Mark Barratt

Understanding the meaning of collaboration in the supply chain

Despite its infancy, some authors are already suggesting that the writing may be on the wall for supply chain collaboration. It has been reported that supply chain collaboration has proved difficult to implement; there has been an over‐reliance on technology in trying to implement it; a failure to understand when and with whom to collaborate; and fundamentally a lack of trust between trading partners. This paper proposes that a supply chain segmentation approach, based on customer buying behaviour and service needs, is the most appropriate context for collaboration. The paper also proposes the need for a greater understanding of the elements that make up supply chain collaboration, and in particular how the relevant cultural, strategic and implementation elements inter‐relate with each other.

Positioning the Role of Collaborative Planning in Grocery Supply Chains

Supply chain integration is to a large extent still only a promise, despite considerable efforts by organizations and their customers and suppliers. Lack of visibility across the supply chain together with adversarial relationships between members are significant barriers to supply chain integration. Collaborative planning, originating from the consumer packaged goods industry, is an approach that promises to overcome these barriers, and through join planning and development of a clearer understanding of the dynamics of the supply chain replenishment process to deliver some of the promised benefits of supply chain integration. To help position the concept of collaborative planning, various collaborative initiatives such as vendor‐managed inventory (VMI) and continuous replenishment (CR) and collaborative planning (CP) are reviewed. The evolution and the value of various collaborative planning initiatives are presented as well as how these initiatives are positioned within the overarching concept of supply chain management. Finally, a future research agenda is suggested.

Organizational alignment and supply chain governance structure: Introduction and construct validation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce and validate two new constructs with the potential to sharpen our understanding of how and why firms integrate their internal supply chains and assess the governance structure of their supply chains. The first construct, organizational alignment (OA), is a reflective scale measuring the extent to which upper management attempts to foster integration between internal supply chain functions. The second, supply chain governance structure (SCGS), is a formative index, and is a first attempt at developing a measurement instrument to assess SCGS along multiple dimensions.Design/methodology/approach – Following a literature review, measures of OA and SCGS are conceptualized. These instruments are used to collect data, after which they are refined and validated through parallel scale development (OA) and index construction (SCGS) processes.Findings – OA shows acceptable content and construct validity, and SCGS shows acceptable results for content and item specif...