Collaborative methods in supply chain management: implementation challenges

Abstract

The collaborative management issue has been discussed as a mean to generate competitive advantage. Collaborative initiatives in supply chains (SC) enabled the emergence of methods and practices that support the idea that competitiveness does not occur between isolated companies any longer, but between chains. In literature, in addition to collaborative methods for supply chain management (SCM), it is possible to find initiatives for project, configuration, and optimization, among others. However, there is little adhesion of collaborative methods for SCM, as well as implementation difficulties. The purpose of the article is to investigate the collaborative methods concerning the coordination of SC and analyze their characteristics and implementation difficulties. A systematic review indicated the Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) as the most discussed collaborative approach and, subsequently, a case study identified difficulties in the implementation that complemented what was researched in the literature.