Supply Chain Collaboration

The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of collaborative communication in the physical distribution service quality of soft drinks in beverage manufacturing plants. A desire to learn more about an area that has received little attention in South Africa while contributing information about the variables that influence the performance of soft drink distribution networks prompted this research. The study adopted a cross-sectional research design, which was essential in obtaining a deeper understanding of the relationship between collaborative communication and the physical distribution of beverages as per the study participants' responses. A sample size of 90 participants from the

Over the years, most or many companies have focused their attention to the effectiveness and efficiency of their business units. As a new way of doing business, these companies have begun to realize the strategic importance of planning, controlling, and designing their own supply chain system. This paper analyzes the coordination issues in supply chains that consist of one manufacturer and multiple retailers operating under uncertain end customer demand and delivery lead-time. We use the Genetic Algorithm (GA) to determine the appropriate ordering and inventory level at which the manufacturer and multiple retailers can maximize the profit of the chain. This is performed under three controlling policies: the traditionally centralized controlling policy under the manufacturer's perspective, the entire chain's perspective, and lastly the coordinating controlling policy with an incentive scheme. The outcome from the study reveals that the coordinating controlling policy with an ...

New technology is altering business strategies and innovation capabilities while increasing the possibilities of production and process innovation. Supply chain collaboration undertaken for the sake of sustainability is currently speeding up this process of change; a growing pool of research is exploring the links between sustainability collaboration and company performance on economic, environmental, and social metrics. It is a good time to review the literature to reveal what has been studied and what are the gaps in the current body of knowledge, and also to comment on what the future research agenda should include. For these purposes, the authors conducted a systematic literature review and a quantitative bibliometric analysis. Results indicate that research about supply chain collaboration for the purpose of sustainability is gaining growing attention in the business field; however, environmental and economic considerations still dominate the research, while there is a lack of consideration about social concerns such as child labor and personal development. In addition, the collaboration partners under investigation have mainly been the company and its customers and suppliers, whereas competitors and other horizontal collaboration partners have received little attention. • What are the state-of-the-art and existing trends in the research on sustainability and supply chain collaboration?

This research investigates how information and material distortions affect the inventory management performance of a major retailer. Bullwhip effects (BWEs) are individually calculated for dozens of products carried by dozens of retail locations. Relationships between item/store-level BWEs and item/store-level performance measures including gross margins and inventory levels are tested and reported.

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the gap between the interests in supply chain collaboration (SCC) and the relatively few recorded cases of successful applications – this is the reality of SCC.Design/methodology/approachThe research represents the viewpoints of the authors based on their collective field experiences and literature reviews.FindingsThree realities of SCC are identified – establishing the prerequisites for the collaboration process; where the process starts; and where it terminates. Moreover, a realistic structured approach to SCC containing three loops is outlined.Research limitations/implicationsIncreased awareness for practitioners in SCM by crystallizing when collaboration is useful; what to change; what to change to; and how to make changes happen.Originality/valueThe value of the paper is that it offers a “different” perspective on SCC.

Prior research suggests that supply chain collaboration has enabled companies to compete more efficiently in a global economy. We investigate a class of collaboration software for product design and development called collaborative product commerce (CPC). Drawing on prior research in media richness theory and organizational science, we develop a theoretical framework to study the impact of CPC on product development. Based on data collected from 71 firms, we test our research hypotheses on the impact of CPC on product design quality, design cycle time, and development cost. We find that CPC implementation is associated with greater collaboration among product design teams. This collaboration has a significant, positive impact on product quality and reduces cycle time and product development cost. Further analyses reveal that CPC implementation is associated with substantial cost savings that can be attributed to improvements in product design quality, design turnaround time, greater...

This chapter aims to discuss the use of open innovation and collaborative network as a resource to create value and increase competitiveness in supply chain. A case study of Open IPTV Forum was conducted based on documentary and secondary data. The analysis was based on Amit and Zott (2001) model as well as on Carayannis and Wang (2008) innovation networks and knowledge clusters roles. The results indicate the feasibility of joining simultaneously several different actors of a supply chain to develop a new product/service.

Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) is an industry‐wide initiative that is commonly believed to have fallen far short of its promised efficiencies and value. Many believe that unrealistic expectations among grocery industry participants are primarily at fault for this shortcoming. The level of internal and external change required to make desired outcomes a reality have been underestimated and poorly understood by prospective participants. While change has been slower than desired, many firms have collaborated effectively and achieved significant results through coordinated supply chain activities. This research uses case studies to illustrate successful collaboration in the grocery supply chain and explores the success factors inherent in such efforts.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) became popular to facilitate international business transactions in the 1990s, but, even today, it can be seen that its use is not introduced everywhere. This article reviews some statements on the adoption of EDI in companies and integration into other IT systems. Furthermore, it looks at situations in specific countries. Statements are made how to integrate Electronic Data Interchange in cloudbased systems.

This chapter investigates the barriers and driving forces of supply chain collaboration in Nigeria as prior research has not adequately explored this issue in developing countries. Using an in-depth qualitative interviews conducted with purchasing and supply chain managers in the food and beverage manufacturing industry in Nigeria, our results reveal the fragmented nature of supply chain management systems. Our findings also show how supply chain collaborations struggle to flourish in a highly unpredicatable market. Thus, this chapter offers insights into the different factors that act as barriers to effective collaboration between supply chain partners. We also show how IT infrastructure and digital technologies could be used as a springboard to promote collaboration in the African context. The barriers and drivers are segmented into three distinct levels such as external, internal, and supply chain level. The theoretical and practical implications of this research are highlighted.

Product-related information can be integrated with the help of a product ontology, which can provide consensual definitions of concepts and interrelationships relevant in a product domain of interest. A product ontology is either given by a third party or results from ontology engineering. In both cases, the problem is how to assess its quality, and then select the "right" ontology. This chapter: (1) proposes a metrics suite for product ontology evaluation based on semiotic theory, and (2) demonstrates the feasibility and usefulness of the metrics suite using a supply chain model. The contribution of this research is the comprehensive metrics suite that takes into account the various quality dimensions of product ontology.

Esta investigación tiene como propósito desarrollar una app móvil, que mediante códigos QR brinde acceso a la búsqueda, publicación y valoración de los servicios o productos que se ofrecen en los conjuntos residenciales de la ciudad de Barranquilla, teniendo en cuenta que muchos residentes promocionan sus servicios de manera informal o mediante carteles pegados en las zonas comunes y no se dan a conocer de manera eficiente y oportuna. La llegada de la pandemia modificó la forma de hacer negocios, ya que gracias a la implementación de la tecnología y al uso frecuente de teléfonos inteligentes se puede llegar más fácilmente a los clientes, evitando la interacción social. Con base en esto, se propone un sistema innovador que gestione la oferta y demanda de los servicios o productos de manera confiable.

Revue Française d'Economie et de Gestion www.revuefreg.fr Page 424 Résumé Ce papier aborde la convergence relative des approches des accruals discrétionnaires telles qu'elles sont développées par Jones, Dechow et Kothari. Quoique les accruals discrétionnaires soient estimés à travers les des régressions correspondantes dans les trois cas, avec des variables potentiellement explicatives différentes d'une approche à l'autre, nous nous attendons à ce que les valeurs de tels accruals diffèrent plus ou moins. Cependant, étant donnée la définition des accruals discrétionnaires eux-mêmes, comme bruits blancs (White Noises) extraits des régressions aux sens de Jones, Dechow et Kothari, une certaine dose de convergence pourrait se manifester entre les trois approches d'estimation. Effectivement, nos analyses sur données de panel puisées dans les comptes de 52 firmes marocaines cotées sur le marché boursier de Casablanca, et opérant dans les divers secteurs productifs révèlent que nos batteries d'estimations et tests économétriques sont conformes à une convergence relativement élevée des approches des accruals aux sens de Jones, Dechow et Kothari. Les trois approches d'estimation des accruals discrétionnaires peuvent dès lors être alternativement utilisées en vue d'analyser empiriquement les accruals et leurs liens avec des variables potentiellement explicatives sélectionnées en ligne avec les prédictions de la théorie économique/managériale et les spécificités de l'économie marocaine.

