Smart supplyResearchQuestionFormulationCurrent status of SSCM? Issues and debates?chainmanagement业Selection of Relevant Studies189 papers qualfied the delimitation criteria399￥Descriptive AnalysisPapers are sorted according to the publicationeoaetime, and outlets业Content AnalysisSix key characteristics and five researchcategories are defined; papers are reviewed￥Evaluation and SynthesisResearch questions are answered within each research category, reviewresults are aggregated, integrated, and explainedFigure 1.￥Research processflowdiagramConclusion and Recommendations4540353025 20151050Figure 2.0a000S1S20%09O26-166Number of selected22222Sreferred journalNotes:The literature search was completed in April 2013articles publishedThenumberfor2013wasprojectedbasedon14articlesfoundover the yearsfor the first quarter of 2013improvements through the traditional means and companies clearly see the criticalneed to develop newer solutions arising from technology and business model-basedinnovations.Further,the costs of instrumentation have declined dramatically in recentyears and smart devices arebeing deployed everywhere (Zhuetal,2012).Computingand informationtechnologies(lT)cannowsupportwidespreadinstrumentation,monitoring,andperformanalytics
improvements through the traditional means and companies clearly see the critical need to develop newer solutions arising from technology and business model-based innovations. Further, the costs of instrumentation have declined dramatically in recent years and smart devices are being deployed everywhere (Zhu et al., 2012). Computing and information technologies (IT) can now support widespread instrumentation, monitoring, and perform analytics. Research Question Formulation Current status of SSCM? Issues and debates? Selection of Relevant Studies 189 papers qualified the delimitation criteria Descriptive Analysis Papers are sorted according to the publication time, and outlets Content Analysis Six key characteristics and five research categories are defined; papers are reviewed Evaluation and Synthesis Research questions are answered within each research category; review results are aggregated, integrated, and explained Conclusion and Recommendations Figure 1. Research process flow diagram 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Notes: The literature search was completed in April 2013. The number for 2013 was projected based on 14 articles found for the first quarter of 2013 Figure 2. Number of selected referred journal articles published over the years 399 Smart supply chain management Downloaded by Huazhong University of Science and Technology At 22:44 29 November 2016 (PT)
JLMNumber of publicationsJournal name27,210Management Science9999886555443333322European Journal of Operational ResearchInternational Journalof ProductionEconomicsProductionandOperationsManagementSupplyChainManagement:AnInternationalJournal400HarvardBusiness ReviewJournal of Operations ManagementInternational JournalofInformationManagementInternational Journal of Plysical Distribution&Logistics ManagementInternational Journalof ProductionResearchOmegaInternational Journalof Operations &ProductionManagementMITSoanManagement ReviewBusiness Process Management JournalMISQuarterlyTable I.McKinsey QuarterlyRefereed journalsManufacturing and Service Operations Management主with the mostOperationsResearcharticles selected inJournal ofBusinessLogisticsInternational Journal of Logistics Managementthe literaturereviewoaeaasoaeeaeooBased on our definition of smart supply chain and earlier discussions on relevantapplications,wesummarizethat smart supply chains collectively possessthefollowingsix distinctive characteristics:instrumented: information in the next generation supply chainis(1) overwhelmingly being machine-generated, for example, by sensors, RFIDtags,meters, and many others;(2)interconnected: the entire supply chain, including business entities,and assets,IT systems,products, and other smart objects are all connected in a smartsupply chain;intelligent:smart supply chains make large-scaleoptimal decisions to optimize(3)performance;automated: smart supply chains must automate much of its process flows by(4)usingmachinestoreplaceotherlow-efficiencyresourcesincludinglabor,(5)integrated:supply chain process integration involves collaboration across supplychainstages,jointdecisionmaking,commonsystems,andinformationsharing,and(6)innovative: innovation is the development of new values through solutions thatmeet new requirements, inarticulate needs, or even existing needs in better ways.Among all critical resources,information systems continue to play a criticalrole in SCMas supply chain performance is often characterized and facilitated by the real-timecollaboration and sophisticated integration.SCM would not even bepossiblewithoutthe advances in information systems and technology.In fact, smart supply chains willcreatenewvaluebydeveloping newbusiness models, improvingbusiness processes,and reducing theassociated costs and risks (Chuietal.,2010).Moreinformation, betterdecision, better process,even better product would be what smart supply chain can and
Based on our definition of smart supply chain and earlier discussions on relevant applications, we summarize that smart supply chains collectively possess the following six distinctive characteristics: (1) instrumented: information in the next generation supply chain is overwhelmingly being machine-generated, for example, by sensors, RFID tags, meters, and many others; (2) interconnected: the entire supply chain, including business entities, and assets, IT systems, products, and other smart objects are all connected in a smart supply chain; (3) intelligent: smart supply chains make large-scale optimal decisions to optimize performance; (4) automated: smart supply chains must automate much of its process flows by using machines to replace other low-efficiency resources including labor; (5) integrated: supply chain process integration involves collaboration across supply chain stages, joint decision making, common systems, and