Steps Toward a More Integrated Supply Chain

(ThomasNet – David R. Butcher)

In many respects, the practice of supply chain management has made great progress in recent years. However, few companies have yet reached high levels of integration between planning and execution, a recent report says.

By 2015, supply chain planning and execution will blur, according to a recent presentation in which Supply Chain Digest’s editor-in-chief, Dan Gilmore, discussed specific key issues that he believes receive negligible attention.

“For many years, analysts and others have offered separate models of ‘supply chain planning’ and ‘supply chain execution’ processes, and the technology vendors were generally organized in that sense as well,” Supply Chain Digest said earlier this year.

Yet, according to Gilmore, “The need for response based on market demand and other factors is outstripping current planning cycles.

“Tactical and even some operational planning become completely intertwined with execution, causing changes in organizational structures, processes and technology,” he continued. Read more here.