ASIAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT RESEARCH
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Research Article
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ABSTRACT
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1. Introduction
Supply chain management has become vitally important approach to gain competitive
advantages in a fiercely competitive global market place. Since the researchers (Towill 1991,
Lee and Billington 1992 and Davis 1993) and managers started to evolve into the studies and
practices of SCM, there is extensive literature on this field. According to the Global Supply
Chain Forum held in 1998, supply chain management is the integration of the key business
processes from end user through original suppliers of products, services and information that
add value for customers and other stake holders (Lambert, Cooper and Pagh, 1998). In recent
decades, services have become extremely important in the world economies. The service
company has always been the driving force of economic growth of every developed nation
(Giannakis, 2011). Although, it is believed that service industry can benefit applying some
best practices from manufacturing industry, the indifferences between service and
manufacturing industries could create a need for specific service supply chain management
practices.
In the service industry, service providers have an incentive of getting better quality inputs
from customer-suppliers and customer-suppliers have an incentive of getting better quality
outputs from the service provider. Supply chain management is needed for various reasons:
improving operations, better outsourcing, increasing profits, enhancing customer satisfaction,
generating quality outcomes, tackling competitive pressures, increasing globalization,
increasing importance of e-commerce and growing complexity of supply chains (Stevenson,
2002).
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Many authors (Ellram 2004, Sengupta 2006, Niranjan 2007 and Baltacioglu et.al, 2007)
defined: “service supply chain” is a network of inter-connected organizations that utilizes
resources and transforms their inputs (skill and knowledge) into the service offering to
enhance the delivery of a flexible customized solution”. Ellram et.al, (2004) defined SCM for
services as: “the management of information processes, capacity service performance and
funds from the earliest supplier to the ultimate customer”.
2. Service supply chain practices
Ellram et.al, (2004) identified the key parameters that need a careful management to ensure
an effective service supply chain. Service supply chain scholars have defined service supply
chain based on the nature of the service they examine, which means the key definition of
service supply chain will be similar to all service sectors, but nature of the definition varies
accordingly based on the service sector they have chosen to study. Ellram et al studied about
professional services and it is a transfer of the service by utilizing the supplier’s service assets
and staff. Battacioglu et al (2007) studied about health care services and defined service
supply chain as the delivery of core services to customer and the core services will be
delivered with support of supporting service industry.
Service activities are absolutely necessary for the economy to function and to enhance the
quality of our life. Services are performed directly for the customers (e.g. Education) or for
the customers’ property. Services performed directly for customers require customer’s
participation during the performance. Very few researchers conducted SCM in the service
industry related to education. One of the main goals of an educational supply chain is to
improve the well-being of the end customer to the society. To achieve this goal, educational
institutions need to have a certain degree of knowledge about the parameters in their supply
chains including suppliers, customers and the consumer. The performance of the SCM
depends on the seamless coordination of all supply chain stakeholders to ensure attainment of
desirable outcomes. Elaine M O’Brien (1996) has examined the concept of adapting industry
models to higher education with specific reference to the idea of an educational supply chain,
in which employees, students, university staff, schools and colleges work in collaboration to
ensure that the needs of all are satisfied. Antonio K.W. Lau, (2007) performed an in depth
case study approach to developing an educational supply chain management for the city
university of Hong Kong. He has conducted an in depth case study approach to implement
the philosophy of SCM in the current higher educational environment, so as to suggest
innovative management ideas in higher education management.
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Figure 1: SCM in different aspects (Mamun Habib, 2009)
Mamun Habib (2009) studied input of the university and output of the university through
educational supply chain management and explored the evolution of SCM (Figure.1) in
various industries, including manufacturing and service industries and its future trends.
Murali Krishna and Venkata Subbaiah (2012) addressed educational supply chain model and
the role of information in educational supply chain as major constituents in educational
supply chain management for the educational organizations/Universities.
2.1 Why educational supply chain
1. There is insufficient feedback from colleges/Universities to the high schools on the
progress and short comings of students, the high schools supplied. Where in industrial
supply chain is integrated in material flow, output requirements and information flow
as a system.
2. The educational system does not determine how many students it needs to enter each
stage of the system by surveying the employer market for current or future needs.
Where in commercial supply chain initiates it’s planning by scanning and analyzing
consumer needs both current and future and then schedules its product, service,
components and raw material backwards throughout the supply chain system.
