The extended VMI for coordinating the whole supply network

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