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Inquiring minds:
Resiliency in supply chain management
Eve Rosenzweig, assistant professor in decision and information analysis, believes that an adaptive supply chain is the key to company survival. She says that by developing close partnerships with suppliers known for flexibility and service rather than simply for low-cost supply, organizations become better equipped to understand end customer needs.
Q. Why is there now a greater need for companies to be highly adaptive in supply chain management?
A. Customer needs and habits are evolving at a faster pace. Rapidly changing patterns in international supply and demand (and trade regulations) play a role here as well. Low labor costs lured many United States manufacturers to build factories in China. These manufacturers grappled with moving products to end customers located in countries such as the United States and Europe. Now, a large customer constituency resides in China as well, so manufacturers will also have to increasingly adapt products to these local preferences. Finally, as supply chains become more global, companies are going to have to deal with more shocks to the system, such as when the California dockworkers’ strike in 2002 wreaked havoc on global supply chains.
Q. How has globalization changed supply chain management, and just how do you effectively match global logistics capabilities with increased volume?
A. Globalization and outsourcing have had a major influence on the way supply chains are managed. There are political issues to contend with, including country stability/risk, government regulations, and differing intellectual property laws. And while the organization may be spending less on labor, is product or service quality being sacrificed? Are cultural differences present to such an extent that communication, and, subsequently, supply chain visibility is hampered? These are important issues that must be dealt with if the organization is to attain the benefits of global supply chain management.
Q. Can you tell us a bit about your current research in the field?
A. I’m working with Goizueta’s Elliot Bendoly, an assistant professor in decision and information analysis, and Jeff Stratman, an assistant professor of operations management at Georgia Tech, with the goal of providing guidelines for performance metric selection based on whether the organization’s primary business strategy is operational excellence or product leadership, for example.
—Myra A. Thomas