Sharing of operational capabilities in the supply chains brings benefits to the companies involved. However, studies on operational capabilities in the Brazilian supply chain are still non-existent. The current article investigates the effects of operational capabilities on operational performance in the automotive supply chain. An explanatory cross-section survey was employed. The sample used concentrates on the southeast region of Brazil where there is the largest concentration of automakers. Employing the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and regression analysis, the results show that three operational capabilities have positive and significantly operational performance. These operational capabilities are cooperation, improvement and customization.

This paper first explores the motives and drivers that Logistic Service Providers (LSPs) may feel to start up horizontal cooperation. Secondly, a classification supporting LSPs in their search for a suitable collaboration structure is developed based on distinguishing cooperation characteristics encountered in practice. The third contribution consists of a description of the typical life cycle of a partnership and how it can be managed over time. Partnerships are presented as a means for LSPs to cope with increasingly difficult market conditions. In addition, they offer positive side effects for society and the environment.

We develop actionable design propositions for collaborative sales and operations planning (S&OP) based on the observation of contexts in which benefits are generated — or are absent — from retail information sharing. An information sharing pilot project in a real‐life setting of two product manufacturers and one retailer was designed. The project resulted in one manufacturer, serving a retailer from its local factory, developing a process for collaborative S&OP, while the other manufacturer serving a retailer from more distant regional factories abandoned the process. The evaluation of the outcomes experienced by the two manufacturers allows us to examine contexts in fine‐grained detail and explain why introducing information sharing in the S&OP processes produce — or fail to produce — benefits. The paper contributes to the supply chain information sharing literature by presenting a field tested and evolved S&OP design for non‐standard demand situations, and by a contextual analysis...

Organisations are becoming increasingly conscious of the fact that optimising the performance of the whole supply chain, instead of the individual organisations that constitute a supply chain, is the way to go. At the same time, uncertainty and changing customer expectations have made it abundantly clear that no single individual organisation has a monopoly over the efforts that lead to increased customer satisfaction. Products in Ghana's downstream petroleum sector are mainly imported and therefore, susceptible to currency fluctuations. Furthermore, these products are undifferentiated, and the market, characterised with small margins making competition very keen, hence, internal efficiency and cost reduction are the keys to profits and survival. Though collaboration is one of the catalysts to competitive advantage and firm performance through cost reduction, how it relates to the dimensions its as antecedents and outcomes are, however, largely overlooked and neglected in the literature. Accordingly, it is inconclusive as to how the dimensions of collaborative culture, uncertainty and trust, influence supply chain collaboration as well as how supply chain collaboration influences the individual dimensions of collaborative advantage and firm performance in Ghana's downstream petroleum sector. Drawing on the literature, this study, investigated the antecedents and outcomes of supply chain collaboration by examining through a comprehensive model, nine antecedents and seven outcomes of supply chain collaboration in the downstream petroleum sector. Collectivism, long-term orientation, power symmetry, uncertainty avoidance, benevolence, credibility microlevel uncertainty, meso-level uncertainty and macro-level uncertainty have been identified as the antecedents to supply chain collaboration. At the same time, process efficiency, business synergy, offering flexibility, quality, innovation, operational performance and financial performance were the outcome of supply chain collaboration.

This editorial embodies a series of essays from the current and past editors of the Journal of Business Logistics in marking the 40th anniversary of the journal. The compendium is intended to illustrate the evolution in logistics thought and practice as well as the journal's role in documenting and advancing the field. Key trends are identified in each era. Further, each editor expresses opinions of the current and future state of the discipline. This review reflects on the evolution of the Journal of Business Logistics and envisions the futures of the logistics field and supply chain discipline.

