Research paper

A proposed integrated framework for

analysing supply chains
Kevin Burgess
School of Marketing, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, and
Prakash J. Singh
Department of Management, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

Abstract
Purpose – Organisations need to have a profound level of understanding of their supply chains if they are to successfully find sources of competitive
advantage within them. Current methodologies for analysing supply chains, such as the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model, are not
sufficiently comprehensive, particularly when it comes to understanding the complex social and political factors that are an integral part of any supply
chain. This paper aims to use a case study of a supply chain from the public utility industry sector in Australia to develop an integrated framework for
analysing supply chains within a multi-disciplinary and multi-method research paradigm.
Design/methodology/approach – The case study supply chain was mapped with the SCOR modelling tool which provided insights into the physical
characteristics and value points along the supply chain.
Findings – Analysis of the SCOR model map also helped identify 31 key “actors” in the chain, who were then interviewed in depth. These interviews
provided insights into the social and political factors which determined the supply chain performance.
Originality/value – The outcome of this study is a framework that provides two primary benefits. First, it shows the relationships between relevant
variables from different disciplines (i.e. corporate governance, infrastructure, operations knowledge, social climate and innovation), and how they
impact on performance. Second, the framework provides a way forward in synthesising multi-disciplinary and multi-method research into a coherent
whole.

Keywords Public sector organizations, Social factors

Paper type Research paper

Introduction
The area of supply chain management (SCM) has seen a
rapid increase in interest among many organisations.
Numerous reasons have been offered for this. Firstly, a
SCM focus has provided firms with competitive advantage
given the diminishing returns that are being derived from
intra-enterprise improvement initiatives (Maloni and Benton,
2000). Secondly, a restructuring of industries as a result of
technological discontinuities has led to natural evolution to
SCM (Reddy and Reddy, 2001); Thirdly, SCM has been seen
as a practical response to globalisation (Weber et al., 2000),
deregulation and dynamic competitive markets (Christopher,
1998). Finally, dependencies that firms have on others as a
result of developments such as lean operations, outsourcing
and JIT have intensified, leading firms to engage in SCM
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Supply Chain Management: An International Journal
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q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 1359-8546]
[DOI 10.1108/13598540610671789]
more strongly (Burt et al., 2003). When viewed from any of
these perspectives, SCM is clearly seen as a means of
generating innovations which can improve performance.
While the imperative for SCM orientation is clear, what
remains unclear is the actual factors which generate supply
chain innovations. A review of the literature revealed that the
overwhelming focus is on technological sources of innovation,
particularly those that involve electronic commerce. Closer
examination of the literature shows three distinct forms of
bias: disciplinary bias towards the fields of economics,
logistics and purchasing; industry bias towards the
automotive, consumer goods and retail trade areas; and,
research bias towards the positivist tradition (Arlbjørn and
Halldorsson, 2002; Ho et al., 2002). We contend that this
unbalanced focus on technical and rational perspectives has
resulted in the ignorance of potential innovations that could
result from understanding the complex social and political
issues that are an integral part of any supply chain. If
organisations are to generate supply chain innovations, then,
as a first step, they need to understand the dynamics of the
supply chains that they are involved in (Keller et al., 2002).
Received: 18 August 2004
Accepted: 23 October 2005

337
 A proposed integrated framework for analysing supply chains
Kevin Burgess and Prakash J. Singh
However, we contend that the current methodologies that are
being used for analysing supply chains fail to provide
comprehensive accounts of the relationships between players
in any given supply chain. New methodologies that are able to
integrate technical, economical, rational, social and political
factors would be of benefit to practitioners who have to deal
with the complexities inherent in supply chains.
In this study, an attempt is made towards producing a more
integrated supply chain analysis methodology in part by
looking to overcome the biases mentioned above. A multi-
disciplinary team was formed to study a supply chain
consisting of the manufacture, transportation and
installation of a particular type of steel product in a public
utility company. These three functions are carried out by
three separate firms. The study involved producing maps of
the supply chain using the SCOR model version 5 (The
Supply Chain Council, 2004), conducting 31 in-depth
interviews with key personnel from two of the three
organisations, as well as reviewing a plethora of published
secondary data. The focal firm for this research was the final
user of the steel product.
