Complexity management and supply chain performance assessment. A field study and a conceptual framework

This paper presents the results of an empirical research program devoted to investigate how complexity can affect a manufacturing company’s performances, and those of its supply chain. In-depth industry case studies involving 14 Italian companies at different stages in the household appliances industry are here presented: more than 200 numerical data and 50 descriptive questions were asked to eight different key managers within each company, focusing on sales, inbound and outbound logistics, product and process engineering, production and organisational issues. Empirical evidence confirms that the way companies handle their operations system complexity has a deep effect on how well they perform. Relying on these first evidences, a research refinement is proposed by means of a careful classification of complexity sources on one side and of complexity control levers on the other. Then, a first interpretative and theory building attempt is done to set relationships among the operating context, the adopted managerial levers and the operating performances achieved. The model suggests that the ability to control complexity within manufacturing and logistic systems can be regarded as a core competence in order to jointly improve efficiency and effectiveness at a supply chain wide scale.