TY - JOUR
T1 - A decision-making model to support the design of a strategic supply chain configuration
AU - Song, Guang
AU - Sun, Luoyi
AU - Wang, Yixiao
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited.
PY - 2018/3/28
Y1 - 2018/3/28
N2 - Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to apply an empirically based approach to develop a decision-making model that comprehensively incorporates the potential affecting factors and the related significant drivers that support network designers in selecting the appropriate strategic supply chain configuration or checking the coherence of an existing supply chain structure in four industry sectors. Design/methodology/approach: The decision-making model is developed based on an empirical study that integrates multiple case studies and statistical analyses. In total, 113 best-in-class manufacturing firms in four sectors are studied to investigate their strategic supply chain configurations and the information of identified affecting drivers. The factor analysis and regression analysis are conducted to classify the drivers into five factor groups, and to identify the significant drivers used to develop the decision-making model. Findings: The findings of this research are three-pronged. First, 12 significant drivers related to 5 factor groups affecting strategic supply chain network design (SCND) are identified. Second, a decision-making model is developed to support users in strategic SCND. Last, the main characteristics of various strategic supply chain configurations are summarized in four industry sectors. Research limitations/implications: The authors identified valuable insights for both academics and practitioners based on the identified significant affecting drivers and the developed decision-making model. In addition, this study also proposes two potential research lines on the study of additional contextual affecting factors and decision issues in strategic SCND. Originality/value: This study could be the first attempt to use an empirically based method to develop a decision-making model aimed at supporting the preliminary design of a supply chain network. Therefore, the drawbacks of a pure qualitative conceptual model and optimization model are eliminated.
AB - Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to apply an empirically based approach to develop a decision-making model that comprehensively incorporates the potential affecting factors and the related significant drivers that support network designers in selecting the appropriate strategic supply chain configuration or checking the coherence of an existing supply chain structure in four industry sectors. Design/methodology/approach: The decision-making model is developed based on an empirical study that integrates multiple case studies and statistical analyses. In total, 113 best-in-class manufacturing firms in four sectors are studied to investigate their strategic supply chain configurations and the information of identified affecting drivers. The factor analysis and regression analysis are conducted to classify the drivers into five factor groups, and to identify the significant drivers used to develop the decision-making model. Findings: The findings of this research are three-pronged. First, 12 significant drivers related to 5 factor groups affecting strategic supply chain network design (SCND) are identified. Second, a decision-making model is developed to support users in strategic SCND. Last, the main characteristics of various strategic supply chain configurations are summarized in four industry sectors. Research limitations/implications: The authors identified valuable insights for both academics and practitioners based on the identified significant affecting drivers and the developed decision-making model. In addition, this study also proposes two potential research lines on the study of additional contextual affecting factors and decision issues in strategic SCND. Originality/value: This study could be the first attempt to use an empirically based method to develop a decision-making model aimed at supporting the preliminary design of a supply chain network. Therefore, the drawbacks of a pure qualitative conceptual model and optimization model are eliminated.
KW - Decision making
KW - Strategic management
KW - Supply chain management
KW - Supply networks
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85043468315&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1108/JMTM-09-2017-0197
DO - 10.1108/JMTM-09-2017-0197
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85043468315
SN - 1741-038X
VL - 29
SP - 515
EP - 532
JO - Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management
JF - Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management
IS - 3
ER -