The analysis focused on the “big picture” issues of
corporate governance, infrastructure, operations knowledge,
social climate and innovation. These broad issues were
selected for investigation, a priori, by the researchers to see
how they impacted upon the performance of the supply chain.
Using the grounded theory approach (Glaser and Strauss,
1967), the interview data were analysed to inductively develop
sets of key constructs for each of these broad issues. It was
then possible to combine the constructs and broad issues into
a single framework. We believe that this framework provides a
path towards the development of a methodology that can be
used to generate a comprehensive understanding of supply
chains.
The next section provides a background to each of the
broad issues investigated. This is followed by a description of
the study approach used. The results of the study are then
presented. The paper concludes by summarising the findings
of the study and drawing implications for practitioners and
researchers in the area.
Background
SCM is often portrayed as involving many elements (Mentzer
et al., 2001; Larson and Halldorsson, 2002). For this reason,
firms need to understand and master SCM if they are to
successfully transform themselves and survive into the future
(Bowersox et al., 2000). However, how such mastery is gained
remains less obvious. Distinct biases in the literature are
possibly retarding the development of such knowledge. Apart
from a lack of consensus on the theoretical and historical
determinants of SCM, there is also considerable bias toward
extrapolating principles from consumer markets (most
notably automotive and computer industries) to other types
of supply chains. Such research has most often been
conducted within a single discipline and generally within a
positivist paradigm. While the SCM literature stresses the
importance of social and political factors and places emphasis
on the need for collaboration and trust, research in such
topics is still relatively scant. Furthermore, research on how
industrial markets using mature technologies can use SCM
principles to improve their effectiveness is even more scant.
There is considerable scope to widen the SCM research
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agenda in terms of comprehensiveness in order to better meet
present and future challenges.
Chapman et al. (2002) claim the perceived extent of change
due to innovation can be measured at four levels. The first,
incremental, involves small step changes such as that that can
be achieved by a team working within a narrow functional
area. The second, architectural, refers to reconfiguration of
existing system components. The third, radical, involves large
step improvement in either process or market activities. The
fourth, transformational, covers fundamental changes to the
nature of the business or society. It is not clear what types of
innovations, or what level of change, SCM generates.
Successful SCM involves horizontal cross functional
integration both across and within firms. These
arrangements involve relinquishing control and distancing
operations from traditional functional hierarchies. Such
change is accomplished by moving away from formal
arrangements and developing inter-organisational
relationships which increase trust and collaboration (van
Hoek, 2001). The interplay of additional variables which
support or inhibit the ability of the social system to innovate
has not been examined in any depth. Such variables include
governance structures, representational models of supply
chains, power, and infrastructural design (e.g. buildings and
information systems). Learning appears to have received more
attention (Bessant et al., 2003), however the depth of research
and narrow range of industry settings suggests there is still
considerable work to be done in this area. The multi-
disciplinary nature of SCM (New, 1997) may generate
additional difficulties which make learning far more complex
than might otherwise be expected.
Whipple et al. (1999) claim that the governance structure
chosen impacts directly upon supply chain performance.
Their basic argument is that hybrid organisations have started
to emerge between the traditional vertically integrated and
market exchange models in line with the more sophisticated
requirements of working more closely with suppliers. They
also highlight the importance that information flows play in
such governance and how asymmetries of information could
impact upon effective governance.
While governance may address the legal structures which
exist between firms in a chain, operations need to be
represented in more tangible forms. Specifically, SCM seeks
to improve the linkages between firms. Process mapping has
been the dominant approach used to represent the linkages
both between and within firms. The prime reasons for
creating a map are to link corporate strategy to supply chain
strategy, distribute key information for survival in a dynamic
environment, and offer a basis for supply chain redesign or
modification (Gardner and Cooper, 2003). However, “there
does not yet exist a universal set of mapping conventions to
represent supply chains” (Gardner and Cooper, 2003, p.37).
