The Beer Game is one of the most popular simulations used to introduce students to the challenges of managing supply chains. While the basic simulation serves as a useful introduction to the problems, it does not take the next step of helping students or managers plan to surmount those problems...

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to empirically test the impact of supply‐chain management (SCM) capabilities on business performance so as to determine to what degree customer‐oriented SCM issues influence competitive position and organizational performance....

States that we have witnessed, over the last several years, a profound change in understanding the dynamics of competitive advantage. Managers now acknowledge that a firm’s success is tied, in part, to the strength of its weakest supply chain partner. This paper develops the concept of supply...

Argues that the developments in UK supermarket practice in recent years have resulted in a distinctive system of retailing in the UK, and that this has some important consequences for how one assesses the nature of competition in this market. In particular it means that standard approaches to...

Supply chains in new and emerging agricultural industries typically lack information linking product quality with consumer behaviour. This case study of the emerging persimmon industry in Australia and New Zealand demonstrates how adopting a supply chain orientation can address this situation....

Increased demand variability in supply chains (the bullwhip effect) has been discussed in the literature. The practical measurement of this effect, however, entails some problems that have not received much attention in the literature and that have to do with the aggregation of data,...

US Premium Beef Ltd is a cooperative partnership between all segments of the beef industry value chain, affording each segment an interest in the key stages of beef production and processing, as well as an equal share of the financial risks and rewards. This “value‐added” strategy is...

Introduces a supply chain “health check” procedure successfully applied in the European automotive sector and presents the results for the analysis of 20 trans‐European value streams covering a wide range of first and second tier suppliers. The health check procedure is activated via a...

Describes the process for conducting downward price business‐to‐business online auctions over the Internet for direct material purchasing and presents common issues, process improvement opportunities, and the interpretation of auction results. Comparisons are made between online auctions and...

Purchasing organizations use various strategies and techniques to minimize the chance and impact of detrimental events occurring in the supply base. Supply risk assessments are a necessary first step in managing those risks. An analysis of in‐depth interviews with purchasing professionals from...