Companies engage in several business relationships ranging from arm’s length to close relationships based on trust and commitment. Several companies have recognized that their supply chain capabilities give them a competitive edge for delivering what customers want. However, often customers are not a homogeneous group requiring the same physical products and services. From a manufacturer’s …
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the issues pertinent to sourcing internationally from low-cost countries (LCCs) and to understand which issues are associated most strongly with a firm’s logistics performance.
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to develop a typology of co-located supplier clusters, such as logistics centres or supplier parks, and second, to evaluate the theoretical perspectives at hand to investigate the co-location phenomenon.
The paper seeks to ascertain some of the implications of the supply chain configuration for important elements of the chain's management at an automaker using the industrial condominium configuration.
The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into commonalities and differences of service innovation across industries. The compared sectors are logistics service providers and IT service providers (SPs).
Shows how the lean and agile paradigms may be selected according to marketplace requirements. These are distinctly different, since in the first case the market winner is cost, whereas in the second case the market winner is availability. Agile supply chains are required to be market sensitive and hence nimble. This means that the definition of waste is different from that appropriate to lean s…
Logistics is considered to have a significant impact on a manufacturing organization's performance. This research utilizes a pilot study, a large‐scale survey of manufacturing managers, and linear structural relations (LISREL). The research methods develop measures and test relationships among six constructs: physical supply, physical distribution, logistics spanning processes, customer servi…
Examines the interorganizational alliance of a buyer and supplier with the expressed objective of improving the quality of existing purchased parts. Supplier quality can be improved through the implementation of various programmes such as statistical process control (SPC). Supplier quality improvement is viewed as two‐dimensional; there may be improvement owing to the modification of product …
In today’s competitive environment, companies are paying more attention to product innovations, customized products, manufacturing agility, and lean operations. To support this mode of operations, companies are moving from highly vertically integrated organizations to leaner core business units supported by supplier networks. While partnership companies and their suppliers could take a vari…
Industry in general, and Swedish private companies in particular, are working today within increasing environmental considerations. Environmental strategies, policies, and work programmes in varying forms are necessary in a market which increasingly focuses on environmental factors. An environmental process must include a product’s full life‐cycle, its supply, production, use and waste ha…
This research paper proposes that the conduct of supplier relationships can be improved through a “self-organized logistical network”.
Management approaches, such as supply chain management addressing cooperation among firms emphasize communication among people from different companies. The objective of this research was to investigate the impact of individual and contextual factors on the external communication behavior of purchasing managers in Germany.
The purpose of this paper is to further advance an existing supplier evaluation model for the purpose of identifying those supplier relations which predominantly threaten or worsen a company’s performance. A defined basic set of parameters to determine complexity facilitates the identification of critical locations within a supply network (SN) under certain business conditions.
There has been a logistics transformation in British grocery retailing during the last 30 years. Initially, the transformation was revolutionary as retailers gained control over the supply chain, but more recently change was evolutionary as efficiency improvements were enacted. Another step change in managing the retail supply chain is envisaged as established networks are being modified to a…
An efficient supplier management is of central importance for successful supply chain management. It begins with the identification of potential suppliers and leads to the controlling of the supplier-buyer-connection. This paper aims to design a new supplier-rating system that fits the practical needs of supplier rating and supports many other steps of the suppliers management process.
The competitive business environment in the automotive industry has forced vehicle manufacturers (VMs) to improve their relationship strategies towards their suppliers. VMs have implemented supplier segmentation in order to optimise current business activities and existing resource allocations. Supplier selection criteria have also become crucial in order to achieve an appropriate evaluation of…
In the German automotive industry the supplier park concept is one of the new concepts in procurement logistics, evolved in the last years. To understand the spreading of supplier parks, it is necessary to look at actual requirements in procurement logistics in the German automotive industry and find out how supplier parks can be an answer to those requirements. For this purpose it is necessary…
The purpose of this paper is to measure trust that logistics/supply chain management (SCM) managers of supplier firms perceive toward inbound SCM managers of buyer firms, and investigate the effect of trust on supply chain collaboration and logistics efficiency. In doing so, two trust forms are introduced: affective trust and trust in competency. Besides, supply chain collaboration includes the…
Although barriers to free trade across the European Union (EU) have been dismantled since the Single European Act was signed, some still remain which are likely to hinder UK distribution operators’ strategic developments in Europe. Regrouping and consolidation of the larger distribution operators are under way. UK distribution operators have moved towards closer integration of Continental Eur…