
579Trends in Supply Chain Management
With the increased availability of products and competitors, customers became domi-
nant drivers of change. During this period, organizations became atter, in order to reduce
response times to customers. The hierarchical organization structure—designed to assure
control of the lower levels—became unwieldy. Managers, and eventually hourly employ-
ees, were empowered to make decisions at lower levels of the organization. Companies
worked feverishly to smooth the ow of goods and services through their internal organi-
zations. Just-in-time (JIT) and lean manufacturing programs represented effective ways to
ach ...