The SCOR model is the nearest mapping approach to a de-
facto standard (Huan et al., 2004; Lockamy and McCormack,
2004). It integrates the concepts of business process re-
engineering, benchmarking and process measurement into a
cross-functional framework involving purchasing, operations,
and logistics functions (Huan et al., 2004). It focuses on
transactional efficiency rather than relationships with
customers and suppliers (Lambert et al., 2005). Several
researchers have highlighted the need to use other frameworks
in conjunction with the SCOR model in order to develop
comprehensive understanding of aspects of supply chains that
 A proposed integrated framework for analysing supply chains
Kevin Burgess and Prakash J. Singh
are of interest (Ellram et al., 2004; Kirchmer, 2004; Lambert
et al., 2005).
Power relationships are also a major issue in SCM, as a
dominant firm within the chain can use its market power to
coerce as well as collaborate with partners. Maloni and
Benton define power “as the ability of one firm to influence
the intentions and actions of another firm” (2000, p.53).
Their finding matches much of the inter-organisational
networks literature, specifically: that coercive power holds a
negative association with cooperation; trust and commitment
increase with expanded interdependence; and, inter-firm
asymmetry will defeat both trust and commitment. They
conclude that most firms are not completely aware of the
broad scope of power dimensions and need to better
understand how power influences performance.
The supply chain literature often makes reference to virtual
teams. However, this is also an evolving area of research with
considerable speculation as to what type of support is needed
in terms of technology and building designs to assist such
teams. Castells (1996) has highlighted the concept of “space
of flows” created by the information revolution and the need
to generate an architecture which expresses this new reality.
The case study described in the paper seeks to address
some of the biases mentioned earlier by exploring a supply
chain which has not altered in any significant way since 1983
and which involves three mature industries – steel
manufacturing, transport and public utilities. It specifically
seeks to examine what role the social system can play in
improving a stable supply chain which uses mature yet
expensive technology and employs staff who have operated in
the chain in excess of ten years. It also examines the perceived
impact and interplay of factors such as governance structures,
decision support systems and the physical design of buildings
and other artefacts in supporting the social system to improve
the performance of the supply chain.
Research method
Given the complex nature of issues that are of interest, it was
decided that an exploratory qualitative research
methodological design in the form of a case study would be
employed. Specifically, the guidelines for good case study
design and conduct provided by Yin (2003) was used.
The supply chain case study analysed in this paper involved
a manufacturer of steel products, a transport provider and
finally a public utility company, all based in and operating in
different states of Australia. The manufacturer is a publicly
listed company that was split from its parent company in
2001, but maintained its contractual arrangements set up by
the parent with the interstate rail transport provider. The
transport provider is a private joint venture company equally
owned by two publicly listed companies. Finally, the public
utility company is a government-owned corporation that has
been in existence for over one hundred years, but was
transformed when corporatised in the mid-1990s. The public
utility company was the focal organisation in this study. Due
to the confidentiality arrangements made with the companies,
it is not possible to identify the specific organisations involved.
The particular type of steel product involved is a highly
specialised one, and equates to approximately 500 tonnes in
weight and in excess of $A150 million in value per year. The
transport provider is responsible for hauling the steel over two
thousand kilometres from the manufacturer to the final user.
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The public utility company uses the steel product for
construction and maintenance purposes in a highly
distributed manner.
A multi-disciplinary team consisting of three academics and
four practitioners drawn from disciplines such as business
management, operations research, organisational
development and decision support was formed to determine
the critical variables that needed in-depth exploration. This
group met several times. In the initial meetings, there were
large differences in opinions as to what the nature of the issues
were and how they needed to be investigated. In order to
develop consensus, a modified form of the Delphi technique
was used (Yin, 2003). Eventually, the group decided to focus
on the areas of corporate governance, infrastructure,
operations knowledge, social climate, innovation and
planning. Given the nature of the issues that were to be
investigated, it was decided that a combination of quantitative
and qualitative methods would be used in the analysis of this
case study. Some research team members with a strong
preference for one or the other methods initially expressed
trepidation about this approach. However, when it was
established as to how these methods would complement each
other, and that the overall purpose was to generate a more
integrated understanding, the tensions generated over
research method preferences diminished.
