We use cookies to provide you with a better experience. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy.
  • INDUSTRY PRESS ROOM
  • SUBMISSIONS
  • MEDIA FILE
  • Create Account
  • Sign In
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Free Newsletters
  • MAGAZINE
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Digital Edition
    • Subscribe
    • Newsletters
  • STRATEGY
  • GLOBAL
  • LOGISTICS
  • MANUFACTURING
  • PROCUREMENT
  • VIDEO
    • News & Exclusives
    • Viewer Contributed
    • CSCMP EDGE 2022 Startup Alley
    • Upload your video
  • PODCAST ETC
    • Podcast
    • White Papers
    • Webcasts
    • Events
    • Blogs
      • Reflections
      • SCQ Forum
    • Mobile Apps
  • MAGAZINE
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Digital Edition
    • Subscribe
    • Newsletters
  • STRATEGY
  • GLOBAL
  • LOGISTICS
  • MANUFACTURING
  • PROCUREMENT
  • VIDEO
    • News & Exclusives
    • Viewer Contributed
    • CSCMP EDGE 2022 Startup Alley
    • Upload your video
  • PODCAST ETC
    • Podcast
    • White Papers
    • Webcasts
    • Events
    • Blogs
      • Reflections
      • SCQ Forum
    • Mobile Apps
Home » Untangling the supply web
Afterword

Untangling the supply web

July 1, 2007
Peter Bradley
No Comments

Some years ago, I watched an elementary school teacher use a simple but interesting exercise to illustrate the interconnections among the various components of the environment. In the lesson, each student represented some part of an ecosystem: sun, rain, soil, predator, prey, or plant. As the students named a connection from part to part—sunshine leads to evaporation, which leads to clouds, which leads to rain, which leads to plant growth, which leads to food for herbivores, and so on—they stretched strings of yarn from one person to the next, representing each connection.

Before long, a complex web of yarn stretched across the room. The teacher had successfully demonstrated an important lesson in a graphic way.

I have often thought of that class when considering supply chain management—the raison d'etre for this publication. The term "supply chain" itself evokes an image of interconnections among all the players from source to final consumption (at least in theory). Or as one General Motors executive has said, he looks forward to the day when a customer orders a Cadillac with leather seats, and the cow in the field gets nervous.

Clear enough. Yet the term "supply chain" is really an intentional simplification of the way complex business processes work. More accurately, it is like the classroom of 12-yearolds holding on to a web of yarn. For it is indeed a tangled web we weave when we venture to link function to function and participant to participant. When something shifts in one part of the supply chain, the ripples may well be felt elsewhere, in unexpected places and in unexpected ways.

In the past, I have used the metaphor of an orchestra conductor to describe the work of supply chain managers. But it now seems to me that the image doesn't quite work. In an orchestra, the strings, brass, reeds, and percussion are all on the same stage, all literally on the same page, and all have the same goal of delivering to their "customer"—the audience—a compelling, moving, and flawless Beethoven or Mozart or Britten. But participants in supply chains—or supply webs, if you will— can and often do have different agendas that do not always mesh. As in the science lesson, the predator and the prey may be part of the whole web of nature, but that doesn't mean the prey is happy about the arrangement. So, too, suppliers may meet the requirements of a big customer while bitterly resenting the terms.

Ensuring that supply chain design meshes with the goals of even a single organization can be daunting because business, economic, and political conditions shift continually. No supply web is ever a static thing, and keeping its parts connected is the supply chain manager's perpetual challenge.

Our hope is that what you have read in this publication helps you meet that challenge by illuminating the strands in the web, how they interconnect, and how to make them stronger.

    • Related Articles

      Oil and the changing nature of supply chains

      STEM and the supply chain

      Building resilience into the supply chain: interview with Yossi Sheffi

    Recent Articles by Peter Bradley

    Revisiting the TPP

    Building resilience into the supply chain: interview with Yossi Sheffi

    A champion for supply chains: interview with Kevin Smith

    You must login or register in order to post a comment.

    Report Abusive Comment

    Most Popular Articles

    • Wabash opens trailer manufacturing facility in Indiana

    • Six defining challenges of omnichannel fulfillment

    • California bill would require large corporations to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions

    • Panorays extends risk management throughout the digital supply chain

    • Orchestrating the new, heterogeneous robot fleet

    Featured Video

    8757b894 244c 4429 b5d8 e6df7b479d82

    Penalties for Wood Packaging Material Violations

    Viewer Contributed
    Our Services Include: Customs Broker Denver Freight Forwarder Denver Global Logistics Denver Cargo Insurance Denver Customs Bond Denver Customs Clearance Denver Customs Duty Denver Isf Filing Denver More details: Phone : 281-445-9779 Email: info@gallaghertransport.com Website: gallaghertransport.com

    FEATURED WHITE PAPERS

    • A Brighter Future: How COVID-19 Continues to Change Freight Procurement Strategies for the Better

    • Five questions to ask before electrifying your indoor forklift fleet

    • Operator assist system myths busted

    • Three layers of forklift safety: Promoting operating best practices

    View More

    Subscribe to Supply Chain Quarterly

    Get Your Subscription
    • SUBSCRIBE
    • E-NEWSLETTERS
    • ADVERTISING
    • CUSTOMER CARE
    • CONTACT
    • ABOUT
    • STAFF
    • PRIVACY POLICY

    Copyright ©2023. All Rights ReservedDesign, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing