A supply chain is a network of facilities that performs the functions of procurement of material, transformation of material to intermediate and finished products, and distribution of finished products to customers. Often, organizational barriers between these facilities exist, and information flows can be restricted such that complete centralized control of material flows in a supply chain may not be feasible or desirable. Consequently, most companies use decentralized control in managing the different facilities at a supply chain. In this paper, we describe what manufacturing managers at Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) see as the needs for model support in managing material flows in their supply chains. These needs motivate our initial development of such a model for supply chains that are not under complete centralized control. We report on our experiences of applying such a model in a new product development project of the DeskJet printer supply chain at HP. Finally, we discuss avenues to develop better models, as well as to fully exploit the power of such models in application.

AbstractThis research utilizes the framework of transaction cost economics (TCE) to develop an understanding of how firms manage the costs and risks of offshore outsourcing of professional services. This research examines the perspectives of eight organizations through interviews with 10 high‐ranking supply management executives. The paper first explores the rationale for offshore outsourcing among the organizations studied. Using the tenants of TCE, this paper postulates that fixed costs of establishing the relationship dominate the variable costs of day‐to‐day transactions, and that organizations will not offshore outsource areas where there is high perceived degree of unmanageable risk. The paper expands on themes provided by TCE and offers some lessons learned, and guidelines for managing and controlling offshore outsourced services relationships.