Collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment (CPFR) is one of the most important but also one of the most difficult collaborative strategies in supply chain management. CPFR has been well documented in past research as providing significant benefit to those that implement it well. It has also been noted that CPFR uptake has been significantly lower than initially expected. The main reason for this slow uptake is the general recognition that successful implementation of CPFR is not a trivial task and the fact that it inflicts dramatic changes to the ‘usual’ way of doing business. Based on the premise that CPFR has significant positive potential for supply chain collaboration, the motivation of this paper is to review CPFR enablers and to develop a model which addresses the most significant ones. To complete this task, a hybrid modelling approach integrating fuzzy extended analytical hierarchy process and interpretive structural modelling is proposed. The model developed is based on an identified g...

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A hybrid approach to the study of CPFR implementation enablers

: The operational availability of any equipment depends on its supply chain. In a tactical environment, logistics are complex and dynamic. If the elements of a supply chain are poorly integrated, supply can be unstable and inefficient. This study uses systems theory to understand how collaboration on logistics information affects the supply chains among companies and military organizations in a tactical operating environment. The paper reviews the literature and designs an experimentation campaign to address the suggested hypothesis. The experiment seeks to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the elements of a supply chain to increase the readiness of equipment in an operating environment.

Supply chain collaboration: information sharing in a tactical operating environment

Automotive industry has one of the most complex supply chain operations. To efficiently manage an automotive supply chain, information technology (IT) is the most crucial part in supporting the whole operations. Over the last few decades, Electronics Data Interchange (EDI) has been used in the automotive industry to exchange information between business partners. However, the technology is used mainly by multinational companies, while small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have not been able to enjoy the benefits of EDI. One of the main reasons for this is the cost and the complexity of the EDI system. Since, 1998, ebXML, an XML-based standard for information exchange between trading partners in e-business environment, was created with supports from the United Nations. Over the past decade, the adoption of ebXML by industries has grown steadily. Several governments in Asia have formal programs to support the adoption of ebXML standard by local SMEs. It is perceived that ebXML standard can bring local SMEs to be able to integrate seamlessly with global supply chain. This study examines the case of ebXML adoption by companies in automotive industry in Thailand. The automotive industry is the second largest contributor to Thailand's GDP with hundreds of local companies taking different parts of the industrys supply chain. The government strategically supports the adoption of information standard such as ebXML by the local SMEs with an aim to improve the way local SMEs in automotive industry manage the supply chain and thus increase their competitiveness overall.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/5594059/5602021/05602156.pdf

The strategic adoption of information standard to increase competitiveness in the automotive industry in Thailand

The automotive industry is like other globalization industries facing the challenges from the market maturity and high customer awareness. The vehicle makers in original equipment manufacturing environment are especially bottlenecked after World Trade Organization, a.k.a. WTO is getting more government agreements. Vehicle assembly thus becomes complex, more then 10 thousands parts are put into one vehicle, which results in the high inter-influence between the members in the supply chain. Therefore, the vehicle assemblers or vehicle makers would target for greater integration of their supply chains for cost-down and market share. To exchange messages in automotive industry more efficiently, governments or industrial organizations have adopted message platforms, such as Covisintreg in North America, eSumtechreg in Korea and Taiwan Automotive Network Exchange System., a.ka. TANXreg. Covisintreg, which has GM, DamilerChrysler, Ford, Nissan and Mitsubishi as the center factories, now operates in 96 countries and has 30,000 company members. eSumtechreg in Korea has Hyundai, DAEWOO and Saang Yong as the center factories. In Taiwan, TANXreg has Taiwan Nissan, China Motor (Mitsubishi), Taiwan Sang Yang and Motor Power as the center factories. Unknown to most industrial practitioners, the construction of the collaborative model is crucial in the business process efficiency. Specifically, such efficiency refers to the processes of business communication. However, the abovementioned message platforms are merely assistant tools which can, to some limited extent, enhance the efficiency of business processes. Therefore, the efficient automobile manufacturing should depend on the collaborative model. This research applies the "lean production" concept to explicate the inadequacies of the current applied information exchange technique. In addition, the development of future automotive industrial information exchange platform from the perspective of Taiwan TANXreg with the background of original equipment manufacturing environment is proposed. And the professional collaboration in automotive industry supply chain is analyzed here. We also argue that without reengineering the complexity of inter-business operation model by using information technology but adopting information technology on the current process, the expected result for enhancing the entire industry efficiency would not reveal. The research would propose the concepts and methods on strengthening the application of industrial information exchange platform by reengineering the supply chain business model, and eventually bringing a synergy of the entire supply chain.

Jeng-Bang Wang

Papers

The Research on Electronically Collaborative Model in Automotive Industry Supply Chain