مدیریت عرضه استراتژیک ابتکارات و اقدامات با کیفیت و عملکرد سازمانی

Researchers in supply chain management have found over the past two decades that supply management should be not merely a purchasing function but a strategic tool for supply chain integration. Supply management, the cornerstone of the integration of industrial supply chains, has evolved as a key research area. Based on quantitative and qualitative investigations of 225 electronics manufacturing firms, we examine the organizational impacts of strategic supply management (SSM) and the contexts of company size, process type, ISO 9000 certification, and quality management (QM) implementation that facilitate such an endeavor. We reveal that SSM is essentially a quality management initiative that requires bilateral efforts for continuous improvement and thus is not associated with the basic requirements of ISO 9000. We find that SSM improves on-time shipments, reduces operational costs, and leads to customer satisfaction and improved business performance. Developed based on contemporary premises in supply chain and QM, this research refines our understanding of the relationships among quality initiatives, SSM, and organizational performance.

The past two decades have witnessed a shift in the role of the purchasing function in supply chains (Carr and Pearson, 1999). In contrast to the traditional view of the purchasing function, the modern idea of supply chain management (SCM) emphasizes the interdependence of organizations working collaboratively to improve the efficiency of the entire logistics channel (Shin et al., 2000 and Narasimhan and Kim, 2002). SCM revolves around the efficient integration of retailers, distributors, manufacturers, and suppliers. More recently, the importance of supply management to business performance in the manufacturing industry has been extensively documented. Researchers advocate that supply management should be not merely a procurement function but a strategic initiative aimed at sustaining beneficial buyer–supplier relationships (Ellram and Carr, 1994 and Carr and Pearson, 1999). Strategic management of suppliers has thus evolved as a key research area in operations management (Carr and Pearson, 1999, Shin et al., 2000 and Chen et al., 2004). In this research we focus on strategic supply management (SSM), which is a long-term, planned effort to create a capable supplier base and leverage the benefit of supply management (Monczka et al., 1998, Carr and Pearson, 1999, Shin et al., 2000 and Chen et al., 2004). SSM is different from SCM in that the former focuses primarily on the dyadic supply relationship between a manufacturer and its key suppliers (Shin et al., 2000). SSM is one of the most important SCM initiatives and a critical component of modern SCM ideas. Organizations adopting SSM normally learn how to manage a few high-quality suppliers and thus make supply management a key strategic planning process (Chen et al., 2004). A strategic orientation in supply management is particularly important in a competitive global marketplace. In response to pressures to improve quality and reduce costs, many manufacturers have realized that concentrating on their core competencies while subcontracting out noncore operations is the way to survive the competition (Krause, 1999 and Liker and Choi, 2004). To compete with other supply chains offering similar product lines, firms must ensure that their suppliers are high performers. Many firms actively improve supply management by developing close buyer–supplier relationships and become increasingly dependent upon suppliers. Although the need for SSM has received increasing attention in various manufacturing sectors, SSM's performance implications for the buyer firm and the operating contexts that might facilitate such an initiative have not been extensively documented. In this research we focus on the manufacturing industry in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region in Guangdong, which is the most profitable production base in China and one of the largest and most cost-effective manufacturing centers in the world (Hong Kong Productivity Council, 1999 and Graham, 2000). To reap the benefits of SCM, local manufacturers of various sizes are jumping on the bandwagon of creating strategic supplier partnerships and leveraging supplier management efforts. There are two major objectives in our research. First, we examine the contextual factors of company size, process type, ISO 9000 certification, and quality management (QM) implementation that might facilitate SSM. Second, we investigate the impact of SSM on organizational performances, including operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and business performance. We collected empirical data from 225 electronics manufacturers and conducted our analysis using structural equation modeling (SEM).

Through our investigations in the Hong Kong electronics industry, we found that while ISO 9000 serves as a foundation in purchasing management, it does not necessarily induce SSM. On the other hand, our research indicates that a total quality initiative facilitates SSM. QM and SSM appear to be rooted in very similar management principles. As a result, organizations implementing QM induce SSM. In terms of the operational context that facilitates SSM, it seems that SSM can be initiated regardless of firm size or process type. We also provide significant evidence that SSM is positively associated with time-based and cost-related operational efficiency, such as on-time shipments and costs of quality, leading to customer satisfaction and superior business performance. The limitations of this paper can be seen as lying in methodology and scope. Methodologically, this study is based mainly on cross-sectional survey research, which provides limited longitudinal evidence for exactly how QM induces SSM or how SSM leads to operational efficiency. The qualitative investigations conducted in this study were partially based on retrospective data through interviews, inducing bias as a result of the retrospective analysis (Yan and Gray, 1994) of the interviewees’ comments. In terms of the scope of the study, this research is limited to the study of the electronics manufacturing industry in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, by including a considerable number of internationally based corporations in our study, we enhanced the generalizability of our findings. Another research limitation is that we have taken a very simplistic measure of QM. This is because QM is taken simply as a contextual variable in this research. QM implementation, in parallel with ISO 9000 certification, firm size, and process type, is considered in this research as one of the organizational contexts that might influence the adoption of SSM. QM is viewed as a strategic initiative in the total quality scheme, and thus we did not investigate the breadth and depth of individual QM practices.