Supply chain modeling: past, present and future

Over the years, most of the firms have focused their attention to the effectiveness and efficiency of separate business functions. As a new way of doing business, however, a growing number of firms have begun to realize the strategic importance of planning, controlling, and designing a supply chain as a whole. In an effort to help firms capture the synergy of inter-functional and inter-organizational integration and coordination across the supply chain and to subsequently make better supply chain decisions, this paper synthesizes past supply chain modeling efforts and identifies key challenges and opportunities associated with supply chain modeling. We also provide various guidelines for the successful development and implementation of supply chain models. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.