Les auteurs mettent en place une étude exploratoire dans le but de développer une échelle de mesure de l'orientation transactionnelle/relationnelle du client. Cette étude est menée dans le contexte de l'industrie bancaire française, sur les marchés des particuliers et des professionnels. Les résultats montrent qu'une échelle différente est nécessaire pour chacun de ces environnements. Mots clés : orientation relationnelle ; orientation transactionnelle ; marketing relationnel ; marketing bancaire ; services ; échelle.

In recent years, many new and interesting models of successful online business have been developed. Many of these are based on the competition between users, such as online auctions, where the product price is not fixed and tends to rise. Other models, including group-buying, are based on cooperation between users, characterized by a dynamic price of the product that tends to go down. There is not yet a business model in which both sellers and buyers are grouped in order to negotiate on a specific product or service. The present study investigates a new extension of the group-buying model, called fair, which allows aggregation of demand and supply for price optimization, in a cooperative manner. Additionally, our system also aggregates products and destinations for shipping optimization. We introduced the following new relevant input parameters in order to implement a double-side aggregation: (a) price-quantity curves provided by the seller; (b) waiting time, that is, the longer buy...

Purpose Companies increasingly exchange information to work more closely with supply chain partners. Although information exchange is a critical element for up- and downstream partnerships, the purpose of this paper is to indicate that it is not a guarantee for improved performance and should be combined with other integration tactics to fully capture its benefits. Design/methodology/approach Using a global sample in the industrial sector, a moderated mediation framework for both upstream and downstream integration, which links integration tactics to operational performance, was empirically tested. Findings This research shows that operational integration is indispensable to capture the benefits of information exchange. In addition, it points out that the impact of the use of information technology (IT) is stronger for upstream integration. Practical implications While the data show that the use of IT significantly improves the delivery performance in the supply chain, it also signa...

Purpose Given the increasingly turbulent business landscape and unprecedented incidents (e.g. Covid-19), firms must achieve supply chain resilience (SCRes) as a dynamic capability to bounce back from adversities and ensure continuity of operations. The purpose of this study is to integrate the three interrelated [knowledge management, risk management culture (RMC) and resilience] but often separately discussed concepts to advance the understanding of their intertwined influence on SCRes in the agri-food supply chains. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a cross-sectional survey approach where quantitative data is collected from 349 participants from the Australian agri-food supply chains to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings Exposure to supply chain risks triggers the deployment of specific knowledge management practices in the agri-food supply chains. Further, the analysis on serial mediation suggests that firms’ knowledge management practices work sequentially (knowled...

This study aims at exploring how ICT affects CPFR with focus on information flows in planning and control processes. A case study of a pharmacy supply chain in Norway is conducted to investigate process changes related to an APS system implemented to support a CPFR initiative. Process changes are investigated in view of enhanced information, automated processes and organizational transformation. This study shows that the main impact of ICT is associated with enhanced information flows and transformed processes that its contribution to reducing labour is more limited, and that large information volumes are critical. Adding to current CPFR literature this work provides insights to the contribution of ICT with focus on enhanced information and process transformation. The importance of automatic features of ICT in information processing and exchange and its contribution to improved planning and control information as well as to implementing a joint CPFR approach is especially highlighted.

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Most business districts and economies now have foreign direct Investments especially within the supermarket retail operators who are first generation Chinese or of Chinese descent. In these same trading environments are locally owned competitors. Some of the locally-owned and operated counterparts have not been as comparatively successful and are not able to overcome the same challenges and business environment that the Chinese operated ones have survived in. The differentiating factor appears to include cost saving strategies, practices, coupled with great focus and concentration. This report contains a review of the contemporary cost saving practices of the Chinese operated supermarket retail enterprises in the Pacific countries, from the available literature.

