A supply chain management view from ICPR - innovation in product and production

This Special Issue of the Brazilian Journal of Operations and Production Management (BJOPM) features six papers selected from the Supply Chain Management (SCM) track of the 21st International Conference on Production Research (ICPR), which conference theme was "Innovation in Product and Production". This introduction paper evaluates and summarizes the selected contributions characterizing SCM with a leading role in innovation management. The research presented here focuses on supply chain design and cultural influences on supply chain performance, bridges the gap between basic research and industrial application and provides approaches to effectively design supply networks and processes. Some of the dominate key topics emphasized in the six papers contained in this special issue are countertrade in supply chains, types of contracts in supply chains, Value Stream Mapping (VSM), process management, supply chain performance measurement, order penetration points and inventory policies for distribution systems. The main research tools used are Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), simulation, SCM logistic scorecard and Markov chains.