Research by the Value Chain Innovation Initiative

The bullwhip effect is the amplification of demand variability along a supply chain: a company bullwhips if it purchases from suppliers more variably than it sells to customers. Such bullwhips (amplifications of demand variability) can lead to…

A manufacturer must choose to delegate component procurement to its tier-1 supplier, or to control component procurement by contracting with both the tier-1 supplier and the tier-2 component supplier. Both suppliers have private cost information…

It’s not easy, but some leading companies have found that the right incentives and collaborative efforts can help their suppliers achieve better environmental performance. For this MIT Sloan Management Review article, Stanford Professors Hau L.…

In 2007, SCMR featured an article on Walmart’s burgeoning sustainability program, focusing on eight specific initiatives being undertaken at the company. Four years later, the author of that article, Erica Plambeck of Stanford, and colleague Lyn…

As part of its long-term strategic commitment to accelerate economic development in previously excluded markets, in 2009 SAP launched a program leveraging microfinance, education, and technology to improve income of women Shea nut farmers in…

With the best of intentions, companies experiment with isolated efforts to improve sustainability — only to encounter a long string of unanticipated consequences, often in the form of financial, social, or environmental costs. That’s partly…

Riders for Health had won international acclaim for its novel approach to maintaining health transport vehicles in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet the organization was having trouble scaling its services at its first site: Gambia. Here is how the…

Hewlett-Packard’s Supply Chain Social and Environmental Responsibility (SER) program has evolved steadily in recent years. Today, it’s not only about complying with labor, environmental, and health and standards, but also about helping suppliers…

This paper investigates the impact of e-waste regulation on new product introduction in a stylized model of the electronics industry. Manufacturers choose the development time and expenditure for each new version of a durable product, which…

This paper examines the value of information sharing and how it can address the bullwhip effect. We start with a general demand model, coupled with a smoothing policy for order variability control. In addition, we do not require that the supplier…

We examine the procurement process selection problem of a large industrial buyer who employs reverse auctions for awarding procurement contracts. We contrast two classes of commonly used strategies under multiple sourcing; namely, single-stage…

The European Recycling Platform was the only pan-European recycling organization created in response to the European Union’s groundbreaking directive to promote recycling of electronic waste. Braun, Electrolux, Hewlett-Packard and Sony…

Zappos was founded in 1999, during the Internet boom, to sell shoes online. The company’s founding premise was to provide the ultimate in selection to its customers—all brands, styles, sizes, and colors. Zappos organized all aspects of its…

Most companies have more freedom than they imagine to organize their supply chains for maximum efficiency. By rethinking inventory control in terms of who owns the inventory at any point, where it should be located, and who controls it, managers…

In recent years, the electronics industry has made important improvements in social and environmental responsibility (SER) conformance among first-tier suppliers, due in part to the standardization of SER practices set forth in the Electronics…

This article, published in the Center for Social Innovation Newsletter (Spring 2008, Vol. 4), summarizes a white paper that addresses trends in the development of socially and environmentally responsible supply chains with respect to the…

Operations network design is about where to locate your supply sources and manufacturing and distribution operations, as well as the deployment of such operations, i.e., who should be supplying whom. With the emergence of global supply and…

In August and September 2007, Mattel made a series of product recalls, totaling more than 20 million toys. The recalls were for excessive lead and for magnets that could become loose. All of the recalled toys had been made in China. The Mattel…