Development of a supply chain performance measurement system

The goal of this master thesis is to provide an analysis of existing supply chain performance measurement systems as well as an evaluation of their suitability for the electronics manufacturing industry. Furthermore, the hypothesis that the implementation of a supply chain performance measurement system in cooperation with supply chain partners will lead to sustainable competitive advantages within the supply chain is going to be proven.

As competitiveness in future industry will be increasingly “supply chain vs. supply chain”, rather than “firm vs. firm”, holistic performance measurement systems become more and more relevant to global operating companies (Hult, 2008, p.538). Although the efficient management of global supply chain networks already has the potential to create competitive advantages, most industrial companies still focus on production efficiency and selective optimization that disable fast adaption to changing customer requirements. In increasingly saturated markets a technology-driven competitive advantage is often quickly compensated by low-cost countries. In contrast high service quality established by efficient logistics processes can hardly be adopted in short time (Richert, 2006, p.44). Especially in the areas of fast moving consumer goods and the electronics industry, companies need to be able to quickly react on changing consumer demands in order to fulfill the customer’s requirements in a flexible way.

Cooperative management between supply chain partners creates higher transparency and market-orientation, that allows the entire supply chain network to operate in a more flexible and efficient way. In consequence the supply chain’s competitiveness will increase due to higher service value for the customer. But, as most industries still struggle with the development of flexible supply chain structures, suitable management tools are obviously not available or applied yet. Therefore, this master thesis provides in a first step an evaluation of existing supply chain performance measurement systems regarding their suitability for current business environments. In a second step the development process towards a practical implementation of the most suitable performance measurement system in an electronics manufacturing company is described. Based on a defined supply chain strategy a standardized approach leads to the development of a supply chain management system providing the preconditions for creating a competitive advantage.