Supply Chain Management in Japanese Manufacturing Companies: Requirements for and Roles of Supply Chain Management

This paper focuses on the requirements for supply chain management (SCM) and the roles and consequences of SCM in Japanese manufacturing companies. Using three reliable and valid measurement scales and a summarized super-scale on SCM, along with constructs of other operations areas such as human resource management, quality management, total preventive maintenance, JIT production, new product development, technology development, and manufacturing strategy, interrelationships between SCM and other areas are explored. It turns out that JIT production, total preventive maintenance, human resource management, and some aspects of manufacturing strategy are crucial for successful SCM. Supply chain planning and coordination of plant activities have strong impact on the competitive performance of the companies. The competitive performance is multi-dimensional, including cost, quality, delivery, flexibility, and service dimensions. SCM improves not only cost and service performance but also speed of new product introduction and on time launch of new products.