"I have a rule, one that was honed by more than 30 years in high tech," Intel's chairman, Andy Grove, once e-mailed me. "It's simple: 'What can be done, will be done.' Like a natural force, technology is impossible to hold back. It finds its way no matter the obstacles people put in its path. The beauty of this rule," Grove concluded, "is that it can be used to look into the future." In business the future is real-time supply chains. This development is made possible by a new wave of technology: radio-frequency ID chips the size of pepper grains, broadband wireless and Web-based "dashboards" enabling monitoring and management. Because smart supply chains can be done, they will be done. In fact, they are being done. Manufacturers and retailers now deploying smart supply chains will jump the learning curve and become the Wai-Marts and Dells of the 21st century. Don't imagine that you can withdraw from this arms race. Smart supply chains are becoming the sine qua non of modern business.
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