An empirical study of 57 top‐tier suppliers to the North American automotive industry examined the direct and complementary effects of information system infrastructure (ISI) and process improvements on time‐based performance. The results show that the three dimensions of ISI – design‐manufacturing integration (DMI), manufacturing technology (MT), and information technology (IT) – directly influenced at least one dimension of time‐based performance. For example, DMI influenced manufacturing lead time, MT influenced new product development time, and IT influenced customer responsiveness. Process improvement also directly influenced supply‐chain time performance. Finally, ISI and process improvement had a positive and complementary effect on time‐based performance. Specifically, the IT factor along with process improvement variables (standardization and concurrent engineering) had a complementary and significant positive influence on time‐based performance. The findings strongly support the idea of joint deployment of information system infrastructure and process improvement to streamline cycle time performance in a supply chain.

The effects of information system infrastructure and process improvements on supply‐chain time performance

The results of a major international survey into the relationship between corporate strategy, supply chain strategy and supply chain performance management are reported. Five clearly defined groups are identified: Supply Chain Leaders, Strong and Weak Players, Lagging Players and Non-players. Those business units that report a close link between their supply chain strategy and their supply chain technology, in comparison with those that report a weaker link, displayed a consistent set of characteristics. They rate supply chain strategy as more important for corporate strategy. They have a relatively sophisticated definition of their supply chain strategy. They think their supply chain is more important in achieving competitive advantage, they have invested more in supply chain infrastructure and IT support and they have more formal means of assessing their supply chain performance. There is evidence of inconsistency in the way many businesses relate their supply chain, corporate, and investment strategy.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/822892.pdf

The role of coherent supply chain strategy and performance management in achieving competitive advantage: an international survey

SUMMARY

Supply chain management seeks to enhance competitive performance by closely integrating the internal functions within a company and effectively linking them with the external operations of suppliers and channel members. This study was undertaken to study the impact of supply chain management on overall organizational effectiveness and to identify problems that affect supply chain management success. The results show that organizations generally considered themselves successful at managing their supply chains. However, while they have achieved significant improvement in organizational performance, they have not reached the order of magnitude of improvements ascribed to supply chain management.

The Perceived Impact of Supply Chain Management on Organizational Effectiveness

Managing a supply chain to meet an organization's objectives is a challenge to many firms. It involves collaboration in multiple dimensions, such as cooperation, information sharing, and capacity planning. In this research, we focus on identifying the ‘best’ operating conditions for a supply chain. We propose a hybrid approach that incorporates simulation, Taguchi techniques, and response surface methodology to examine the interactions among the factors, and to search for the combination of factor levels throughout the supply chain to achieve the ‘optimal’ performance. This study makes it possible for firms to understand the dynamic relations among various factors, and provides guidelines for management to minimize the impact of demand uncertainty on the performance of the supply chain. The results help the manufacturer determine the proper plant capacity and adopt the right level of delayed differentiation strategy for its products. We also quantify the potential gains of cooperation among different memb...

Operational design of a supply chain system using the Taguchi method, response surface methodology, simulation, and optimization

The e-integration dilemma: The linkages between Internet technology application, trading partner relationships and structural change

For most of the twentieth century, organisations in both the private and public sectors have adopted a functional structure, segmenting their work practices and decision processes into discrete compartments in the form of departments, divisions or groups. Not surprisingly, the information-processing infrastructure, which has been developed to support these functions, is typically composed of applications subsystems, which may be reasonably efficient in themselves but are frequently difficult to link together. Today, this legacy of discrete applications systems poses a challenge to any organisation trying to adopt a more integrated approach to its decision-making processes. Management thinking has highlighted the deficiencies of the traditional highly specialist structures, and offered alternative paradigms and models, but the practical guidance which has been offered concerning the replacement of legacy systems has been sometimes contradictory and appears to have been at best ineffective and at worst damaging to the companies adopting it. In order to gain further insight into this issue, it is appropriate to study the experiences of practitioners of "Supply Chain Management" (SCM). Having abandoned a traditionalist and functionally orientated approach to "Distribution and Warehouse Management", many companies have now taken a systems based view of their physical distribution networks. Seeing "Logistics" as a networked mega-function has led to significant performance improvements, without the need for major information systems replacement. Furthermore, a few practitioners have now gone even further and have adopted a consciously process oriented approach to logistics, following a "Supply Chain Management" approach. There is emerging evidence that this can lead to further significant improvements in performance, once again without recourse to wholesale revision of information systems. The case of Xerox's "Customer Supply Assurance Managers" (CSAMs) provides grounds for optimism. There is at least initial evidence that radically different business processes can be introduced into a well-established company without the delays and dangers associated with major disruption to its legacy systems. Indeed, it is possible that the adoption of a Business Process Management (BPM) approach, combined with the use of existing information processing techniques to interrogate and surround the legacy systems may prove to be the most acceptable solution to the legacy systems problem. The underlying but emerging lesson would appear to be that for many organisations the key to greater effectiveness may be producing better informed people, empowered to make wider ranging decisions, rather than producing technically more sophisticated information systems.

Frederick Hewitt

Papers

Information technology mediated Business Process Management - lessons from the supply chain