The focus of operations planning and control for manufacturing firms has expanded successively over the last 50 years. New principles, techniques, and systems have emerged that have allowed for new ...approaches. The perspective for planning and control has expanded from internal production operations to supply chain operations linking suppliers, manufacturers, and customers. In this paper, we take a historical perspective identifying the key trends and focus shifts in the evolution of planning and control, from shop floor control through material requirements planning (MRP), master production scheduling (MPS), and sales and operations planning (S&OP) to supply chain planning (SCP).
Supply chain integration is widely considered by both practitioners and researchers a vital contributor to supply chain performance. The two key flows in such relationships are material and ...information. Previous studies have addressed information integration and material (logistics) integration in separate studies. In this paper, we investigate the integrations of both information and material flows between supply chain partners and their effect on operational performance. Specifically, we examine the role of long-term supplier relationship as the driver of the integration. Using data from 232 Australian firms, we find that logistics integration has a significant effect on operations performance. Information technology capabilities and information sharing both have significant effects on logistics integration. Furthermore, long-term supplier relationships have both direct and indirect significant effects on performance; the indirect effect via the effect on information integration and logistics integration.
► Strategic supplier relationship has a positive effect on information integration. ► Information integration consists of information technology and information sharing. ► Increasing information integration has a positive effect on material integration. ► Material integration has a positive effect on operational performance. ► Strategic supplier relationship has direct and indirect effects on performance.
The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore antecedents associated with information sharing across multiple supply chain tiers. We conduct a Delphi study with 29 supply chain experts to ...collect qualitative and quantitative data, and identify a total of 22 factors that are grouped into six categories: information utilization, technology utilization, power structures, culture, business process, and legal. All 22 factors pose challenges to information sharing beyond the dyadic relationships, and certain factors such as trust are regarded as barriers, i.e. too difficult to resolve for implementing multi-tier information sharing. With respect to the many antecedents that are identified, the study highlights several difficulties for companies to achieve seamless information flows across multi-tier supply chains. These difficulties concern relational, behavioral, and structural issues in networks of multiple companies. For instance, there is a lack of an overarching purpose and process so that all partners work toward the same goal, and an increased number of relationships make it difficult to build strong relationships and to formalize contracts. The multiple links and exchanges also make it difficult to forecast, aggregate, and share accurate and timely information in a secure manner. This research study is one of the few that empirically explores information sharing across multi-tier supply chains and, as such, provides new insights to why the challenges may be difficult to resolve in a multi-tier setting.
The order penetration point (OPP) defines the stage in the manufacturing value chain, where a particular product is linked to a specific customer order. Different manufacturing environments such as ...make-to-stock (MTS), assemble-to-order (ATO), make-to-order (MTO) and engineer-to-order all relate to different positions of the OPP. These may be considered as product delivery strategies, having different implications for manufacturing objectives such as customer service, manufacturing efficiency and inventory investment. Furthermore, the OPP may differ between products and over time for a particular manufacturing firm. In this paper, the positioning of the OPP is treated from a strategic perspective. Market, product, and production factors are identified that affect the OPP positioning and the shifting of the OPP upstream or downstream in the manufacturing value chain. The major factors are demand volume and volatility, and the relationship between delivery and production lead times. These factors are included in a model that allows the manufacturing firm to choose the right product delivery strategy. Different manufacturing strategies must be developed for pre-OPP operations (i.e. upstream; forecast-driven) vs. post-OPP operations (i.e. downstream, customer-order-driven), since these two stages are fundamentally different. As a consequence, a manufacturing firm that has an ATO product delivery strategy must differentiate between MTS operations (upstream the OPP) and MTO operations (downstream the OPP). For example, the competitive priorities differ: price for pre-OPP operations but delivery speed and flexibility for post-OPP operations. Therefore, decision categories, such as production planning and control, and performance measurement must be designed accordingly. Guidelines are provided for this strategic choice.
