Entries categorized as ‘Supply Chain Management’
Here is free access to a full text version of the article Supply chain management and hypercompetition by Kotzab, Grant, Teller and Halldorsson, published in Logistics Research.
In the abstracts, these guys state:
Firms nowadays face significant challenges in their operating environments, which have been characterised in two different ways. From a strategic management perspective these environments are in a state of hypercompetition while from a logistics or supply chain perspective these environments require market responsiveness predicated upon agile supply chains. However, firms must also rely on many inter-organisational relationships to ensure efficient and effective movements within their supply chains. This paper discusses the relationships among these concepts and proposes a research framework combining aspects of the hypercompetition and responsiveness and agility viewpoints.
Árni
Categories: Supply Chain Management
Green is the new black in SCM…and similar conversion has taken place in Harvard Business Review.
Apparently, “no facet of doing business remains untouched”.
Where? How?
This has not been translated in many (all) of the textbooks I teach in Logistics and Operations Management.
Árni
Categories: Socks and sandals · Supply Chain Management · Sustainability
New SCM journals pop up all the time; the latest one taking an ops mgmt view again. Here’s the link to Operations and Supply Chain Management - an International Journal (OSCM). One could also dubb it the “open access SCM journal” as downloads (as for now) are for free, printed copies only obtainable for a fee. I particularly like Benita Beamon’s opening article on “Sustainability and the future of SCM” that does for a change not only look at green SCM, but broadens the scope to diverse societal implications of SCM. Quite in vein of Árni’s “SCM for societal impact“.
And we are still in search for a good name for our textbook on that topic… Any suggestions?
Gyöngyi
Categories: Academic journals · Humanitarian supply chains · Operations management · Supply Chain Management · Sustainability
The sustainable agenda has yet to find its way into textbooks within SCM. Besides sporadic paragraphs, and a occasional chapter (very rare!), most textbooks are centered around traditional performance objectives followed by related strategies and structures. Even titles of the textbooks contain more or less the same wording but in different order; operations, logistics, management, strategic, supply chain, planning, production………
Gyöngyi and I (Árni) want to do something about that.
We want to bring the sustainable agenda into the class-room in a format other than of journal articles. We want to experiment with disintermediation and the idea of open access.
More to follow on…..SCM for societal impact.
Árni
Categories: Education & Management Development · Supply Chain Management · Sustainability
Northern Lights in Logistics & Suppy Chain Management (edited by Jan Stentoft Arlbjørn, Árni Halldórsson, Marianne Jahre, and Karen Spens) has now been published by CBSPress, Denmark, and is available from their website.
This is how the editors introduce the book:
“Northern Lights in Logistics & Supply Chain Management” portrays the past, present and future research of the subject in the Nordic countries. The NOFOMA conference - a network of Nordic researchers within the field of Logistics and Supply Chain Management - has been a focal point in the contribution to the continuous improvement and further development of Nordic research. The network has also opened up for interaction with fellow researchers from other countries.
There are sixteen chapters in the book that in its own way colours the Nordic rainbow of research within Logistics and Supply Chain Management. The chapters are structured in four themes: 1) Origins and strategic aspects; 2) Research approaches in the Nordic countries; 3) Advancement of distribution strategies and; 4) Emerging application areas of logistics and SCM. The chapters provide an understanding and, perhaps more importantly, consciousness for scholars that are part of this research environment: Where are we now, what have we been influenced by, and in what area are we able to provide positive impact? The aim of the book is also to contribute to increased visibility to fellow international scholars within Logistics and Supply Chain Management.
Árni
Categories: Education & Management Development · Research & Methodology · Supply Chain Management
SCM scholars refer frequently to the work of Oliver E. Willamson on transaction cost economics (for example this one in SCM:AIJ).
The latest issue of Journal of Supply Chain Ma Management (2008, Vol. 44, Number 2) contains an interesting surprise: Outsourcing: Transaction Cost Economics and Supply Chain Management by Oliver E. Williamson.
This paper, that can be downloaded via the link provided here, is interesting for several reasons. First, it is (hopefully) a startingpoint of dialogue between SCM and economics. Many SCM scholars have been using the terminology of TCE for several years, but they are now getting a response. Second, my concern is that the list of references does not necessarily reflect upon this application but builds on selected references to the SCM literature. Third, and perhaps most importantly, Williamson finishes his paper by suggesting nine “TCE Queries for SCM”. You can find theme here by scrolling down this html format of the paper. These suggestions, or questions, are much needed, and will hopefully be discussed in the near future. A lack of interest or ability to do so may leave an impression that is not in favour of further development of SCM?
However, there is no reason to be pessimistic, here is the first of nine questions raised by Williamson:
(1) TCE subscribes to pragmatic methodology. What is the methodology of SCM?
Now, the floor is yours! It would be interesting to discuss this and the other eight suggestions.
Árni
Categories: Research & Methodology · Supply Chain Management · Theory
Every now and then the “trickle down effect” hits the news. Originally preserved for new products becoming more affordable through mass production, nowadays I only see the term in combination with supply chain management, in the meaning of sthg spreading globally (typically upstream) through the supply chain. Today it was oil prices, material regulations, and codes and standards. Policy-makers have also come to hijack the idea, designing policies in the hope that they’d spread globally as standards in the supply chain (see the “vision of the EU in a global world“). So far so good. But what about the effects of such threats / hopes on the supply chain?
Interestingly, using the idea of globalisation seems to lead away from it. We’ve seen the trends towards local production in food supply chains, even fashion - time to take them seriously and study localisation once again. Localisation has been studied from the perspective of market adaptation / customisation (for standards see LISA, for practitioner certificates TILP, for research e.g. the Localisation Research Centre), even leading to new concepts such as postponement for mass customisation - and from the perspective of another spillover, that of knowledge.
Concerning the trickle down effect, it is of interest which effects e.g. carbon management has on the supply chain, i.e. towards the choice of local suppliers and products (which we have seen in food supply chains and even fashion). It echoes local employment policies - but underestimates the interdependence of markets through supply chains. Geographical and employment issues aside, time to study the impact of such policies on supply chain design.
Gyöngyi
Categories: Supply Chain Management
Logistics research takes many forms, but now a different type of conference invitation landed in my mailbox: one to a “military logistics symposium“. It’s in fact a research convention that’s organised by the Nordic Defence Logistic Research Network and takes place during Dec 4/5 in Stockholm. What makes it particularly interesting is that this research network is quite engaged in humanitarian logistics, and CIMIC research at the same time. Not to forget the traditional defence logistics topics that will come up as well.
Interested? Contact Per Skoglund [firstname.lastname@ihh.hj.se] or Michael Dorn [firstname.lastname@fhs.se] for more info. And don’t forget to send in an abstract by June 25, 2008!
Gyöngyi
Categories: Call for papers · Conferences · Humanitarian supply chains · Logistics · Supply Chain Management
After receiving it twice within a week, it’s time to have a look at Patrik Jonsson’s new textbook on, as it says, Logistics and Supply Chain Management. As a completely new book it has the advantage of working in SCM thoroughly through all of it - as opposed to 7th editions of other books… Patrik managed to avoid the logistics functions trap, i.e. has chapters on “the material flow” instead of treating each function separately. Well done. Most of the mini-cases in the book are European ones (including many Nordic ones, for all of those who talk about “going to Europe” when crossing the Baltic Sea or the North Sea 
), not surprisingly, McGraw-Hill also positioned the book for the European market.
Gyöngyi
PS. A pity it’s written in English, though - I’m hunting for a good book in Swedish for our basic course…
Categories: Academic publications · Book review · Education & Management Development · Logistics · Supply Chain Management
