Supply Chains: Strategies, Issues and Models

A supply chain refers to a sequence of processes that are involved in the production and distribution of goods and information. It involves procuring raw materials; transforming them into semi-finished or finished products; and making them available to the end customers through a distribution system. Supply chain strategy is a roadmap that guides organizations and helps them in making available their products to customers in the least amount of time. This roadmap is majorly affected by four main elements, namely, industry framework (the marketplace), organization's competitive positioning, organization's supply chain processes, and the linkage among supply chain processes and business strategy. Issues such as global political unrest, lack of raw materials, rising costs of fuel and energy, labor shortages, and frequent demand shifts severely affect the supply chain performance in terms of responsiveness and efficiency. The organizations may choose to adopt one of the various supply chain models such as continuous flow, fast chain, efficient chain, agile, custom-configured, and flexible model. This book contains some path-breaking studies on supply chain strategies, issues and models. It is a resource guide for experts as well as students.