Phillip Kirst

Lieferantenintegration im Produktentstehungsprozess

In den vergangenen zwei Dekaden haben Unternehmen aus der Automobilindustrie sowie Firmen anderer Wirtschaftbereiche eine Strategie der Konzentration und Fokussierung auf Kernkompetenzen verfolgt (Fawcett u. Magnan 2002). Die damit avisierten Ziele sind vielfaltig, wobei eine Verbesserung der Kundenzufriedenheit durch bessere Qualitat und niedrigere Preise die Hauptbeweggrunde fur diese Entwicklung zu sein scheinen (Djabarian 2002). Eine weitreichende Konsequenz dieser Strategie ist eine substanzielle Verringerung der Wertschopfungstiefe durch Outsourcing von Bereichen, in denen das Unternehmen keine spezifischen Knowhow- oder Grosenvorteile aufweist. Dieser Trend zur Reduzierung der Fertigungstiefe halt in der Industrie weiterhin an und fuhrt dazu, dass der Materialkostenanteil im Durchschnitt zwischen 50% und 80% liegt (Cammish u. Keough 1991; Arnolds et al. 1996; Arnold 1997; Tani u. Wangenhein 1998; Sydow u. Mollering 2004; Kaufmann u. Carter 2006; Nogatchewsky 2006). Auch in der Automobilindustrie lasst sich ein starkes Outsourcing beobachten, wobei bei einigen Fahrzeugen, wie bspw. dem „smart“ die Automobilhersteller bereits bei einem Wertschopfungsanteil von unter 10% angelangt sind (Bain & Company 2005). Eine wesentliche Konsequenz von Outsourcing-Aktivitaten ist, dass wichtige Determinanten des okonomischen Erfolgs nicht mehr im unmittelbaren, internen Einflussbereich des Unternehmens liegen, sondern im Zuge der Verlagerung von Wertschopfungsanteilen auf die Lieferanten ubertragen werden (Stolzle u. Kirst 2006).

Developing a Measurement Instrument for Supply Chain Event Management-Adoption

Supply Chain Event Management (SCEM) is an emerging topic in both business practice and academia. It receives increasing attention as more companies implement SCEM-systems. However, despite its practical relevance, no general definition of SCEM exists in literature or within companies until today. Also, so far SCEM has not been operationalized for quantitative studies. Thus, the goal of this paper is to contribute to an understanding of SCEM by defining a measurement instrument to measure the level of SCEM-adoption in companies. This has been approached on the one hand by pursuing a literature review of both practitioners and academic literature and on the other hand by conducting case studies in companies using SCEM-systems. First, a common definition of SCEM is generated from a combination of findings from literature and expert interviews, and second, a measurement instrument for SCEM-adoption is developed. Implications include advice on how to test the SCEM-adoption measurement instrument statistically in order to asses its ability to measure SCEM-adoption with high validity.

Supplier integration and the challenge of relationship-exit strategies

The article points out, that current rigid supply chains seem to struggle with the dynamic of the environment. Frequent changes of customer preferences and demand as well as dynamic political and economical conditions do pressurize companies to continuous adjustments. If a company is embedded into integrated supply relationships the impact of the adjustments at other supply partners have to be taken into account as well. Thus, more time is needed due to an extended decision-making process, which in turn reduces a companies’ flexibility and may decrease its competitive capabilities. This trade-off between the opportunity to gain relational rents in integrated supplier-buyer relationships on the one side and decreased flexibility on the other side has to be taken into account by an evaluation of the outcome of close relationships. The undifferentiated “romantic”. view on cooperation with suppliers neglects the possibility of flexibility reduction and performance weakness due to a lack of market pressure. However, if an integrated supplier-buyer relationship has to be changed, a professional and structured management approach is required in order to achieve a “smooth switch”.