The data for the study were gathered in three distinct
forms: operations analysis (SCOR model output); interviews;
and review of documents from the organisations involved.
The SCOR model was used to produce detailed process maps
of the supply chain. As a result, it was possible to “define” all
the elements of the supply chain. The process maps also
enabled the identification of the key personnel who were
responsible for various processes in the supply chain. These
employees were then interviewed. The list of topics deemed
relevant by the research team was integrated into a protocol
and used in semi-structured interviews. The interviewees
belonged to three distinct categories:
(1) Personnel with direct involvement in the supply chain,
i.e. in the operations which involved moving or
transforming the commodity. This group consisted of
nine employees, six from the focal company and the
remainder from the manufacturer.
(2) Managers who made decisions which had impact upon
the operational employees in the chain. These included
allocation of resources and capital investment decisions.
This group consisted of eleven employees, of whom nine
were from the focal company.
(3) Technical specialists who had responsibility for
governance and risk activities with respect to the
technical specifications of the product at different value
adding points. These included factors such as
metallurgic characteristics and tolerance specifications
of products. Eleven employees were in this group, with
eight coming from the public utility company.
The transport firm was a subcontractor to the manufacturer
with no direct contractual relationship to the public utility
company. All transport performance information was
available to the manufacturer’s staff. Therefore, staff in the
transport firm were not interviewed. However, secondary
sources of information such as annual reports and legal
documents were examined in depth to gain a fuller
appreciation of this firm.
 A proposed integrated framework for analysing supply chains
Kevin Burgess and Prakash J. Singh
All interviews were transcribed and analysed using the
qualitative analysis software package called NU *DIST v4
(QSR International, 2004). This involved the coding of the
transcripts using constant comparative analysis, whereby key
incidents were identified and assigned to an emergent open
coding scheme (Goulding, 2002). As new incidents were
uncovered from the data, this coding scheme was subjected to
continual re-evaluation and re-interpretation, until all
interviews were eventually coded. Following the grounded
theory approach, a range of constructs was developed from
the data. These constructs were then placed in the seven
broad category headings identified earlier.
This triangulated approach provided the researchers with
“thick descriptions” of the issues and revealed the complexity
confronted by a manager trying to improve supply chain
performance. The longer term aim was to develop an
integrated methodology for analysing any given supply chain.
Results
The research results are presented in summary form in
Figure 1. This diagram shows the broad issues and the
constructs associated with each area, as well as how these are
inter-related. The rest of this section provides details of each
of the constructs in terms of how they were defined by the
interviewees. The model is further discussed in the Discussion
section.
Corporate governance (CG)
Construct CG1: Risk
An analysis of the legal structures revealed significant
differences in the governance arrangements between the
companies. The manufacturer was the least complex,
Figure 1 Underlying conceptual framework of the integrated methodology for analysing supply chains
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operating as a publicly listed company registered on the
stock exchange. All managers highlighted how they enjoyed
being out from under the control of the corporate parent and
that they now felt far more empowered and more in control of
their own destinies. The governance structure of the transport
provider, however, highlights the role integrated hybrid firms
have and are likely to play in SCM. The focal public utility
firm’s governance structures were the most complex and had
the greatest number of checks and balances within them.
Such systems were clearly designed to ensure risks were
minimised where possible. This, in part, may be due to the
relative newness of such arrangements in government and the
general community expectation of government to be as more
risk averse than the private sector. A key feature is that
shareholding ministers of government have the power to
direct the board of a government-owned company to take
non-commercial courses of action yet the Act under which the
company operates specifically states that the ministers are not
directors. In short, this means a government-owned company
may not always be compelled to maximize shareholder wealth.
