Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a continuously evolving phenomenon. Since its inception, SCM has progressively become more sophisticated with advances in supply chain integration (SCI) technology that have improved supply chain (SC) performance and organisational profitability. Despite the use of technology to support SCI, senior management recognises the increasing need for operational and strategic information visibility within and across the organisations of a supply chain (SC). Lack of information visibility is a major impediment in current SC practices.This deficiency constitutes the problem statement of this research. This research investigates the current practices of supply chain integration (SCI), supply chain visibility (SCV) and information sharing (IS) across various organisation dimensions (such as industry type and region of operations) and situational factors (such as functional strategies, criteria for framework development and operationalisation of SC issues in a collaborative environment). The objective of this research is to examine what the current practices of SCI, IS and SCV are across those organisational dimensions and situational factors, and to investigate how these practices can be sustained and improved in order to achieve competitive advantage. To understand the current state of SCI, IS and SCV operational and strategic aspects of this research, 52 variables were identified and grouped into six constructs. An industry-based survey was developed using these variables and constructs. Of the 52 variables, there are five core variables that include: supply chain integration, supply chain visibility, information sharing, level of understanding of SC partners' information and the level of ability to influence SC partners' activities. Empirical analysis is used to analyse behaviour and the relationship of the core variables to those situational factors and organisation dimensions. The results of the empirical analysis are reviewed against the existing SC literature and a number of research contributions are identified.In the context of current practices, some of the research findings/contributions are as follows. The size of the organisation (volume of sales) and region of operations have the greatest impact on an organisation's ability to influence the planning activities of its SC partners. Furthermore, different types of organisation dimensions such as industry type, region of operations, and organisation size (number of employees) are important across different levels of current SC practice. The metal industry has the greatest impact on SCV and IS. There are a greater number of organisations integrated with their SC partners than the number of organisations that have visibility of SC partners' information, or share information across the SC. These findings align with the "Supply Chain Hierarchy" model developed from the correlation analysis of the five core variables and Maslow's theory of the Hierarchy of Needs. The model comprises four indices that management can use to gauge the effectiveness of SCI, IS and SCV. It is recognised that organisations need to re-engineer their processes in order to achieve the required levels of SCI, IS and SCV. The level of influence organisations can have on planning and scheduling/control of SC and resources, and execution of those plans is impacted by the percentage of SC costs of the central organisation as proportion of their total SC costs. Apart from simply data itself, processes, policies, strategies and systems are all equally important for organisations in achieving the required levels of SCI, IS and SCV. This thesis explores the managerial/operational implications of SCI, SCV and IS. It also provides some insights for supply chain practitioners in leveraging the desired levels of SCI, IS and SCV to gain competitive advantage. Finally, this thesis presents theoretical contributions to SC research, practical implications, the limitations of this study and the directions for future research.
Date of Award | 2013 |
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Original language | English |
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- supply chain management
- business logistics
- information sharing
- knowledge management
- communication in organizations
Investigation of collaborative supply chain practices through integration, visibility and information sharing : theoretical and industry perspective
Mahadevan, K. (Author). 2013
Western Sydney University thesis: Doctoral thesis