The build‐to‐order supply chain (BOSC): a competitive strategy for 21st century
介绍了按订单构建的供应链（BOSC）模型，它结合精益生产和敏捷企业策略，帮助企业灵活响应市场变化，并指出该领域需要更多研究来支持其开发与管理。
Supply chain management (SCM) is a critical strategy for effectively competing in the 21st century. Successful companies are not only able to reduce production cost by eliminating non-value added activities, but also create a new set of market capabilities that are difficult to replicate. In particular, the build-to-order supply chain (BOSC) model is now being actively pursued in several different industries. BOSC can be defined as the configuration of firms and capabilities in the supply chain that creates the greatest degree of flexibility and responsiveness to changing market/customer requirements in a cost effective manner. BOSC incorporates the characteristics of both lean production and agile enterprise strategies. One of the first successful BTO companies was Dell computer, which gained market share by building customized computers using the Internet as an order fulfillment vehicle. In addition to Dell, BMW also allows customers to make any changes to their vehicle within 6 days of final assembly (including complete color changes, etc.). This allows BMW to build up to 550,000 permutations of the Z3 vehicle (Professor Robert Handfield, Editor-In-Chief, Journal of Operations Management). BOSC can help companies to compete in global markets based on multiple competitive performance objectives. However, there is a need for adequate research to assist companies in developing and managing their BOSC. Studies on traditional SCM have focused primarily on outsourcing, supplier development, managing the inventory, bullwhip effect, and other strategies for reducing production cost. On the other hand, BOSC is flexible and responsive by incorporating certain characteristics of agile enterprise/organizations. This leads to an interesting proposition behind the BOSC model, that is, how to resolve the conflict between lean manufacturing (long stable runs, stable schedules, etc.) principles with those of BOSC model that requires short runs, customer responsiveness and unstable schedules. Research on these issues should address (i) strategic planning, (ii) virtual enterprise, (iii) knowledge and information technology, and (iv) production planning and control within the context of BOSC. Understanding the role of network of partnering firms and information technology in the value chain, this special issue of the Journal of Operations Management attempts to study the implications of these in BOSC. The objective of this special issue is to generate further research that proposes suitable strategies, relevant methods and technologies for the development and operations of BOSC. This special issue covers a wide range of issues in the development and implementation of BOSC that include: concepts, definitions and strategies of BOSC, a framework for the development of BOSC, production scheduling, implications of BOSC and just-in-time on supply chain knowledge and market performance, managing BOSC for short life-cycle products, strategies for achieving responsive vehicle supply chain, impact of the alignment between virtual enterprise and information technology on the performance of agile manufacturing, and BOSC in developed and developing countries. Articles appear in this special issue discuss the problems associated with the integration of intra- and inter-enterprise material and information flows in a BOSC with the objective of improving flexibility and responsiveness of organizations. An overview of the papers appear in this special issue is presented hereunder. The growing number of articles on BOSC in the literature is an indication of the importance of the strategy and its role in organizational competitiveness. However, there are not many research articles that provide an overview of BOSC, despite the fact that this strategy is being promoted as the operations paradigm of the future. The main objective of Gunasekaran and Ngai's paper, “Build-to-Order Supply Chain Management: A Literature Review and Framework for Development”, is to (i) review the concepts of BOSC, (ii) develop definitions of BOSC, (iii) classify the literature based on a suitable classification scheme, leading to some useful insights into BOSC and some future research directions, (iv) review the selected articles on BOSC for their contributions to the development and operations of BOSC, (v) develop a framework for BOSC, and (vi) suggest some future research directions. The literature on BOSC has been reviewed based on four major areas of decision making, which include: organizational competitiveness, the development and implementation of BOSC, the operations of BOSC, and information technology in BOSC. Some of the important observations obtained through this research are (a) there is a lack of adequate research on the design and control of BOSC, (b) there is a need for further research on the implementation of BOSC, (c) human resource issues in BOSC have been ignored, (d) issues of product commonality and modularity from the perspective of partnership or supplier development require further attention, and (e) the trade-off between responsiveness and the cost of logistics needs further study. In their multiple case study paper, “Responding to Scheduling Changes in Build-to-Order Supply Chains”, Krajewski, Wei and Tang explore the reaction strategies that suppliers use to respond to short-term dynamics of schedule changes in BOSCs. They examine the relationship and supply chain processes between a notebook computer manufacturer and five component suppliers. Two distinct reaction strategies emerge from these five buyer–supplier dyads. The “reduce uncertainty” strategy emphasizes supply contracts with a high degree of restrictiveness, relatively infrequent schedule revisions, and a high level of configuration postponement. The “cope with uncertainty” strategy emphasizes flexible supply contracts, relatively frequent schedule revisions, and low levels of form postponement. Moreover, they have formulated several propositions to understand the linkage between a supplier's power, its short-term process flexibility, and the elements of its reaction strategy. Christensen, Germain and Birou in their paper, “Build-to-Order and Just-in-Time Predictors of Applied Supply Chain Knowledge and Market Performance”, examine the effects of two distinct yet related strategies on applied supply chain knowledge and market performance: a build-to-order (BTO) and a just-in-time (JIT) strategy with the objective of increasing their understanding of a BOSC. Their results indicate that a BTO strategy positively affects market performance through its influence on the application of supply chain knowledge downstream with customers. JIT strategy does affect the upstream application of knowledge with suppliers, but the latter does not predict market performance. Weng and Parlar in their paper, “Managing Build-to-Order