Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the roles of a supply chain management (SCM) department. To achieve that, this study empirically examines the relationship between internal supply chain structure and operational performance, using survey data collected from 108 Japanese manufacturers.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a literature review of not only organizational theory but also other fields such as marketing, logistics management, operations management and SCM, this study focused on two structural properties, formalization and centralization and divided operational performance to firm-centric efficiency and customer-centric responsiveness. To examine the analytical model using these dimensions, this study conducted a structural equation modeling.

Findings

The correlation between centralization of operational tasks and centralization of strategic tasks, the impacts of centralization of both tasks on formalization and the effect of formalization on responsiveness performance were demonstrated. In addition, the reasons for formalization not positively influencing efficiency performance were explored through follow-up interviews.

Practical implications

Manufacturers need to formalize, as much as possible, a wide range of SCM tasks to realize operational excellence. To establish such formalized working methods, it is effective to centralize the authorities of both operational and strategic tasks in a particular department. In addition, inefficiency due to strict logistics service levels is a problem that all players involved in the supply chain of various industries should work together to solve.

Originality/value

The theoretical contribution of this study is that the authors established an empirical process that redefined the constructs of formalization and centralization, developed these measures and examined the impacts of these structural properties on operational performance.

中文翻译：

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内部供应链结构与运营绩效的关系：来自日本厂商的调查结果

目的

本文的目的是讨论供应链管理 (SCM) 部门的角色。为此，本研究使用从 108 家日本制造商收集的调查数据，实证检验了内部供应链结构与运营绩效之间的关系。

设计/方法/方法

基于对组织理论和其他领域（如营销、物流管理、运营管理和供应链管理）的文献回顾，本研究侧重于两个结构属性，正式化和集中化，并将运营绩效划分为以公司为中心的效率和以客户为中心的响应性。为了检查使用这些维度的分析模型，本研究进行了结构方程建模。

发现

展示了操作任务的集中与战略任务的集中之间的相关性、两种任务的集中对形式化的影响以及形式化对响应性能的影响。此外，通过后续访谈探讨了正规化没有对效率绩效产生积极影响的原因。

实际影响

制造商需要尽可能将范围广泛的 SCM 任务正规化，以实现卓越运营。要建立这种正式的工作方法，将业务和战略任务的权力集中在特定部门是有效的。此外，由于严格的物流服务水平导致效率低下，是各个行业供应链中的所有参与者都应该共同解决的问题。

原创性/价值

本研究的理论贡献在于，作者建立了一个经验过程，重新定义了正规化和集中化的结构，制定了这些措施并检查了这些结构特性对运营绩效的影响。