Vijay R. Kannan

Supply Chain Management: An Empirical Study of Its Impact on Performance

Total quality management, supply base management, customer driven corporate policy, and other elements of supply chain management are frequently cited as strategic options to achieve competitive success in the 1990s. However, attempts by companies to implement these options have not been universally successful and have in many cases failed to yield the desired results. This study presents details of a survey carried out to determine whether particular quality management, supply base management, and customer relations practices can impact corporate performance. In addition it examines the impact analyzing the competitive environment has on performance. Regression models identify several factors that directly and positively impact corporate performance. These include the extent to which companies analyze the strategies of competitors and determine future customer requirements, and the commitment they have to evaluating performance throughout the supply chain.

Buyer‐supplier relationships: The impact of supplier selection and buyer‐supplier engagement on relationship and firm performance

Purpose – To analyze the impact of supplier selection and buyer‐supplier engagement on the performance benefits attributable to buyer‐supplier relationships, and the effect of these benefits on broader measures of buyer performance.Design/methodology/approach – Analysis is conducted using a structural equation model using survey data.Findings – Results demonstrate the positive influence of engagement and supplier selection on relationship performance. They also demonstrate that the success of the relationship directly and positively affects buyer performance.Research limitations/implications – Additional analysis is required to examine whether the results hold for specific industry or purchase scenarios, and to identify other dimensions of the constructs of interest.Practical implications – Buyers should pay attention to selecting the right suppliers and developing the infrastructure that will enable successful buyer‐supplier relationships.Originality/value – The paper provides empirical evidence of the i...

Information sharing, buyer‐supplier relationships, and firm performance: A multi‐region analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of information sharing capability on buyer‐supplier relationships and firm performance. It is proposed that information sharing capability, the integration of a firms information/decision systems and business processes with those of supply chain partners, is an antecedent of collaborative buyer‐supplier relationships, defined in terms of supply chain and relationship architecture. Further, it is proposed that these relationships positively impact a firms market and financial performance.Design/methodology/approach – This research uses multiple linear regression to analyze a set of survey data from the USA, Europe and New Zealand.Findings – Results demonstrate positive relationships between information sharing capability and buyer‐supplier relationships, and between relationships and performance.Research limitations/implications – Information sharing capability and buyer‐supplier relationships are complex, multi dimensional constructs. While t...

Attitudes of US and European managers to supplier selection and assessment and implications for business performance

As competition motivates firms to exploit their core competencies, outsourcing takes on greater significance. Increased reliance on supplier capabilities and technologies, however, increases the impact that supplier selection and assessment can have on the buying firm and in particular, its performance. While prior studies of supply management provide considerable evidence of the criteria used by firms to select and assess suppliers, they provide little insight into the relationships between selection and assessment and the buying firms performance. This research describes an empirical study of attitudes towards supplier selection and assessment of American and European companies and their impact on business performance. Results illustrate that while both American and European managers consider objective selection and assessment criteria such as cost and price to be more important than subjective criteria such as supplier commitment, it is the more subjective criteria that have a greater impact on firm performance. Moreover, while for American companies there are strong relationships between attitudes towards supply management and performance, similar relationships do not appear to hold for European companies.

Supply chain management practices as a mediator of the relationship between operations capability and firm performance

The current study uses mediated regression analysis and structural equation modelling to test the proposition that supply chain management practices mediate the relationship between operations capability and firm performance. Operations capability is defined in terms of a firms new product design and development, total quality management and just-in-time capabilities. Results support the research model and also suggest the existence of a direct relationship between operations capability and performance.

Supply chain integration: cluster analysis of the impact of span of integration

Purpose – This paper aims to explore whether firms that integrate only with partners adjacent to them in the supply chain exhibit different patterns of supply chain practice and performance than those that also integrate with partners more distant in the supply chain.Design/methodology/approach – Cluster analysis of survey data is used to partition firms based on the span of the supply chain involved in their integration efforts.Findings – Firms with a broad span of integration have a greater focus on alignment with suppliers and customers, and have more of a supply chain focus than those with a narrow span. They also demonstrate higher levels of performance attributable to supply chain relationships.Practical implications – Results highlight the importance to supply chain professionals of taking a broad view of the supply chain rather than focusing only on first tier suppliers and customers. They also suggest the importance of exploring opportunities to facilitate broader participation in supply chain in...

Supplier Selection Construct: Instrument Development and Validation

Purpose – To develop and test a reliable and valid supplier selection measurement scale that can be applied in different geographic regions, namely, the USA and Europe.Design/methodology/approach – A three‐factor supplier selection measure is developed via extensive literature review and practitioner interviews. Psychometric properties of the survey instrument are evaluated using data from the ISM‐US sample via exploratory factor analysis. Based on the results, the survey instrument is modified and the revised instrument is mailed to a larger sampling group (APICS‐US and APICS‐Europe). Confirmatory factor analysis is used to validate the proposed three‐factor supplier selection construct and to test its validity across national boundaries.Findings – This study demonstrates that underlying the documented supplier selection criteria is the need to assess a suppliers quality and service capabilities as well as its strategic and managerial alignment with the buyer.Research limitations/implications – Although...

Cellular manufacturing using virtual cells

Proposes a virtual cellular manufacturing approach to implementing cellular manufacturing systems that combines the set‐up efficiency typically obtained by traditional cellular manufacturing or group technology systems with the flexibility of a job shop. Unlike traditional cellular systems in which the shop is physically designed as a series of cells, cells are formed within a shop utilizing a process layout using scheduling mechanisms. The result is the formation of cells that are temporary and logical (virtual) in nature, allowing them to be more responsive to changes in demand patterns. Simulation runs comparing this approach to production using traditional cellular and job shop approaches indicate that this new approach yields significantly better shop performance over a range of operating conditions.

Influence of initiators on supply chain value creation

Value creation in the supply chain has attracted considerable attention in the literature. It has typically been characterized as being the result of either external or organization spanning, or internal efforts to improve supply chain performance. Few studies have examined the simultaneous effects of internally and externally focused efforts to improve supply chain performance. Moreover, there is no discussion in the literature of the precursors or initial conditions that lead to successful supply chains. Drawing from different theoretical perspectives, two key motivators or initiators of value creation in supply chains are identified: structural mechanisms and relationship building. It is proposed that these initiators have a positive influence on value creation efforts, operationalized by the improvement of supply processes and responsiveness to customer needs (external focus), and internal production processes (internal focus). A structural equation model linking initiators and value creation mechanisms to performance is proposed and tested using data from a large sample of firms. Results suggest that firms that pay attention to initiators may derive greater benefit from their value creation efforts and thus yield improved performance.

Supply chain information and relational alignments: mediators of EDI on firm performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of inter‐organization information exchange on supply chain information and relational alignment. Drawing on literature on information systems, supply chain management, and logistics, the paper aims to present a multidimensional framework for considering electronic data interchange (EDI) adoption in supplier management and its effect on information and relational alignment.Design/methodology/approach – Theories drawn from resource‐dependent and transaction cost economics, and the resource‐based view of the firm were used to establish hypotheses. Structural equation modeling using survey data of manufacturing firms was used to test the hypotheses and research model.Findings – Results support the central premise that firms must consider EDI adoption in supplier management to improve information and relational alignment between supply chain partners. It is through this alignment that firms achieve superior performance.Research limitations/implicati...