Essentials of Supply Chain Management, Third Edition

CHAPTER 7

Supply Chain Innovation for the Real-Time Economy

After reading this chapter you will be able to:

• Consider trends that make coordination and collaboration key requirements for success in twenty-first century supply chains.
• Discuss the potential of real-time simulation and massively multi-player online games as a source of ideas for new supply chain operating models.
• Appreciate the need for universal, easy, and inexpensive data connections between all parties in a supply chain and see why these connections will improve supply chain performance and profitability.
• Start to assess the potential for using social media to enhance supply chain capabilities.

Coordination and Collaboration in Supply Chains

Innovation in supply chains starts with the realization of how much has changed over the last 20 years or so and how that affects the way supply chains need to be organized and operated. In complex and high-change environments like our real-time global economy it is hard for a single company to forecast demand and act effectively in isolation. In this environment, coordination is more powerful than control. Profits come from being able to plug into supply chain networks and then develop a reputation in those networks for having the best service and best products at good prices. Companies do not need to have the lowest prices, they just need to be “in the ballpark” or within ...