Strategic Supply Chain

This book shows how today's industry leaders are building supply chain efficiencies - and creating long-term competitive advantage. Supply chain management is among the most complex and difficult activities in today's environment of shorter lead times, tighter delivery schedules, and dramatically increased product variety. It is also among the most important."Strategic Supply Chain Management" explores the knowledge, techniques, and strategies necessary to create value and achieve competitive advantage from your supply chain. Based on the hands-on experiences of PRTM, the global leader in supply chain management and innovation, this all-in-one guidebook and reference features: in-depth and illustrative profiles of seven leading and distinct supply chain organizations, ranging from Eli Lilly to the U.S. Department of Defense; strategies built around the Supply Chain Operations Reference-model (SCOR) for increasing both the internal and external productivity of your company's supply chain; and guidelines for honestly assessing - and incrementally improving - your company's interaction with its supply chain partners." Strategic Supply Chain Management" establishes a new standard for building a low-maintenance, high-performance supply chain. Short on theory and long on proven strategies of well-known companies, it will help any organization align its supply chain with its business goals. "We have to get a handle on our supply chain." These words have become a standard corner-office lament in today's no-room-for-error business arena. But even when companies address their most glaring supply chain challenges, they can still find that cost-effective and strategic supply chain management is hard to achieve."Strategic Supply Chain Management" is the authoritative, all-in-one reference and guidebook for creating value and competitive advantage for each core supply chain process: plan, source, make, deliver, and return. Written by two consultants from global supply chain leader and innovator PRTM - creators of the PACE[registered] product development framework as well as the industry-standard SCOR reference model - this authoritative book helps you understand the core disciplines that arise from best practices and advanced systems in supply chain management.Those disciplines are: view your supply chain as a strategic asset - and establish your organization's basis for competition, developing a supply chain strategy that supports it; develop an end-to-end process architecture - and manage your business practices and supporting information systems to continuously address the needs of your organization; design your organization for performance - and ensure you have the skills necessary to develop and manage the complex supply chains of the future; build the right collaborative model - and continuously improve the state of your relationships with your supply chain partners; use metrics to drive business success - and manage continuous improvement within the supply chain. Decision makers and managers charged with the operation of an organization's supply chain can become overwhelmed with the day-to-day demands of the task, leaving them little time to ponder the whats, whys, and why-nots of their responsibilities. "Strategic Supply Chain Management" moves beyond business cycles and shifting management emphases to examine how organizations are building the core competencies that will determine tomorrow's competitive landscape. As we are thrust head first into the 21st century, this timely book outlines the techniques, technologies, and rules that will allow manufacturers to confront the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities that are right around the corner.