1,721,023 research outputs found
Japanese supply chain relationships in recession
No full textThe remarkable nature of Japan’s supply chain relationships has been identified as a significant factor in its industrial success, especially in the automotive and electronics sectors. Yet, Japanese companies do not recognise the term ‘supply chain management’. For four decades Japan’s industrial giants developed sourcing strategies based on highly-pressured, customer-dominated supply relationships in which sub-contractors enjoyed the benefits of the success of their customers at the expense of yielding their autonomy. In 1991, the Japanese economy plunged into deep recession and has yet to recover. Large corporations now appear vulnerable and almost all Japan’s banks are technically insolvent. This article explains the ways in which recession has affected the supply chain relationships in Japan and the domestic and international sourcing strategies that shape them. Japanese industrial customers are now putting increased pressure on their suppliers to provide technical solutions and to develop links with other customers for the first time. The sub-structures of the keiretsu appear to be giving way to open competition with ‘parent’ firms selling equity in subsidiaries. Profound changes appear to be underway in Japanese industrial sourcing strategies—suppliers can no longer rely on retaining business simply by obedience and hard work. Instead, they face an open, fiercely competitive environment—at home and abroad. In this new order, Japanese suppliers are developing new competitive technical and commercial capabilities, enabling their Japanese industrial customers to concentrate on real-time, market-driven configuration of products, without needing to hold stocks in their supply chains and distribution channels. Meanwhile, Japan is seeking to re-establish its position of leading player in East Asia
Customer-supplier relationship evaluation: towards a conceptual and managerial framework
No full textModelling and analysis of supply chain management systems: an editorial overview. (In special issue: Modelling and analysis in supply chain management systems)
No full textInfluences on the outsourcing process: some lessons from the telecommunications industry
No full text
Managing innovation beyond the steady state
No full textResearch on the innovation process and its effective management has consistently highlighted a set of themes constituting ‘good practice’. The limitation of such ‘good practice’ is that it relates to what might be termed ‘steady state’ innovation - essentially innovative activity in product and process terms which is about ‘doing what we do, but better’. The prescription works well under these conditions of (relative) stability in terms of products and markets but is not a good guide when elements of discontinuity come into the equation. Discontinuity arises from shifts along technological, market, political and other frontiers and requires new or at least significantly adapted approaches to their effective management. This paper explores relevant routines which organisations can implement to enable discontinuous innovation
Analysing mapping and managing environmental impacts along supply chains
No full textThis article reports on research toward a pragmatic and credible means for analyzing, mapping, and managing environmental impacts along supply chains. The results of this research include a management tool called "ecological supply chain analysis" (EcoSCAn) that is presented here for the first time. Its structure bears a passing resemblance to that used in some streamlined life-cycle assessments, but its operation and purpose are quite different. The EcoSCAn tool frames a comparative environmental analysis of products capable of performing broadly equivalent functions. The analysis occurs over complete extended supply chains and within defined supply chain stages at a product level and, to some extent, at a site level. The results are mapped with data confidence indicators. A range of tactical and, where data quality is sufficient, strategic supply chain actions are prompted. Actions to mitigate environmental stress are possible in the absence of good quality data across entire product life cycles, although the extent to which management actions are limited is made plain
- …
