Search results
1 – 10 of over 6000Arash Shahin, Angappa Gunasekaran, Azam Khalili and Hadi Shirouyehzad
This paper aims to propose a new approach for determining a decoupling point in leagile chain, based on Lean and agile criteria regarding market and customer demands and internal…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to propose a new approach for determining a decoupling point in leagile chain, based on Lean and agile criteria regarding market and customer demands and internal capabilities of the chain with the ultimate goal of fulfilling customer needs and increasing chain profit.
Design/methodology/approach
In the new approach, Lean and agile criteria have been defined for assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of supply chain. The efficiency and effectiveness ratios have been calculated for Lean and agile processes using input- and output-oriented Banker, Charnes and Cooper (BCC) methods, respectively. Based on the results, inefficient and ineffective units have been addressed and the decoupling point has been determined.
Findings
Findings indicate that the decoupling point can be regarded as a borderline between two strategies of Lean and agile production, and fuzzy decoupling point and lean–agile distance can provide the basis for distinguishing the two strategies.
Practical implications
Determining the decoupling point has an important role in dynamic performance of a supply chain. By the proposed approach, managers can estimate the most probable area for the decoupling point. Moreover, by appropriate determination of decoupling point, an organization can increase its public responsibility by appropriate usage of its resources and responding faster to customers’ requirements.
Originality/value
In this study, in addition to determining a decoupling point in a supply chain with the aim of increasing productivity, the subject of leagile strategy of supply chains has been developed.
Details
Keywords
Patrik Jonsson, Johan Öhlin, Hafez Shurrab, Johan Bystedt, Azam Sheikh Muhammad and Vilhelm Verendel
This study aims to explore and empirically test variables influencing material delivery schedule inaccuracies?
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore and empirically test variables influencing material delivery schedule inaccuracies?
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed-method case approach is applied. Explanatory variables are identified from the literature and explored in a qualitative analysis at an automotive original equipment manufacturer. Using logistic regression and random forest classification models, quantitative data (historical schedule transactions and internal data) enables the testing of the predictive difference of variables under various planning horizons and inaccuracy levels.
Findings
The effects on delivery schedule inaccuracies are contingent on a decoupling point, and a variable may have a combined amplifying (complexity generating) and stabilizing (complexity absorbing) moderating effect. Product complexity variables are significant regardless of the time horizon, and the item’s order life cycle is a significant variable with predictive differences that vary. Decoupling management is identified as a mechanism for generating complexity absorption capabilities contributing to delivery schedule accuracy.
Practical implications
The findings provide guidelines for exploring and finding patterns in specific variables to improve material delivery schedule inaccuracies and input into predictive forecasting models.
Originality/value
The findings contribute to explaining material delivery schedule variations, identifying potential root causes and moderators, empirically testing and validating effects and conceptualizing features that cause and moderate inaccuracies in relation to decoupling management and complexity theory literature?
Details
Keywords
Rachel Mason‐Jones, Ben Naylor and Denis R. Towill
Notes the importance of new internal supply chains being properly interfaced with the marketplace. Suggests that the appropriate way forward is to design and implement a “leagile…
Abstract
Notes the importance of new internal supply chains being properly interfaced with the marketplace. Suggests that the appropriate way forward is to design and implement a “leagile supply chain”. Whereas leanness may be achieved by eliminating non‐value added time, agility usually requires the additional reduction of value‐added time via production technology breakthroughs. Demonstrates how the “lean” and “agile” paradigms may be integrated. This requires evaluation of the total performance metric and development of a route map for integrating lean production and agile supply in the total chain. Presents results achieved in a re‐engineered real world supply chain serving the electronic products market.
Details
Keywords
Jonathan Gosling, Bill Hewlett and Mohamed M. Naim
The customer order decoupling point (CODP) concept addresses the issue of customer engagement in the manufacturing process. This has traditionally been applied to material flows…
Abstract
Purpose
The customer order decoupling point (CODP) concept addresses the issue of customer engagement in the manufacturing process. This has traditionally been applied to material flows, but has more recently been applied to engineering activities. This later subject becomes of particular importance to companies operating in “engineer-to-order” (ETO) supply chains, where each order is potentially unique. Existing conceptualisations of ETO are too generic for practical purposes, so there is a need to better understand order penetration in the context of engineering activities, especially design. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to address the question “how do customer penetration concepts apply to engineering design activities?”
