Supply chain configuration, effectiveness and efficiency: Looking for the best fit

Companies struggle to properly react to customer demand, while maintaining efficient operations. For the sake of surviving market competition, they extended collaboration to external entities both globally and locally, since competition has over time moved from a company level to a supply chain level. This dependence on outsourcing, as well as increasing demand volatility, has elevated the complexity in managing a supply chain. Furthermore, companies are challenged by the trade-offs between service level and customer satisfaction (effectiveness) on the one hand, and cost reductions (efficiency) on the other hand. In an effort to overcome these challenges, companies should continuously take decisions on how to adjust their supply chain configuration. The (re-)Configuration of a supply chain is a decisive factor in supply chain costs, complexity and performance control. This paper is an attempt to provide literature-grounded analysis for alternative supply chain configuration scenarios, by comparing configuration settings within four different industry sectors, and supply chain different perspectives (global vs. local, and for-profit vs. not-for-profit). The study depicts relationships among supply chain configuration settings, effectiveness, and efficiency indicators. It contributes to researchers and practitioners in having a better understanding on how to achieve the most proper fit between configuration, efficiency and/or effectiveness.