Purpose - Lean and agile manufacturing are two initiatives that are used by manufacturing plant managers to improve operations capabilities. The purpose of this paper is to investigate internal and ...external factors that drive the choice of lean and agile operations capabilities and their respective impact on operational performance.Design methodology approach - Lean and agile manufacturing are each conceptualized as a second-order factor and measured through a bundle of distinct practices. The competitive intensity of industry and the competitive strategy are modeled as potential external and internal drivers, respectively, and the impact on quality, delivery, cost, and flexibility performance is analyzed using structural equations modeling. The model is tested with data from the high performance manufacturing project comprising a total of 211 plants from three industries and seven countries.Findings - The results indicate that lean and agile manufacturing differ in terms of drivers and outcomes. The choice of a cost-leadership strategy fully mediates the impact of the competitive intensity of industry as a driver of lean manufacturing, while agile manufacturing is directly affected by both internal and external drivers, i.e. a differentiation strategy as well as the competitive intensity of industry. Agile manufacturing is found to be negatively associated with a cost-leadership strategy, emphasizing the difference between lean and agile manufacturing. The major differences in performance outcomes are related to cost and flexibility, such that lean manufacturing has a significant impact on cost performance (whereas agile manufacturing has not), and that agile manufacturing has a stronger relationship with volume as well as product mix flexibility than does lean manufacturing.Research limitations implications - Cross-sectional data from three industries and seven countries are used, and it would be interesting to test this model for more industries and countries.Practical implications - The results provide insights into the factors that influence the choice of lean or agile manufacturing for improving operations, and the results that can be obtained.Originality value - To the authors' knowledge, this is the first large-scale empirical survey of leanness and agility simultaneously, using data from manufacturing firms in Europe, Asia, and North America. The model incorporates a wide perspective on factors related to lean and agile manufacturing, to be able to identify similarities and differences.
This paper is concerned with the manufacturing strategy decision-making structure in multi-plant networks, i.e. how strategic manufacturing decision-making authority is distributed between the ...network level (i.e. headquarters) and the plant level. We use survey data from 107 manufacturing plants. This research identifies three different structures: centralised at the network headquarter, decentralised to the plant and integrated between central headquarters and the plant. All decision areas follow the same pattern, i.e. full centralisation, full decentralisation or full integration. We do not find any support for that some decisions are centralised while others are decentralised. Product volume and process type are significantly associated with the choice of decision-making structure. In particular, high product volumes are associated with a centralised approach, and a low degree of process flow orientation (such as project manufacturing, job shop and flow shop) is associated with a decentralised approach. The integrated approach is associated with a combination of lower product volumes and higher degrees of flow orientation. Choosing the right decision-making structure for the product and process mix seems to lead to high levels of operational performance.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to systematically review the extant literature on the relationship between product architectures and supply chain design to identify gaps in the literature and ...identify future research opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
– This paper examines the peer-reviewed literature on product architectures and supply chain written in English. The search strategy is based on selected databases and keywords. In total, 56 articles from 1995 to 2013 were identified.
Findings
– Three key dimensions are identified for the categorization of the literature: the type of product architecture, the type of supply chain and the research methodology. Furthermore, we identify themes related to outsourcing, supplier selection, supplier relationships, distance from focal firm and alignment.
Research limitations/implications
– The present search strategy may have missed some references that are related to the area. However, as a counter-measure, we used back-tracking and forward-tracking to identify additional relevant papers. A research agenda is proposed for further research on the interaction of product architectures and supply chain design.
Originality/value
– This paper is, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the first broad review that investigates the interrelationship between product architectures and supply chain design.
Manufacturing firms with multiple product groups do not need to involve all factories in the production of all product groups. Some factories may specialize on a small set of products, while others ...participate in the manufacturing of a broader set of products. However, current theories on international manufacturing networks do not explain in detail how organizations design international manufacturing networks for different products or product groups involving different sets of factories. This research investigates 20 product group networks at five global manufacturing firms. We distinguish between three types of factories: component manufacturing factories, assembly factories, and integrated factories (having both component manufacturing and assembly). Furthermore, we identify four network types: linear, divergent, convergent, and mixed structures. These four types exhibit distinctly different characteristics in terms of key characteristics, factory roles, product types, process types, market types, sourcing, and key managerial challenges. Most networks are relatively small - on an average consisting of four factories and some contain a number of subnetworks that are self-sufficient in terms of material flow and serve separate market regions. We identify two new types of factory roles related to component manufacturing competences, which we call 'strategic feeder' and 'full lead'.
Manufacturing firms aim at improving both internal and external processes to improve the competitive advantage. Such initiatives include lean practices as well as supplier rationalization and ...integration. In this paper, we analyze these improvement initiatives and their impact on business performance. In particular, we explore potential differences between make-to-order (MTO) and make-to-stock (MTS) firms. We use data from 216 Australian manufacturing firms. We find a clear difference of improvement focus between MTO and MTS firms. MTO firms exhibit a significant impact of supplier integration on business performance, but not for lean practices and supplier rationalization. The situation is completely reversed for MTS firms, since they have significant effects for internal lean practices and supplier rationalization, but not for logistics integration with supplier. The results show that the distinction between MTO and MTS firms is important when analyzing manufacturing and supply chain improvement initiatives.
► We find a clear difference of improvement focus between make-to-order and make-to-stock firms. ► MTO firms benefit significantly from supplier integration. ► MTS firms benefit significantly from lean practices and supplier rationalization. ► If MTO versus MTS differences are not accounted for, then the wrong conclusions can be drawn. ► Customer order decoupling point is thus shown to be an important contingency variable.
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