Design/methodology/approach
A collaborative form of inquiry is adopted, whereby academics and practitioners co-operated to develop a conceptual framework. Within this overarching research design, a focus group of senior practitioners and multiple case studies principally from complex civil and structural engineering as well as scientific equipment projects are used to explore the framework.
Findings
The framework results in a classification of nine potential engineering subclasses, and insight is given into order penetration points, major uncertainties and enablers via the case studies. Focus group findings indicate that different managerial approaches are needed across subclasses.
Practical implications
The findings give insight for companies that engage directly with customers on a one-to-one basis, outlining the extent of customer penetration in engineering activities, associated operational strategies and choices regarding the co-creation of products with customers. Care should be taken in generalising beyond the sectors addressed in the study.
Originality/value
The paper refines the definition of the ETO concept, and gives a more complete understanding of customer penetration concepts. It provides a comprehensive reconceptualization of the ETO category, supported by exploratory empirical research.
Details
Keywords
Joakim Wikner, Jenny Bäckstrand and Eva Johansson
The integration of supply chains together with the disintegration of individual actors in the supply chain shifts the focus from actors to challenges in the interaction between…
Abstract
Purpose
The integration of supply chains together with the disintegration of individual actors in the supply chain shifts the focus from actors to challenges in the interaction between actors. This paper aims to identify risk strategies for different supplier interactions in triadic configurations to outline supply strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
Companies participating in a research project recounted the challenges they faced regarding the integration of customer order-based management and supply from a triad perspective. Six triad configurations were identified, based on the literature, resulting in three risk strategies, which were empirically illustrated in practice by the participating companies.
Findings
A key finding is that a triad perspective for a customer-differentiated approach to supplier interaction results in a material classification that highlights the circumstances in which to apply “balance efficiency”, “postpone”, “balance responsiveness” and “speculate” supply strategies.
Research limitations/implications
The research has focused on process drivers and controllability, and the results may require careful interpretation when there is a mix of standardized and customized products because further interaction differentiation may then be required.
Practical implications
The strategies developed herein provide guidelines for differentiated supplier interaction with explicit focus on triads where customer actors directly influence supplier actors. This approach highlights how outsourcing must be carefully executed when supplier actors are involved in delivery to customer orders.
Originality/value
The paper sheds new light on how customer requirements impact supplier interaction in terms of decoupling points related to both delivery strategy and control strategy. The study also presents a novel application of the Kraljic matrix in in terms of risk strategies in different triad configurations.
Details
Keywords
Liliyana Makarova Jørsfeldt, Hans-Henrik Hvolby and Vivi Thuy Nguyen
The purpose of the study is to develop an in-depth understanding of how supplier–buyer relationships, particularly in operational coordination, are affected when a company…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study is to develop an in-depth understanding of how supplier–buyer relationships, particularly in operational coordination, are affected when a company introduces an environmental sustainability target (CO2 emissions reduction) into its supply chain operations. The investigation focuses on the joint activities of the logistics function of the company (buyer) and the third-party logistics providers (3PLs) (suppliers).
Design/methodology/approach
This single-case study takes the perspective of a sustainability-conscious Danish company that outsources logistics services to 3PLs but maintains internal logistics as a boundary function. The value offering point/order penetration point (VOP/OPP) methodology is used.
Findings
The results showed that the introduction of sustainability led to the emergence of multiple decoupling points in both the demand and the supply chains. The logistics function therefore began to play the role of “integrator” across both the functions in the company and the organizations in the supply chain. The findings indicate the need to develop clear cross-functional and inter-organizational coordination mechanisms.
Research limitations/implications
This is a single-case study in a Danish context.
Practical implications
The study provides rich insights into managing the implementation of sustainability in supply chain operations, and it exemplifies how the VOP/OPP tool can be applied by 3PLs to develop sustainable offerings.
Originality/value
The current research on sustainable supply chain management takes into account the entire supply chain. In contrast, this study focuses on the logistics function. The VOP/OPP concept is used to capture the processes used in actual practice, and both the buyer and the supplier are considered potential co-producers of value.
Details
Keywords
Fariborz Rahimnia and Mahdi Moghadasian
This paper aims to show how leagility can be applied in professional services, especially hospitals.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to show how leagility can be applied in professional services, especially hospitals.
Design/methodology/approach
The case study approach was used to consider the concept of leagility in professional services. Therefore, it studies a specialized hospital in Iran as a professional service provider.
Findings
The specific condition of the patients forces the hospital to be highly agile and at the same time it can benefit from lean strategies. By grouping healthcare services into three pipelines, it identifies decoupling points for the supply chain. It also argues that while discussing leagility in a professional service organization, the important role of human resources should be highlighted.
