Supply Chain

SUPPLY CHAIN AS STRATEGIC ASSET Creating an effective supply chain is key to staying ahead in today's complex market. Yet many corporations are still not leveraging the power and potential of their supply chains to realize their business objectives. Supply Chain as Strategic Asset provides an accessible, coherent road map to creating and implementing an effective supply chain strategy that supports your business's goals in sustaining competitive advantages. Author Vivek Sehgal? a pioneering thought leader and accomplished supply chain executive? shows you how to design a personalized supply chain that works for your organization's unique circumstances. With his crystalline analyses and step-by-step guidance, you'll discover how to execute a fully integrated business strategy that will keep your company at the edge of the value creation frontier. Exploring the vital symbiotic relationship among the three primary strategies? business, functional, and technology? Supply Chain as Strategic Asset deftly illustrates how misalignment among the three creates friction and inefficiencies that prevent organizations from reaching their full potential. You'll discover the tools, guidance, and examples to help maximize your business performance and create competitive advantage, as well as organizational structures to help establish the culture for alignment of the three strategies. Destined to be a landmark resource in the field, Supply Chain as Strategic Asset covers:

• The concepts of business strategy and the process of creating competitive advantages through strategy realization
• Why the three strategies? business, functional, and technology? must align for creating competitive advantage
• The types of organizational structures that support this alignment and those that inhibit it
• Why pursuing industry best practices can only bring capability parity but not necessarily competitive advantages
• Why the conventional supply chain strategies of lean, agile, postponement, and speculation are deficient and the alternatives that will work for you
• Real-world industry case studies? including Wal-Mart, CEMEX, Kmart, HP, and Dell? that supplement each argument

Superior supply chain capabilities support efficient operations and are a valuable asset to realizing your organization's goals. Build a better supply chain and create long-lasting competitive advantages for your company with Supply Chain as Strategic Asset.

Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xix
Introduction xxi
Chapter 1: Planning and Realizing the Goals of a Business Strategy 1
Strategy 2
Strategy Realization through Functional Capabilities 3
Strategy Planning: The Missing Link 5
Technology as the Enabler 8
Creating Competitive Advantage through Functional Capabilities 10
The Alignment of Business, Functional, and Technology Strategies 12
Chapter 2: Understanding Strategy 14
What Is Strategy? 14
Attributes of Strategy 19
Levels of Strategy Planning 25
The Strategic Horizon of Impact 28
Chapter 3: Concepts of Business Strategy 33
Porter's Generic Strategies 34
The Resource-Based View 43
Capabilities-Based Strategies 46
Creating Advantages by Viewing the Corporation as the Sum of Its Components 51
Creating Advantages through the Value Chain 55
Developing Competitive Advantages through Capabilities 60
Understanding Advantage 67
Beyond the Business Strategy: Functional and Deployment Strategies 73
Chapter 4: Exploring Functional Strategy 75
What Is Functional Strategy? 77
Why Is the Functional Strategy Important? 86
Steps in Creating the Functional Strategy 89
Chapter 5: Current Thinking on Supply Chain Strategy 105
Current Thinking on Supply Chain Strategies 106
Understanding the Supply Chain Sphere of Influence 123
What Drives Your Supply Chain? 126
Chapter 6: Creating a Functional Supply Chain Strategy 139
The Effect of an Industry Segment on Supply Chain Design 140
The Effect of a Business Strategy on Supply Chain Design 142
The Effect of the Primary Driver on Supply Chain Design 143
Supply Chain Strategy and Business Strategy 148
Chapter 7: Technology Strategy 164
What Is Technology Strategy? 167
Components of a Technology Strategy 171
Why Develop a Technology Strategy? 179
Technology Strategy and Organization 185
Process Overview and Deliverables for Creating Technology Strategy 188
Chapter 8: Supply Chain Nirvana: Bringing It All Together 203
What Is Supply Chain Nirvana? 205
Defining a Supply Chain Strategy That Works 207
What Can a Well-Aligned Supply Chain Strategy Do for You? 226
How to Get There 236
Keeping It All Together 250
Appendix A: Sample Artifacts for Creating an Effective Supply Chain Strategy 255
Appendix B: An Overview of the Scope of the Supply Chain in Modern Corporations 272
Supply Chain Planning 275
Supply Chain Execution 276
Supply Chain Collaboration 279
Appendix C: The Supply Chain and Corporate Financial Performance 283
Cost of Sales 284
Inventory 287
Working Capital 289
Tune Your Supply Chain for Financial Performance 290
Notes 293
Bibliography 297
About the Author 299
Index 301