Entries from October 2007
Who hasn’t played the beer game in a basic SCM class? (which is btw also dubbed the “flight simulator for management education“…) It’s so much more effective to play it than to explain the Forrester effect over and over… Back from my undergrad times, I will never forget learning how to write an algorithm while trying to figure out how “Settlers” worked. Or playing “Transport Tycoon” over and over again. Nerdy? Perhaps. But also effective for the learning process. And there is no more fun than to discuss the existence of transportation companies in Second Life with students (which is, however, still a mystery to me; why use, say, a plane, or a sailboat, if you can teleport yourself?).
There are so many interesting games coming up every day, it’s a shame so few seem to use them. They don’t even require any wizardry from the teachers, there are also online versions of even the beer game. Or, for those into questions of sustainability, check out simulation games on “building a sustainable city” or different ways to look at a “sustainable campus“. Who said education can’t be fun?
Gyöngyi
PS. For those inclined to play “real beer games“, here’s a link to some of those as well. And special thanks to Manfred Gronalt for getting me hooked on settlers - and the questions of algorithms behind a game.
Categories: Education & Management Development · Socks and sandals · Supply Chain Management · Sustainability
You’d laugh, after all that leanness, JIT etc., “slack” is in again. (No, not Nigel Slack’s book on ops mgmt, though that one can be recommended, too.) Steven Melnyk actually went the extra mile to collect arguments why slack would be important in a supply chain, to enhance innovation capabilities, be “less fragile” - just one term is lacking, be more agile 
Gyöngyi
Categories: Academic publications · Innovation · Supply Chain Management
It’s funny how financial supply chain management (FSCM) is treated as a new trend. Looking at it from the OM/OR perspective, it has merely re-entered the discipline. The October number of Management Science again has a bunch of articles on auctions and reverse auctions (in purchasing), a lot of stuff into risk management (though more from a financial, not from an operations perspective), as well as on the use of real options in technology licencing. As for the latter, futures and real options have also recently entered the world of transportation brokerages (see Tibben-Lembke and Rogers‘ article from 2006). An unlikely couple, it somehow seems as if finance and ops mgmt (and yes, SCM) have found each other again.
But though MS also dons articles on “strategic spot trading in SCM”, few authors have insofar gone as far as to look into the relational aspects of SCM at the same time. It’s thus refreshing to see some actually take this into account, e.g. Taylor and Plambeck’s latest article in MS that includes a lovely excursion into the psychology of “optimal relational contracts” when looking at capacity investments related to supply chain relationships. After all, as Mangan and Christopher (2005) pointed out, relationship management is the skill that sets supply chain managers apart from good old logistics… Or is it?
Gyöngyi
Categories: Academic publications · Research & Methodology · Supply Chain Management
October 28, 2007 · 1 Comment
Categories: Academic publications
What’s the effect of journal rankings? One may think that we rank SCM journals in order to see (a) which journal is of highest quality (to look up to when we search for good articles), (b) which journal has the most outreach (and thus, maybe, an impact on the academic and/or practitioner community), or (c) which journal is most “useful” (as in all the Whiteing/Menachof/Gibson/Hanna rankings - in all sorts of variations regarding order of authors) for teaching and research purposes. But honestly, as the Vellenga et al. rankings all discussed for a long time, the point of rankings is to have an impact on the evaluation of faculty - for promotions, merit pay etc.
Yet, it’s not as if schools would apply our rankings. One is that we may know “in the field” which journals we regard as best (which may vary a bit depending on geographical region and our background amongst the “three amigos“). The other is that universities and business schools scrap this knowledge and just go for impact factors. Now here’s the catch: most SCM journals have not been evaluated for an impact factor. Most haven’t even applied for an evaluation (which itself takes several years to do). This has the ridiculous effect that e.g. Supply Chain Management: an International Journal, or say, Transportation Research Part E are higher regarded by universities when evaluating their faculty than they’d be regarded by scholars in the field. This is not to say that they are bad journals, they are typically in the top 10 of rankings, but not in the top 5. As David Menachof pointed out when presenting the latest ranking, we are hired to do research in SCM, but not paid to do so…
I’m not sure where to go from here. One way could be to scrap impact factors and rankings altogether. Another, to quit the field. A third, to urge SCM journals to finally apply for an ISI evaluation. Journal editors, where art thou?
Gyöngyi
Categories: Academic journals · Academic publications · Journal ranking · Supply Chain Management
It can sometimes be difficult to leave the research topics behind us.
Today, I was buying a digital camera, and the search was down to two similar models of different brands. The price was identical. The first salesperson we asked recommended brand A. Another salesperson came by, and he got the same question. The firm answer was: B.
After a long day of shopping, you either trust your own instinct, or rely upon the personal opinion of the salesperson that was the last one to give you an advice.
Or…you ask the reverse logistics question: About the return rate of the product, and in particular, the reason(s) why customers would be returning the product.
The salesperson started shaking his head, saying “Ohh no….no no no….you don’t want to buy this one” pointing at camera B and looking us straight into our eyes.
The decision was made. 
I wonder what the reaction will be if the reverse logistics question is the first thing you ask when a friendly salesperson approaches you?
Árni
Categories: Reverse Logistics · Socks and sandals
Today we’ve passed 10,000 views; time for some review & reflection…
So why do academics blog? One thing is exposure. Another, discussion. Then there is richness in pedagogy. Honestly, there are even conferences on this topic. Some even claim academics MUST blog. Which is why there are even “academic blogging portals” on a variety of topics.
And why does it matter? We know surprisingly little about the impact of blogs. They have started to become part of e-learning. Also, new concepts around it arise all the time - e.g. “book 2.0“; putting your book “out there”, discussing it and reaching global exposure. A bit of advanced open source publishing, with the idea to reduce the “research-reality gap“. At the same time, blogs may even question the publish or perish mentality of academia. Or, most interestingly, blogs are a way to go for academic journals - see e.g. Nature’s blog (yeah, this IS hard-core science).
Not surprisingly, SCM academics also have blogs. We have a list of them on our links page. They vary from a focus on education in maritime shipping (btw, here’s a most funny view on “shippers“), to more industry-related stuff, to comments on academic presentations.
And of course this very blog, which… well, I’m not sure I want to define what it focuses on, or whether it has a sole focus. In any case, it has seemingly captured the interest of some people - why otherwise would we’ve had over 10,000 visits by now?
Gyöngyi
Categories: Academic publications · Socks and sandals · Supply Chain Management
October 20, 2007 · 1 Comment
Abbreviations summarise a set of ideas and concepts, that when added together, become laden with positive attributes, regarded as ’strategies’, ’solutions’, or ‘visions’. Take VMI, SCM, BPR, and 3PL for example. In other cases, metaphors take over: lean, agile, chain, silos.
Almost a decade ago, the common understanding and ability of ‘3PL’ was challenged - 4PL was introduced. The following discussion included an interesting development in the logistics service industry - but has 4PL taken over as a label? Considering article titles of journal articles, 3PL is still used as the main label for the operations and services of logistics firms.
Árni
Categories: Socks and sandals · Theory
October 19, 2007 · 1 Comment
CSCMP’s Careers Project has now launched its website on “careers in supply chain management“. It includes a lot of interesting things, from current challenges in SCM to glossaries, to universities where one can study SCM etc. I especially love the FAQ section. Another very useful part includes job descriptions including salary prospects. Congrats to the team!
Gyöngyi
PS. Just one question - how on earth are the universities compiled? And why are we missing? :-)
Categories: Education & Management Development · Supply Chain Management
