Supporting SME collaborations in low-volume high-variability manufacturing

Abstract

Digital transformation brings forward expectations that supply chain members can collaborate on demand, responding to fast-changing market needs and small lot sizes. For example, in low-volume high-variability manufacturing, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) such as Airbus are increasingly reliant upon demand-driven collaborations with their large suppliers. At the same time, their smaller suppliers to various supply chain tiers –– Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), are reluctant to join many of these collaborations, and it is unclear why. This study uses the context of EU-funded project DIGICOR (2016-2019) and aims to understand: (1) what barriers impede demand-driven SME collaborations; (2) how these collaborations can be constructed; (3) how these collaborations can be supported over time. Paper 1 explores the research question: “What are the barriers to supply-side SME collaborations, and how these could be reduced?” using thematic analysis based on the sample of 17 companies. This paper reveals five overarching groups of barriers impeding: (1) market transparency, (2) access to customer orders, (3) partner trust, (4) collaborative contracting, and (5) data sharing and coordination. Paper 2 considers these barriers as requirements and explores the research question: “What is the method to facilitate a new collaborative process between SMEs?”. This paper proposes a method which aims to facilitate the formation of collaborative, demand-driven processes between SMEs. Paper 3 applies the method of collaborative process design to the collaborative tendering and explores the research question: “How to support process design methods with ontology enabling its implementation in low-volume high-variability manufacturing scenarios?” The paper proposes an ontology-driven process formation tool, which uses resource inter-dependencies between SMEs’ processes to support the method. These three papers comprise the holistic theoretical and managerial contribution to facilitating demand-driven SME collaborations across supply chains. By using these results, larger companies can rethink SME collaboration challenges in their supply chains, react to them, and develop tools to underpin demand-driven SME collaborations.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Grigory Pishchulov (Supervisor), Nikolay Mehandjiev (Supervisor) & Pedro Sampaio (Supervisor)