Success Factors for Supply Chain Management Projects: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

This paper provides new insights on the major success factors for supply chain management (SCM) projects. The contributions of this paper are twofold: Firstly, we propose a comprehensive definition of the term “supply chain management project”, which encompasses the different views found in the literature. Secondly, we evaluate the importance of ten success factors for SCM projects using semi-structured interviews with SCM professionals. Communication and stakeholder management, clear project objectives, support by project sponsor and senior management, and the internal organization of the project team appear to be the most relevant success factors. This provides a clear recommendation for managers of SCM projects in practice on which factors they should focus. Additionally, we find that the importance given to the success factors partially depends on the organizational affiliations of the interviewees, with certain differences between industrial enterprises and service providers.