Short Life-Cycle Products Benefits of Pre-Season Price Incentives with Standardization”, consider a firm that can produce standardized products or customized build-to-order products (BOP) with short life-cycles. They developed a stochastic dynamic programming model to study the effect of offering price incentives to those customers who are willing to commit themselves to purchasing the cheaper-to-produce standardized product. The market's reaction to price incentives is captured by modeling the probabilistic behavior of two exclusive groups of customers who may be “price-sensitive” or “price-insensitive” and who are willing to commit themselves. It has been shown that price incentives expand the total expected demand while reducing demand uncertainty and they present conditions under which it is optimal to offer a price-incentive. A comparative analysis to examine the effect of varying parameter values on the optimal price-incentive discount is presented. Finally, the paper demonstrates that for low purchase probability, large number of customers in the price-sensitive group margin price incentives can substantially improve the expected profit. A BPO presents the firm the opportunity to customize the product to the requirement of the customers. This will result in an increase in demand for the firm, but face some operational difficulties. One of these is related to the return policy that is now a recognized tool to win customer orders. This is even more true for increasingly popular Internet sales where the opportunity to physically examine the product is absent. The Internet firm can gain a tremendous advantage if it could offer a return policy for BTO products. Mukhopadhyay and Setoputro in their paper, “Optimal Return Policy and Modular Design for Build-to-Order Products”, propose the use of modularity in the product design as a solution to this problem. They develop a profit-maximization model to jointly obtain optimal polices for return policy and modularity level in terms of certain market reaction parameters. Moreover, a number of managerial guidelines for using marketing and operational strategy variables are provided to influence those reaction parameters so as to obtain the maximum benefit from the market. Theoretical discussion of BTO strategies is well advanced, but the dynamic feasibility of implementing these concepts in vehicle supply is far from understood. Using a simulation of a multi-tier supply chain-system, the paper, “Towards Responsive Vehicle Supply a Simulation-based Investigation into Automotive Scheduling Systems”, by Holweg, Disney, Hines and Naim study the impact of altering key aspects of the scheduling activities with the objective of determining the scope for potential improvements in responsiveness of the supply chain. The simulation results show that current vehicle supply systems are not capable of supporting BTO due to insufficient feedback between supply and demand, as well as due to the strong reliance on forecasting in the scheduling process. Manufacturing companies are facing rapid and unanticipated changes in their business environment. Agile manufacturing (AM) is a manufacturing paradigm that focuses on smaller scale, modular production facilities, and agile operations capable of dealing with turbulent and changing environments. From several enablers of AM, Cao and Dowlatshahi in their paper, “The Impact of Alignment between Virtual Enterprise and Information Technology on Business Performance in an Agile Manufacturing Environment”, study the two major enablers of Virtual Enterprise (VE) and Information Technology (IT). This empirical study explored the impact of the alignment between VE and IT on business performance in an AM setting. The results indicate that both VE and IT had positive influences on business performance. They also argue that the alignment between VE and IT on business performance was more significant than the impact of VE and IT on business performance individually. The new competitive environment requires firms to produce products with greater specificity to customer needs. Traditional approaches historically employed by manufacturers, such as the use of planning bills and standard interactions among suppliers and buyers, may not prove to be as effective in this new environment. In their paper, “Build-to-Order Supply Chains in Developed and Developing Countries”, Prasad, Tata and Mandan attempt to differentiate the traditional MTS environment from the emerging BTO one. Given the global nature of supply chains today, they compare BTO operations in developed countries with those in the developing world. The results from this study can be useful to practicing managers because as it provides specific directions on aligning supply chains for the BTO environment across the globe. Considering the potential of BOSC, this requires additional investigations for theory and applications. The articles appear in this journal issue consider important strategies, tactics and operations of BOSC. However, there is a need for further research (theoretical models, case and empirical studies) for providing detailed insights into the theory and applications of BOSC. Some of the future research topics in BOSC should include: strategic planning, risk assessment, optimal point of product-differentiation, selection of partnering firms, enterprise resource planning systems for BOSC, and logistics. The articles of this special issue employ a variety of research methodologies ranging from literature survey to comprehensive mathematical and empirical analysis. An attempt has been made by the authors of this special issue articles to highlight the importance of BOSC and its concepts, definitions, strategies, tactics, technologies, and tools. Some of the mathematical models presented in this journal issue emphasize the relevance of modeling and analysis of BOSC. This will provide more detailed information for making accurate and optimal decisions considering the various trade-offs in BOSC. However, there is a need for additional research on the modeling of partnership selection, demand and inventory management in BOSC. It is hoped that the articles appear in this special issue will motivate and point to further research and applications of BOSC. We were overwhelmed by the response to the call for papers on, “The Build-to-Order Supply Chain: A Competitive Strategy for 21st Century”. We could not have done this by ourselves, thus we appreciate the efforts and the professionalism of all who were involved in making this special issue possible, including the authors, referees, and editorial staff of the Journal of Operations Management. These efforts included review of each submitted paper by at least three referees. The Guest Editor gratefully acknowledges the assistance and generous support provided by Professor Robert Handfield, the Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Operations Management and referees who reviewed manuscripts for this special issue.