ABSTRACT
The term Supply Chain Management (SCM) refers to an integrated management of a network of entities that begins with the suppliers of the suppliers (second-tier suppliers) and ends with the customers of the customers (end customers) (Lee and Ng, 1997). During the last 30 years, SCM has gained further attention because of the advantages and better performance that businesses can obtain thanks to the adequate integration of their supply chain (Cooper et al., 1997; Tan et al., 1998; Croom et al., 2000). The 1980s registered a vertical realignment between operations and business strategy (Hayes and Wheelwright, 1984), while in the 1990s, focus was mainly on the horizontal alignment between operations and processes (Ghoshal and Bartlett, 1995). In the last decade, interest has moved to the integration between internal and external supplier and customer processes in a unique supply chain (Frohlich and Westbrook, 2001). According to Christopher (1992), ‘Leading-edge companies are not companies against companies, but rather supply chain against supply chain.’ In fact, as described by Lambert and Cooper (2000), the Global Supply Chain Forum describes a successful SCM as demanding change in the management of functions: a move from an individual perspective to the integration of the activities associated with the key processes of the supply chain.
