InformationWeek

November 17, 1997

Rethinking The Supply Chain

upply-chain management is emerging as one of the decade's most powerful sets of technologies and business practices. It's transforming the way manufacturers operate and work with partners-even the way they think about their businesses. Supply-chain management is also saving companies millions a year and help

ing companies that include General Electric, Ames, and Mercury Marine forge airtight relationships with partners and customers.

Going far beyond incremental changes, mod-est improvements, and hard-to-measure returns, supply-chain systems are helping to bring about what users say is nothing short of a business revolution.

Says Terry Gleason, a general manager at Thompson Consumer Electronics, which has used supply-chain software to cut its planning and scheduling staff from 22 people to four, despite the considerable training involved: "I've been in manufacturing for 20 years, and this is the answer I've searched for my whole career."

Supply-chain management systems help manufacturers and other businesses reach beyond their own corporate walls t o connect with suppliers, distributors, and retailers, and change the way business is conducted. They also help companies take the various stages of making and selling products and shift them to the business partner that can perform those tasks most efficiently.

"The old idea was that if you were the retailer, then you had to do the warehousing. There were rules governing exactly who had to do what," says Roger Blackwell, a marketing professor at Ohio State University in Columbus. "Now, everything is up for grabs. The new rule is that there are no rules."

Story's author: Tom Stein

Read it on the Web at: techweb.cmp.com/iw/636/36iuman.htm

Return to the Year In Review menu