Research limitations/implications
The paper considers leagility in a specialized hospital. There is a need to discuss this concept in generalized hospitals with multiple pipelines. It is also limited because it considers one specialized hospital, thus the results of this research cannot be generalized to other specialized hospitals.
Originality/value
Leagility in professional services is something rarely dealt with in the literature. Thus, this research expands on the concept of leagility in professional service, particularly in hospitals, and the paper fills this gap in the literature which could be further explored.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this study is to convey lessons learned from a long-term research project and present a coherent approach for researching relevant areas, ranging from ontology to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to convey lessons learned from a long-term research project and present a coherent approach for researching relevant areas, ranging from ontology to quality.
Design/methodology/approach
A PhD process is used as a case to present conceptual ideas on performing research in logistics/supply chain management (SCM).
Findings
The research integrates different views on knowledge and the world and how to perform research in logistics/SCM. Models explaining micro and macro abduction, and the relationship between research, the context and researcher subjectivity are suggested.
Research limitations/implications
Knowledge on why and how critical realism can be used in logistics/SCM research is advanced. Abduction is presented as a micro/macro process, which should not have any specific “finish line”, and is supported with both ontological and epistemological arguments.
Practical implications
Research in logistics/SCM can be improved by connecting different aspects of viewing and creating knowledge. Reflecting on how exactly a publication is related to a project, researchers can better describe how they contribute to knowledge creation, and also understand the relationship between micro and macro abduction.
Originality/value
Through presenting an approach to knowledge creation in the context of a PhD thesis, this research distinguishes itself in a field with a growing need to define its own views of the world and of knowledge. The paper advances current understanding of knowledge creation in logistics/SCM, expanding on earlier models and presenting a broader view of the research process and the associated dilemmas. The paper also contains novel considerations of the differences between publication types and how these affect the presentation of the research.
Details
Keywords
Joakim Wikner and Martin Rudberg
Traditionally the customer order decoupling point (CODP) has focused mainly on the separation of production performed on speculation from commitment to customer orders…
Abstract
Purpose
Traditionally the customer order decoupling point (CODP) has focused mainly on the separation of production performed on speculation from commitment to customer orders. Engineering has, with few exceptions in this context, simply been viewed as occurring before production activities in a sequential manner. As competition increases, customer requirements for short lead‐times in combination with customisations requires further integration of processes involving both engineering and production activities making the traditional view of the CODP insufficient in these cases. The purpose of this paper is thus to provide a more general approach to enterprise integration of cross‐functional processes in order to extend the applicability of the CODP as a logistics oriented concept.
Design/methodology/approach
We use evolutionary approach to define the CODP as a two‐dimensional concept based on the integration of engineering and production.
Findings
The extended CODP captures the complexity in terms of possible configurations, but also provides a framework for the issues that must be handled when positioning the CODP in terms of both engineering and production simultaneously.
Practical implications
The two‐dimensional CODP is an important extension to make the theory better reflect reality and hence increase the scope and acceptance of both the concept CODP per se, and the analysis based on the CODP.
Originality/value
By the introduction of a new two‐dimensional approach, a more comprehensive CODP typology is defined. We also provide a classification of customer order influence based on a combined engineering and production perspective where the efficient CODPs constitute a set providing the highest level of customer value in terms of engineering adaptations.
Details
Keywords
Fariborz Rahimnia, Mahdi Moghadasian and Pavel Castka
The purpose of this paper is to investigate and highlight that the application of leagility can be possible in mass services as one type of services.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate and highlight that the application of leagility can be possible in mass services as one type of services.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper describes a case study and considers the concept of the leagility in a mass service organization. By highlighting some of the characteristics of mass services, it examines whether or not this concept can be applicable in the context of mass services.
Findings
Despite the low customization in mass services, fast food restaurants have faced changing needs of the customers. To respond to these demands, the case study organization can adopt new strategies so that it could be able to serve the customer with short lead times, low costs and high variety.
Research limitations/implications
This paper considers leagility in a single mass service. Hence, in order to provide robust results in this type of services, more cases should be studied. It is also necessary to study leagility in other types of services that is, professional services and service shops.
Originality/value
Despite the importance of mass services in today's life, research have focused on the application of operations management's concepts in manufacturing sector. This paper has proposed the possibility of applying the leagility concept in a case study organization to show that mass services can benefit from the advantages of both lean and agile paradigms.
Details