Scan the latest management texts and one phrase continually pops off the page: integrated supply chain. References to it, and its first cousin the collaborative supply chain, are voluminous. There's little disagreement to its meaning, defined by one author as "a systems approach to viewing the supply chain channel as a single entity rather than a fragmented set of parts, each performing its own function." With ever-expanding global sourcing upsetting once level playing fields, manufacturing and retail executives have come to appreciate that they ignore supply chain integration at their peril. As consultants are quick to tell them, fundamental to the successful enterprise today is a convergence of partners collaborating to share channel risks and rewards in optimal synchronization.
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