From static supply chains to dynamic supply webs: principles for radical redesign in the age of information

Increasingly, two key trends, value and cost conscious customers and globalization of markets and supply-sources, are shifting the competitive focus from the competitive advantage of firms to competitive advantages of entire supply chains. At the same time, the possibilities for flexibility and coordination inherent in modern information and communication technologies are making it possible to design and follow a much greater variety of organization and governance strategies for delivering customer value. The primary contribution of this paper is to develop general principles for ICT-enabled re-design of supply chains. Rather than examine the individual impact and design implications of each new ICT innovation, this paper proposes principles of abstraction that can be used to frame supply-chain re-design options and decisions. It goes on to show how these principles lead to flexibility in the design of various supply chain options thereby providing cost and value advantages for the supply chain. From Static Supply Chains to Dynamic Supply Webs: Principles for Radical Re-Design in the Age of Information