Strategic positioning within global supply chains
This thesis is concerned with the decision process of strategic positioning withinglobal supply chains. The research provides insights into how companiescurrently form positioning decisions, and set out to develop a systematicmethodology to assist practitioners in forming their strategic positioningdecisions.Manufacturing in the UK is increasingly exposed to the effects of globalcompetition. Many companies are facing difficulties to define the mostadvantageous position in their global supply chains in order to maximise theirbusiness competitiveness. The position of a company is concerned withdeciding a boundary and configuration of internal and external businessactivities to the company and is directly related to initiatives such asoutsourcing, make or buy, and offshoring. Unfortunately, current methodologiesand tools do not provide adequate support to provide a holistic view for makingsuch decisions. Hence, the purpose of this thesis is to provide a generic andpractical methodology that is an integrated and holistic approach that assistspractitioners to deal with strategic positioning within global supply chains.The research programme commenced by exploring the process and content ofpositioning decision from four actual manufacturing companies. The resultsfrom the exploratory case studies and existing contribution from literature havethen been synthesised to form a pilot methodology. This is captured in the formof a paper-based workbook. This methodology has then been evaluated andrefined through a primary application in two case studies with the researchertaking a role as a participant. Finally, wider applicability of the methodology hasbeen assessed through four more case studies covering different types ofmanufacturing with the researcher not intervening but instead observing. Thefinal methodology referred to in this thesis as the “SPGC methodology” hasdemonstrated that it provides practical support to industrial decision making.The outcome of this research is the step-by-step SPGC methodologysupporting practitioners to deal with strategic positioning within global supplychains. The overall approach has been demonstrated to be feasible, usable anduseful, and has been used in a range of manufacturing companies. Thisresearch has filled an industrial need and literature gap and has made asignificant contribution to the knowledge on how manufacturing companies canform a strategic positioning within global supply chains.
Year of publication: |
2008-10
|
---|---|
Authors: | Chandraprakaikul, Watcharavee |
Other Persons: | Baines, Tim (contributor) |
Publisher: |
Cranfield University |
Saved in:
freely available
Saved in favorites
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