An Insight into the Textile Supply Chain

-- Sunil Giri, S K Sharma and A K Sharma

The Indian textile industry is the second largest employment generating industry next to agriculture. Textile export contributions to the country's export earnings have substantially increased. In 2004-05, it was 16.24% of the total earning of the country. The vision statement prepared by the Indian Cotton Mills Federation projects that it has the potential to reach a size of $85 bn by 2010 from the current level of $37 bn. Further, it has been estimated that textile exports could touch $50 bn by 2010. Supply Chain Management plays a vital role in the textile industry. The Indian textile industry is one of the longest and most complex supply chains in the world, with as many as 15 intermediaries between the farmer and the final consumer. In this paper, an attempt has been made to know the supply chain practices in 10 reputed Indian textile companies.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.

Benchmarking for Supply Chain Collaboration

-- Rohita Kumar Mishra and Sreekumar

The globalization of trade and complex business situations in the competitive environment demand for efficient inter-company collaboration and better control of supply chain processes. Both upstream and downstream partners are involved in the supply chain collaboration. To become efficient, the participating members shall set best in the class as the benchmark and progress in the right direction. The previous research focuses mainly on supply chain benchmarking at intra-company level. Inter-company benchmarking needs a new perspective of understanding and collaborative learning amongst the participating members. This paper proposes a benchmarking scheme for supply chain collaboration that links collaborative performance and collaborative attributes. This scheme can be used to examine the current status of supply chain collaboration among the participative members and identify the performance gap for improvement initiatives. A non-parametric mathematical programming technique called Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used for benchmarking.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.

The Conceptual Framework for Business Process Innovation: Towards a Research Program on Global Supply Chain Intelligence

-- Charles Møller

Most industrial supply chains today are globally scattered, and nearly all organizations rely on their Enterprise Information Systems (EIS) for integration and coordination of their activities. In this context, innovation in a global supply chain must be driven by advanced information technology. This paper proposes a new research program on global supply chain intelligence, and argues that a conceptual framework for Business Process Innovation (BPI) is required in order to approach innovations in a global supply chain. A research proposal based on five interrelated topics is derived from the framework. The research program is intended to establish and develop the conceptual framework for business process innovation further and to apply this framework in a global supply chain context.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

Trust and its Relevance in Supply Chain Management

-- A Lakshminarasimha

Inter-organization trust has an important bearing on supply chain management. The paper reviews the current literature available on the subject and presents the findings of the study condu

cted in Bangalore across different industries to arrive at the relationship between trust and supply chain management. The results indicate that trust is a very important factor in supply chain management and needs to be nurtured in organizations planning to improve their supply chain capabilities.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.

Implications of MRP Analysis in Inventory Control: A Case Study of an LCV Manufacturer

-- Ashwani Kumar

Since the 1970s, Material Requirement Planning (MRP) is being used for planning the future requirements of dependent demand items. It refers to the basic calculations to determine component requirements from the final product requirements. It also denotes broader information system that uses the dependence relationship to plan and control manufacturing requirements. Since its introduction, this system has undergone several reformations that exhibit the increased accessibility of computers and the changing role of manufacturing. It is one of the available tools for planning and control of inventory. The system itself has undergone several changes over the period. In the 1980s, MRP evolved into a more robust manufacturing resource planning (MRP II). This paper introduces MRP as an information system that enables managers to improve the efficiency of operations, shorten delivery lead times to customers and reduce inventory levels.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.

A Case Study of Citrus Supply Chain for the UK Market

-- Srikanth Rupavatharam

The paper gives an essence of citrus exporting countries namely South Africa and Morocco to the supermarket chains of the United Kingdom. The journey of the citrus fruit, right from the growers farm to the customers place in the UK, is discussed in this paper. It also presents an overview and background of citrus market in both the countries of origin covering the present post-harvest handling including sorting, grading and packaging, logistics and traceability. It captures the Business-to-Business (B2B) and ethical trade issues concerning the supply chain along with recommendations for growth.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved.