Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore sustainability and collaboration in supply chain (SC) management designs and to develop a sustainable supply chain design (SCD) model. Design/methodology/approach First, a literature review of the principal theories and SC management approaches is discussed. Second, the development of a sustainable SCD model is described and explained. Third, the results and the operationalization of the model, which incorporates sustainable procurement elements based on the results of interviews from a case study, are outlined. Findings A framework is proposed to provide managers, practitioners and academics with a practical solution to make sustainable SC decisions in a more structured and consistent manner. Originality/value The paper presents a currently discussed problem about the design of differentiated supply chains to avoid or offset the effects of allocation issues in the electronic marketplace. Although past literature reviews provide valuable results, they were based upon the assessment of supply chain decisions failing to consider the sustainable corporate social responsibility and the interaction criteria. The findings from this study highlight the importance of addressing supply chain decisions in a structured manner and prioritize the development of dynamic capabilities to improve the firm’s ability to reconfigure internal and external competences to address rapidly changing environments and reinforce a collaborative SC management system with third parties.

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Purpose: Make-or-buy decisions represent a critical dilemma faced by many firms. The appropriate decision between designing and manufacturing parts or services in-house, buying them from external providers or combining both is a fundamental firm process. This paper seeks to address this question by updating the traditional make-or-buy literature with new academic insights, developing a make-or-buy framework with a tool for its operationalisation to help managers evaluate sourcing decisions.Design/methodology/approach:  First, a literature review of the principal theories and approaches about make-or-buy decisions is discussed. Second, the development of the make-or-buy framework is described and explained based on the results of qualitative interviews with practitioners and a set of interviews of an in-firm case study. Third, the results and the implementation of the framework are outlined.Findings: Our study not only validates the proposed framework through a set of in-firm make-or-buy decisions, but also provides a structure for its implementation and design a decision matrix with a pairwise comparison tool for helping practitioners to put the framework into practice.Research limitations/implications: This paper aims to contribute to the study of the make-or-buy literature in supply chain management through the graphical representation of why and how make-or-buy decisions are made. Interestingly, the paper presents relevant dimensions and factors to be studied and evaluates possible outcomes when approaching make-or-buy decisions.Originality/value: Our results suggest that practitioners should combine this framework with a pairwise comparison matrix and a multi-criteria decision analysis based on the TOPSIS methodology to assess strategic sourcing decisions.

Purpose: Outsourcing transactions have been arisen and evolved in the last years and purchase managers want to know if a Failure Mode Effects and Analysis (FMEA) is an effective qualitative technique to analyze supply chain risks (SCR) in a proper way. The aim of this study is to address this question developing a practicable risk management process based on the guidelines of the ISO 31000 for upstream Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) linking risk assessment, risk identification, risk analysis, risk evaluation, risk treatment and validate the process empirically through a case study.Design/methodology/approach: After a review of the literature on Sustainable Supply Chain Risk Management (SSCRM), a case study based on a leading manufacturer of electrical products, collects evidences of SSCRM implementation.Findings: Supply chain disruptions are one of the most critical issues which can negatively influence on firm’s performance. Avoiding and mitigating disruptions in the supply chain is one of the main challenges for supply chain managers.Originality/value: This paper identifies the ISO 31000, the ISO 9001 and the use of an FMEA to analyze supply chain risks in a structured manner and to outline future research opportunities in the field of SCRM.

Total cost of sourcing is receiving significant attention from firms in general and purchasing managers in particular. Academic research on lean and six sigma programs has evolved rapidly in the last decade. This study focuses on uncovering most effective sourcing initiatives, which aim to decrease total costs addressing quality issues and Supplier Costs of Poor Quality (SCOPQ). This research aims to update the literature on supply chain management by analysing and verifying the proposed Six Sigma framework through a case study. A case study focused on a set of interviews with practitioners based on a firm located in Germany was used that generates uncaptured insights in previous research of this area. The results of the paper highlight the relevance of building cross-functional teams for achieving continuous improvement and implementing suitable, proven, and appropriated tools. Whereas lean is preferred for scopes as part of processes with few interfaces and medium grade of difficulty, Six Sigma is the most suitable methodology for scopes with a high grade of difficulty or problems involving cross-functional processes. SCOPQ is defined as the costs associated with defects and deficiencies originated by suppliers. For instance, they could include the costs for supplier-related incidents like shortages or failure-related costs, production stop costs, rework costs, complaints, etc. This research not only validates the proposed framework through an in-firm case study, but also confirms the relevance of mitigating and avoiding biases, recommends standardizing processes and texts templates, and the regularly training of the employees involved. Besides of the main goal of investigating Six Sigma's role in reducing quality costs, research results demonstrate the advantage of standardized multilingual texts for the complaint process of global players. The study indentified the influence of English collocations into the complaint process because of the majority of the specialized literature is written in English.