The Structure of Global Supply Chains: The Design and Location of Sourcing, Production, and Distribution Facility Networks for Global Markets
By Panos Kouvelis, Olin School of Business, Washington University in St. Louis, USA, kouvelis@wustl.edu | Ping Su, School of Business, SUNY New Paltz, USA, sup@newpaltz.edu
Abstract
In today's marketplace, most companies realize that it is essential to be aware of and participate in international markets. Furthermore, it becomes transparent that the footprint of the firm's global facilities for sourcing, R+D, production, distribution and sales, and the effective coordination of all flows between them become the major determinants of competitive success. In other words, global supply chain management is a core business process of the utmost strategic importance and all firms have to manage it as such. The authors provide a better understanding of the development of the right "footprint" of a global firm in its effort to supply its markets in environments of fast paced competition and tremendous uncertainty. The authors focus on the structure of global supply chains and the detailed choices involving the network of facilities at all stages of the supply chain in order to successfully execute the global business strategy.
The Structure of Global Supply Chains
Global supply chain management is a core business process of the utmost strategic importance that all global firms have to manage. The Structure of Global Supply Chains provides a better understanding for the development of the right "footprint" of a global firm in its effort to supply its markets in environments of fast paced competition and tremendous uncertainty. The authors focus on the structure of global supply chains and the detailed choices involving the network of facilities at all stages of the supply chain in order to successfully execute the global business strategy. The main purpose of The Structure of Global Supply Chains is to go beyond an elementary exposition of global supply chain network design issues using the latest research to identify the multiplicity of factors that contribute to designing these networks for competitive advantage of the global firm, while at the same time exposing both the successful features and the challenges faced by decision support systems developed to address such decisions. The emphasis is on presenting approaches built on operations and supply chain modeling research and support tools based on academic and industrial research of the last two decades. The Structure of Global Supply Chains provides the reader with comprehensive answers to how should a global firm configure its network of facilities and what dynamic approaches to use to effectively reconfigure it in an effort to meet demand in global markets in a profit maximizing way of sustainable profitability and competitive advantage.
