Sustaining supply chain management in New Zealand

Sustaining supply chain management in New Zealand

C. Basnet*, P. Childerhouse, L.R. Foulds and

V. Martin

Department of Management Systems, Waikato Management School,

University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton 2020,

New Zealand

E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]

E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]

*Corresponding author

Abstract: This paper reports on an exploratory study of supply chainmanagement practices in New Zealand. The results from our survey ofNew Zealand manufacturers indicate that there has been a significantincrease in the general awareness of lean manufacturing, supplier integrationand quality improvement strategies. However, practice is still laggingbehind. We present these results and discuss challenges that are currentlybeing faced by New Zealand organisations seeking to sustain and improvetheir supply chain management processes. Certain facets of supply chainmanagement that require special emphasis in the New Zealand scene arediscussed and some examples of companies overcoming their supply chainmanagement challenges are presented. Finally, we summarise our conclusionsand indicate directions for further research.

Keywords: design; management processes; quality; supply chain management;sustainability.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Basnet, C., Childerhouse,P., Foulds, L.R. and Martin, V. (2006) ‘Sustaining supply chain managementin New Zealand’, Int. J. Logistics Systems and Management, Vol. 2, No. 3,pp.217–229.

Biographical notes: Chuda Basnet is an Associate Professor at the WaikatoManagement School, New Zealand. He has received a Bachelor’s degree inMechanical Engineering, a Master’s degree in Industrial and ManagementEngineering, and a PhD in Industrial Engineering and Management.His research interests are in the areas of manufacturing modelling, supply chain management and decision support systems. He has previously publishedin Decision Support Systems, the Journal of the Operational Research Society,and the Annals of Operations Research.

Paul Childerhouse is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Waikato,New Zealand. He obtained a PhD from Cardiff University whilst a researcherin the Logistics Systems Dynamics Group. His research interests includeenabling supply chain change and supply chain classification. He has first-handindustrial experience of the automotive, aerospace, dairy, construction and retailsectors.

Les Foulds is Professor of Manufacturing Management at the WaikatoManagement School, University of Waikato, New Zealand. He received a BSc

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Int. J. Logistics Systems and Management, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2006 217

Copyright © 2006 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

in Mathematics in 1970 and an MSc with honours in 1972, both from TheUniversity of Auckland, and a PhD in 1974 from Virginia Polytechnic Institute.His main area of research is the development of decision support systemsfor logistics, transportation and supply chain management. He has publishednumerous articles on these topics in journals such as: Decision Support Systems,Asia-Pacific Journal of Operational Research, Operations Research,Management Science, the European Journal of Operational Research, Journalof the Operational Research Society, and Annals of Operations Research.

Valerie Martin has an MSc in Information Management (Strathclyde University,UK), and a PhD in Computer Integrated Manufacturing (Cranfield University,UK). She has had substantial research and consulting experience in the areas ofinformation management and knowledge management. Her main interest isenhancing understanding in the organisational context in which informationsystems function and she has specialised in manufacturing, supply chain,financial services and small companies. She also has considerable experienceas a facilitator of learning clusters for small companies. Prior to taking upa lecturing position at Waikato University, New Zealand, she was a researchfellow at Brunel University in London, UK.

1 Introduction

Improved supply chain management (SCM) capability is critical to many New Zealand

organisations, which are often distant from their suppliers and markets, in their efforts to

compete in ever more demanding business environments. This is because New Zealand

supply chain managers along with their international counterparts, are being confronted

with: growing competition, pervasive change, relentless advances in technology,

ever-shorter life cycles, and alterations to the openness of markets. Better communications

and logistical innovations have increased global accessibility. Technological advances and

economic development have increased market opportunities but also created more

national and international competitors and, increasingly, greater expectations from

customers. Many supply chain managers are realising that traditional approaches are

inadequate for keeping up with these changes. These approaches do not provide the

means or the incentives to make the necessary continuous changes to remain competitive.

To stay in business, supply chain managers need to think and act differently, and the

changes required of them are profound. What differentiates ‘leaders’ from ‘laggers’

is the ability to provide, in a consistent and sustainable fashion, products and services

that reflect higher quality, lower price, higher speed of transportation and greater agility.

Among the concepts proposed to achieve these goals are: lean manufacturing, better

design and quality practices and environmental sustainability.

