Market-product-operation combinations spheres

A sphere is a market-product-operation combination that provides a way to divide and conquer in developing and implementing supply chain processes that serve customers better. The term sphere derives from the fact that a sphere has three dimensions — markets, products, and operations — described in Table 6.6. Identifying spheres draws boundaries around the supply chain, helps decide what organization model to follow, and defines what customer-serving processes are needed. All three of these are vital to successful SCM. 

Section 6.6 described spheres, or businesses within the business. Spheres are the market-product-operations combinations that justify their own supply chain design. The sphere framework is particularly useful in deciding the role for globalization in supply chain design. Here we use the examples in Chapter 6 to apply the tool to developing global supply chains. 

Spheres, addressed in Section 6.6 and Chapter 9, are market-product-operations combinations that warrant separate supply chain designs. Spheres are especially important if existing supply chain processes have evolved into one-size-fits-all functional processes. This is quite common having separate supply chains for different market or product needs is relatively rare. 

Chapter 18 described several examples of the use of spheres to organize a supply chain improvement effort. A sphere is combination of products, markets, and operations. The prestudy (Chapter 30) should identify the spheres before applying fhe fhree phase approach. 

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