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Keywords Supply chain management, Performance measurement
Abstract As supply chains continue to replace individual firms as the economic engine for creating value during the twenty-first century, understanding the relationship between supply-chain management practices and supply chain performance becomes increasingly important. The Supply-Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model developed by the Supply Chain Council provides a framework for characterizing supply-chain management practices and processes that result in best-in-class performance. However, which of these practices have the most influence on supply chain performance? This exploratory study investigates the relationship between supply-chain management planning practices and supply chain performance based on the four decision areas provided in SCOR Model Version 4.0 (PLAN, SOURCE, MAKE, DELIVER) and nine key supply-chain management planning practices derived from supply-chain management experts and practitioners. The results show that planning processes are important in all SCOR supply chain planning decision areas. Collaboration was found to be most important in the Plan, Source and Make planning decision areas, while teaming was most important in supporting the Plan and Source planning decision areas. Process measures, process credibility, process integration, and information technology were found to be most critical in supporting the Deliver planning decision area. Using these results, the study discusses the implications of the findings and suggests several avenues for future research.
Introduction
Increasingly, firms are adopting supply-chain management (SCM) to reduce costs, increase market share and sales, and build solid customer relations (Ferguson, 2000). SCM can be viewed as a philosophy based on the belief that each firm in the supply chain directly and indirectly affects the performance of all the other supply chain members, as well as ultimately, overall supply-chain performance (Cooper et al., 1997). The effective use of this philosophy requires that functional and supply-chain partner activities are aligned with company strategy and harmonized with organizational structure, processes, culture, incentives and people (Abell, 1999). Additionally, the chain-wide deployment of SCM practices consistent with the above-mentioned philosophy is needed to provide maximum benefit to its members.
The Supply-Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model was developed by the Supply-Chain Council (SCC) to assist firms in increasing the effectiveness of their supply chains, and to provide a process-based approach to SCM (Stewart, 1997). The SCOR model provides a common process oriented language for communicating among supply-chain...