Reconfiguration of Chains and Networks

M.F. van Assen, A.P. van Hezewijk, and Steef van de Velde

Striving for internal efficiency of operations in a company is no longer enough. Firms are pressured to collaborate in the same value chain and streamline their operations in order to reduce cost and improve responsiveness to the customer, to reconfigure chains and networks.

Reconfiguration of such a chain, possibly a network, of firms is a formidable task. This book addresses such fundamental questions as how to form geographical clusters, how to measure and allocate synergetic advantages, and how to coordinate a supply chain. It presents an overview of the lessons learned from the various projects in the KLICT program ‘Reconfiguration of chains and networks’ that serve as stepping stones towards answering the above questions. It provides practical tools such as a roadmap to initiate, develop, and maintain supply chain collaboration and guidelines to select the appropriate supply chain coordination concept. It provides a detailed analysis and discussion of such contemporary supply chain collaboration concepts, such as Efficient Consumer Response, Vendor Managed Inventory, Supply Chain Synchronization, and Factory Gate Pricing, and guidelines to select the most suitable in a given situation.

This book is a result of the KLICT research programme.