. To do the collection of the datas was prepared a questionary with specific questions. After the collection of the datas and tab, were used techniques quantitive  of analysis of datas through of SAS system. The study intends to discuss the proposal of the cooperation's networks like a strategic alternative, with the possibility of elimination of some phases of intermediation of the distribuition's ways.


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