Advanced Supply Chain Management: How to Build a Sustained Competition

Citation

(2000), "Advanced Supply Chain Management: How to Build a Sustained Competition", Work Study, Vol. 49 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2000.07949aae.003

Advanced Supply Chain Management: How to Build a Sustained Competition

Charles C. PoirierBerrett-KoehlerISBN 1576750523£27.99

Keywords Supply-chain management, Competitive strategy, Networks

"Supply chain management" refers to the means by which firms engaged in creating, distributing, and selling products, can join forces to establish a supply network with an increased competitive advantage. Companies all over the world are pursuing supply chain as one of the latest methodologies to help in reducing costs, increasing customer satisfaction, improving the utilisation of assets, and building new revenues. This book illustrates four levels of evolution, from the beginning stages to the most advanced techniques and processes.

Many firms are stuck in the first stage of supply chain management, marked by a short-sighted internal focus that may result in good short-term results but fails to build for a long-term, secure future in the global marketplace. Poirier outlines the process by which aggressive firms graduate through the next three stages, moving from an internal focus to an external one as they form partnerships with suppliers and customers, first to achieve savings, then to build a special advantage within a specific market.

Firms that reach the fourth stage learn how to establish the external alliances necessary to build the essential networks. Poirier provides a model for building this advanced stage, including the construction of value chain constellations that deliver benefits that elude lower-level competitors and the implementation of communications Intranets, Internets, and privileged Extranets. He also includes case studies that illustrate what has worked for companies around the world, what has not, and why.

By demonstrating how successful firms have achieved their high status and describing the process it takes to reach their level, this book gives readers the means to calibrate their own progress. This, in turn, can lead to a more proactive and cooperative plan to attain supply chain excellence.