Competitive Supply Chains

This is an excerpt of the original article. It was written for the December 2016 edition of Supply Chain Management Review. The full article is available to current subscribers.

December 2016

It’s December and thus time once again for our annual “Executive Guide to Supply Chain Resources.” This is a comprehensive guide to services, products and educational opportunities targeted specifically to supply chain professionals. As with years past, we’re also featuring several articles we trust will offer food for thought in your supply chain in the coming year.

Browse this issue archive.

Already a subscriber? Access full edition now.

Need Help?

Contact customer service

847-559-7581   More options

Not a subscriber? Start your magazine subscription.

What defines a competitive supply chain? That is a question that Larry Lapide addressed in three of his “Insights” columns in 2015. The short answer, according to Lapide, is that a competitive supply chain is essential to a company’s go-to-market strategy, and important to winning business. It really comes down to three critical elements: excellence, strategic alignment and optimized demand management. As Lapide wrote in an author’s note to the last column, the three elements work together: “Without formal, routine joint decision-making processes, a supply chain organization is not really playing a major role in executing a corporate strategy, even if it is strategically aligned.”

For the December issue of Supply Chain Management Review, we’re bringing those three columns together into one article. Think of them as a roadmap for the do-it-yourself supply chain strategic project manager—the kind of manager we defined in last month’s issue—who doesn’t necessarily need help from the outside consulting community. The columns also build on Lapide’s work on the SC2020 project (http:// ctl.mit.edu/research/current-projects/supply-chain- 2020-project) at the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics as well as his past columns in SCMR. To that end, we are publishing an extended version of this article on scmr.com that will include other complimentary columns. As always, Lapide welcomes your comments and questions at [email protected].

1.) Excellence Amy Chua, known as the “Tiger Mom,” has been praised and criticized for her views on raising children to be high performing. She cowrote a book, “The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America,” based on eight successful cultural groups.

This complete article is available to subscribers
only.

Click on Log In Now at the top of this article for full access.

Or,

Start your PLUS+ subscription for instant access.

SC
MR