Service Management: An Integrated Approach to Supply Chain Management and Operations

9. Supply Chains in Services and Their Management*

* We would like to thank Dr. Tan Miller of Rider University for his review of an earlier version of this chapter and his insightful comments.

9.1. Introduction

Anyone who is even remotely interested in business must be aware that there has been a lot of discussion about supply chains during the past two decades. During this period, a large number of academic and trade publications were started focusing on issues and challenges concerning supply chain management. Even newspapers and news magazines frequently carry news and articles about supply chains. It is clear that supply chain management is one of the hottest topics in the business world. Most of this attention is on supply chains for goods. ...