The Role of Collaboration in Global Supply Chain Management Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of global supply chain management, focusing on the critical role of collaboration in enhancing supply chain resilience. It examines the findings of a specific article that investigates the relationship between collaborative activities and resilience within the food processing sector. The report explores theoretical frameworks, including proactive and reactive strategies, joint planning, and information exchange. The methodology involves a multiple case study approach, analyzing data collected through interviews with suppliers and central companies. Key findings highlight the importance of information sharing, collaborative communication, and joint relationship efforts in improving flexibility, visibility, and speed within the supply chain. The report also presents a framework and strategies for building a resilient supply chain, including adapting to demand, creating agile supply chains, and integrating sustainability. Furthermore, it emphasizes the impact of mutual dependency and competition on supply chain resilience, concluding that effective global supply chain management requires strategic alignment with business objectives and consideration of market conditions.

Running head: GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Global Supply Chain Management
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Introduction
Global supply chain management includes a network of suppliers and manufacturers
along with warehouses, distribution centers, retailers and wholesalers. This network in the supply
chain is created among the companies all over the world that is responsible for managing,
producing or distributing specific kinds of goods and products. There are also a range of special
facilitating systems such as information and transportation systems (Du Toit and Vlok 2014).
For this assignment the article ‘the role of collaboration in supply chain resilience’ by
Kirstin Scholten and Sanne Schilder will be considered for reviewing. This article has focused on
the aspect of the impact of collaboration on supply chain resilience. The main purpose is to find
out the collaborative activities and related mechanisms in association with flexibility, speed and
visibility. The approach behind this article consists of the relationship among eight buyers and
suppliers in the food processing sector. In the course of this assignment the contemporary and
relevant theories and principles of supply chain management will be analyzed.
Theoretical background
Supply chain resilience is important for events to decrease the effect of disruption and the
underlying elements are different within the theory itself. Supply chain resilience strategies
include proactive strategies by appropriate selection of suppliers. This will be helpful in reducing
the impact such as political constancy in the suppliers’ area, quality, reliability etc. Reactive
strategies include sustainability compliance along with social, economic and environmental
requirements to reduce the risks of supply chain for instance reputation risk (Christopher 2016).

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For the development of synergies among the groups of supply chain collaboration, joint
planning and information exchange is encouraged for recovering from supply chain disruption.
According to (Stadtler 2015) the foundation of collaboration is based on the mutuality of
benefits, risk sharing and rewards along with the exchange of information. As per the survey
conducted by McKinsey & Company, the Grocery Manufacturers Association and Nielsen in
2008, the effort of collaboration between the manufacturers and the retailer customers have
grown significantly over the years.
Methodology
A multiple case study was taken into consideration to explore the real life phenomenon of
supply chain resilience. This article has focused on the two food processing companies of
Netherlands, one has plans to develop resilience and the other has a complex network supply. A
resilient supply chain is important because in 2013 supply chain disruption in the first company
resulted in the loss of more than 1,000,000 euro with respect to resources, raw materials and
customer revenues (Scholten and Schilder 2015).
For gathering data on this particular topic interviews were collected from the suppliers
and the central companies thus linking the topic of supply chain management on a global
context. The interviews were conducted on the basis of a strict and organized topic which was
well elaborated in relation to previous disruptions. The interview questions that were asked to the
participants were linked to the given instance of the two food processing companies.
The collected data were analyzed by adhering to the three steps of reduction followed by
display and conclusion. The data collected were reduced to statements in order to answer the
research questions such as what are the objectives; what research methods are used; what the

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assumptions are; what are the main findings and others. Thus different types of collaborative
activities in the supply chain got identified. The data were analyzed either for resilience or for
collaborative activities but not for both.
Findings
The findings when analyzed focused on the importance of sharing of information and
collaborative communication which forms the major part for improving supply chain resilience
by making flexibility, visibility and speed better (Monczka et al. 2015). Therefore organizations
all around the world need to take into consideration the kind of information that is shared in
order to increase the three aspects mentioned. For this particular article, the information was
gathered by conducting personal face- to- face interviews and also telephone interview which
made it possible to mitigate the problem of supply chain disruptions.
Joint relationship effort is much wider than only sharing of information or the
collaborative activities because it participates in supply chain resilience too. To be specific the
process of combining decision through associated problem solving and resource sharing arose
from the collected data for making speed and flexibility better (Hugos 2018). For instance in this
particular article adapting the suitable process n both the food processing companies will help in
the quick response to disruption.
While reviewing this article Mangan, Lalwani and Lalwani (2016) also found out that
competitors are really crucial when effort is required to decrease the effect of disruption in the
supply chain network. For instance if one of the food processing companies does not have a
truck to supply the goods then they can use one of their competitors’ truck and get the advantage.
It has actually focused on a minor level of incentive flexibility among the central companies and

