Publisher's Synopsis
The management of supply chain is a special field of the general management for production and services systems. This special kind of management is required to be adaptive to the nature of the industry evolution. The current industry is distributed around geographic places different for the main production plan. In the current economic environment, increasingly global, there is the general awareness that companies are able to better compete if they act together, in supply chains, and thereby competitiveness can be increased. Therefore, supply chains are becoming vital to the competitiveness of many companies and businesses. The adoption of modern management paradigms, philosophies, strategies, policies and/or practices to improve effectiveness and reduce operating costs, such as lean manufacturing, Just-In-Time, strategic inventory, reduced product lifecycle and outsourcing, have created highly efficient supply chains. Although these new ways of managing have yielded attractive business benefits, they reduced the slack available to deal with uncertain events and promoted the business globalization, increasing complexity of the extended networks, which amplifies the adverse impact of problems that can arise. In addition, the interconnection and interdependence among companies in a global supply chain makes them more vulnerable to a range of risks. Supply chains are subjected to more risks than ever, which are numerous and constantly evolving, and derive both from within and outside of the company. Avoiding such risks or reducing their negative effects is a challenge for today management. Nevertheless, some risks cannot be avoided and with today's complex global supply chains, fragmentary solutions and specific initiatives are no longer enough to cope with the multifaceted nature of risks. Modern Management Paradigms and Approaches in Supply Chain aims to present recent approaches and ideas as well as experiences and applications in the field of supply chains, which may give useful information for new research and to those associated, allied with and outlying to the field of supply chains and its management. This book is beneficial tool for researchers, graduate students and practitioners by integrating every aspect of management hypotheses into whole supply chain functions such as procurement, warehousing, manufacturing, transportation and disposal. Supply chain management is the integration of the activities that procure materials, transform them into intermediate goods and final products, and deliver them to customers. New product development (NPD) processes include design and development along with sourcing through the company's development chain. In order to remain competitive, supply chains must continuously develop and deliver new products and services to the marketplace. Carefully matching the product characteristics to the appropriate supply chain strategy is critical to being competitive and to aligning appropriate order winners and order qualifiers with customer requirements. The management of supply chain is a special field of the general management for production and services systems. This special kind of management is required to be adaptive to the nature of the industry evolution. The current industry is distributed around geographic places different for the main production plan. In the current economic environment, increasingly global, there is the general awareness that companies are able to better compete if they act together, in supply chains, and thereby competitiveness can be increased. Therefore, supply chains are becoming vital to the competitiveness of many companies and businesses. The adoption of modern management paradigms, philosophies, strategies, policies and/or practices to improve effectiveness and reduce operating costs, such as lean manufacturing, Just-In-Time, strategic inventory, reduced product lifecycle and outsourcing, have created highly efficient supply chains. Although these new ways of managing have yielded attractive business benefits, they reduced the slack available to deal with uncertain events and promoted the business globalization, increasing complexity of the extended networks, which amplifies the adverse impact of problems that can arise. In addition, the interconnection and interdependence among companies in a global supply chain makes them more vulnerable to a range of risks. Supply chains are subjected to more risks than ever, which are numerous and constantly evolving, and derive both from within and outside of the company. Avoiding such risks or reducing their negative effects is a challenge for today management. Nevertheless, some risks cannot be avoided and with today's complex global supply chains, fragmentary solutions and specific initiatives are no longer enough to cope with the multifaceted nature of risks. Modern Management Paradigms and Approaches in Supply Chain aims to present recent approaches and ideas as well as experiences and applications in the field of supply chains, which may give useful information for new research and to those associated, allied with and outlying to the field of supply chains and its management. This book is beneficial tool for researchers, graduate students and practitioners by integrating every aspect of management hypotheses into whole supply chain functions such as procurement, warehousing, manufacturing, transportation and disposal. Supply chain management is the integration of the activities that procure materials, transform them into intermediate goods and final products, and deliver them to customers. New product development (NPD) processes include design and development along with sourcing through the company's development chain. In order to remain competitive, supply chains must continuously develop and deliver new products and services to the marketplace. Carefully matching the product characteristics to the appropriate supply chain strategy is critical to being competitive and to aligning appropriate order winners and order qualifiers with customer requirements. The management of supply chain is a special field of the general management for production and services systems. This special kind of management is required to be adaptive to the nature of the industry evolution. The current industry is distributed around geographic places different for the main production plan. In the current economic environment, increasingly global, there is the general awareness that companies are able to better compete if they act together, in supply chains, and thereby competitiveness can be increased. Therefore, supply chains are becoming vital to the competitiveness of many companies and businesses. The adoption of modern management paradigms, philosophies, strategies, policies and/or practices to improve effectiveness and reduce operating costs, such as lean manufacturing, Just-In-Time, strategic inventory, reduced product lifecycle and outsourcing, have created highly efficient supply chains. Although these new ways of managing have yielded attractive business benefits, they reduced the slack available to deal with uncertain events and promoted the business globalization, increasing complexity of the extended networks, which amplifies the adverse impact of problems that can arise. In addition, the interconnection and interdependence among companies in a global supply chain makes them more vulnerable to a range of risks. Supply chains are subjected to more risks than ever, which are numerous and constantly evolving, and derive both from within and outside of the company. Avoiding such risks or reducing their negative effects is a challenge for today management. Nevertheless, some risks cannot be avoided and with today's complex global supply chains, fragmentary solutions and specific initiatives are no longer enough to cope with the multifaceted nature of risks. Modern Management Paradigms and Approaches in Supply Chain aims to present recent approaches and ideas as well as experiences and applications in the field of supply chains, which may give useful information for new research and to those associated, allied with and outlying to the field of supply chains and its management. This book is beneficial tool for researchers, graduate students and practitioners by integrating every aspect of management hypotheses into whole supply chain functions such as procurement, warehousing, manufacturing, transportation and disposal. Supply chain management is the integration of the activities that procure materials, transform them into intermediate goods and final products, and deliver them to customers. New product development (NPD) processes include design and development along with sourcing through the company's development chain. In order to remain competitive, supply chains must continuously develop and deliver new products and services to the marketplace. Carefully matching the product characteristics to the appropriate supply chain strategy is critical to being competitive and to aligning appropriate order winners and order qualifiers with customer requirements.