1. Introduction
In recent years, a growing amount of research, much of which is still preliminary, has been dedicated to investigating maturity models development for the strategic management of supply chains (Chan and Qi, 2003; Gunasekaran et al., 2001; Coyle et al., 2003).
The concept of process maturity derives from the understanding that processes have life cycles or developmental stages that can be clearly defined, managed, measured and controlled throughout time. A higher level of maturity, in any business process, results in:
(1) better control of the results; (2) more accurate forecast of goals, costs and performance;
(3) higher effectiveness in reaching defined goals and the management ability to propose new and higher targets for performance (Lockamy and McCormack, 2004; Poirier and
Quinn, 2004; McCormack et al., 2008).
In order to meet the performance levels desired by customers in terms of quantitative and qualitative flexibility of service in demand fulfillment, deadlines consistency and reduction of lead times related to fulfilling orders, firms have developed repertoires of abilities and knowledge that are used in their organizational process (Day, 1994 apud Lockamy and
McCormack, 2004; Trkman, 2010). In two past decades, management of supply chain processes has evolved, also because of these new demands, from a departmental perspective, extremely functional and vertical, to an organic arrangement of integrated processes, horizontal and definitely oriented to providing value to intermediate and final costumers (Mentzer et al.,
2001). This new pattern of logistical process management had lead towards the development and application of different maturity models and performance metrics useful as support tools to help define a strategy and to face trade-offs, as well as to identify items that are considered critical to quality