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What's Your Supply Chain Type?
JOSEPH L. CAVINATO
Supply Chain Management Review
May 1, 2002
What does the term “supply chain”mean? Is your definition the same as your supplier’s? How about
petitor’s or your customer’s? The Center for Strategic Supply Leadership has identified 16
different types of supply chains in use today. Using this classification system, companies can determine
where they fall on the supply chain spectrum— and whether the model they have chosen is the best one
for their business.
“Supply chain? Gotta have one. It’s the all rage,”said one mid-sized pany owner
recently. When he was pushed to explain his statement, it became clear that some of his thinking was
solid, but other parts lacked substance. He concluded by saying, “I want my people to get one for me.”1
The term “supply chain”emerged on the business scene only about a decade ago. It spoke of a process
management concept and sparked a hope that senior management would finally see value in investing in
a well-orchestrated supply chain. In the time since, the concept has taken root. And the objectives of
supply chain integration have developed around some mon themes. But, what has been
developed and presented as a supply chain within panies has varied widely. In essence, no
panies’supply chains look alike. panies have even taken to calling their operations a
supply chain