This document discusses the journey of a PhD research project on supply chain management. It begins by describing the start, middle, and end of the research journey. It then discusses challenges faced while conducting the research and getting "stuck in the middle". The document outlines future directions for research on greening supply chain management and evaluating supply chain performance through simulation. It proposes using the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model combined with enterprise simulation to describe, measure, and evaluate different supply chain configurations and strategies.

1. Dr. Miles Weaver,
Senior Lecturer in Strategic Management,
Leicester Business School, UK.
mweaver@dmu.ac.uk

2. JOURNEY ON BOARD MENU
 Learning from my PhD Journey
 The beginning, middle and  Feedback from viva
the ‘beginning of the end’ of  How not to do it(?)
my research journey
 Importance and relevance of SCM
 A bit more about getting research
‘stuck in the middle’ or is  Role of simulation in formulating and
that the ‘beginning’ evaluating supply strategy options
 .... Alot more about the  Future directions in Greening and
‘beginning of the end’ managing the performance in the
supply chain
1-2

3.  Motivation and background for
research interest
3

4.  "supply chains compete, not
companies"
(Christopher, 2002)
 Supply strategies significantly
impact upon a firms performance
(Christopher and Ryals, 1999, Keah-Choon et al., 1999)
 Companies have far too often
attempted to optimise their own
value chains, without considering
the effect of these decisions on their
suppliers or customers
(Chopra and Meindl, 2004)
1-4

5. Evaluating the impact of supply
chain performance =
Range of supply chain
improvement options
+
Utility of SCOR
+
Power of enterprise
simulation
5

6.  The Primary use of SCOR:
 To describe, measure and evaluate supply chain configurations
 SCOR contains:
 Standard descriptions of management processes
 A framework of relationships among the standard processes
 Standard metrics to measure process performance
 Management practices that produce best-in-class performance
 Enables the companies to:
Evaluate and compare their performances with other companies
effectively
Identify and pursue specific competitive advantages
Identify software tools best suited to their specific process requirements
1-6

7. An electronic enterprise simulator based on
SCOR metrics and processes
ABOVE: Level 1
ABOVE: Level 2
Base Manufacturer
LEFT: Level 3
Make Base Manufacturer
RIGHT: Level 4
Make Base Manufacturer,
Manufacture and Test
(implementation level)

8. • repeatable structured process that can be used and reused any number of
times to obtain reliable results each time
• made up of best practices, rules, guidelines and templates

9.  Taylor et al., (2008)
 Niranjan and Weaver
(2010)
9

10.  Evaluating supply chain problems is important;
difficulty is that they are inherently complex and
dynamic systems (e.g. Davies, 1993; Levy, 1994;
Beamon, 1998)
 Simulation is an approach that is often used for
evaluating SC problems; extent of research is great +
 Creating a conceptual model is often regarded as the
most important stage of a simulation project (Law,
1991); but little is written on the subject (Robinson,
2004b)
 No methodologies exist that could guide a user
through the creation of a conceptual model
 Significant opportunity to utilise domain knowledge = Novel approach
aligned with a general procedure for CM >>>>

11.  The thesis has contributed to KNOWLEDGE
in the areas of conceptual modelling and
supply chain analysis.
‘development, refinement and preliminary
validation of a methodology that utilises domain-
knowledge with a procedure that can be followed to
create a simulation conceptual model for SCM
applications’.
11

12. 12

13. Phase 2: Phase 1:
Point of entry
Determine how each Describe the supply problem
objective is to be measured A formal problem formulation and structuring
Output: Description of the methodology or unstructured problem from
Output: Description of the processes improvement(s) to be evaluated, for
a given objective(s) within its supply
client
that provide data used to calculate
each objective setting
Phase 6:
Phase 3:
Phase 7:
Design the level of detail
Determine how each necessary to implement the
improvement is to be Document and validate the
conceptual model model
represented
Output: Description of the model
Output: A valid description of the computer components and interconnections that
Output: Description of the processes
model to be developed represent the actual practices included
that represent each improvement
in the model
Phase 4:
Determine how the inputs
Phase 5: Build a prototype and use
and their sources
sensitivity analysis to extend
interconnect within the
Formulate the model boundary the model boundary and
model and with its
level of detail
immediate supply setting
Output: List of processes and inputs
Output: List of inputs and candidate included in the model Output: Refinement of the model
processes for possible inclusion in boundary and level of detail
the model boundary
Iterate for each PROMOTED process decided in phase five

