Visibility in multi-tier supply chains : a study on barriers, challenges and solutions
Hammerer, Katharina (2024)
Pro gradu -tutkielma
2024
School of Business and Management, Kauppatieteet
Kaikki oikeudet pidätetään.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe202402167607
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe202402167607
Tiivistelmä
Since successful products and services require the cooperation of several supply chain actors, it is vital for companies to be informed about their partners’ operations. However, due to the increasing complexity of supply chains, visibility into distant supply chain tiers is often poor. The aim of this paper is to explore how visibility in multi-tier supply chains can be improved. For this purpose, this study investigates the barriers and challenges which companies might face as well as potential solutions that are available to them.
For a practical view on the topic, a three-round Delphi study on multi-tier supply chain visibility was conducted. The study panel consisted of eleven experts from Central and Northern Europe, covering a wide range of industries. The study followed a sequential exploratory mixed methods approach, allowing to collect both qualitative and quantitative data.
The results show that there is a broad spectrum of barriers and challenges which companies have to overcome when trying to expand their visibility into the extended supply chain. In fact, however, most barriers and challenges are of relational nature and concern issues related to external visibility. The findings also show that the portfolio of potential solutions covers both technological as well as managerial tools. Nevertheless, it seems that technologically advanced solutions like Blockchain or Big Data analytics do not yet play such an important role in practice as they do in theory.
Overall, this study fills a research gap by investigating supply chain visibility in a multi-tier setting and reveals novel insights into related barriers, challenges and solutions. Generally, due to the wide range of barriers and challenges, improving visibility in multi-tier supply chains is a difficult undertaking that has to be planned and executed diligently. However, there also exists an ample portfolio of solutions which can help companies to improve their multi-tier supply chain visibility and ultimately strengthen their competitive edge.
For a practical view on the topic, a three-round Delphi study on multi-tier supply chain visibility was conducted. The study panel consisted of eleven experts from Central and Northern Europe, covering a wide range of industries. The study followed a sequential exploratory mixed methods approach, allowing to collect both qualitative and quantitative data.
The results show that there is a broad spectrum of barriers and challenges which companies have to overcome when trying to expand their visibility into the extended supply chain. In fact, however, most barriers and challenges are of relational nature and concern issues related to external visibility. The findings also show that the portfolio of potential solutions covers both technological as well as managerial tools. Nevertheless, it seems that technologically advanced solutions like Blockchain or Big Data analytics do not yet play such an important role in practice as they do in theory.
Overall, this study fills a research gap by investigating supply chain visibility in a multi-tier setting and reveals novel insights into related barriers, challenges and solutions. Generally, due to the wide range of barriers and challenges, improving visibility in multi-tier supply chains is a difficult undertaking that has to be planned and executed diligently. However, there also exists an ample portfolio of solutions which can help companies to improve their multi-tier supply chain visibility and ultimately strengthen their competitive edge.