Unremarkably, both organisations (the manufacturer and the
public utility company) appeared to be more risk averse as the
amount of money involved increased.
Construct CG2: Compliance
Both organisations had tight compliance regimes. However, in
the case of the manufacturer, these were primarily limited to
quality assurance issues around manufacturing requirements.
The public utility company, by contrast, had tight compliance
requirements on virtually every aspect of its operations.
Governance requirements appear to be generating ever
increasing overheads in both organisations by way of
administrative effort and resources required to maintain
them. Both organisations were clearly burdened by the ever
 A proposed integrated framework for analysing supply chains
Kevin Burgess and Prakash J. Singh
increasing demands of translating legislative requirements
into operational realities. Both expressed the view that the
reward system seemed to be shifting towards compliance and
away from innovation. Both were somewhat frustrated by the
time consumed in trying to get new ideas through the various
filters of governance systems but this was far more
pronounced in the public utility company.
Construct CG3: Policies
The public utility company had far more “policies” than the
manufacturer. At the operational level, the staff in this
company expressed frustration at the number of policies they
had to address. As one interviewee put it: “It’s hard to think
about improvement when you work a fourteen-hour day, of
which most is spent complying with policies”. The reason for
the lower level of policies in the manufacturer was not clear
but it was inferred that, having broken away from the parent
they perceived as overbearing, all parties saw the benefit in
giving each area the necessary “elbow room” to get things
done with as little central interference as possible.
Construct CG4: Stakeholder/shareholder
The interviews highlighted a key difference in governance
structures which was reflected in the large variation in the
attitudes of the staff of both organisations. The manufacturer
was shareholder focused and, provided employees could
demonstrate how a proposed change could add to shareholder
wealth, were confident of getting a good hearing. This point
was reinforced with an electronic bulletin board which
displayed the latest share price. In contrast, the public utility
company staff were far more conscious of all types of
stakeholders and the need to consult widely in order to bring
about changes. Despite such differences, it was the local
changes generated by the public utility company staff at the
welding facility which received the greatest praise from both
organisations. This was a bottleneck and the team-based
improvements made at this point assisted the productivity of
the entire chain.
Infrastructure (I)
Construct I1: Technology
Information technology was not being used in the manner
expected. Usage seemed to be largely limited to emails and
faxes. This was largely to confirm arrangements which had
already been made by face-to-face or personal contacts.
Firewalls were also seen as a reason why it would be difficult
to easily use technology within the supply chain. Considerable
investment had been made by the manufacturer to improve
production efficiency. However, the core processes of the
supply chain remained stable with all firms showing a clear
preference to invest in improvements aimed within their
respective firms rather than across the supply chain.
Construct I2: Explicit information
Explicit knowledge tended to be localised rather than spread
across the chain. “Feral” systems were being developed in
isolation with no apparent integration across the network.
This was found in both organisations but the incidence was
far greater in the focal firm. Some users appeared to
appreciate that data integrity and reliability issues would be
made even more difficult by feral systems. However, they
justified their actions on the basis of having unique needs and
wishing to avoid having to interact with complex ERP
systems, which did not give them the reports they wanted and
required too much time to develop such reporting capability.
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Records management was also found to be fragmented and
contributed to both a lack of sharing of information and
duplication of records. Interviewees in both organisations
generally reported that they did not trust information systems,
with telling responses such as “no one trusts SAP”.
Construct I3: Location
Approximately half of all respondents expressed the view that
allowing the various players to come together would improve
supply chain performance. However, there was little
consensus on how this could be done. Over three-quarters
of interviewees expressed the view that collocation of staff
involved in the supply chain in a single office was highly
desirable on two grounds. The first concerned tacit
knowledge and the view that one needed to be near those
with it in order to gain it. The second issue involved efficiency
and speed. Being around the action meant one could pick up
on issues in a timely manner and thereby avert future
problems in supply chain operations.
