OCTOBER 19-20, 2012 - YMCA University of Science & Technology

Proceedings of the National Conference on
Trends and Advances in Mechanical Engineering,
YMCA University of Science & Technology, Faridabad, Haryana, Oct 19-20, 2012
the one-for-one ordering policy. By using simulation studies, they show that absolute errors are significantly
ignorable.(Mousa et al,2011) They examined the qualitative factors which affect the supply chain management (e.g.
plant location, supply chain uncertainty, and manufacturing practices) based on performance evaluation models and
then give some solutions to improve the performance and show that petrochemical industry supply chain
performance is being affected by plant location, supply chain uncertainty and manufacturing practices factors.(Owen
Q, Hong Che,2003) They examine the relations between supply chain structures, product differentiation, and demand
uncertainty and makes two contributions. First, the analytical marketing literature on channel structures to the supply
chain literature on coordination under demand uncertainty. Second, they derive explicit equilibria of different supply
chain structures, compare the implications of them, and examine the impact of demand uncertainty.
8. Research gaps in the literature and suggested future research
Despite profound contributions by research scholars and academicians of national and international repute on the
topic of supplier- manufacturer relationship. The literatures reviewed still have a wide range of gaps which are to be
addressed in the upcoming years with focused dedication so as to enhance the concept of supplier-manufacturer
relationship in order to bridge a gap between underdeveloped, developing and developed nations.
a) The researchers will focus on qualitative criteria in the future rather than a combination of both qualitative and
quantitative criteria with existing methods such as AHP.
b) Furthermore, an issue regards the distance between the literature and firm’s reality. So, further definition and
specification of the criteria are needed.
c) For further research the criteria and sub-criteria can be modified with opinions of other experts and alsoother
multi criteria decision making (MCDM) methods may be applied to the same problem.
d) Novel heuristic approach could be practiced as an effective vendor rating technique and further be employed in
more complex vendor selection problem by incorporating more conflicting criteria and sub-criteria such as risk
management, supplier profile etc.
e) For any companies implementing green management; it indeed requires a systematic and more complete
analysis approach to judge which direction is better for companies to develop in the future.
f) For future study focus on different stock keeping policies at all stages of a supply chain. The investigation will
be based on the spreadsheet simulation; the bullwhip effect will be measured by the standard deviation of
orders.
g) Use simulation to develop theories on managerial behavior in complex supply chain environments from the
strategic and tactical levels of management.
h) Such as trust, commitment, and also other factors that are related to the collaboration can be considered as
antecedents of supplier relationship quality. Also, as some details on marketing strategies and consumers
behaviors that are omitted can be included in the future researches.
i) Highlighting the gap between theory and practice, and hope to motivate researchers to develop new models for
mitigating supply chain disruptions.
j) For future research, constructing further comprehensive metrics in order to evaluate supply chain network
performance.
k) Main future work is a detailed study of especially the SC strategy and structure construct. Currently, only the
variables SC type, supplier type, geographical dispersion and business structure are included.
l) Investigating an integrated supply chain with multi-supplier is a valuable potential area for future researches,
because using multi suppliers can reduce the expected total cost.
9. Concluding remarks:
This paper presents a comprehensive literature review of the journal papers on supplier-manufacturer relationship in
supply chain management. Present literature review is based on the basis of the previous work done by reputed
researchers and academicians for studying supplier-manufacturer relationship in supply chain management. Different
authors had developed different models and frameworks for studying supplier manufacturer relationship in supply
chain management. As stated at the outset of this paper, the literature on supplier manufacturer relationship to date
has been weak in terms of establishing probable connections between supplier & manufacturer in operations and
firm’s strategy, competitive environment and business performance. Unfortunately, different theories of supplier
manufacturer relationship have led to diverse and separated application and so through this review paper we have
tried our best to install convergence in such a vast topic so that more generalized research findings should come in
the upcoming years by our world renowned supply chain experts, academicians and research scholars.
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