International purchasing, inventory management and logistics research

Sunil Babbar and Sameer Prasad

International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management

1998, Vol. 28, No. 6, 403-433

1)      International Environment

  1. a) Era of unprecedented growth due to
  2. i) Lowering of trade barriers
  3. ii) Liberalization of economies
  4. b) Increase in global transactions increases importance of
  5. i) International purchasing
  6. ii) Inventory management

iii)     Logistics

  1. c) Firms must align purchasing, inventory management and distribution systems with their environment

2)      Sources of information and research

  1. a) Primary Operations Management journals
  2. i) Decision Sciences
  3. ii) International Journal of Operations and Production Management

iii)     International Journal of Physical Distribution and Materials Management

  1. iv) International Journal of Production Economics
  2. v) International Journal of Production Research
  3. vi) International Journal of Purchasing and Materials Manafement

vii)   Journal of Operations Management

viii)  Logistics and Transportation Review

  1. ix) Management Science
  2. x) Omega
  3. xi) Production and Operations Management
  4. b) Management Journals
  5. i) Academy of Management Executive
  6. ii) Academy of Management Journal

iii)     Academy of Management Review

  1. iv) Administrative Science Quarterly
  2. v) California Management Review
  3. vi) Columbia Journal of World Business

vii)   Harvard Business Review

viii)  Journal of International Business Studies

  1. ix) Journal of Management
  2. x) Sloan Management Review
  3. xi) Strategic Management Journal

3)      Points of Interest

  1. a) International purchasing
  2. i) Two most prevalent reasons to source internationally (Birou and Fawcett, 1993)

(1)   Lower price

(2)   Availability of products not available domestically

  1. b) International inventory management
  2. i) Main difficulties in JIT implementation (Clarke and Mia, 1993)

(1)   Supplier or customer inflexibility

(2)   Staff resistance to change

(3)   Difficulty with or unexpected costs in the reorganization of production facilities

(4)   Prohibitive capital requirements

  1. ii) Internationally, where there is poor infrastructure, inventory is used as a buffer for the associated uncertainty
  2. c) International Logistics Research
  3. i) Problems

(1)   Lack of integrated approach

(2)   Failure to recognize logistics importance

(3)   Not considering the big picture when making location decisions

  1. ii) Firms must

(1)   Consider service before cost

(2)   Consider outsourcing to international freight forwarders

(a)    May be a service improvement

(b)   May reduce overall cost

4)      Conclusion and Key points

  1. a) Few firms have well defined strategies for international purchasing, inventory management and logistics
  2. b) International sourcing began as a reactive approach to cost reduction, it is now considered a proactive approach to attaining competitive advantage
  3. c) Physical distribution is important but is still subordinate to other areas
  4. d) When involved in international transactions it is important to plan carefully and wisely