Construct I4: Design
Two of the respondents expressed a view that offices should
be built around processes but did not express views on how
this could be done. When asked about office layout policy,
only four managers were even aware that a formal policy
existed and only two were aware of its specific content (with
one being its author). No-one from the manufacturer was
aware of such a policy in their organisation.
Operations knowledge (OK)
Construct OK1: Tacit information
It appeared that a large amount of the same data was coded
differently as it moved between people across the chain. This
may account for the high incidence of people reporting they
relied upon social rather than technical sources for key
information. Despite having extensive quality assurance
systems in both organisations, very little of the knowledge
on how to make the chain run smoothly was made explicit.
The data overwhelmingly revealed that staff in both the public
utility company and manufacturer expressed high trust in the
reliability of the information offered by people and very low
trust in that generated by the information systems. For
example, one manager in the public utility company was
mentioned 110 times by other interviewees for a range of
issues from planning through to fixing up operational day-to-
day issues across the entire chain.
Construct OK2: Decision support
Formal decision support systems were used by some of the
key players but were not being used in any obvious way by the
entire chain. This finding was at odds with the expectations of
at least two senior managers who expressed a strong desire to
have a complete picture of the entire chain. The measurement
and information systems used to manage the supply chain also
had considerable variation. Despite the public utility company
having an ERP in place, feral information systems were found
at various parts across the chain.
Construct OK3: Learning
Learning practices showed a strong bias for learning on the
job within both organisations. Responses such as “it’s a
complete waste of time sending them off to courses” and
“better if I train them myself ” were common. Much store was
placed on practical experience.
 A proposed integrated framework for analysing supply chains
Kevin Burgess and Prakash J. Singh
Construct OK4: Operations
The SCOR model was found to be a useful tool for defining
the technical system of the supply chain and identifying value
points across the chain. However, almost all interviewees
expressed limited utility value of the SCOR model for their
specific work in the supply chain. While the SCOR model
comes complete with measures, it was found to be inadequate
for the purposes of planning across the supply chain.
Specifically, the measures used in the SCOR model
appeared to be most relevant to the activities of the focal
firm within the chain as opposed to the entire chain.
Social climate (SC)
Construct SC1: Trust
All across the chain, interviewees reported the trust they
placed in others to get their work done. For this reason, they
were all conscious of the need to maintain good working
relationships. Length of time in the role seemed to help
develop trust, especially where key interdependencies were
understood and the parties tried to genuinely assist each
other. Interestingly, the governance systems were at odds with
this position. Governance stressed the need for contracts,
formal documented performance management systems, and
keeping records on just about everything in case something
went wrong and there was a need to establish fault.
Construct SC2: Power
The two organisations also appeared to generally see the
relationship as roughly equal in terms of power. Both sides
were willing to go to great lengths to maintain a good working
relationship and avoid behaving opportunistically. Examples
included not seeking liquidated damages for performance
breaches despite having such power. In fact, this situation
existed not only between the manufacturer and the public
utility company but also between the manufacturer and
transport provider.
Construct SC3: Collaboration
Collaboration is here taken to include all cooperative aspects
of social interactions which demonstrate commitment and
willingness to “do the right thing” and support others. This
aspect was a very strong feature of this chain. All parties
understood that in order to get things done at the operational
level, they needed to work with each other in mutually
supportive ways.
Construct SC4: Interaction/participation
Responses varied in that, at the operational level, interactions
were frequent and egalitarian in nature. However, this was not
necessarily the case with vertical interactions. Interviewees
from both organisations expressed frustration at having to
work up the system due to a variety of factors such as the lack
of time that those above had to make themselves available and
the sheer volume of governance matters which were passed on
to them.
Innovation (Inv)
Construct Inv1: Transformational
Transformational innovation was not directly detected
occurring in any aspect of this supply chain.
