Estrutura teórica para a adoção de iniciativas de colaboração em cadeias de suprimentos

Abstract

The growing interest in supply chain management is due to perception that closer relationship between partners lead to performance improvement of the supply chain as a whole. This is possible, for example, due to the increase of demand visibility provided by information exchange between its members. Better supply and demand synchronization is a consequence of collaborative supply chain management and the adoption of collaborative initiatives helps to build these new collaborative relationships between companies that are seeking to remain competitive in dynamic markets, with more demand from customers. Within this theme, this master thesis analysed five collaborative initiatives through systematic literature review, including Quick Response (QR), Efficient Consumer Response (ECR), Continuous Replenishment Program (CRP), Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) and Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR), aiming to develop a theoretical framework to guide the decision making process of adopting and implementing these collaborative initiatives, based on the characteristics, expected benefits, reasons for adopting and possible barriers found in each of them. The analysis of benefits cited in literature showed primary and secondary benefits that are reached by these initiatives. Primary benefits, like better inventory management, should be reached before secondary benefits, like cost reduction, appear. The barriers found in literature were grouped in cultural, behavioral and physical. With technology development, a physical barrier, cultural and behavioral barriers influence more negatively on the relationship than do the physical ones. The reasons for adopting found in literature can be related to economic or market changes in the environment that the supply chain operates, or the form of business organization. Analysing the context of creation and development of these initiatives and their characteristics, it was possible to propose a framework for characterizing the initiatives. It is made of several dimensions for differentiating one initiative from another and can be used as a guide for companies that are planning to implement these initiatives, or help the ones that have already adopted to review its current state and to design a future one. Finally, the theoretical framework to guide the decision making process of adopting a collaborative initiative was proposed, linking the main results of this work, showing to the decision maker the main aspects of concern when adopting a collaborative initiative and highlighting the need to monitor the initiative s performance constantly.