information sharing; and (6) innovative: innovation is the development of new values through solutions that meet new requirements, inarticulate needs, or even existing needs in better ways. Among all critical resources, information systems continue to play a critical role in SCM as supply chain performance is often characterized and facilitated by the real-time collaboration and sophisticated integration. SCM would not even be possible without the advances in information systems and technology. In fact, smart supply chains will create new value by developing new business models, improving business processes, and reducing the associated costs and risks (Chui et al., 2010). More information, better decision, better process, even better product would be what smart supply chain can and Journal name Number of publications Management Science 10 European Journal of Operational Research 9 International Journal of Production Economics 9 Production and Operations Management 9 Supply Chain Management: An International Journal 9 Harvard Business Review 8 Journal of Operations Management 8 International Journal of Information Management 6 International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management 5 International Journal of Production Research 5 Omega 5 International Journal of Operations & Production Management 4 MIT Sloan Management Review 4 Business Process Management Journal 3 MIS Quarterly 3 McKinsey Quarterly 3 Manufacturing and Service Operations Management 3 Operations Research 3 Journal of Business Logistics 2 International Journal of Logistics Management 2 Table I. Refereed journals with the most articles selected in the literature review 400 IJLM 27,2 Downloaded by Huazhong University of Science and Technology At 22:44 29 November 2016 (PT)
should produce.SsCM research should certainlyfocuson thebusinessmanagement ofSmart supplysmart supply chains. Using the six characteristics as structural attributes together withchaintheabovediscussionsoninformation,wetakethelibertytoclassifythemainresearchmanagementtopicsof SSCMintothefollowingfivecategories:(1)information in supplychains;(2)IT;401(3)processautomation;)1(4)advanced analytics; and(5)process integration and innovation.It is evident that categories (2-4) fully capture the six distinctive characteristicsdiscussed early,e.g,IT includes hardwarewe(instrumented)andnetwork(interconnected), and the intelligent feature is facilitated by advanced analytics.Information in supply chains really refers to what“smart"is all about. Furthermore,2these five categories are all well-established research themes extensively studied in theooesosneeaoliterature.As such, they areusedas a convenient waytorepresent SSCM research andgroup relevant papers reviewed in the study. Under this structure, we find the mostpopular research methodologies are conceptual/framework for addressingITinfrastructure topics (39 papers), and analytical modeling method for addressingadvancedanalyticstopics (22papers).Sometopics suchasITobviouslyattractedmoreresearchers'attention than others in recent years (TableIl).We will attempt to addresstheRQ1 and RQ2 in the context of each of the abovefive topics (Tables II and II).CaseConceptual/AnalyticalOthersClassification criteriaEmpiricalframeworkmodelingstudy211011521111General SSCM strategy13144InformationTable II.6398Information technologyNumber of papers24a20Automationusing different37132200Advanced analyticsresearch0118SC integrationmethodologies in theNote:"Including one paper using simulation approachliterature reviewITInformationAutomationAdvanced analyticsIntegration and innovation22230311221312.322200320040172005120066233125302007133;321642008Table III.020094Number of papers33.1120103published in61505382011various fields in112012ten recent years
should produce. SSCM research should certainly focus on the business management of smart supply chains. Using the six characteristics as structural attributes together with the above discussions on information, we take the liberty to classify the main research topics of SSCM into the following five categories: (1) information in supply chains; (2) IT; (3) process automation; (4) advanced analytics; and (5) process integration and innovation. It is evident that categories (2-4) fully capture the six distinctive characteristics we discussed early, e.g., IT includes hardware (instrumented) and network (interconnected), and the intelligent feature is facilitated by advanced analytics. Information in supply chains really refers to what “smart” is all about. Furthermore, these five categories are all well-established research themes extensively studied in the literature. As such, they are used as a convenient way to represent SSCM research and group relevant papers reviewed in the study. Under this structure, we find the most popular research methodologies are conceptual/framework for addressing IT infrastructure topics (39 papers), and analytical modeling method for addressing advanced analytics topics (22 papers). Some topics such as IT obviously attracted more researchers’ attention than others in recent years (Table III). We will attempt to address the RQ1 and RQ2 in the context of each of the above five topics (Tables II and III). Classification criteria Conceptual/ framework Analytical modeling Empirical Case study Others General SSCM strategy 21 1 0 1 1 Information 13 14 4 1 1 Information technology 39 8 6 5 1 Automation 2 4a 2 20 Advanced analytics 13 22 3 1 0 SC integration 11 8 7 0 0 Note: a Including one paper using simulation approach Table II. Number of papers using different research methodologies in the literature review Information IT Automation Advanced analytics Integration and innovation 2003 2 0 1 3 2 2004 2 3 1 1 3 2005 2 1 2 0 2 2006 3 7 2 1 2 2007 3 6 1 0 2 2008 1 3 2 3 3 2009 4 3 5 2 0 2010 3 11 3 1 3 2011 6 5 0 6 3 2012 1 11 5 4 8 Table III. Number of papers published in various fields in ten recent years 401 Smart supply chain management Downloaded by Huazhong University of Science and Technology At 22:44 29 November 2016 (PT)