Effective management of Supply Chains has become a complex and challenging task in today’s dynamic environment. Current business trends of expanding product variety, increasing outsourcing, globalization, shortening of product life cycles and continuous information technology advances, have made this task even more arduous Successful strategies begin by analyzing the existing supply chain objectively. There are many indicators that the supply chain is out of control – excessive inventory, degraded customer service, escalating costs and declining profit or poor return on assets. Moreover, as a company moves to new markets or new technologies, its supply chain must be prepared to meet the demands and opportunities presented by the new business. The Internet has provided new opportunities for improvements in performance across the extended supply chain. The Internet enables extensive information sharing across complex supply chains, creating dynamic, virtual supply chain networks of trading partners. These partners can work in tight coordination to optimize chain-wide performance, share information and knowledge in real time, design customized products and services for new markets and respond quickly to changing customer requirements. Information sharing and knowledge exchange via the internet have fostered tighter linkages between companies, as well as among their suppliers and customers Challenges and opportunities afforded by the Internet have contributed to an all-time high interest in new concepts and ways to manage a supply chain. The objective is clear: to seize the high ground and gain a competitive advantage through supply chain integration.

Businesses are bombarded with a variety of leading edge supply chain strategies –
  VMI (Vendor-Managed Inventory) lets the vendor manage replenishment for a company

  BTO (Build-to-order) or ATO (Assemble-to-order) present ways to organize production and order
    fulfillment process from Push to Pull. These ‘demand-pull’ supply chains anticipate and respond to
    changes in real time. The internet enables new velocities of execution, helping firms to be instantly
    responsive to the changing demands of their customers

  Mass customization aims at building products and services tailored for the unique needs of the
    customers

  Information Integration covers three dimensions – sharing information and knowledge, coordinating
    roles and establishing organizational linkages across a supply chain
  Postponement is a concept about delaying the point of product differentiation at a later point in a
    supply chain
  4PL (Fourth Party Logistics) extends the traditional third-party logistics concepts to include the
    planning and management functions provided by a third party

  Electronic Procurement, APO (Advanced Planning Optimization) and Demand Chain Optimization
    introduce scientific optimization techniques to plan production and distribution

  CPFR (Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment) advocates collaborative efforts
    between a supplier and a customer to plan replenishment

The astute Manager will embrace all the concepts to arrive at the optimal strategic mix. Successful companies understand that the ideal supply chain strategy is dependent on a variety of factors.