Why the emphasis on Supply Chain Management today?
Donovan: Suppliers relationships with customers have changed dramatically, whether the supplier is the manufacturer of the finished good or is an upstream supplier of components or raw materials to the manufacturer. More are integrating operations with their customers and suppliers, as distinct from the traditional and often adversarial transactional relationships that characterizes pre-supply chain management. With integration, customers and suppliers become partners, who share a common goal of improving their profitability and market share. The sharing of all relevant information creates a mutual dependence replacing an antagonistic, arms-length transactional relationship that was often based on distrust and the hoarding of information. Question: How does Lean Supply Chain Management differ? Donovan: In the past, process redesign and improvement typically focused on very specific, narrow aspects of internal operations with little effort being made to integrate customers and suppliers