14. In the area of conceptual modelling, we now know
that:
 Decision rules can be used to consider which business processes to include
within the model boundary from identifying the critical relationships between
(core processes) and within the setting (real world) of the processes that are
associated with each objective and improvement
 Decision rules can be embedded in a generic procedure to simplify inputs to the
model and to determine when no further processes should be included in the
scope of the model (i.e. model boundary is set)
 General principles, simplification methods, methods for representing model
content and validation methods (both within and at a final phase) can be
incorporated into a general and comprehensive procedure for conceptual
modelling to minimise the types of problems that could be encountered in a
simulation project
1-14

15.  In the area of supply chain analysis, the thesis has
shown that embedding SCOR in a generic
procedure for simulation conceptual modelling can:
 Aid in the description of a problem from the perspective of the client
using standard terminology and domain-specific process detail
 Aid in determining how an objective can be measured using standard
descriptions of typical performance attributes and metrics; plus data
collection needs from associated business processes at different
levels of detail
 Aid in determining how each improvement can be represented by
business processes to implement each improvement at different
levels of detail
15

16.  Aid in determining the model boundary by providing information on the
relationships between business processes (i.e. interconnections
between inputs and outputs germane to each process element)
 Aid in providing clear domain-specific guidelines for extracting
information from a pre-defined process reference model and when
necessary focus consultation with people who are knowledgeable about
the system being represented
 Aid in focusing consultation with people who are knowledgeable about
the system being represented to determine the detail of the actual
practice that needs to be included from the descriptions provided for
each process element included in the model boundary and simplified
inputs
1-16

17.  Despite SCOR purporting to be a comprehensive supply chain reference
model, we know now that it has the following deficiencies which could be
improved to enable the information to be used more effectively and with
greater ease:
 SCOR documentation needs to be presented with more detail on how a
improvement and metric is to be implemented between supply chain actors (e.g.
not just within the focal firm)
 SCOR documentation needs to be clearer on how different manufacturing
environments (e.g. MTO, MTS, ETO) use different configurations of process
elements as there is significant commonality between process types within each
environment
 SCOR does not attempt to include typical practices such as ‘MRP’ in its planning
processes and some other practices such as ‘kanban’ are expressed in scheduling
of product deliveries but not included in the planning descriptions (e.g. plan
number of kanban cards)
17

18. Research paper Target Purpose Deadline
Simulation conceptual Supply Chain Management: An The paper provides the conceptual basis for Oct 2010/
International Journal (3)/ Journal of the development of approaches that utilise Re-submit
modelling for Supply Simulation (focuses on the domain domain-knowledge for the creation of a Jan 2011
Chain Management (SCM) specific needs for CM – a simulation conceptual model
applications: simulation related journal may be
more suitable)
Requirements and
concepts
Approaches to simulation 18th European Operations The paper sets out the need and benefits of Abstract:
Management Conference: setting a research agenda in this novel area Submitted
conceptual modelling: A Cambridge University (paper Full paper:
review of SCM presents a research agenda, invites May 2011
applications feedback)
An assessment of the 25th ESM 2011/Vienna (paper to be Assess the utility of using the Supply Chain Abstract:
extended to ‘general simulaton Operations Model (SCOR) for purposes of Submitted
utility of SCOR for supply with Dr. Albores) guiding participants through the complexity Full paper:
chain conceptual of creating a valid and credible conceptual May 2011
modelling model.
A methodology for International Journal of Operations An overview of a seven phase methodology is Feb 2011
and Production Management (4) presented that utilises supply chain domain
simulation conceptual (key paper, interest has been knowledge for the purposes of simulation
conceptual modelling. The design is developed and
modelling for SCM expressed in principle with journal evaluated using three case study applications.
applications editor. See appendix A)
18

19.  … some more driving
metaphors ….?
 Contribution to
KNOWLEDGE
 Mapping the research
methodology
 Bounded literature review
 Conceptual model = X?
 Validation Vs. rigorous
testing
 Meredith (1993)
1-19

20. Research proposal Target Purpose Deadline
Development of a tool to aid in ESRC ECR/Postdoctoral Present a systematic literature Sept 2011
fellowship award (to establish a review and research agenda for a
the formulation and evaluation new area for research) major project
of green supply chain strategies
and practises
The provisional research questions could include:
 What green supply strategies and practices are being
pursued by organisations in a global environment?
 How can organisations evaluate the impact of green
supply strategies and practices upon the performance of
the supply network?
 Can a tool be developed to aid in the evaluation of the
impact of a particular green supply strategy and
practices upon supply network performance?
20

21. Visiting old friends ….
 How can you formulate and evaluate
supply strategy to unleash the potential
performance gains for the total SC?
 Who owns the supply chain?
 What is the boundary of the supply chain?
 How do supply chains compete for
competitive advantage?
 In the context of ‘greening’ the supply
chain what options are available? How can
they be best evaluated?
21

22.  Any questions ….?
 Feedback and ideas @DrMilesWeaver
1-22