文档介绍：(062-71) Supply-Chain 1/25/00 8:27 AM Page 62
ROXANA VILLA
(062-71) Supply-Chain 1/25/00 8:27 AM Page 63
others
McKinsey Quarterlyarticle, website: This
be found on the
and
OPERATIONS 63
,
can
The other end
of the supply chain
Jan Holmström, William E. Hoover Jr., Perttu Louhiluoto,
and Antti Vasara
By tweaking the demand-supply chain, suppliers can offer
their pletely new value propositions and improve
their own operations—without having to weigh the benefits
of customer service against its cost.
he idea that suppliers should work much more closely with cus-
T tomers to give them better value is no longer a new one, as anyone
who regularly follows the automotive industry knows. Yet close partnerships
of this kind are still not at mon, largely because, until quite recently,
integrating the information systems of two or panies was a lengthy,
expensive, and technically difficult process.
Fortunately, the recent widespread adoption of enterprise resource-planning
systems, and the still more recent rise of the , have made it much
easier and cheaper for customers and suppliers to exchange data. Does this
development prefigure the emergence of closer, mitted relation-
ships? Closer, yes; mitted, no. In the world of -
merce, customers can easily find the best price and will choose their sup-
pliers on that basis—unless they