The primary goal of the research reported in this paper is to assess and facilitate the

adoption of the above concepts in New Zealand. This paper reports on an exploratory

study of supply chain management practices in New Zealand. The results from our

survey indicate that there has been a significant increase in the general awareness of

lean manufacturing, supplier integration and quality improvement strategies. However,

practice is still lagging behind. We present these results and discuss challenges that are

currently being faced by New Zealand organisations seeking to sustain and improve their

supply chain management processes. Certain facets of supply chain management that

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218 B.C. Basnet, P. Childerhouse, L.R. Foulds and V. Martin

require special emphasis in the New Zealand scene are discussed and some examples

of companies overcoming their supply chain management challenges are presented.

The next section presents a literature review of empirical SCM studies and SCM

in New Zealand. This is followed by a discussion of sustainable SCM practices, including

the current state of SCM in New Zealand. We then present our conclusions.

2 Literature review

While there is plenty of published literature that explains or espouses SCM, there is

a relative lack of empirical studies examining SCM practices. Watts and Hahn (1993)

reported on a survey carried out to assess the extent and success of supplier development

programmes. They found these programmes to be broad in scope and quite relevant (63%),

especially among the larger firms surveyed. The aim of these programmes was more to

improve the quality and cost of the purchased products than to improve the capability of

the supplier. Krause (1997) carried out a survey of firms on the extent of supplier

development activities and on the benefits accrued from the activities. The responding

firms participated more often in limited involvement such as supplier evaluation and

feedback, site visits, requests from improved performance, and promises of increased

present or future business, than in extensive involvement such as the training/education

of suppliers’ personnel or investment in suppliers’ operations. While the supplier

development efforts were generally fruitful, the buying firms were not very satisfied

with the results. From this study, Krause (1997) suggested a three-pronged approach

of competition, business incentives, and direct involvement in supplier’s operations.

Galt and Dale (1991) studied 10 organisations in the UK, and found that they were

working to reduce their supplier base, and to improve their communications with the

suppliers urgently. Tan et al., (1998) sought a relationship between firms’ SCM practice

and their performance. They were able to show positive and significant correlation

between certain SCM practices and performances of their respondent firms.

One of the main tenets of supply chain management is integration. A number of

studies have investigated how well supply chains are integrated in practice. The findings

are not encouraging: Towill et al. (2000) identified that most companies are struggling

with internal integration let alone attempting the difficult task of external integration.

These findings are backed-up by Fawcett and Magnan (2002), who discovered that 47%

of firms have not progressed past integration of their internal operations. This is also borne

out in the study of Al Falah et al. (2003) who found that Saudi manufacturers are in

the early stage (internal integration) of supply chain integration. A survey by Poirier and

Quinn (2003) further validates these findings.

Turning now to internal SCM activities of firms, Jayaram et al. (1999) found in

their survey of US automotive supplier industry that time-based performance was

positively related to business performance. Further, the action programmes of preventative

maintenance and standardisation had significant relationship to time-based performance.

Shah and Ward (2003) investigated four ‘bundles’ of lean manufacturing practice:

Just-In-Time (JIT), Total Quality Management (TQM), Total Preventive Maintenance,

and Human Resource Management, and used a survey of US manufacturers to measure

the relationship of these bundles to operational performance. They found that the

implementation of each of these bundles significantly improved operational performance

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Sustaining supply chain management in New Zealand 219

of the respondents. Yarrow et al. (2000) examined the adherence to excellence in

manufacturing practices by firms in North East England. A total of nine performance

criteria were used: process capability, maintenance, housekeeping, kanban, supplier

relationship, internal defects, progress chasing, customer delivery and customer

satisfaction. The average scores (on a scale of 1–5) ranged from 2.55 to 3.27, thus

indicating a mediocre performance by the respondents.

Abdul-Aziz et al. (2000) compared quality practices of manufacturing industries in the

UK and Malaysia. They found that sampling inspection was more prevalent than the use

of modern preventative quality practices. The UK industry had a higher incidence of

ISO 9000 registration, but the Malaysian industry had a higher use of quality improvement

teams. Chin et al. (2002) surveyed Hong Kong manufacturing industries exploring the

importance placed by them on seven core quality areas and their performance in

these areas. Customer focus and leadership were perceived to be the most importance

areas, however customer focus strategies were practised the most, while leadership

strategies were practised the least. Laugen et al. (2005) found from their survey that

the best-performing companies were distinguished by their level of adoption of process

focus, pull production, equipment productivity and environmental compatibility.

