Systems engineering effective supply chain innovations

AbstractWhen seeking to adopt innovative supply chain (SC) best practices from apparently better-performing organisations during re-engineering, it is important to acknowledge that context also impacts performance. Hence, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the SC uncertainty circle model for its potential to yield direct performance comparisons even when the benchmarked organisations are located in different business sectors and economic settings. Using a rigorous well-established audit methodology, longitudinal field research with an engineer-to-order SC company demonstrates how highly effective, potentially transferable best practices can be reliably identified when systems thinking is allied to a context-free uncertainty metric, and how reducing product delivery process uncertainty can itself increase innovation capability.Keywords: auditbenchmarkingbusiness process re-engineeringinnovation managementleanlongitudinal case studysmooth and seamless flowsupply chainswift and even flow AcknowledgementsIn addition to the reviewers whose suggestions considerably improved earlier versions of this paper, the authors would like to thank the staff in the participating organisation that helped bring this study to fruition.