Structures for Stepwise Development of Adaptive Supply Chains

Falling margins, globalization, and accelerating innovation cycles are forcing businesses to switch from traditional (linear and sequential) supply chains to adaptive supply chains that possess the flexibility needed to respond to changing market condition. Developing an adaptive supply chain is no easy task as it is large and complex. In this paper, first, a literature study is given on structures for developing adaptive supply chains; the purpose of this study is to identify the commonly used structures for design and development of some modern supply chain solutions. Second, a new iterative approach to developing an adaptive distribution supply chain is presented. (C) 2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.