The MIT Global Supply Chain and Logistics Excellence (SCALE) Network is an international alliance of leading-edge research and education centers, dedicated to the development and dissemination of global innovation in supply chain and logistics. The Global SCALE Network allows faculty, researchers, students, and affiliated companies from all six centers around the world to pool their expertise and collaborate on projects that will create supply chain and logistics innovations with global applications. This reprint is intended to communicate research results of innovative supply chain research completed by faculty, researchers, and students of the Global SCALE Network, thereby contributing to the greater public knowledge about supply chains.

PurposeCollaboration has been referred to as the driving force behind effective supply chain management and may be the ultimate core capability. However, there is a fairly widespread belief that few firms have truly capitalized on its potential. A study was undertaken to assess the current level of supply chain collaboration and identify best practice.Design/methodology/approachSupply chain executives provided insights into collaboration. Survey data, personal interviews, and a review of the collaboration literature were used to develop a conceptual model profiling behavior, culture, and relational interactions associated with successful collaboration.FindingsPositive collaboration‐related outcomes include enhancements to efficiency, effectiveness, and market positions for the respondents' firms.Research limitations/implicationsThe small sample size represents a limitation, but is balanced by the quality of the respondent base and their expertise/experience. Another limitation i...

Many studies assess the relationality of B2B exchanges by using measures of Macneil's norms. However, creating these measures ignores central aspects of Macneil's work. This article offers a set of scales that more accurately reflect Macneil's interpretation of the role of norms in exchanges.

PurposeThe present study focused on examining the effect of treated wastewater (TWW) on soil chemical properties. Also, efforts were made to compare the soil chemical properties under TWW irrigation with that under groundwater (GW).Design/methodology/approachDuring the years 2021 and 2022, surface and subsurface soil samples were randomly collected in triplicate by using an auger fortnightly at two depths (20 and 40 cm) from the selected spot areas to represent the different types of irrigation water sources: TWW and GW. Samples of the GW and the TWW were collected for analysis.FindingsThis study examines the impact of TWW on soil characteristics and the surrounding environment. TWW use enhances soil organic matter, nutrient availability and salt redistribution, while reducing calcium carbonate accumulation in the topsoil. However, it negatively affects soil pH, electrical conductivity and sodium adsorption ratio, although remaining within acceptable limits. Generally, irrigating wi...

Innovative products and services are key success factors for the manufacturing industry. Development of such products and services usually takes place in partnerships in which the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) distributes the development of new products to many locations in several countries across the world. Suppliers, especially first-tier suppliers (FTSs) are involved in the development process as early as possible, because they have knowledge that is strategically important for developing the new product and services. Historically, the OEM-supplier relationship is characterized by a sequential interaction whereby the OEM gives product and production requirements to the supplier and the supplier delivers his product or service to the OEM. However, collaboration between FTS and OEM is essential to fruitfully use the knowledge of the FTS, anticipate potential downstream errors, and reduce costs and risks. The paper presents recent developments in this part of the supply cha...

To improve the supply chain's performance under demand uncertainty and exceptions, various levels of collaboration techniques based on information sharing were set up in real supply chains (VMI, CPR, CPFR…). The main principle of these methods is that the retailers do not need to place orders because wholesalers use information centralization to decide when to replenish them. Although these techniques could be extended to a whole supply chain, current implementations only work between two business partners. With these techniques, companies electronically exchange a series of written comments and supporting data, which includes past sales trends, scheduled promotions, and forecasts. This allows participants to coordinate joint forecasting by focusing on differences in forecasts. But if the supply chain consists of autonomous enterprises, sharing information becomes a critical obstacle, since each independent actor is typically not willing to share with the other nodes its own strategic data (as inventory levels); That is why researchers proposed different methods and information systems to let the members of the supply chain collaborate without sharing all their confidential data and information. In this chapter we analyze some of the existing approaches and works and describe an agent-based distributed architecture for the decision-making process. The agents in this architecture use a set of negotiation protocols (such as Firm Heuristic, Recursive Heuristic, CPFR Negotiation Protocol) to collectively make decisions in a short time. The architecture has been validated on an industrial case study.