Construct Inv2: Radical
While both organisations have large capital investment
programs, neither made direct investments in improving the
chain being examined. The manufacturer’s focus was aimed
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at getting greater yields and lower waste in the manufacturing
process. Both organisations had sought to make a large step
improvement to the supply chain elements that they had
responsibility for. But governance required certain threshold
rates of return on capital to be achieved in a specified period.
As these could not be realistically achieved by either the
manufacturer or the public utility company, investments in
new technology did not go ahead. This situation suggests that
organisations that have supply chains with expensive and
mature technology operating within older industries may find
it easier to justify this type of innovation in their core assets
than in their supply chains.
Construct Inv3: Architectural
The bottleneck identified in this supply chain was the welding
section in the public utility company. By making some minor
modifications to the use of space and work practices, the
throughput of the entire chain was improved by 50 per cent.
This suggests that, in this type of supply chain, activities
directed at architectural innovation can deliver significant
results and improve the productivity of assets across the entire
chain.
Construct Inv4: Incremental
There was considerable evidence that incremental innovations
had been taking place across the entire chain over many years.
However, as they were aimed at solving local problems, the
impact on the performance of the entire supply chain was not
obvious. This finding challenges the literature on small step
improvements by suggesting such improvements need to be
more focused on critical areas of a supply chain in order to be
effective.
Performance (Perf)
Some evidence of improvements to aspects of this supply
chain was found. Most of these improvements were in the
performance of the focal firm and were in the form of
operational results. New and technologically advanced plant
led to increases in productivity in terms of greater yield by
reducing waste. The percentage of improvement varied with
the piece of plant but overall productivity gains were in excess
of ten percent. In some cases, spectacular improvements were
generated. For example, local improvement teams rearranged
storage facilities and introduced preventative maintenance
regimes with key equipment at the transhipment and welding
facility (which previously had created a capacity constraint on
the total system). As a result the total chain was able to put
through almost fifty percent more output to the end customer
within the same time periods as before. Overall, changeover
and setup times were also reduced by up to thirty percent
which helped reduce cycle time of the total chain by
approximately five percent. At the time of the study,
significant reductions in inventory of steel carried by the
focal company were not detected. Neither was any significant
improvements in the financial results relating to the activities
of this supply chain. However, all parties in the chain hoped
that benefits related to inventory and finance would be
generated in the foreseeable future.
Planning (Pl)
Overcoming weaknesses in planning were often mentioned as
an area which could lead to improvements. The main focus
seemed to be around scheduling and forecasting. Three senior
managers expressed the view that strategic planning was
 A proposed integrated framework for analysing supply chains
Kevin Burgess and Prakash J. Singh
needed in order to challenge existing arrangements and to
generate radical alternatives. However, as has been the case in
several other areas, the organisations in this study appear to
be more focused on their internal needs in this aspect as well.
For example, strategic planning in the focal firm seemed to be
limited to long range plans around upgrading its
infrastructure rather than improving supply chain operations.
Discussion
The results described above show how the broad issues and
the various constructs are defined. We postulate that these are
inter-related. These inter-relationships can be best described
succinctly in graphical form as a framework shown earlier in
Figure 1. As shown in this figure, corporate governance,
infrastructure and operations knowledge (with the SCOR
model outputs embedded within this) are inter-related, and
combine to produce various kinds of innovation, which in
turn lead to improvements in performance. However, these
relationships are moderated by social climate factors. In other
words, a conducive social climate is needed if innovation is to
take place as a result of these variables. Conversely, a poor
social climate would stifle innovation. The metaphor of a lens
is used to demonstrate how the social climate factors would
moderate the relationships between the independent and
dependent variables in the model. Overarching all of these
relationships is the role of planning.
The framework in its current form can be further improved
if attention is paid to two distinct areas. Firstly, the following
factors need to be better understood beyond the basic findings
detailed in the previous results section:
. Corporate governance as it is presently practiced inhibits
innovation so adjustments in this area could free up
innovative potential.
.
