The Market-Driven Supply Chain

Foreword

Gregory P. Hackett

I have known Bob Burrows for more than 30 years, from when we both were consultants in the Cleveland-based operations practice of Booz Allen & Hamilton, now known as Booz & Co. I was the junior guy on many manufacturing operations teams that he led. When I first met Bob, he was working closely with Keith Oliver, a senior partner, and their project team coined the phrase supply chain management. At that point, supply chain management was very much operations-focused, employing new technologies and tools to manage and reduce inventory.

The big problem with supply chain management is that while it produced results, it never fully achieved its promise. The fact is we could never properly forecast demand. I remember many ...