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Purpose - This research intends to investigate whether there are synergies that a firm could or should exploit by simultaneously implementing customer and supplier integration. In particular, the aim is to analyze the impact of customer integration on efficiency, and the moderating role of supplier integration.Design methodology approach - This study analyzes data from a sample of 200 manufacturing plants. Two hypotheses are tested through a hierarchical regression analysis. Customer and supplier integration constructs consider items related to different aspects of the integration (e.g. sharing of production plans and customers' forecasts, feedback on performance, communication on quality considerations and design changes, joint quality improvement efforts, close contact, partnerships). The focus of the integration clearly extends beyond the dyad, as it includes the integration of focal operations upstream and downstream, with both suppliers and customers.Findings - Supplier integration positively moderates the relationship between customer integration and efficiency, whereas the analyses do not support the hypothesis that in general customer integration positively impacts on efficiency. They also reveal that, when supplier integration is at a low level, customer integration can even produce a reduction in efficiency.Practical implications - Efficiency performance optimization requires levering simultaneously on customer and supplier integration to foster their interaction, rather than investing and acting on customer integration only. In addition, before deciding whether to invest in customer integration, managers should ascertain the level of supplier integration, since it acts as a prerequisite for the successful implementation of customer integration.Originality value - Compared with previous studies investigating the main impact of customer and supplier integration on a company's performance, this research analyzes a model that considers the interaction effect between these integration strategies. This provides a number of original implications for the interpretation of the relationship between customer and supplier integration and efficiency.

Scientific literature recognizes that Lean Six Sigma (LSS), Industry 4.0 (I4.0) and Circular Economy (CE) offer significant opportunities to improve operational performance and decrease the environmental impact. Wine supply chains represent a strategic asset for the world economy and an ideal setting for the implementation of LSS, I4.0 and CE, but studies that integrate these three approaches to improve wine supply chain processes are lacking. The present research intends to demonstrate how wine supply chain processes (SCPs) can be improved by deploying the synergies between LSS, I4.0 and CE, so as to face the quality, efficiency and sustainability challenges modern competition poses to wine companies. To this aim, this study proposes an original methodology that adopts a step-by-step procedure inspired by the Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) cycle to systematically improve SCPs throughout the different phases of wine supply chains (i.e., vineyard, cellar, distribution). The methodology has been conceptualized starting from three sources - review of scientific literature, interviews with experts and personal contribution – and assembles in an original way some concepts and tools referring to different bodies of literature such as strategic decision making, data-driven process improvement, lean management, industry 4.0 and circular economy. The methodology has been tested in a real case to evaluate its utility for practice and relevance.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate on blockchain (BC) adoption for preventing counterfeiting by investigating BC systems where different options for BC feeding and reading complement the use of BC technology. By grounding on the situational crime prevention, this study analyses how BC systems can be designed to effectively prevent counterfeiting.Design/methodology/approachThis is a multiple-case study of five Italian wine companies using BC to prevent counterfeiting.FindingsThis study finds that the desired level of upstream/downstream counterfeiting protection that a brand owner intends to guarantee to customers through BC is the key driver to consider in the design of BC systems. The study identifies which variables are relevant to the design of feeding and reading processes and explains how such variables can be modulated in accordance with the desired level of counterfeiting protection.Research limitations/implicationsThe cases investigated are Italian companies within the wine sector, and the BC projects analysed are in the pilot phase.Practical implicationsThe study provides practical suggestions to address the design of BC systems by identifying a set of key variables and explaining how to properly modulate them to face upstream/downstream counterfeiting.Originality/valueThis research applies a new perspective based on the situational crime prevention approach in studying how companies can design BC systems to effectively prevent counterfeiting. It explains how feeding and reading process options can be configured in BC systems to assure different degrees of counterfeiting protection.

