A noted study of the U.S. food industry estimated that poor coordination among supply chain partners was wasting $30 billion annually.1 This study further noted that supply chains in many other industries suffer from an excess of some products and a shortage of others owing to an inability to predict demand accurately and in a timely fashion. In all likelihood, this is a conservative estimate today, given that supply chains have become more complex and global, which exacerbates the costs of poor supply chain coordination.
The supply chain management (SCM) concept emerged in the early 1980s as firms began to realize that coordinated efforts among trading partners may provide a competitive advantage. At ...
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