What Is the Right Supply Chain for Your Product?

What is the Right Supply

Chain for Your Product?

by Marshall L. Fisher

Harvard Business Review

Reprint 97205

HarvardBusinessReview

MARCH-APRIL 1997

Reprint Number

ARIE DE GEUS

THE LIVING COMPANY

97203

DEVELOPING GLOBAL NETWORKS

WALTER KUEMMERLE

BUILDING EFFECTIVE R&D CAPABILITIES ABROAD

97206

KASRA FERDOWS

MAKING THE MOST OF FOREIGN FACTORIES

97204

GEORGE S. DAY

STRATEGIES FOR SURVIVING A SHAKEOUT

97202

MARSHALL L. FISHER

WHAT IS THE RIGHT SUPPLY CHAIN FOR YOUR PRODUCT?

97205

JOHN CASE

OPENING THE BOOKS

97201

JOAN MAGRETTA

HBR CASE STUDY

WILL SHE FIT IN?

97208

CHRISTINE W. LETTS,

WILLIAM RYAN,

AND ALLEN GROSSMAN

SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

VIRTUOUS CAPITAL: WHAT FOUNDATIONS CAN LEARN FROM

VENTURE CAPITALISTS

WILFRIED VANHONACKER

WORLD VIEW

ENTERING CHINA: AN UNCONVENTIONAL APPROACH

97210

BOOKS IN REVIEW

MANAGING IN THE AGE OF GURUS

97209

EILEEN SHAPIRO

97207

What Is the Right Supply

Chain for Your Product?

A simple framework can help you figure out the answer.

by Marshall L. Fisher

Never has so much technology and brainpower been

applied to improving supply chain performance. Point-ofsale scanners allow companies to capture the customer’s

voice. Electronic data interchange lets all stages of the supply chain

hear that voice and react to it by using flexible manufacturing,

automated warehousing, and rapid logistics. And new concepts such

as quick response, efficient consumer response, accurate response,

mass customization, lean manufacturing, and agile manufacturing

offer models for applying the new technology to improve performance.

Nonetheless, the performance of many supply chains has never been worse. In some

cases, costs have risen to unprecedented levels because of adversarial relations between

supply chain partners as well as dysfunctional industry practices such as an overreliance

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

March-April 1997

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