Olivier Lavastre

Supply chain risk management in French companies

The risk thematic is not new in management, but it is a recent and growing subject in supply chain management. Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) plays a major role in successfully managing business processes in a proactive manner. Supply chain risk has multiple sources including process, control, demand, supply and environment. Supply chain management, faced with these risks, requires specific and adequate responses such as techniques, attitude and strategies for management of risk. This paper is based on an empirical study of 142 general managers and logistics and supply chain managers in 50 different French companies. It demonstrates that for organizations to be effective, SCRM must be a management function that is inter-organizational in nature and closely related to strategic and operational realities of the activity in question. Moreover, the findings of our empirical study suggest that effective SCRM is based on collaboration (collaborative meetings, timely and relevant information exchanges) and the establishment of joint and common transverse processes with industrial partners.

Effect of firm characteristics, supplier relationships and techniques used on Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM): an empirical investigation on French industrial firms

Recent years have witnessed a focus on managing risks in supply chains. On the one hand, there are many cases where events like natural disasters, strikes and terrorism have significantly influenced the performance of organisational supply chains and in turn their competitiveness. And on the other hand, operational activities and strategic decisions of the firms (concerning, for e.g. supply, procurement, production, delivery, commercialisation, demand management, planning, etc.) can be different than expected and so create uncertainties. Uncertainties, whether they are external or internal, impact organisations leading to increased supply chain risk. Realising the potential implications of these situations on supply chain competitiveness, an attempt has been made to define risks and their sources and to identify the management that can help reduce the negative impact of risks on supply chains. In this paper, a framework for supply chain risk management (SCRM) is proposed and is applied using the data collected from 164 French companies, in manufacturing sector. The literature review, theoretical framework and empirical research undertaken in this work have led to identifying critical success management for SCRM. The focus of this paper is the inter-organisational management of supply chain risk: the collaborative relationship (with industrial and supply partners) can be considered as an efficient way to make SCRM. The paper finishes with a summary of the findings and conclusions, along with suggestions for future research projects.

Innovative supply chain practices: the state of French companies

Purpose – This research aims to explore innovation in supply chain management. Innovation has often been studied in supply chain relationships and specifically from a product point of view. The authors aim to observe innovation by focusing on the different practices and collaborations suppliers and customers are developing to improve their competitiveness and the performance of the whole supply chain.Design/methodology/approach – A review of previous literature on innovation in supply chain management is presented and the authors design an interview guide for their data collection that is developed from their previous literature review on innovation in supply chain management. Data are collected from 68 innovations in French companies and subsequently analyzed to identify the major elements of innovations in supply chain management.Findings – The key findings of the paper identify the major components affecting innovative supply chain practices and SC performance. The results suggest that innovation is es...

L’innovation dans la logistique et le supply chain management

RÉSUMÉ DE L’ÉDITO L’innovation managériale – trop souvent délaissée dans les travaux de recherche académique, trop souvent négligée par les entreprises, au profit d’une innovation plus technique et technologique – est au centre de ce numéro spécial de Logistique & Management. Comment améliorer et transformer la gestion des flux physiques et des flux d’information entre partenaires industriels et logistique d’une chaîne logistique ? Quelles sont les nouvelles stratégies, pratiques et méthodes mises en place dernièrement dans ce champ ? Comment une organisation s’approprie-t-elle de telles nouveautés ? Comment une chaine logistique se transforme-t-elle pour s’adapter à l’évolution de son environnement, de ses contraintes, de ses acteurs, de ses technologies ? Les quatre articles qui composent ce numéro spécial vont chercher à répondre à ces quelques questions. Le premier article a pour objectif d’appréhender les caractéristiques et les particularités de l’innovation logistique. Les trois autres s’appuient chacun sur des études empiriques pour analyser des innovations managériales dans trois contextes différents. Sont ainsi étudiés les PSL (Prestataires de Services Logistiques) et leur capacité d’innovation, l’hôpital et la gestion du flux patient et enfin la fabrication additive et l’apparition d’un nouvel acteur dans une nouvelle configuration de chaîne logistique.