Infrastructure may be placing too much emphasis on
technology as a panacea for solving all of the
communication, data transmission, and information
transfer requirements of organisations involved in the
supply chain. The introduction of feral systems in
isolation with no integration across the network
challenges much of the logic driving the multi-million
dollar investment both organisations are presently making
in ERP systems. The role that location and physical design
play in SCM is clearly not something managers appear to
have thought about in any depth.
.
Operations knowledge appears to work well through social
systems. The role of tacit knowledge and why it seems to
be so highly valued needs more research. What is driving
this approach needs to be determined. How it can be
better utilised and supported by knowledge management
and HR strategies in order to generate greater innovation
also needs analysis. This in turn could assist in improving
the speed at which players in a supply chain can “learn”
and improve.
.
Collaborative planning is another major issue requiring
urgent attention. Little is known about how to do this
successfully in any large organisation, let alone between
large corporations. There is a need to develop a
comprehensive methodology that covers issues such as
skills and competencies, social facilitation methods,
technical processes, measurement systems, technical
compatibilities, and mutual decision support tools.
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Volume 11 · Number 4 · 2006 · 337 –344
.
Architectural innovation represents the best opportunity
for innovation in this type of supply chain as the
companies in the industries studied (i.e. steel
manufacturing, transport and public utilities) do not
have the power to bring about transformational
innovation. The companies cannot justify the costs of
radical improvements in their respective industries, and
incremental improvements are often too small to make a
difference to the entire chain.
Secondly, the multi-disciplinary nature of supply chains
makes it an imperative that different discipline areas find a
common point of reference by which they integrate their
findings into a coherent whole that managers can use in
purposeful ways. The framework offered in this paper offers a
possible way forward.
The framework presented in the paper is conceptual in
nature. Practitioners can use the framework to analyse supply
chains of interest to them by following the steps outlined here.
The first step is to produce a process map of the supply chain
using the SCOR model to determine the technical and
operational elements relevant to the supply chain, as well as to
identify the key players in the chain. The second step is to
assess the infrastructure that supports the activities in the
supply chain and the corporate governance issues that control
and regulate the behaviour of parties in the supply chains.
Operational knowledge, when combined with sound
understanding of infrastructural and corporate governance
issues, will provide opportunities for innovative ideas for
performance improvements. However, the framework
suggests that innovation can only take place if the social
climate is “right”. As a result, the third step is to determine
the social climate that exists in the supply chain by specifically
assessing the strength of the various social relationships that
exist between key parties and how they are used to manage
the chain. Such an approach will give the practitioner a
comprehensive technical and social understanding of the
nature of the supply chain that is of interest, identify areas for
improvement, and hence assist in determining where to direct
change management initiatives.
Conclusions
In this study, the SCOR model provided insights into the
physical characteristics and value points along the supply
chain. Interview data complemented this. Together, they
showed that the broad areas of corporate governance,
infrastructure and operations knowledge were interrelated.
Further, the manner and speed with which they contributed
to innovations were moderated by the social climate that
existed across the chain. The suggested integrated framework
shown in Figure 1 has resulted in a richer level of discussion
on the nature of relationships between parties. This
framework is markedly more comprehensive than existing
ones, and can be the basis upon which a practical supply
chain multi-disciplinary analysis methodology is built. The
framework and associated methodology need further rigorous
development and validation.
There are several relevant lessons that can be drawn and
generalised from this study. Firstly, supply chains are complex
phenomena which are best examined using multi-method and
multi-disciplinary approaches. Secondly, the social system of
a supply chain plays an important role in the uptake and
 A proposed integrated framework for analysing supply chains
Kevin Burgess and Prakash J. Singh
generation of innovation and, as such need to be given far
more consideration than has been acknowledged by much of
the literature to date. Thirdly, effective management of supply
chains requires a methodology which allows managers to
identify key elements in technical and social systems and to
manage both systems in an integrated manner. Finally, the
integrated framework provides a platform for future multi-
disciplinary research.
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Corresponding author
Prakash J. Singh is the corresponding author and can be
contacted at: pjsingh@unimelb.edu.au