Sharing Global Supply Chain Knowledge Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

As part of global supply chains, managers constantly struggled with sharing valuable knowledge with customers and suppliers across borders. Started talking about the "dark side" relationship of cooperation has left managers wonder who benefits most from the exchange of knowledge: their companies or their partners. To find answers to these questions, the authors conducted an in-depth study of more than 100 ethnic supply chain partnerships in industrial chemicals, consumer durables, industry packaging, toys and clothes in several places in 19 countries. The authors found three types of knowledge sharing in the supply chain, all of which offer different advantages for buyers and suppliers of information sharing, joint sense solutions and integration of knowledge. They also found that no matter how "different" cultural house buyer and supplier companies, these differences did not affect the propensity to share knowledge. Drawing on the example of a car (Toyota), aerospace (Boeing, Lockheed Martin and United Technologies) and toys industry, they explore how different types of knowledge can benefit buyers or sellers individually, but more importantly, how it can improve the performance of partnership whole. They concluded that, while the suppliers usually benefit more from knowledge sharing, both buyers and suppliers profit; understanding of the benefits compared to the absolute relative benefits is crucial in building a world-class supply chains. Knowledge sharing actually means understanding that the difference in benefits is part of what it takes to build partnerships that last. "Hide
by Matthew B. Myers, E-Shew Cheung Source: MIT Sloan Management Review 9 pages. Publication Date: July 1, 2008. Prod. #: SMR289-PDF-ENG