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their suppliers. Thus, strong indicating factors were found that focused on the efforts of joint
relationship in working for better speed and flexibility. Given below is the framework which will
support the above discussion-
Fig: Generic supply chain
Source: (Brindley 2017)
The data collected for this article has shed light on the fact that mutual dependency
between two groups act as a catalyst in sharing of information, getting joint solution, and
therefore learning and investments taking a part in the increase of resilience.
Moreover there are certain strategies that the organizations worldwide can adapt in order
to make a strong supply chain network. Those strategies are formulated below-

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1) Get adapted to a model of planning and business that focuses on timely demand with
proper shaping.
2) Creating a supply chain that will be adaptive as well as swift after proper planning and
combined execution.
3) Modifying the designing and management of product for manufacturing, supply and also
sustainability so that innovation can be enhanced in a profitable way
4) Linking the supply chain with the business objectives by combining with sales and
operations planning along with corporate business planning
5) Mix sustainability with the operations of supply chain
6) Making the supply reliable as well as predictable (Fahimnia, Sarkis and Davarzani 2015)
The findings have stressed on the fact that knowledge when created with mutual
understanding acts better in supply chain resilience. It was specifically analyzed that combined
learning along with speed and duration that the organizations have been working on has an
impact on visibility. It also helps to manage disruptions, if any, caused by the variable
characteristic of the products.
In order to work towards effective global supply chain managerial decision making the
supply chain design must support strategic objectives and linked with the business objectives.
These are long term planning and also expensive so market condition should be considered
(Brandenburg et al. 2014). Decision making again takes into consideration certain factors such as
location of the markets, building inventories, backup planning, policies, time and size of
promoting market. In addition to these factors the planning should also take into account
uncertainty in demands, rates of exchange and competition in the changing market.

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Discussion
While discussing the features of supply chain network it can be stated that the frequency
and effect of supply chain disruptions is very high. That is why those resilient supply chains
which can get adapted to the risks of visibility, speed, flexibility and collaborative activities are
of utmost importance in the international market.
In order to answer the research question of the role played by the collaborative activities
in leading to a resilient supply chain between the supply chain members, Brindley (2017)
mentioned that the case of eight buyer- supplier relationship did justice to the question. This
analysis has stressed impact of network collaboration level on supply chain resilience. In
addition to that, the interdependent organizations get involved in investments to boost mutual
dependency. Given below is a simplified diagram of collaboration of supply chain resilience-
Fig: Influence of collaboration on supply chain resilience

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Source: (Wisner, Tan and Leong 2014)
Conclusion
From this essay it can be concluded that the research findings have been apt in focusing
on the role of collaboration in supply chain resilience by aligning with visibility, flexibility and
speed. Collaboration has been identified as an antecedent in the construct of resilience. This
study had the scope to analyze and evaluate supply chain from the viewpoint of a number of
companies and thus added new value. It helped in recognizing that not only mutual sharing or
dependencies but also competition in the market identifies the level of resilience in a supply
chain.

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References
Brandenburg, M., Govindan, K., Sarkis, J. and Seuring, S., 2014. Quantitative models for
sustainable supply chain management: Developments and directions. European Journal of
Operational Research, 233(2), pp.299-312.
Brindley, C. ed., 2017. Supply chain risk. Taylor & Francis.
Christopher, M., 2016. Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.
Du Toit, D. and Vlok, P.J., 2014. Supply chain management: A framework of
understanding. South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 25(3), pp.25-38.
Fahimnia, B., Sarkis, J. and Davarzani, H., 2015. Green supply chain management: A review and
bibliometric analysis. International Journal of Production Economics, 162, pp.101-114.
Hugos, M.H., 2018. Essentials of supply chain management. John Wiley & Sons.
Mangan, J., Lalwani, C. and Lalwani, C.L., 2016. Global logistics and supply chain
management. John Wiley & Sons.
Monczka, R.M., Handfield, R.B., Giunipero, L.C. and Patterson, J.L., 2015. Purchasing and
supply chain management. Cengage Learning.
Scholten, K. and Schilder, S., 2015. The role of collaboration in supply chain resilience. Supply
Chain Management: An International Journal, 20(4), pp.471-484.
Stadtler, H., 2015. Supply chain management: An overview. In Supply chain management and
advanced planning (pp. 3-28). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

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Wisner, J.D., Tan, K.C. and Leong, G.K., 2014. Principles of supply chain management: A
balanced approach. Cengage Learning.