Many articles have been published studying the design practices of manufacturing

firms. Meybodi (2003) in his study of firms that had implemented just-in-time

manufacturing practices found that these firms had better new product development

process. He found that, compared to traditional firms, JIT firms performed better in

product quality, product development time, product development cost, manufacturing

cost and frequency of new product introduction. Primo and Amundson (2002) found

positive effects of supplier involvement on new product development.

An important aspect of supply chain management is reducing environmental waste

and pollution throughout the supply chain. Florida and Davison (2001) surveyed US

manufacturing firms to determine their adoption of environmental management systems

(EMS) and the benefits accrued from the adoption. They found that a fairly large number

of manufacturers were turning to EMS, and reported substantial financial as well as

community benefits. King and Lenox (2001) examined the relationship between lean

manufacturing and environmental performance through a survey-based research.

They found that lean production is indeed associated with lesser emissions, that is,

‘lean is green’. Montabon et al. (2000) examined the impact of the implementation of

ISO 14000 environmental standards on firm performance. They found that the

performance of firms in each of 14 dimensions was significantly related to the stage of

ISO 14000 certification.

In general, researchers have found a correlation between a firm’s performance and

their adoption of good SCM practices. However, the average level of adoption is generally

found to be low. In this paper, we contribute further to the study of this significant gap

between theory and practice in supply chain management.

Turning now to SCM practices in New Zealand, previous studies (Anonymous, 1994)

have found that New Zealand manufacturers were generally lagging behind in the

application of new concepts in manufacturing. Corbett and Bayly (1991) surveyed

Just-In-Time (JIT) implementers in New Zealand to determine the perceived benefits,

success factors and problems related to JIT implementation. The respondents did not

find JIT implementation suitable for all manufacturing operations, especially where

overseas suppliers were involved. Hyde et al. (1995) concluded from their survey of

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New Zealand manufacturers that the prevalence of world class manufacturing practice

was low, although some exceptions existed. The low educational levels of the work force

and their supervisors, and the isolation of New Zealand were seen as formidable barriers

to the diffusion of world-class practices in manufacturing. Corbett (1998) carried out a

cross-country comparison of manufacturers along the measures of quality, inventory

and delivery. He found that New Zealand was behind other countries in terms of stock

turnover and on-time delivery.

Batley (1996) studied the best manufacturing practices in Australia and New Zealand

and examined the link between manufacturing practices and firm performance.

They found that firms had improved their practices in the preceding five years.

There was also a strong correlation between adoption of best manufacturing practices

and performance in the areas of sales growth, export growth and cash flows.

Corbett (1996) found that globally-orientated manufacturing firms emphasised more on

quality improvement, process improvement, and design for manufacture, and these

firms had world-class manufacturing performance. Batley (1999) reported that there

was general acceptance of the concepts of total quality management in New Zealand,

although not all tenets were practiced. Knuckey et al. (1999) adapted the best practices

model of Australian Manufacturing Council (Anonymous, 1994) to further assess the

manufacturing practices in New Zealand. They found that New Zealand firms had

improved their practices in a holistic way. In particular, the improvement was focused on

the relationships in the supply chain, from the suppliers to the customers.

On the negative side, they stressed that improvements were needed in the areas of human

resource management, technology, and benchmarking. However, Knuckey and Johnston

(2002) found that the focus in supply chain relationships was more on customers rather

than suppliers. A recent study of Australian and New Zealand logistics competences,

by Mollenkopf and Dapiran (2005) concluded that firms in these countries tend to be

working on their internal logistics/supply chain processes and generally lack externally

orientated capabilities. Apart from these studies, there is a dearth of empirical studies

on SCM practices in general, and specifically in regard to New Zealand. This paper aims

to fill this gap in the literature.

3 Exploring supply chain management practices in New Zealand

Basnet et al. (2003) used a postal survey of New Zealand manufacturers to benchmark

their SCM practices. Twenty five commonly cited SCM practices from the literature

were identified to describe the construct of SCM practices. These included practices

related to supply and materials management issues, operations, information technology

and sharing, and customer service. They found that the proportion of the firms professing

to practice some form of SCM was quite high (90%), chiefly with a view to improve

on-time delivery. The top three SCM activities were:

� on-time delivery of own firm’s products directly to the customers’ points of use

� on-time delivery of own purchased materials directly to the firm’s points of use

� determining customers’ future needs.

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Similarly, nine commonly cited concerns that restrain successful SCM were identified

and used to define the SCM concerns or hindrances construct. The top three issues

hindering SCM were:

� suppliers’ geographical distance

� lack of sophisticated information systems

� lack of ability in managing inventories throughout the entire supply chain.