Purpose - To comprehend the rationale behind managerial choices that lead companies to implement different types of collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment (CPFR) collaborations.Design methodology approach - Seven case studies of supply networks whose central firms operate in different sectors have been analysed.Findings - Identifies six types of CPFR collaborations, the choice of which can be explained by considering some important contingent factors, such as the CPFR goals, characteristics of the products and markets in which they are sold, supply network's physical and relational structure, and CPFR development stage.Research limitations implications - Further research developed in other contexts is necessary to refine the domain of applicability of the research findings. The opportunity to use the relationships found in this research as a managerial tool calls for the testing of research findings within larger samples of firms, representative of a broader range of industries.Practical implications - Suggests managers how to select the most appropriate action to be taken to implement CPFR, through the analysis of the context in which CPFR should be implemented.Originality value - This paper fulfils the need to clarify the reasons why companies decide to implement different types of CPFR collaborations. Moreover, it contributes to the definition of measures for the CPFR concept, and to the advance of substantive research on CPFR. In literature, few authors devote their attention to rigorously defining CPFR variables or proposing relationships among variables and measures.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how just-in-time (JIT)-related job demands, problem-solving job demands and soft lean practices (SLPs) jointly influence employee well-being in terms of work engagement and exhaustion. Design/methodology/approach Based on the job demands-resources model, lean-related job characteristics were classified as resources or demands, and a set of hypotheses was developed to test their effect on work engagement and exhaustion, including the potential interaction between job resources and demands. The hypotheses were tested using moderated hierarchical regression and structural equation modelling, based on data from 138 workers. Findings SLPs act as job resources in a lean company, increasing work engagement and reducing exhaustion. Conversely, JIT-related job demands act as a hindrance, reducing work engagement and increasing exhaustion. However, SLPs can reduce the effect of JIT-related job demands on exhaustion, and JIT-related job demands may enhance the positive effects of SLPs on work engagement. Research limitations/implications The study provides no conclusive evidence on the hypothesized role of problem-solving as a challenge job demand. Practical implications The results can guide practitioners’ understanding of how to implement lean without harm to employee well-being. Originality/value By employing a well-grounded psychological model to test the link between lean and well-being, the study finds quantitative support for: the buffering effect of SLPs on exhaustion caused by JIT-related job demands, and for the role of JIT as a hindrance. These novel findings have no precedent in previous survey-based research. In addition, it reveals the importance of studying SLPs at an individual level, as what matters is the extent to which workers perceive SLPs as useful and supportive.

The integration of circular economy-based life cycle management (LCM) into product design and optimisation is essential for the transformation towards a circular economy (CE). However, companies often lack the expertise to adapt life-cycle design (LCD) thinking in their business operations and are in need of respective capacity building. To close this apparent gap is the aim of the project e-CirP (Embedding Circular Economy into Product Design and Optimization) where LUT University, Fraunhofer, Technical University of Denmark, University of Padova, Delft University of Technology, University of Helsinki and Metso Outotec have worked together to develop a program that allows Master students across Europe to learn how to integrate CE and Life Cycle Thinking principles into product design by analysing real industrial cases. In the project, modern pedagogical approaches have been applied. A modular training package covering general circular economy aspects, as well as detailed value chain perspectives, has been created. Next to the content-related aspects, a great focus was also on the support of so-called soft-skills development, e.g. through international student cooperation on case studies. The paper presents the perspective of participating students as well as the cooperating companies that supplied the industry cases to allow an overview of opportunities and challenges.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to deal with the transfer of lean practices between different units in multi-plant organizations with different levels of adoption of lean practices. It investigates how certain influential contextual variables – i.e. lean standards development, lean transfer team composition, source characteristics, recipient national environment and corporate lean programme deployment – can influence stickiness in the different phases of lean transfer process. Design/methodology/approach This paper opted for the multiple-case study method and examines six lean transfer projects at a dyadic level, that is, between a source and a recipient unit. The authors focussed on companies with headquarters in Europe with an attested experience in lean and which had recently and successfully transferred lean to subsidiaries in the USA and China. Findings The paper provides empirical insights about how stickiness in lean transfer projects changes during the initiation, implementation/ramp-up and integration phases. It identifies three lean transfer approaches (local, global, global and shared) and provides a set of propositions that explains how sociocultural traits of recipient environment (China vs USA) and lean transfer approach affect stickiness in each phase. Originality/value Literature on stickiness in lean transfer is at an early stage and very fragmented. Unlike previous contributions in the field, this paper provides an interpretation of the dynamics of stickiness in lean transfer at a micro-level (i.e. for each single phase of the lean transfer process). In addition, it develops a fuller understanding of the influence of context on lean transfer by adopting a configurational view, i.e. studying the joint effect of contextual variables on stickiness, which is a novelty in the lean transfer literature.