Kari Tanskanen

VMI: What are you losing if you let your customer place orders?

Managing the order-delivery processes between organizations is a key issue in supply chain management. Despite the increasing application of just-in-time (JIT), lean and agile practices and new information systems that increase the visibility in supply chains, a lot of problems still remain. Surveys among European companies indicate that no signifi cant improvements have taken place in delivery performance during last decade. Vendor managed inventory (VMI) is a recent alternative for the order-delivery process. The fundamental change is that the ordering phase of the process is abolished, and the supplier is given both authority and responsibility to take care of the entire replenishment process. Despite of its advantages VMI has not yet become a standard mode of operation in companies. In this paper the benefits of VMI are analyzed from the viewpoint of managing the replenishment process of the entire product range, not the viewpoint of a single stock keeping unit. A time-based analysis method is developed for measuring the benefits of VMI in different situations. The hypothesis explored that by taking the whole product range viewpoint the advantages of VMI are more readily identified. The hypothesis is tested by using real-life demand data from three different grocery supply chains.

How logistics‐service providers can develop value‐added services for SMEs : a dyadic perspective

Purpose – This work aims to combine the perspectives of logistics‐service providers (LSPs) and small and medium‐sized enterprises (SME) in the development of value‐added logistics services. The purpose was to create a theory‐based and initially tested framework that could help both service providers and SMEs identify new opportunities for developing their logistics.Design/methodology/approach – The research followed design‐science methodology and was carried out via semi‐structured interviews within the case company (a large Finnish LSP), its customers, and experts from the area of logistics services. Data on companies offering value‐added logistics services were also used in the research. The focus of the research was on advanced value‐added logistics services.Findings – The paper presents a framework for categorizing logistics services for SMEs and proposes new logistics‐service models for SME customers. Altogether, three service models are proposed to bridge the gap between LSP and SME customers. In pa...

Designing interorganizational information systems for supply chain integration: A framework

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to increase understanding on the essential managerial and technical decisions in the design of IOIS for supply chain integration (SCI). Toward this end, the authors elaborate on IOIS constructs in the SCI context, and propose a framework on the design of IOIS for SCI based on the current literature. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws from prior literature on interorganizational information systems (IOISs) and supply chain management (SCM), and builds a conceptual framework that is illustrated by empirical examples from three case studies of a ten-year research program that focussed on e-business in SCM. Findings – Based on prior literature from several domains, the authors propose a framework, which combines the managerial viewpoints and the technical viewpoints for designing IOIS for SCI. The authors argue that these decisions form the basis for constructing three main elements of the IOIS for SCI design theory, namely, purpose and scope, design principle...

A Dyadic Study of Control in Buyer-Supplier Relationships

Control of supply chains has been discussed in supply chain literature from various viewpoints. While previous studies have generally examined only buyer’s perspectives of control, we expand on such previous research by comparing both the buyer’s and supplier’s views. In this paper our objective is to analyze why the control is distributed in a certain way in the buyer-supplier relationship, and how does the distribution of control affect the buyer-supplier relationship. We categorize the explanations for the distribution of control. We argue that control in the buyer-supplier relationship might look different from buyer’s and suppliers’ perspectives. We used a multiple case study methodology with six dyadic buyer-supplier relationships and conducted 43 interviews.