Supply Chain Integration and Flexibility and Its Impact on Business Performance

Abstract

This study explores the significance of integration and flexibility as critical determinants of business performance by examining the connection amongst supply chain integration and flexibility on the one hand and business performance on the other. Using mainly a cross-sectional approach, structured questionnaire was used to collect responses from two hundred and fifty-five employees drawn registered companies in the Kumasi Metropolis and analyzed with the help of Pearson"s correlation and structural equation modeling (SEM). Three elements of supply chain integration (company integration with suppliers, cross functional integration within a company and company integration with customers) and three elements of supply chain flexibility (adaptability, alignment and agility) were subjected to analysis. The results indicate that supply chain integration and supply chain flexibility exhibit significant correlation with firm performance. Supply chain integration and supply chain flexibility have high correlation with "financial performance" followed by "logistic performance" and then "operational performance". Also, the results demonstrate that four supply chain integration surrogates; "production data integration", "going after customers for feedback", "periodic connection with customers" and "real time search of inventory" and two supply chain flexibility proxies specifically "technology" and "supply network strategies" are crucial as they exhibit the most noteworthy influence on firm performance. Results of this study offer remarkable demonstrations of the effects of integration and flexibility in enhancing performance of businesses and greater attention must be paid to those proxies of supply chain integration and flexibility that exhibited the most significant impact on firm"s performance.

Supply Chain Risk Prevention and Control Based on Fuzzy Influence Diagram and Discrete Hopfield Neural Network

“…0.0 0.6 (7,10) 1 (7.10) 0.6 (4,11,12) ; 0.8 (7,10) 0.4 (5,10,14,15,16) ; 1 (4,11,12) 0.2 (2,4.8,10,11,12) ; 1 (5,14,15,16) 0.4 (5,14,15,16) ; 1 (2,8,10) 0.6 (8,10) ; 0.8 (2) 0.4 (1,3) ; 1 (2) 0.6 2 ; 0.7 (1,3) 0.9 (1,3) 1 (1,3) 0 0 0 0.1 0.486 (10) ; 0.54 (7) 0.81 (10) ; 0.9 (7) 0.148 (10) ; 0.54 (4,11,12) ; 0.72 (7) 0.324 (10) ; 0.36 (5,14,15,16) ; 0.9 (4,11,…”

“…1 (1) 0 0 0 0.3 0.15 (10) ; 0.3 (7) 0.25 (10) ; 0.5 (7) 0.12 (6) ; 0.2 (10) ; 0.3 (4,11,12) ; 0.4 (7) 0.08 (3) ; 0.1 (10) ; 0.12 (1) ; 0.2 (5,6,7,14,15,16) ; 0.5 (4,11,12) 0.04 (6) ; 0.1 (2,4,8,10,11,12) ; 0.2 (1,3,7) ; 0.5 (5,14,15,16) 0.08 (3,7,11) ; 0.12 (1) ; 0.2 (4,5,6,14,15,16) ; 0.5 (2,8,10) 0.04 (12) ; 0.12 (4,...…”

“…1 (4,6,15,16) 0.2 (12) ; 0.6 (4,6,15,16) ; 0.8 (8,10,11) 0.4 (15) ; 0.6 (12) ; 1 (8,10,11) 0.6 (8,10,11) ; 0.7 (15) ; 0.9 (12) 0.9 (15) ; 1 (12) 1 (15) 1 (9,13) 0.3 (9,13) 1 (9,13) 0.6 0 0 0.48 (6) 0.32 (3,7) ; 0.48 (1) ; 0.8 (6) 0.16 (4.6,15,16) ; 0.8 (1,3,7) 0.32 (3,7,8,10) ; 0.48 (1) ; 0.8 (4,6,15,16) 0.16 (12) ; 0.48 (4,6,15,16) ; 0.64…”

“…Some scholars believe that uncertainty and supply disruption caused by external factors are vital to supply chain risks, which should be included in supply chain security-management systems [12,13]. Some researchers such as Harland et al [14], Muntaka et al [15], Seipp et al [16], Hezla et al [17], Collier and Sarkis [18], and Nazifa and Ramachandran [19] studied supply chain risk from different perspectives. Jiang and Liu [20] considered supply chain scheduling optimization as a multiobjective optimization problem from the perspective of supply chain optimization to analyze the problem of risk prevention and control.…”

The effects of supply chain cooperation on humanitarian relief operations: A case of Cyclone Idai in Zimbabwe

“…As a result of high environmental uncertainty, it is of essence that organisations must not only build resilience but also build supply chain flexibility (Kamalahmadi & Mellat-Parast 2016). Flexibility metrics, as applied to supply chain analysis, describe the range of possible operating conditions that are profitably achievable by the chain (Beamon 1999;Muntaka, Haruna & Mensah 2017). Flexibility is one of the critical elements in HSC management because of greater demand uncertainties and the need to save human health and life.…”