Suchergebnisse

The ability to satisfy customer demands while responding to relentless competitive pressure requires creative and often complex approaches to managing a firm's supply chain. Perhaps more than any other area, executive managers increasingly believe that a concept called globalization offers the best opportunity to achieve major performance gains. One area where many companies can begin to capture the benefits of globalization is global sourcing, which involves the worldwide integration of engineering, operations, and procurement centers within the upstream portion of a firm's supply chain. Unfortunately, capturing the benefits potentially offered by globalization is often limited by a lack of understanding concerning how to pursue this important topic. To help overcome this limitation this article presents a five‐level continuum that illustrates the differences between international purchasing and global sourcing, examines the factors that are the most critical to global success, and concludes with a brief discussion of future global sourcing directions.

Discusses analysis of the organizational structures utilized to conduct international purchasing activities which was undertaken at 24 multinational corporations. The majority of the corporations studied had decentral‐ ized purchasing organizations and all had corporate purchasing staffs. Four basic approaches were found: (1) totally decentralized; (2) co‐ordinated; (3) totally centralized; and (4) separate international purchasing group. Within this overall framework there were several forms of staff assistance for helping operating units effectively to accomplish their international purchasing goals. This assistance included foreign buying offices, trading companies, and international staff specialists. There was also a common philosophy which indicated the necessity of worldwide sourcing.

Evolving purchasing/sourcing strategies necessary for competitive
success during the 1990s are identified. The strategies, identified by
purchasing executives of leading‐edge Fortune 100 firms during
field interviews and a Delphi process, reflect purchasing′s growing
contribution to firms′ overall competitive performance. Also included is
a discussion of supply base optimisation and total quality management at
the supplier as necessary prerequisites for the implementation of
increasingly sophisticated strategies which follow a progression to
achieving an integrated set of purchasing strategies. There is also a
discussion of the linkage between corporate and purchasing strategy.

Analysis of the organisational structures utilised to
conduct international purchasing activities was
undertaken at 24 multinational corporations. The
majority of the corporations studied
had decentralised purchasing organisations and all had
corporate purchasing staffs. Four basic approaches
were found: (1) totally decentralised; (2) co‐ordinated;
(3) totally centralised; and (4) separate
international purchasing group. Within this overall
framework there were several forms of staff
assistance to assist operating units effectively
accomplish their international purchasing goals. This
assistance included foreign buying offices, trading
companies and international staff specialists. There
was also a common philosophy which indicated the
necessity of worldwide sourcing.

Analyses responses from over 700 suppliers about their
relationships with one of five different manufacturing firms. Finds that
co‐operation, years as supplier, and perceived dependence were the
strongest predictors of the suppliers′ assessments of their business
relationships with the manufacturing firms. Participation in joint
programmes, ratings of the manufacturers′ quality programmes, and
perceived dependence were the strongest predictors of the transfer of
cost and technological information from the supplier to the buying firm.
Discusses implications for companies seeking stronger relationships with
their exchange partners, as well as information sharing behaviours from
them.

Competing in the mid‐to‐late 1990s will require world‐class firms
to rely increasingly on their suppliers while at the same time
developing more aggressive and executive supported purchasing, supply
base and sourcing strategies, because suppliers′ performance is not
meeting expectations of purchasers. This finding was one result of a
research effort with over 100 different firms over a five‐year period to
determine the importance of the supply base, current supplier
performance and emerging supply base/sourcing strategies being used by
leading firms to contribute to competitive advantage. It was further
determined that significant opportunities exist to accelerate
development of supplier capabilities and performance. Identifies and
discusses continuous improvement and breakthrough supply base and
sourcing strategies to achieve supply base improvement.

A few years ago the faculty of the Graduate School of Business Administration at Michigan State University responded to a developing industry need for young people trained with an understanding of the interfaces between physical distribution, manufacturing and purchasing. In 1980 the Materials Logistics Management Programme (MLM) was established to meet this industry requirement. Students of the MLM programme have been in great demand by industry since the programme's inception. For the past two years MLM graduates have received the highest starting salaries of all MSU business graduates. This article presents an overview of the MLM philosophy that has emerged as the programme matured.

ABSTRACTThe emerging area of supply chain alliances has received considerable attention in the academic and managerial press, yet there are many unanswered questions regarding the dynamics of such relationships. A number of such fundamental issues drive this research initiative, including how alliances are developed, their key success factors, and the specific benefits to be achieved. The study begins by establishing a definition of strategic supplier alliances, based on a comparison of both theoretical and managerial descriptions. The critical antecedents associated with the success of strategic supplier alliances are next developed, and the magnitude of the effect of these factors on partnership success is assessed. The analysis employs both qualitative and quantitative data, collected through an electronic network of over 200 companies, as part of an ongoing benchmarking initiative in supply chain management.From the perspective of the buying company in the alliance, the following attributes of supplier alliances were found to be significantly related to partnership success: trust and coordination, interdependence, information quality and participation, information sharing, joint problem solving, avoiding the use of severe conflict resolution tactics, and the existence of a formal supplier/commodity alliance selection process. Resource commitment and smoothing over problems were found to be poor predictors of alliance success. The implications of these results for managerial decision making in supplier alliance development are discussed.

While pay may be its own reward, nonmonetary rewards such as praise, work-related feedback, and opportunities for workers to experience a sense of achievement, autonomy, and self-actualization seem to make workers more satisfied with their pay.