CHAPTER 9Creating Supply Chains for CompetitiveAdvantage
In many organizations, supply chain management has gone from poor cousin to high strategy over the last several years. We have seen how companies such as Walmart and Amazon.com have risen to market prominence through their development and use of highly efficient supply chains. What can we learn from their success and the successes of other companies about creating supply chains that become major competitive advantages?
In this chapter we will use a case study of a fictitious company named Charlie Supply, Inc. to present ways in which a company can create supply chains that deliver key competitive advantages. We start with a description of Charlie Supply and its business goal. Then we discuss an initial business situation and a follow-on situation. For each situation there are exercises to work through that explore ways the company can recognize ...