Supply Chains: A Manager's Guide

Chapter 3. Winning as a Team

If complexity and variability are what make supply chain management a hard game to master, then the best tactics are those that lead to simplicity and stability. Indeed, most of the innovations in supply chain management over the past 20 years have attempted to both simplify and stabilize the flow of demand, supply, and cash. These innovations include the extension of just-in-time manufacturing techniques out to the supply chain, plus a variety of specialized programs for managing the replenishment of retail inventories. Unfortunately, the gains produced by these programs have often come at the expense of other links in the chain, and that doesn't improve the competitiveness of the chain as a whole. A brief look ...