Organizing Supply Chains in a Time of Change

Introduction

This study focuses on how companies are organizing different functions commonly associated with supply chain management on a global scale. Throughout this report we refer to the collection of these functions as the “supply chain management organization” (SCMO). The scope of functions included in SCMOs varies widely across companies. Consequently, while we take a broad view of the functions that make up the entire set of activities associated with the supply chain, we define the companies’ SCMOs by the functions that they formally include under their SCMO umbrella. In some cases, companies’ SCMOs do not include certain functions that we might normally otherwise associate as supply chain (e.g., purchasing).

This study focuses on two ...