Obviously the geographical distance of New Zealand from global markets provides

a significant challenge to SCM activities. Even when there is a strong motivation for

a New Zealand firm to adopt SCM, the small size of New Zealand firms often makes

it very difficult to pull all the supply chain members into the implementation.

3.1 Research objective and methodology

We now discuss some further findings of the above-mentioned survey that we believe

require special emphasis in the New Zealand scene. While Basnet et al. (2003) focused

on the inter-firm SCM practices, this paper is focused on intra-firm practices. Our research

objective was to explore these practices with a view to ascertain their prevalence.

We used the survey methodology to obtain a representative sample. This survey polled

627 largest New Zealand manufacturing organisations drawn from a commercial

database (KOMPASS). The results are based on the 69 usable responses that were

received (11% response rate).

3.2 Lean manufacturing

Lean manufacturing, linked to the continuous improvement of supply chains, has

been known and practiced in Western industry for over 20 years. The notion of waste

being invisible, needing continual attention, and requiring innovative technology,

is now commonplace. As Flinchbaugh (2004) has pointed out, lean-thinking supply chain

managers dig below the surface to find the causes of waste and work to eliminate them.

It is an ongoing process, because waste continuously creeps back into organisations

and their operations. The main concepts in lean manufacturing are as follows.

3.2.1 Inventory reduction

In lean production every effort is made to reduce inventory since inventory is seen

as wastage. Inventory should be produced only in amounts needed for the next stage

of production, only at the time it is needed.

3.2.2 Set up time reduction and small-lot production

Clearly, reducing set-up times can enhance supply chain management operations

by improving capacity. Set-up time reduction permits producing in small-lots, thus

decreasing work-in-process inventory. This not only reduces inventory costs, but also

makes it possible to have immediate feedback on quality. Another benefit is the reduction

in lead times, which contributes significantly to better supply chain management.

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3.2.3 Just-in-time supplies

Lean production emphasises not only just-in-time production of inventory, but also

just-in-time delivery of supplies by the suppliers. Supplier base is whittled down

to make it possible to integrate with the few suppliers left. Pushing the idea of

small-lot-production to the suppliers, they are encouraged to increase their delivery

frequencies and deliver in small lots.

3.2.4 Total preventative maintenance

In lean manufacturing everything is done to smooth the flow of production. Production

equipment is kept tidy, well-oiled, and well maintained. The responsibility of doing

this is passed to the production worker.

The average importance rating (5 = high importance, 1 = low importance) given

to lean manufacturing practices by our respondents are given in Table 1.

Apart from inventory reduction, the other practices are not rated highly at all.

Even inventory reduction is valued from the viewpoint of capital investment, not from

the perspective of other lean manufacturing benefits. It appears that lean manufacturing

is practiced by only a few of our respondents. The supplier management aspects of lean

manufacturing received particularly low importance.

Since New Zealand manufacturers are particularly concerned with on-time delivery

(Basnet et al., 2003), they need to give more attention to lean manufacturing practices,

particularly setup reduction, preventive maintenance, and JIT purchasing since these

practices have shown positive relationship to speed of delivery (Jayaram et al., 1999).

3.3 Design processes in improved supply chain management

The design and development activity of firms has also come under focus in the efforts

to improve supply chain management. Using common modules and parts across multiple

products allows the demand for these modules and parts to be aggregated, which reduces

the need for buffer stocks, reduces obsolescence and allows quick response. Following this

concept of inventory aggregation, firms should adopt the following practices:

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Table 1 Importance of lean manufacturing practices to the respondents

Practice Average importance rating

Reducing inventory, which in turn frees up capital investment 4.41

Reducing set-up time 3.73

Increasing delivery frequencies 3.52

Reducing lot sise 3.46

Preventive maintenance 3.44

Reducing inventory to expose manufacturing and scheduling problems 3.35

Reducing supplier base 3.29

Buying from JIT suppliers 3.17

� standardisation of component parts (trying to use more standard parts)

� simplification of component parts (trying to use fewer parts)

� use of value analysis/value engineering (deleting product parts and materials which

don’t add value to the product)

� modular design of parts (for use in multiple product applications).

Another aspect of design and development is the lead time required for an idea to turn

into a product in the market. As mentioned earlier, this is a very important competitive

issue in the fast-changing global markets of today. Superior supply chain management

helps a firm in this endeavour by allowing the suppliers to be integrated in the process.

