Systemic Assessment of SCOR for Modeling Supply Chains

The recent introduction of Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) approach for modeling supply chains has been positively received by practitioners and consultants. SCOR is perceived to provide a simple though powerful standard for modeling supply chains. As SCOR is emerged from a practitioner's perspective, comparatively less little academic attention has been paid to SCOR to date. This paper aims to address one aspect of SCOR while at the same time providing a short overview of its concepts and use. Specifically, we examine SCOR from a methodological perspective, by adopting a systems development framework and using a socio-technical lens as a basis for assessment. To effect such an assessment, a fictitious timing instrument manufacturing company supply chain case (TimeWise) is used to create the context for developing and assessing SCOR approach. It was found that SCOR was strong on technical dimensions such as modeling process and techniques but weak on the social dimensions. The contribution of the paper includes an overview of SCOR and a systemic assessment of a method to develop a SCOR model in order to highlight the strengths and limitations of the approach and to guide future research in this domain.