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of product modularity on new product development (NPD) time performance, and the moderating effects of interfunctional integration and supplier involvement on the product modularity-time performance relationship. The paper analyzes data from a sample of 186 manufacturing plants settled in several countries, and operating in mechanical, electronic and transportation equipment sectors. Three hypotheses are tested through a hierarchical regression analysis. Data analyses show that product modularity has a direct positive effect on NPD time performance, and that interfunctional integration positively moderates the product modularity-time performance relationship. Finally, this research does not support the hypothesis that a positive interaction effect exists between product modularity and supplier involvement. Future research should replicate and extend the model to samples drawn from other industries. Moreover, analyses carried out provide some interesting directions for future research on the effect of supplier involvement on NPD time performance. The practical implication for managers is that NPD time performance reduction requires levering simultaneously on product modularity and interfunctional integration to foster their interaction, rather than investing and acting on product modularity only. In addition, before deciding to invest on product modularity, managers should ascertain the level of interfunctional integration. In fact, it acts as prerequisite for the successful implementation of product modularity. Empirical studies on the impact of product modularity on NPD time performance are really scant. This research empirically analyzes this effect, and contributes to the advancement of theory by investigating the effect of product modularity and integration practices in NPD in a comprehensive way.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to study whether a fast supply network structure interacts with customer integration (CI) by positively moderating the relationship between CI and efficiency performance.Design methodology approach - The authors developed two hypotheses, incorporating dimensions of CI, fast supply network structure and efficiency performance. The hypotheses are tested through a hierarchical regression analysis using data from a sample of 200 manufacturing plants.Findings - CI alone is not enough to guarantee cost reductions because a fast supply network structure acts as a moderator of the CI-efficiency relationship. The role of this moderator is twofold. On the one hand, it interacts with CI, strengthening the positive impact of CI on efficiency through a positive complementary effect. On the other hand, if the supply network structure is not intended to support fast lead times, the impact of CI on efficiency can be hindered and, in extreme cases, CI can even make efficiency worse.Practical implications - Efficiency maximization requires levering simultaneously on CI and the supply network structure, rather than investing and acting on CI only. Managers should carefully weigh up the supply network structural context before embracing a CI program, because adopting CI in a wrong context could amplify a series of problems (e.g. nervousness of plans) and offset CI benefits in terms of efficiency.Originality value - This study provides an original contribution to the literature on the relationship between CI and efficiency by adopting a contingency perspective, namely assuming that the relationship between supply chain practices and performance is contingent upon how supply networks have been designed. Accordingly, this research questions the assumption that CI always improves efficiency, by analysing the complementary effect between CI and a fast supply network structure. This provides a number of original implications for the interpretation of the relationship between CI, supply network structure and efficiency.

Purpose - To highlight how vendor managed inventory (VMI) can be extended both upstream and downstream in the supply network to co-ordinate the material and information flows among a number of different suppliers, manufacturing and distribution plants (\"extended VMI\").Design methodology approach - The research is based on data and information gathered during an in-depth case study within the supply network co-ordinated by GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world's leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies.Findings - Defines the peculiarities and the requisites of the extended VMI as to: the information flows supporting the relationships among the supply network members; the information systems, supporting the data collection, management, diffusion and elaboration; the performance monitoring system, highlighting the benefits for each supply network member as well as avoiding opportunistic behaviours.Research limitations implications - The research intends to offer an original contribution to the stream of research on VMI, explaining the peculiarities and the requisites of the extended VMI. Future research should seek to consider the extended VMI in light of some supply chain management (SCM) practices which have emerged in recent years, such as collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment. Moreover, a second research opportunity lies in investigating the mixes of SCM initiatives - among which is also the extended VMI - needing launch in a perspective of optimisation of the whole supply network.Practical implications - The case reported here and the research findings should offer guidance for managers facing the decision-making process concerning the implementation of the VMI both upstream and downstream in the supply network.Originality value - Most authors tend to consider VMI at the dyadic level, namely as an approach for managing materials and information flows between one or more customers and their immediate suppliers. Instead, this research adopts a supply network perspective, seeking to explain how VMI can be extended both upstream and downstream and considering the supply network as a whole rather than as a series of dyads.