Traditional supply chains can greatly amplify changes in end‐customer demand and thereby produce their own internally generated boom‐and‐bust scenarios. Improvement in supply chain performance is often greatly separated by time (many months) and distance (many miles) from the action taken...

Purpose – Quick scan audit methodology (QSAM) has been adapted to include some change management practices. This paper seeks to relate how the company's dissemination feedback presentation sessions and implementation team‐work added value to the established QSAM by: offering a new method of...

“Bullwhip” describes the general tendency for small changes in end‐customer demand to be amplified within a production‐distribution system. A 10 per cent increase in sales to end‐customers can precipitate a 40 per cent upswing in production and subsequent downswing (as excess stocks...

The latter part of the 20th century saw the lean production paradigm positively impact many market sectors ranging from automotive through to construction. In particular, there is much evidence to suggest that level scheduling combined with the elimination of muda has successfully delivered a...

It is well known that forecasting mechanisms can greatly increase "bullwhip" – demand variance amplification of orders as processed by both human and algorithmic decision makers. This paper is concerned with the application of the well-established APIOBPCS Decision Support System (a variant of...

This paper describes a conceptual model of the process by which a “fad” makes the important transition to “paradigm”. It is a distinctive contribution to management theory whereby transferable principles are evaluated as a set of business paradigms. The heart of the transformation...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the appropriateness of using the 12 previously published material flow simplicity rules (SRs) to shape the successful design and implementation of improvements in a casting company product delivery process (PDP). Design/methodology/approach –...

Introduces a supply chain “health check” procedure successfully applied in the European automotive sector and presents the results for the analysis of 20 trans‐European value streams covering a wide range of first and second tier suppliers. The health check procedure is activated via a...

Shows how the lean and agile paradigms may be selected according to marketplace requirements. These are distinctly different, since in the first case the market winner is cost, whereas in the second case the market winner is availability. Agile supply chains are required to be market sensitive...