Togar M. Simatupang

The Collaborative Supply Chain

Intensive competition in the market place has forced companies to respond more quickly to customer needs through faster product development and shorter delivery time. Increasing customer awareness and preferences have led to an unprecedented explosion in product variety. End customers give credit only to companies that are able to deliver products with excellent quality, and on time. However, the demand of customers for product variety, especially in the case of short life‐cycle products such as food, apparel, toys, and computers, makes it difficult for manufacturers and retailers to predict which particular variety of the products the markets will accept. To be effective in matching demand with supply, manufacturers and retailers need to collaborate in the supply chain.

The knowledge of coordination for supply chain integration

Increasing competition due to market globalisation, product diversity and technological breakthroughs stimulates independent firms to collaborate in a supply chain that allows them to gain mutual benefits. This requires the collective know‐how of the coordination mode, including the ability to synchronise interdependent processes, to integrate information systems and to cope with distributed learning. However, research into coordination has paid little attention to acknowledging different modes of coordination. This study promotes the notion of mutuality and the focus of coordination in order to establish a comprehensive taxonomy of coordination modes. Four different modes of coordination have been identified: logistics synchronisation, information sharing, incentive alignment, and collective learning. The knowledge of coordination is then proposed as an explicit understanding about key drivers of coordination modes that have positive impacts on supply chain performance. This paper also presents a research agenda.

The collaboration index: a measure for supply chain collaboration

Purpose – This paper proposes an instrument to measure the extent of collaboration in a supply chain consisting of two members, suppliers and retailers.Design/methodology/approach – The proposed model for collaboration incorporates collaborative practices in information sharing, decision synchronisation and incentive alignment. A collaboration index is introduced to measure the level of collaborative practices. A survey of companies in New Zealand was conducted to obtain data to test and evaluate the collaboration index.Findings – The survey results confirmed the reliability and validity of the proposed collaboration index measure for measuring collaboration. The findings also showed that the collaboration index was positively associated with operational performance.Research limitations/implications – Future research could consider larger sample sizes and cover other industry types.Practical implications – Supply chain participants will be able to measure the extent of their collaboration and seek improve...

An integrative framework for supply chain collaboration

Purpose – This paper proposes an integrative framework for supply chain collaboration which is based on the reciprocal approach.Design/methodology/approach – A reciprocal approach is adopted to capture the interaction phenomenon of different features of collaboration in attaining overall supply chain performance.Findings – A collaborative supply chain framework is composed of five connecting features of collaboration, namely collaborative performance system, information sharing, decision synchronization, incentive alignment, and integrated supply chain processes.Research limitations/implications – Further research could be carried out to capitalize the framework for diagnosing and improving supply chain collaboration.Practical implications – The proposed framework enables the chain members to scrutinize key features of supply chain collaboration before and during collaborative initiatives.Originality/value – Previous research on supply chain collaboration mainly assume the unilateral phenomenon of collabo...

A benchmarking scheme for supply chain collaboration

Intense competition forces companies to become involved in supply chain collaboration with their upstream and downstream partners. The key to ensuring that the participating members are progressing on the right track of creating the best‐in‐class practice is to conduct benchmarking. Benchmarking stimulates collective learning for performance improvement that brings benefits to all participating members. However, previous research has focused mainly on supply chain benchmarking at the intra‐company ‐‐ rather than the inter‐company ‐‐ level. Inter‐company benchmarking requires a new perspective for understanding collaborative learning amongst the participating members that encourages them to improve supply chain performance as a whole. This research aims to develop a benchmarking scheme for supply chain collaboration that links collaborative performance metrics and collaborative enablers. The proposed benchmarking scheme can be used to examine the current status of supply chain collaboration among the participating members, identify performance gaps and systematize improvement initiatives.

Applying the Theory of Constraints to Supply Chain Collaboration

Supply chain collaboration amongst independent firms often provides larger benefits from effectively satisfying end customer needs than working in isolation. However, a lack of awareness about the existence of constraints along the supply chain prevents the benefits of collaboration from being fully realised. This paper attempts to apply the theory of constraints approach to overcome difficulties in realising the potential benefits of supply chain collaboration. Specifically, it shows how the theory of constraints approach can be used to expose an inherent dilemma of collaboration and establish collaborative replenishment policy and collaborative performance metrics so that the chain members can work together to advance supply chain profitability. Several opportunities for future research are recommended.

Benchmarking supply chain collaboration: An empirical study

Supply chain collaboration enables firms to achieve better performance. It requires close arrangements of collaborative practices among the participating members. Searching for better practices and ideas that lead to superior performance means that the chain members also need to benchmark their current collaborative practices to other collaborative supply chains. Benchmarking enables them to identify the highest standards of excellence in customer services and processes and implement necessary improvements to match or exceed these standards. This paper, reports a benchmarking study on supply chain collaboration between retailers and suppliers, which incorporates collaborative practices in information sharing, decision synchronisation, and incentive alignment. An empirical study was carried out to benchmark the profile of collaborative practices and operational performance. The study also compared differences in the use of collaborative practices from retailer and supplier perspectives.

Design for supply chain collaboration

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to clarify the architecture of supply chain collaboration and to propose a design for supply chain collaboration (DfC), which enables participating members to create and develop key elements of the proposed architecture.Design/methodology/approach – The paper offers a concept for designing the five elements of the architecture of supply chain collaboration, namely collaborative performance system, decision synchronisation, information sharing, incentive alignment, and innovative supply chain processes. A case study was carried out to illustrate the applicability of the framework.Findings – DfC was confirmed using a case to evaluate a supply chain system in which the chain members concurrently designed the architecture of supply chain collaboration. The findings show that design for collaboration facilitates the chain members to have a broader view to develop and ensure an effective collaboration.Research limitations/implications – Secondary data were collected to des...

Supply chain coordination in a fashion firm

Supply chain coordination plays a critical role in integrating different actors along the supply chain to enhance performance. This research focuses on supply chain coordination and its three determinants: namely, responsibility interdependence, uncertainty, and interfunctional conflict. Research propositions were developed to conceptualise how supply chain coordination is driven by its determinants. The propositions were tested by a case study in a fashion firm to examine the differences between the theory and the practice of coordination. Findings showed that the firm carried out only piecemeal coordination in defining and fulfilling customer needs.

Supply chain discontent

Purpose – This study was conducted to examine supply chain discontent in an integrative way.Design/methodology/approach – The organisational economics view is adopted as an approach to reveal multiple sources of discontent which consist of incongruent objectives, disintegrated performance measures, unsynchronised decision‐making, information asymmetry, misaligned incentives, and fragmented business processes. All these sources separately or collectively contribute to reduce the potential of total profits arising from collaboration.Findings – It is argued that to effectively mitigate supply chain discontent, the chain members need to collaboratively design antidotes for discontent. In this paper six antidotes to discontent are proposed, namely mutual strategic objectives, appropriate performance measures, decision synchronisation, information sharing, incentive alignment, and streamlined intercompany business processes. It also shows that previous studies have not addressed supply chain discontent in an in...