Suppliers need to be involved early in this process to give feedback to the design team.

Concurrent engineering is a term often used where all the stake-holders in the process,

including the suppliers and the production function, are involved early in the product

design process.

Looking at the other end of the supply chain – the customers – they obviously

have a role to play in the design of products. Progressive manufacturers are using

a technique called Quality Function Deployment (the House of Quality model),

which permits customer preferences to be weighed against engineering specifications.

We asked our respondents about the importance they placed on the activities

mentioned above. The average ratings (5 = high importance, 1 = low importance) are

given in Table 2.

All of the practices mentioned above are rated rather low in the firms’ efforts.

Top practices in the design and development area of supply chain management

receive scant attention from our respondents, even though these practices, particularly

standardisation have been shown to be significantly related to time-based performance

(Jayaram et al., 1999), which is an important objective for New Zealand manufacturers

(Basnet et al., 2003).

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Table 2 Importance of design and development practices to the respondents


Use of quick product development and introduction time 3.32

Standardisation of component parts 3.18

Early supplier involvement 3.00

Simplification of component parts 2.82

Use of value analysis/value engineering 2.76

Use of concurrent engineering 2.72

The use of quality function deployment 2.50

Modular design of parts 2.46

3.4 Quality practices

3.4.1 Standardising operations and ISO

The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) defines quality via ISO 9000

as the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils requirements. Quality

characteristics are classified into several categories. If a company is seeking to standardise

its operations, it often attempts to gain a level of ISO certification. As Clegg (2003) states,

“ISO 9000, has contributed significantly to defining, developing, and emphasizing the

need for controlled documentation.” This has particular applicability in standardising

supply chain operations. Only 54% of our respondents had IS0 9000 certification.

3.4.2 Process improvement

A number of practices have been identified that contribute to the improvement of quality.

Statistical process control (SPC) is designed to identify and decrease process variation,

which can have direct implications for supply chain management. ‘Six Sigma’ is a

quality philosophy based on SPC. As Bossert (2003) has stated, ‘Six Sigma and lean

manufacturing work together to enhance production effectiveness. The worker has the

empowerment and skills to recognise a problem when it occurs and, if it cannot be

resolved, to shut down the line in order to eliminate the root cause.’ Total quality

management (TQM) lays the primary responsibility for product quality on top

management, but stresses empowerment of workers to spot quality problems, and to

find solutions. Inspecting quality into a product is considered wasteful, since it

happens after the fact. Instead quality should be designed into the product, and monitored

by the workers themselves while manufacturing the product. Continuous process

improvement (‘kaizen’) is the cornerstone of TQM – opportunities for improvement

are continually identified and implemented. One source of identifying improvement

opportunities is benchmarking – comparing own operations with the best. Table 3

presents the importance placed by our respondents on these practices.

The ratings here are certainly better than the ratings for the last group of practices.

While it is pleasing that process improvement is perceived as highest in importance,

inspection is placed ahead of statistical process control! This is similar to the finding of

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Table 3 Average importance rating of quality practices


Process improvement (modification of process) 4.16

Top management communication of quality goals to the organisation 4.09

Designing quality into the product 4.00

Emphasis on quality instead of price in the supplier selection process 3.92

Employee training in quality management and control 3.91

Empowerment of shop operators to correct quality problems 3.91

Inspection 3.88

Using benchmark data 3.47

Statistical process control 3.12

Abdul-Aziz et al. (2000) sampling inspection was more prevalent than the use of modern

preventative quality practices in the UK and Malaysia. New Zealand manufacturing

has been slow in adopting benchmarking as well. This is in line with the findings of

Knuckey et al. (1999).

Stabi-Craft Ltd (http://www.stabicraft.com/) is a company in New Zealand excelling

in its quality practices (Knuckey et al., 1999). The company manufactures recreational

boats in Invercargill and has a holistic approach to all aspects of the business, including:

leadership, planning, planning and supplier relations. The company has committed

itself to customer-focused continuous improvement in its manufacturing operations and

maintains very close relations with its dealers and their customers. Stabi-Craft Ltd

has a quality and supplier focus through agreements with its suppliers to ensure a

very high standard of quality of all incoming materials. Standards are set so that the

quality of the boats does not reduce the growth of the business. Components are checked

as they move between the work centres and when the production process is finished,

Stabi-Craft tests the boats for safety and floatation, which is part of the requirements

of the Boating Industries Association. Also, the manufacturer engages in enlightened

employee practices, including: clear job descriptions, good induction, review,

communications and training processes. The company benchmarks via dealer and

customer feedback, employing a market-back, rather than a cost-plus approach.

