(19th ICPR) Configuring and operating global production networks

Maik Dieter Jaehne (1) , Miao Li (1) , Ralph Riedel (2) , Egon Mueller (1)

1 Factory Planning and Factory Management
2 Factory Planning and Factory Operations

Since globalization proceeds, enterprises of every size are forced to establish or to act as a part of global supply chains or production networks. Their decisions regarding the design and operation of their global activities have a strong impact on their competitiveness. In this paper some of the available concepts for the design and operation of supply chains are discussed in the context of globalization. It will be shown, that the current approaches that cover mainly “hard” or quantitative aspects are not sufficient. Especially the communication and coordination of partners from different regional or cultural background requires a special look at the “soft” or social and human dimension of supply chain management. An analysis of the different concepts from both supply chain management and social sciences leads to the conclusion that there is no integrated concept available so far. This gap is closed by a two-level concept which is introduced and discussed in this paper. The concept provides an integrated view on the relations between the partners of a supply chain or network. In an empirical investigation in a multinational enterprise evidence was found for the sketched problem and also for the need to integrate the “hard” and “soft” dimension.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Maik Dieter Jaehne, Miao Li, Ralph Riedel, Egon Mueller. (19th ICPR) Configuring and operating global production networks. International Journal of Production Research, 2009, 47 (08), pp.2013-2030. ⟨10.1080/00207540802375697⟩. ⟨hal-00513046⟩