Introduction to the special issue on teaching supply chain management

Production and Operations Management, Spring 2000 by Johnson, M Eric, Pyke, David F

While marketing focuses downstream in the supply chain, sourcing and supplier management looks upstream to suppliers. Make/buy decisions (Venkatesan 1992; Carrol 1993; Christensen 1994; Quinn and Hilmer 1994; Kelley 1995; Robertson and Langlois 1995) fall into this category, as does global sourcing (Little 1995; Pyke 1994). The location category addresses the location of a firm's own facilities, while this category pertains to the location of the firm's suppliers. Supplier relationship management falls into this category as well (McMillan 1990; Womack, Jones, and Roos 1991). Some firms are putting part specifications on the web so that dozens of suppliers can bid on jobs. General Electric (cE), for instance, has developed a trading process network that allows many more suppliers to bid than was possible before. The automotive assemblers are developing a similar capability. Other firms are moving in the opposite direction by reducing the number of suppliers, in some cases to a sole source (Helper and Sako 1995; Cusumano and Takeishi 1991). Determining the number of suppliers and the best way to structure supplier relationships is becoming an important topic in supply chains (Cohen and Agrawal 1996; Dyer 1996; Fine 1998; Magretta 1998; Pyke 1998).

The information and electronic mediated environments category addresses long-standing applications of information technology to reduce inventory (Woolley 1997) and the rapidly expanding area of electronic commerce (Benjamin and Wigand 1997; Schonfeld 1998). Often this subject may take a more systems orientation, examining the role of systems science and information within a supply chain (Senge 1990). Such a discussion naturally focuses attention on integrative ExP software such as sAr (Whang; Gilland, and Lee 1995), Baan, and Oracle, as well as supply chain offerings such as i2's Rhythm and Peoplesoft's Red Pepper. To stay abreast of this rapidly changing field, many instructors supplement class readings with guest lectures from industry. Much of the teaching related to specific software is limited to developing an awareness of what the applications claim to do and the experience of firms that spend up to $200 million to implement them. Finally, the many supply chain changes wrought by electronic commerce are particularly interesting to examine, including both the highly publicized retail channel changes (e.g., Amazon.com) and the more substantial business to business innovations (such as the cE trading process network). It is here that we interface most directly with colleagues in information technology and strategy, which again creates opportunities for cross-course integration (Lee and Whang 1999).

Product design and new product introduction deals with design issues for mass customization, delayed differentiation, modularity, and other issues for new product introduction. With the increasing supply chain demands of product variety (Gilmore and Pine 1997; Fine 1998) and customization (McCutcheon, Raturi, and Meredith 1994), there is an increasing body of material to cover. One of the most exciting applications of "supply chain thinking" is the increased use of postponed product differentiation (Feitzinger and Lee 1997). Here we find an interface with engineering and development, with clear implications for product cost and inventory savings. Inventory models are often used to identify some of the benefits of these initiatives (Lee, Billington, and Carter 1993). Also important are issues related to managing new product introduction and product rollover (Billington, Lee, and Tang 1998).