Purpose – This paper aims to address two questions: what kinds of benefits are realized from a vendor‐managed inventory (VMI) program (operational, i.e. efficiency related, vs strategic, i.e. sales related) and how the benefits are shared at the dyad level (suppliers vs buyers)....

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to document the outcome of a global three‐year long supply chain improvement initiative at a multi‐national producer of branded sporting goods that is transforming from a holding structure to an integrated company. The case company is comprised of...

Purpose – This paper aims to increase the understanding of social and technical factors contributing to successful supplier‐retailer collaboration. The objective is to identify the necessary supply chain architecture for supplier‐retailer collaboration, and demonstrate how it influences...

Purpose – Reverse e‐auctions are increasingly being used in business‐to‐business procurement and have been reported to yield significant price reductions for buyer firms. However, the adoption of online auction formats has raised many concerns among suppliers, often being criticized for...

A number of attempts have been made to develop theories in operations management (OM) (e.g. trade‐off theory by Skinner, customer‐contact model by Chase and Tansik, product‐process matrix by Hayes and Wheelwright). Researchers in OM acknowledge that there is no widely‐accepted theory on...

Purpose – How should a firm decide which of four choices – i.e. inventory speculation, inventory postponement, inventory consignment, and reverse inventory consignment – is most appropriate to adopt for a given purchased item in a particular context? This paper seeks to identify and...

Purpose – Spare parts have become ubiquitous in modern societies and managing their requirements is an important and challenging task with tremendous cost implications for the organisations that are holding relevant inventories. An important operational issue involved in the management of...

Purpose – Stock keeping unit (SKU) classifications are widely used in the field of production and operations management. Although many theoretical and practical examples of classifications exist, there are no overviews of the current literature, and general guidelines are lacking with respect...

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the role and contribution of an operations strategy for the retailer. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology is mainly qualitative empirical research. Findings – Analyses of the data collected reveals that the respondent...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore different aggregate production planning (APP) strategies (inventory levelling, validation of the workforce and flexible production alternatives: overtime and/or outsourcing) by using a system dynamics model in a two-level, multi-product,...