Supply Chains: A Manager's Guide

Exploring Your Options

Once you have decided on a core strategy, you need to set the scope of the design effort. If your company is vertically integrated, so that much of the supply chain is under your direct control, the scope may naturally run from your immediate suppliers to your immediate customers. If not, you will probably need to include your customers' customers and your suppliers' suppliers to achieve major improvements. The more of the chain you can integrate under the new design, the greater the opportunity to build a competitive supply chain. But be careful not to overextend yourself; there are diminishing returns as you add more companies to the design effort, and the overhead of trying to manage too many relationships can easily ...