Supply chain integration concepts

This book aims to identify and describe the key components of demand driven supply chains, and based on these components, develop a structured and integrated assessment framework that companies can use to assess their current and desired future supply chain states in light of the Demand Driven Supply Chain (DDSC) concepts, and to define a supply chain strategy to move towards a customer centric operation, cost effectively. 

The chapter addresses supply chain integration by the use of collaboration tools. The author explains the concept of collaboration tools and its importance in the supply chain integration, evaluates the requirements for supply chain management, and emphasizes the collaborative problem areas within the supply chain. A case study for an application of collaboration tools is presented. The author argues that supply chain collaboration is effective only if the collaboration tools are integrated and used jointly by supply chain partners. 

Another key decision in the supply chain integration process is how it is initiated and coordinated. D. Kisperska-Moroh (2000) identified four ways to integrate supply chains (concepts). They are ... 

Concepts, methods and tools supporting supply chain integration... 

After this discussion of the practical dimension of supply chain integration, it may be concluded that at each stage of integration, supporting concepts, methods and tools are used. The concepts may be adapted more precisely to the time and area of integration, and the methods and tools are of a universal nature. 

In the light of the universality of descriptions dedicated to integration methods and tools, concepts used in supply chain integration need to be presented in more detail. Figure 2.2 presents the visualisation of supply chain areas covered by quoted above solutions. 

Most often specialists and selected area (process) managers are involved in the achievement of the objectives. This was confirmed hy 57 per cent of analysed companies. Approximately one-third of respondents extended the supply chain excellence concept across the entire organisation. On the other hand, only 5 per cent of respondents stated that the representatives of coUahorators were involved in the achievement of supply chain objectives. A lack of involvement of all employees or collaborators may corroborate earlier conclusions on the concentration on integration... 

Stage 4 represents true supply chain integration in that the concept of linkage and co-ordination that is achieved in stage 3 is now extended upstream to suppliers and downstream to customers. There is thus a crucial and important distinction to be made between logistics and supply chain management. 

Example of successful integration of the HACCP concept in a vegetable supply chain to control product quality as well as safety... 

To tackle these problems successfully, new concepts will be required for developing systematic modeling techniques that can describe parts of the chemical supply chain at different levels of abstraction. A specific example is the integration of molecular thermodynamics in process simulation computations. This would fulfill the objective of predicting the properties of new chemical products when designing a new manufacturing plant. However, such computations remain unachievable at the present time and probably will remain so for the next decade. The challenge is how to abstract the details and description of a complex system into a reduced dimensional space. 

Finally, an interesting trend in supply-chain management is improving business practices by providing capabilities to improve service for customers. One such concept is capability to promise. The idea is not just to ensure that the product is available, but that the supply chain is capable of delivering the product. This involves, for instance, capability to rapidly change the schedule to accommodate the customer order and interact with the active plant schedule. Such a system was developed at Celanese Fibers, which is integrated with a Customer Order System and enabled via a Web browser. 

There is a lack of having an integrated concept of managing volumes and values across the entire value chain. The specialized concepts with focus either on demand and supply decisions or on value analysis have to be combined to an integrated approach. This integrated approach is required to manage a global commodity value chain end-to-end by values and volumes. 

The framework is mainly based on the supply chain management framework of Rohde et al. (2000). Rohde s work is gradually enhanced to address the aspects of synchronized decision making within the value chain and the integration of supply, demand and value management concepts as shown in fig. 17. The framework is structured into the areas value chain, processes and methods. 

The development of the HySPP is a crucial step in the scale-up of the HyS technology. This will build on the HyS component development and R D project. The HySPP is also an important risk mitigation tool as supplier (and supply chain) evaluation, system integration, human capital development, scale-up verification, proof of concept, materials of construction verification and various other risks will be mitigated before proceeding with basic and detail design of the commercial HyS plant. 

Supply chain management is a comprehensive concept capturing objectives of functional integration and strategic deployment as a single managerial process. Figure 1 depicts the supply chain structure. 

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