Issues in Supply Chain Management

Douglas M. Lambert Martha C. Cooper
Successful supply chain management requires cross-functional integration and marketing must play a critical role. The challenge is to determine how to successfully accomplish this integration. We present a framework for supply chain management as well as questions for how it might be implemented and questions for future research. Case studies conducted at several companies and involving multiple members of supply chains are used to illustrate the concepts described. © 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION One of the most significant paradigm shifts of modern business management is that individual businesses no longer compete as solely autonomous entities, but rather as supply chains. Business management has entered the era of internetwork competition. Instead of brand versus brand or store versus store, it is now suppliers—brand— store versus suppliers—brand—store, or supply chain

Address correspondence to Dr. D. Lambert, Department of Marketing Logistics, The Ohio State University, 506 Fisher Hall, 2100 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210-1399. E-mail: lambert.119@osu.edu

versus supply chain. In this emerging competitive environment, the ultimate success of the single business will depend on management’s ability to integrate the company’s intricate network of business relationships [1–3]. Increasingly, the management of multiple relationships across the supply chain is being referred to as supply chain management (SCM). Strictly speaking, the supply chain is not a chain of businesses with one-to-one, business-to-business relationships, but a network of multiple businesses and relationships. SCM offers the opportunity to capture the synergy of intra- and intercompany integration and management. In that sense, SCM deals with total business process excellence and