With supply chain now comprising a key element in corporate competitiveness, some firms have come to view this function as the cornerstone of their differentiation strategy (Waters and Waters, 2007). Supply chain performance can be measured both in terms of customers’ level of satisfaction – since they remain the ultimate judges of how much value is actually being created at a logistics level – and the costs incurred. Evaluating supply chain performance is a complex undertaking, in part because this is a transversal process involving several actors cooperating to achieve given logistical and strategic objectives. Such evaluations become parti- cularly important in situations, where supply chains are considered a key factor of corporate success.
The purpose of the present article is to analyse the character- istics of different supply chain performance evaluation modes, while providing a decision assistance framework that will allow managers to choose the model that offers the kind of analysis they need. As such, it seeks to identify which model is most useful to a company in terms of helping it to raise performance by incorpor- ating analysis that covers a whole range of criteria, one of which is the supply chain maturity. The article starts with a definition of logistics and supply chains, with a second section specifying different levels of supply chain maturity within companies and considering the estimation of supply chain performance. The two sections seek to analyse ways of evaluating supply chain performance. The third section applies an initial analytical table to identify characteristic criteria, while highlighting the dissimilarities between different models used in supply chain evaluations. The fourth section applies a second analytical grid that we have developed to examine the relevancy of each of these models.
The purpose of this double characterisation is to enhance researchers and professionals’ understanding of differ- ent evaluation models’ roles, along with their suitability within particular corporate contexts.