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The suitability of product attributes forsuccessful VMI program has been discussed by numerous authors and but not concluded yet.  This study is to explain the moderating effects of product attributestoward VMI performance. The data was gathered from 101 of suppliers in manufacturing companies. Data analysis was conducted by employing factor analysis, reliability test, and hierarchical multiple regressions. The findings show that only level of demand visibility is the main predictor of service performance. While, replenishment decision and inventory ownership were predictor to cost performance. The innovative product moderates the relationship between level of demand visibility and VMI performance. The functional product moderates the relationship between replenishment decision and service performance; and the relationship between inventory ownership and cost performance. Suppliers in manufacturing companies should urge their customer to share demand information when engaging in VMI...

This research aimed to use the collaborative communication aspects of information sharing, incentive alignment, and decision synchronization to explain physical distribution service quality in the soft drink demand chain. The research was prompted by a desire to learn more about a topic that has received little attention in Greece while also contributing information about the variables that influence the performance of soft drink distribution networks. Manufacturers in Greece provided the data. The aspects of collaborative communication were significant determinants of the physical distribution service quality. Physical distribution service quality was shown to be significantly predicted by incentive alignment and information sharing, but not by decision synchronization. This research shows that collaborative communication aspects such as information sharing, decision synchronization, and incentive alignment enhance physical distribution service quality in soft drink demand chains. ...

This paper presents the results of empirical analysis on the relationship between customer collaboration practices in supply chain management and operational performance of manufacturing companies. Data were collected between 2013 and 2015 from 304 manufacturing companies in 13 countries across the world in the framework of high-performance manufacturing project. The results of statistical descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis indicate that customer collaboration practices have positive relationship with operational performance in terms of quality, cost, delivery speed, on-time delivery and flexibility. This study suggests the researchers and managers to develop and implement a set of customer collaboration practices to improve supply chain management effectiveness.

Supply chain contracts are important tools for sharing risk and increasing overall supply chain profitability. Research on supply chain contracts shows that supply chain actors can make more profit if they cooperate with other actors instead of acting alone. Game theory has become an important tool in the analysis of supply chains with multiple actors whose primary purpose is to increase their own profits. In cooperative games, players try to get more than they can alone by forming coalitions. In this study, buyback contract, which is one of the most used contract types in order to ensure supply chain coordination, is tried to be handled with the game theory. Considering the similarity of the relations between game theory and supply chain actors, it is aimed to distribute the profits of the supply chain more equitably. In the study the gains that the supply chain actors will gain in case of using buyback contract for different coalition options are calculated. Then, a game theory-based approach was followed to distribute profits fairly among supply chain actors. The results showed that the proposed approach can provide a more equitable profit sharing among supply chain actors. The main contribution of this study to the literature is that the profit sharing between supply chain actors has not been handled with the logic of game theory until this time. Therefore, it is thought that this study will open the door to examining other supply chain contracts within the scope of cooperative games.

Science for Revenue Management at Walt Disney World where he is responsible for overseeing the strategic direction for applying operations research and statistical techniques to solve complex revenue management and pricing problems. He has been with Disney since 1995 and has played various leadership roles in Revenue Management and Information Technology. He holds a Master's Degree in Business Administration from the University of Houston focusing on decision and information technology.

L'objectif de cet article est de montrer l'influence de la confiance sur un environnement incertain caractérisé par le paradoxe de l'absence absolue des contrats et l'augmentation des contraintes réglementaires du secteur. Nos résultats ont montré que la dynamique du transport informel de marchandises au Maroc implique souvent la présence de la confiance ou, plus largement, de capital social, dont Dam'n , joue un rôle de garant de l'ordre communautaire (Lkelma et Niya) plutôt que de l'ordre judiciaire (contrats, sanctions officielles...). En effet, les relations d'échange du transport informel de marchandises au Maroc, a priori non contractuelles et incertaines, sont régies par un « algorithme social » fondé sur la confiance interpersonnelle, plutôt que la confiance « aveugle ou calculatoire ».

