| The prevalence and cost implications of supply chain disruptions is the motivation for a considerable amount of academic and practitioner literature (e.g., Rice and Caniato, 2003; Hendricks and Singhal, 2003; Blackhurst et al., 2005; Hendricks and Singhal, 2005a, 2005b; Kleindorfer and Saad, 2005; Sheffi, 2005; Tang, 2006; Tomlin, 2006). In this dissertation, I consider disruptions as accidents and use organizational accident theory to address how supply chain disruptions can be prevented by understanding the role of lean management, interactive complexity and tight coupling within a system (Perrow, 1984, 1999a). I accomplish this through three related essays. I address the theoretical basis for lean management conceptually in the first essay. In the second and third essays, I address empirically the effects of interactive complexity and tight coupling on the likelihood of supply chain disruptions, and the impact that different levels of these conditions have on reducing supply chain disruptions.; Although lean management has attracted a great deal of attention within academic and practitioner literature, there is little research that addresses why lean management appears to work in practice. In the first essay, I address the theoretical basis for lean management by drawing insights from research that considers how complex systems achieve reliability. Specifically, I consider two organizational accident theories - Normal Accident Theory (NAT) and High Reliability Theory (HRT).; In our second essay, we consider the impact of interactive complexity and tight coupling on supply chain disruptions. Although some disruptions are the result of abnormal events, such as hurricanes, fires, or intentional acts, the focus of this research is on "normal" supply chain disruptions.; In our third essay, we aim to understand the structural changes that firms can make to mitigate supply chain disruptions. According to NAT and HRT, the likelihood of disruptions can be reduced by making structural changes to reduce interactive complexity, reduce tight coupling, or attack both simultaneously (Perrow, 1999b; Roberts, 1990a). To understand which approach works best, we compare the proportion of supply chain disruptions from groups of processes from a steel processing plant with varying levels of interactive complexity and tight coupling. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