3.5 Environmental management of the supply chain

Leading companies are pursuing the ‘Three Zeroes’: zero waste, zero defects and zero

pollution. Toupin (2001) states, “Less waste, a more efficient process, and stronger

materials are just a few of the benefits that come when designing with the environment in

mind. Designing for recyclability can not only earn a company respect, but it can also save

money and lead to an overall better product.” One of the main examples of how design for

recyclability is useful in supply chain management is illustrated in the automotive

industry. Mainly with noise reduction in mind, first-tier suppliers, in particular, have

ramped up efforts to develop new automotive materials that can not only help improve

acoustic performance, but also meet the added goals of reduced weight, lower cost and

improved recyclability. An indication of environmental commitment is the adoptions

of ISO 14000 (environmental management standards) certification. Only about 9.4%

of our respondents had achieved this certification. New Zealand firms need to be

made more aware of the benefits of green supply chain management, such as those

reported in Florida and Davison (2001): improved compliance, reduced environmental

risks, improved stakeholder management, and better community relations. Adoption of

lean manufacturing concepts alone should improve the environmental performance

(King and Lenox, 2001).

The following is an example of a company that has shown leadership in supply chain

management sustainability in New Zealand (Knuckey et al., 1999). Design Mobel, which

is based in Tauranga, New Zealand, designs, manufactures, markets, and exports bedroom

furniture and is focused on a sustainable future for its manufacturing. It uses only

sustainable timber resources and has an extensive native tree replanting programme in

place, as the company plants a tree for every bed or furniture suite it sells. Also, as a part

of its commitment to the environment, the manufacturer sponsors schools to plant trees.

Currently, the wood shavings produced in the production process are compressed

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into blocks which are used in landfills. The company also has a remarkably low level of

production waste in manufacturing operations and is a top performer with regard to

quality, lead time reduction, leadership and planning, supplier focus, employee practices,

information management and benchmarking in New Zealand. For example, the company

can deliver its products faster to its Melbourne customers than its Australian competitors.

The company has both ISO9001 and ISO14001 accreditation. Design Mobel is respected

not only for its design and recycling but also for its general supply chain management

activities.

4 Conclusions and directions for further research

Over the past 15 years, many New Zealand organisations have made genuine

improvements in moving from cost-based to quality-based and customer-focused supply

chain management strategies and tactics. There has been a significant increase in the

general awareness of lean manufacturing, supplier integration and quality improvement

strategies. However, practice is still lagging behind. Our research shows that there is

little awareness and practice of advanced design and development strategies and of

environmentally sustainable practices. Thus managers need to lay more emphasis on

these poorly addressed areas of supply chain management to gain or sustain competitive

advantage.

We have discussed some of the current issues faced by New Zealand organisations that

are seeking to sustain and improve their supply chain management processes. Efforts to

improve supply chain management sustainability should not be viewed as a programme

with a definite completion date – the effort must continue as long as the manufacturer

exists. This calls for patience, gradualism, and the acceptance that there may be dips in

productivity during temporary paradigm shifts in the management of the supply chain.

There is a positive correlation between an overall, global, systems approach and an

improvement in sustainable supply chain management outcomes. One managerial

implication is that firms need to advance on all the areas discussed in this article to get

the benefit of synergy among the practices (Cua et al., 2001).

The contribution of the paper has been in reporting the state-of-play in the four areas

of supply chain management in New Zealand. This should help in the identification

of future strategies for firms, as well as future directions of research for researchers.

Limitations of this study include the low response rate from our respondents, use of single

informants and use of a single methodology – the survey method. This indicates that

further work should be done to confirm/triangulate the findings.

We believe productive future research may be carried out on the effect of

New Zealand’s unique circumstances (geographical isolation from the markets, small

population and market, small scale industries, etc.), on supply chain sustainability

and on developing strategies that suit these unique circumstances.. Longitudinal studies

may also be carried out tracking the progress made in the implementation of the

concepts discussed in the article. Further studies are needed to confirm or refute the

benefits of supply chain practices to industry and to identify contingent constructs

that influence the benefits.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the contributions of Jim Corner, Joel Wisner and

Keah Choon Tan to this study.

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Sustaining supply chain management in New Zealand

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