Supply network management in UK tableware industry – empirical results of three year study

Abstract

The present paper presents an investigation centred on testing whether or not the concept of supply chain management is appropriate for use in the UK tableware industry. The study builds on and integrates with past strategic research in the industry, providing a firm foundation for future investigative activity. On the whole, the strategic concept of authoritatively managing a supply chain was not evident in all cases, with future implementation of this concept being potentially problematic. As individual firm strategies were contradictory in some respects, agreeing on a set of tools to manage the chain was difficult. This co-ordination issue was found to be troublesome, as many of the relationships between organisations were, on the whole, adversarial and single transaction based. This can be compared to a minority of relationships witnessed where inter-firm behaviour was more akin to collaborative exchange, resulting in mutual trade offs between companies in a win/win scenario. Some possible avenues for supply network organisation are presented in conclusion to provide more directional leadership for supply management.