No, this is not about women and leadership, but yes about links between skills, gender, and logistics performance – a comparative survey of logisticians and their managers in three fields: business logistics, humanitarian logistics, and military logistics. Click here to fill in the survey – and send the link to your colleagues in the field!
Gyöngyi
PS. Here’s the link to be sent out: http://www.webropol.com/P.aspx?id=276853&cid=55080033
Categories: Humanitarian supply chains · Logistics · Operations management · Research & Methodology · Supply Chain Management · humanitarian · supply chain
Here at Interorganisational we appreciate good questions just as much as good answers.
Two questions are emerging in the current economic climate:
How will the downturn shape strategies and structures of operations that are managed in the context of inter-organisational relationships?
SCM is frequently explained with a reference to its attributes that relate to performance and growth. Take a look at some of the populare texbook – they all promise improved customer service and reduced costs.
Will the explanatory power (e.g. relevance, problem solving capacity) of SCM change as the industrial context is now shaped by downturn rather than growth?
Árni
Categories: Supply Chain Management · supply chain
Chain, lean, agile, power…are few but many metaphors in SCM, that contribute to clarity and confusion.
Few months ago I took on a project that implied more change management than I’d ever expected. I contacted a colleague for an advice, who liased with an independent supply chain scholar from Northern Minnesota. Following was suggested:
In program/project design and re-design work I have stumbled upon an effective technique to “change the rules.”
When someone mumbles: “No, that can’t be done, it will never work;” tilt your head back slowly and then laugh loudly.
After a pause, look at your watch and say: “my conference call to Kiev is scheduled to start in 5 minutes;” then turn quickly and walk away.
Kiev is calling several times a week.
A further development of this is the Thelma & Louise approach to change in organisations. In stead of champions and change agens…you need a Thelma and a Louise (and a Brad Pitt?).
Árni
Categories: Socks and sandals · supply chain
For managers who want to have a quick insight or update into “contemporary issues in supply chain management”, here you find a number of Executive Briefings at the Manchester Business School (UK) homepage.
Árni
Categories: Supply Chain Management · supply chain
SCM
Danish: Ledelse af forsyningskæder or styring af forsyningskæder
Icelandic: Stjórnun aðfangakeðjunnar
Supply chain
Finnish: Toimitusketju
Swedish: försörjningskedja
Russian: цепочка поставок/ сеть поставщиков; cepochka postavok/ set’ postavshikov
We still don’t have podcast here on Interorganisational, but Dog House Boogie may add the appropriate tones to these concepts. If Seasick Steve is too loud, try Richard Hawley. 
Árni
Edited: Title of this entry was changed from SCM in Danish and Icelandic to SCM in various languages. Thanks to Gyöngyi for comments.
Categories: Socks and sandals · Supply Chain Management · supply chain
It is not uncommon to see large business schools being organised around institutes or departments; accounting, marketing, logistics, organisation, economics.
This translates into program taught in subject specific areas; a master in marketing, accounting, logistics, for example.
Process thinking and the problem of functional silos have been of great for concerns for companies, resulting in sub-optimisation rather than holistics thinking.
Bowersox hinted strongly at this in his paper from 1969, cf. this entry. The popularity of Business Process Re-engineering in the early 1990s had influence on logistics scholars. Take for example the papers of Cooper et al. (1997) and Lambert et al. (1998) published in International Journal of Logisitcs Management; the proposed model is much influenced by process thinking, and has probably gained attention due to it’s use of ‘processes’ as unit of analysis.
Back to business schools and their curriculum: Will their departmental structure and curriculum be urged to change in similar form and pace as businesses?
Arni
Categories: Socks and sandals · Supply Chain Management · supply chain
In this entry on Academic Journals and Functional Silos, I hinted at the idea that academic journals are centred traditional business functions such as operations, marketing, logistics, and purchasing.
Does this translate into a ‘functional silo’ thinking among academics and/or practitioners? That is, does this reproduce the ‘individual organisation’ as level of analysis rather than break out into other levels of analysis, such as teh the dyad, a set of three or more companies (a.k.a. supply chains), or a comprehensive network of companies?
Extending the level of analysis does not come without confusion. The term ’supply chain’ is often used to denote a variety of situations related to the boundaries of the firm; supply chain performance measurement, supply chain innovation, supply chain relationships, and improving the supply chain. The danger is that the label of ’supply chain’ is used to situations of everthing from relationships in dyads to comprehensive networks.
Take the concept of supply chain performance as an example; where does it start, and where does it end? Who should measure the performance? And what supply chain should be measured?
Adding supply chain to concepts such as management, performance, impact, competition, and improvement does not come without challenge.
Árni
Categories: Supply Chain Management · Theory · supply chain
Radiohead is giving their new album away by allowing free download (+ admin fee) from their website.
Prince gave away his new album in July this year with the newspaper The Mail on Sunday.
And from music to books that are of interest for a number of SCM scholars:
von Hippel’s Democratizing Innovation from 2005 can also be downloaded here in a .pdf form, or alternatively bought at Amazon.
Going Backwards: Reverse Logistics Trends and Practices by Dale Rogers and Ronald Tibben-Lembke is also available in a .pdf format.
Wonder when (or perhaps there already are?) MP3 players or mobile phones allow you to read pieces of a book in a suitable format (including notetaking)?
Product development, where art thou?
Árni
Categories: Innovation · Product development · supply chain
The presentation program PowerPoint has had a great impact on the way we present ideas and as well as supporting evidence for our claims. The problem is that sometimes these ideas are — intentionally or unintentionally — presented as an existing practice.
Take the phrase “supply chains”, for example. Supply Chains are frequently depicted in PowerPoint presentations in a linear format with the focal company in the middle. In todays version of PowerPoint, a colorful representation of supply chains takes only few clicks. Microsoft Office ‘95 and Office ‘97 were launched during a period of time where supply chain management also started to become a widespread phrase.
Is there a relationship between the development of PowerPoint and the use of “supply chain” to explain business practices?
Árni
Categories: Supply Chain Management · Theory · supply chain