This paper provides an assessment of partial Information Sharing (IS) in Supply Chain (SC). We study the dynamics of collaborative multi-echelon structure, characterized by an increasing level of information visibility among partners. To do so, we mathematically model six four-echelon serial SCs via difference equations and conduct numerical simulations on the basis of a robust design of experiment. Results shows how (1) as the extent of IS increases, the performance of whole SC improves as well, and (2) the impact of IS depends not on which particular members are involved but on the number of collaborative members.

This paper aims to advance the process dimension of inter-organisational adaptation that takes places in supply chain relationships, building upon learning literature. Therefore, it summarizes and disentangles the different debates on inter-organisational adaptation and learning in the literature and establishes the theoretical linkage between both concepts. Two dyadic case studies show that the learning processes that underlie inter-organisational adaptations may

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Partnership with other organizations could improve companies' performance. However, partnerships have a high failure rate according to the literature. Therefore, monitoring the performance of a partnership and evaluating the components that affect its performance are essential. Joint decision-making, information sharing, risk/reward sharing, relationship-specific assets, trust and commitment are identified as the major components that affect the performance of an ongoing partnership. However, no previous study evaluated the components of an ongoing partnership over time. In this study, a multi-criteria decision support model is proposed to assess the components that influence the performance of an ongoing partnership. Multiple indicators are used to assess each component. The interdependency and importance of the components and their indicators are incorporated into the model using the Warshall's Algorithm and Analytic Network Process (ANP), respectively. The importance of each component and indicator, and a single number for the overall level of partnership components in each period, named as Partnership Component Index (PCI) here, are the outputs of the proposed model. PCI is a quantitative multi-dimensional index. A partnership between a forest company and a sawmill in British Columbia, Canada is used as a case study to test the model. The components of the partnership is assessed in three different periods using PCI. The results are validated by the managers and sensitivity analysis is also performed.

Guest Editorial Knowledge and information technology management in supply chain integration Manufacturing has undergone numerous changes in the past decades in terms of implementing new operations strategies, techniques and technologies. Manufacturing has changed from a labour-intensive to a capital-intensive environment. Since the market for manufacturing goods has become global, companies have to compete based on mass customization rather than mass production as they did traditionally. This necessitates the manufacturing companies to compete based on multiple competitive performance objectives such as the price, quality, flexibility, responsiveness and dependability. In recent years, manufacturing companies have implemented various technologies/systems, which include E-Commerce (B2C, B2B and B2A), CAD/CAM, MRP, EDI, RFID, and ERP in order to improve the information flow and in turn the material flow. Virtual enterprise has become a reality with the emergence of supply chain concepts and information technology/ systems for integrating partnering firms and customer-suppliers activities. All these aim to improve organizational productivity and competitiveness by being agile to meet the changing market requirements. In the information-intensive manufacturing, knowledge management is to constantly update the knowledge required for organizations to effectively operate in a dynamic global manufacturing environment with the help of suitable information technology/systems. The main objective of this special issue is to assist researchers and practitioners to understand, appreciate and implement required knowledge and information technology management (KITM) strategies, techniques and tools to achieve an integrated supply chain in manufacturing. This special issue presents 10 articles that cover a range of KITM papers. The objective of this special issue is to publish original works that demonstrate the application of operational research models and interesting empirical results arising from the research on KITM in manufacturing. Leading this issue is a paper by Gunasekaran and Ngai entitled 'Knowledge management in 21st century manufacturing', reviewing the literature available on knowledge management (KM) in advanced manufacturing environments using a suitable classification scheme with the objective of developing a framework for managing knowledge in manufacturing. Wang, Jiang and Klein, in their paper 'IT supports in manufacturing firms for a knowledge management dynamic capability link to performance', which presents a model that proves that IT supports of knowledge management are indirectly linked