Andrea Vinelli

Quality management in a supply chain perspective

Supply chain management (SCM) is conceived by academics and practitioners as either an extension of logistics or an all‐encompassing approach to business integration. From the authors’ point of view, SCM involves not only logistic activities but also other processes such as quality management. This paper seeks to understand how quality can be managed using a supply chain perspective and what the operative and strategic consequences are for both the individual companies and the whole supply network. It reports a case study conducted on Marzotto, an important Italian textile and apparel company, and its supply chain relationships. The study compares the quality practices in the two different kinds of supply network of which Marzotto is the focal firm. One is managed using a traditional customer‐supplier approach and the other a broader and more co‐ordinated perspective. In the latter case, it was found that the whole supply network could improve its ability to meet the expectations of the final consumer in terms of quality through the joint definition and co‐management of quality practices/procedures.

A framework for analysing business performance, firm innovation and related contextual factors: perceptions of managers and policy makers in two European regions

The aim of this paper is to propose a novel reference framework that can be used to study how different kinds of innovation can result in better business performance and how external factors can influence both the firm’s capacity to innovate and innovation itself. The value of the framework is demonstrated as it is applied in an exploratory study of the perceptions of public policy makers and managers from two European regions – the Veneto Region in Italy and the East of England in the UK. Amongst other things, the data gathered suggest that managers are generally less convinced than public policy makers, that the innovativeness of a firm is affected by factors over which policy makers have some control. This finding poses the question “what, if any, role can public policy makers play in enhancing a company’s competitiveness by enabling it to become more innovative?”

Complementarity and lean manufacturing bundles: an empirical analysis

Purpose – The paper aims to test and validate the complementarity effects on operational performance of two of the main lean manufacturing bundles, just‐in‐time (JIT) and total quality management (TQM). The paper also explores the role played by the human resource management (HRM) bundle as an enhancer of the complementarity between JIT and TQM.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on statistical analysis on the high performance manufacturing round III database, a survey that involves 266 plants in nine countries across three different industries (electronics, machinery and transportation components).Findings – The paper proves the existence of complementarity between JIT and TQM and shows the enabling role of HRM on such complementarity.Research limitations/implications – The paper provides analytical and empirical argumentations showing that JIT and TQM mutually reinforce each others marginal returns on operational performance. The study also indicates that only those plants characterized by...

Quick response in the textile‐apparel industry and the support of information technologies

Underlines the importance of quick response strategy in the textile‐apparel industry chain and presents some considerations concerning the organizational, management and technological conditions necessary for its achievement. Provides examples of the utilization of telecommunications in the textile‐apparel industry, and highlights what changes have been made and the advantages gained. Analyses the role played by information technology in the interaction between the actors in the chain. Examines the conditions and elements which make quick response possible in the chain. Concludes that quick response is a time‐based strategy which requires greater collaboration along the whole textile‐apparel chain.

Time compression in production and distribution within the textile‐apparel chain

This paper offers a framework in order to examine the temporal sequences of the activities and decisions of the textile apparel chain and to present the prospects for improvement initiatives throughout the various production and distribution chain phases, whether in terms of technology or of organisation and management. This paper focuses on the methods, techniques and approaches that could be adopted throughout the entire chain in order to obtain a set of coherent improvements to achieve quick response (QR). The fundamental improvement stages are considered to be: reduction of lead times in supplying fabric; reduction of lead times in producing a garment; and innovative relationships with the distributors. The structural and infrastructural changes required for a QR approach are also analysed, and the need for a systemic view of the chain is highlighted.

Sequences of improvement in supply networks: case studies from the pharmaceutical industry

Purpose – The aim of the current study is to develop an understanding of the decisional process that leads a company, at a given point in time, to choose the subsequent supply chain management (SCM) initiative to be implemented.Design/methodology/approach – This research adopts the descriptive case study research design, as defined by Yin and McCutcheon and Meredith. Four supply networks, whose central firms are leading pharmaceutical companies, have been investigated.Findings – At a given time when deciding the SCM initiative(s) to be implemented, external fit and the state of supply network configuration and integration are both important, but for different reasons. In particular, lack of external fit triggers the implementation of SCM initiatives. Sequences of SCM initiatives are the result of a series of successive decisional situations, where the external fit and state of supply network configuration and integration vary each time a new SCM initiative is implemented.Research limitations/implications ...

Sequences of operational improvements: some empirical evidence

Looks at the improvement initiatives which companies implement in operations, in the areas of design, supply and production. A number of initiatives are considered, including design computerization, flexible automation, linkages with suppliers and JIT. In the literature these initiatives have been given different names, such as technical and organizational innovations or best manufacturing practices. Using survey data, the paper examines the question of the existence of different sequences followed by companies to innovate their operations. A sample of 125 US, Japanese and Italian companies belonging to the electronics, machinery and transport industries is analysed. On the basis of the initiative start‐up year, four different sequences have been found. They are different in terms of two dimensions: one is the type of initiatives launched at the beginning, and the other is the level of selectiveness of the companies in launching the initiatives. The sequences have been labelled Hard Full Adopters, Hard Discriminators, Soft Full Adopters and Soft Discriminators. Company characteristics, such as the country of location, and context factors such as export, and length of product life cycle have emerged as discriminating factors between the sequences.

Breathing Shoes and Complementarities: Strategic Innovation in a Mature Industry

This paper tells the story of Geox, an Italian footwear manufacturer that, in less than a decade, has become one of the worlds largest shoe manufacturers. Applying the related notions of complementarity and performance landscape to study strategic positioning in the footwear industry, we show that, though grounded on product innovation (the original Geox breathes® patented system which allows ventilation in waterproof rubber sole), Geoxs competitive advantage has not grown out of operational excellence in single activities in the business, but, rather, derives from a unique and consistent configuration of complementary activities. Such configuration represents an innovative strategic position and corresponds to a peak in the footwear industry performance landscape. The case study offers anecdotal evidence in support of complementarity based economic theory. It confirms that, in the presence of complementarities, rivals find strategy imitation and reverse engineering difficult due to the unique nature of the relationships among complementary variables.

Sustainability approaches within the fashion industry: the supplier perspective

ABSTRACT This paper explores sustainability drivers and practices within the Italian fashion industry, a challenging industry with strong impacts on sustainability. More specifically, this research aims to identify the different sustainability approaches adopted by Italian fashion suppliers in terms of the internal and external sustainability practices and drivers that trigger sustainability initiatives in relation to each approach. Based on an investigation of twelve case studies, we propose a taxonomy of these approaches by adopting the supplier perspective, a novelty in the sustainability literature. We discovered four types of approaches that we labelled: under-exploited, not-interested, collaborative and developing.

Supply chain configurations: a model to evaluate performance in customised productions

This paper describes an approach used to evaluate the performance of different supply chain configurations in customised contexts. Based on historical data collected from the supply chain of a shoe producer, different configurations are evaluated based on a discrete-event simulation by highlighting the performance of the supply chain (in terms of supply chain order lead-time and inventory volume) when the production switched from standard production (characterised by batches of large quantities of the same product) to customised production (characterised by a small of series batches with high product variability). The simulation approach relies on experimentation through executable configurations, which enables the creation of different scenarios, and is then applied to the case of an actual firm in the footwear industry. The managerial implications of these findings are discussed.