3. The academic system is not profit motivated and has no stockholders. However, each
academic stage may have stakeholders such as parents, tax payers, alumni, accrediting
agencies and national monitoring agencies. Where each stage of commercial supply
chain is typically for profit organizations with financial responsibility to their
stockholders.
4. Academic system, on the other hand transfer intelligent beings with innate
knowledge, reasoning ability, emotions, self-awareness and the ability for self –
improvement outside the supply chain, thus these beings require special handling.
Where in industrial supply systems pass raw materials, components, modules etc.,
which do not have the ability for self awareness or self improvement along the chain.
5. Both industrial and academic systems have some of the same objectives: high quality
outputs from each stage and finished outputs which satisfy the needs of the market
place and society, reduced cost of operating system, reduced overall lead time from
the input stage to the final output, reduced inventory and delay time at each stage,
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through effective forecasting and information transfer, the matching of supply
capacity at each stage with demand.
6. The educational supply chain lacks - integrated output design, quality control for
admission to each stage, integrated information systems and inter organizational
relationships.
3. Similarities between educational supply chain and industrial supply chain
As shown in the Figure 2, there is a parallel between the original, industrial version of a
supply chain and the concept of an educational supply chain. The educational supply chain
has students, entering in an educational organization as a raw material and finally out to the
world of professional employment as a finished products. Thus, it is the premises here that
because of their similarities with a chain like structure, mission (dependency of quality at
each stage and the finished output, cost efficiency, time constraints etc.), and need to
constantly share information and data.
Figure 2: Similarities between Educational and Industrial Supply Chains
4. Conclusion
In a nut shell the expected results of implementation of the educational supply chain are
1. Increasing flexibility of educational offer-increasing market research.
2. Incorporating IT into educational process without jeopardizing traditional educational
institutions but in fact enhancing their market value.
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3. Overcoming technical and financial barriers to implementation of e-learning faced by
many educational institutions.
4. Providing meritorious control of educational product in spite of their virtual character.
5. Increasing competition among faculty members within and among knowledge
domains by providing students with alternative sources of education.
6. Enhancing global context of educational process by allowing students from any place
to cooperate within the same course.
5. References
1. Towill D.R (1991), Supply chain Dynamics, International Journal of computer
integrated manufacturing, 4(4), pp 197-208.
2. Lee and Billington (1992), Management Supply chain Inventory- pitfalls and
opportunities, Sloan Managernent review, 33(3), pp 65-73.
3. Davis T (1993), Effective Supply Chain Management, Sloan management review, 33
(4), pp 35-46.
4. Douglas M. Lambert, Martha C. Cooper and Janus D. Pagh, (1998), Supply Chain
Management: Implementation Issues and Research Opportunities, International
Journal of Logistics Management, 9(2), pp 1-20.
5. Giannakis, M. (2011), Management of service supply chains with a service oriented
reference model: The case of management consulting source, Supply Chain
Management: An International Journal, DOI: 10.1108/13598541111155857 .
6. Stevenson (2002), Operations Management, 7th edition, Mcgraw Hill.
7. Ellram L.,and Tate W., Billington C. (2004), Understanding and Managing the
Services Supply Chain, Journal of Supply Chain Management, 40(4), pp 17-32.
8. Sengupta H.,Heiser R., Cook S., (2006), Manufacturing and Service Supply Chain
Performance: A Comparative Analysis, Journal of Supply Chain Management, 42(4),
Fall 2006.
9. Niranjan T., (2007), Equivalence of ‘Goods’ and ‘Services’ Supply Chain Concepts’,
14th International Annual Euroma Conference. Service Operations Management.
10. Baltacioglu T., Ada E., Kaplan M., Yurt O., and Kaplan C., (2007), A New
Framework for Service Supply Chains”, Services industry journal, 27(2), pp 105-109.
11. Elaine M. O’Brien and Kenneth R. Deans (1996), Educational supply chain: a tool for
strategic planning in tertiary education? Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 14(2), pp
33-40.
12. Antonio K.W. Lau, (2007), Educational supply chain management: a case study, On
the Horizon, 15(1), pp 15- 27.
13. Mamun Habib (2009), Supply chain management: and its future perspective,
International journal of Business, management and social sciences, 1, pp79-87.
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14. Murali Krishna.M and Venkata Subbaiah. K (2012), A research frame work on role of
information in educational supply chain, World Applied Sciences Journal, 17(5), pp
617-621.
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