Title: Best collaboration practices in supply chain of technical wholesale items

Authors: Erno Salmela, Ari Happonen, Janne Huiskonen

Addresses: Faculty of Technology Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, FI-53851 Lappeenranta, Finland. ' Faculty of Technology Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, FI-53851 Lappeenranta, Finland. ' Faculty of Technology Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, FI-53851 Lappeenranta, Finland

Abstract: This study focuses on collaboration in the supply chain of technical wholesale items in the Finnish machinery industry. The research aims to explore the collaborative best practices to improve the future performance of this supply chain. In the current state, all the technical wholesale items are usually managed with the same management model, although there can be remarkable differences in demand behaviour and criticality among the items. Therefore, the item segmentation and management model for different segments are needed in the future. The collaborative effort should be focused on demand management and proactive exception management especially concerning critical items with unstable demand. Furthermore, there is development potential in the order-delivery process applied in the studied supply chain. Currently, a lack of cost knowledge and transparency makes the optimisation of this process difficult.

Keywords: supply chain collaboration; supply chain management; SCM; collaborative planning; collaborative forecasting; collaborative replenishment; CPFR; VMI; collaborative enterprise; exception management; demand management; transparency; Finland; machinery industry; critical items; unstable demand; cost knowledge; vendor-managed inventory.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCENT.2011.040663

International Journal of Collaborative Enterprise, 2011 Vol.2 No.1, pp.16 - 38

Published online: 15 Jun 2011 *

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