ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the evolution of traditional supply chains and their management from its origins to the most recent transition to green supply chains. Supply chain management attempts to assess all the components of a supply chain, such as information and material flows. The need for supply chain management triggered the birth and evolution of both industrial engineering and operations research. In a conventional supply chain, a product’s journey starts from the raw material supplier. Then the manufacturer converts the materials into finished or semi-finished products, which are then brought to the distributors or the wholesalers. The combination of the lean and the agile supply chains resulted in the development of the hybrid supply chain to meet the requirements of hybrid products. Supply chains have been always considered as the procedures used to transform raw materials to finished products which are then delivered to consumers. Private corporations, under certain circumstances, are also highly interested in planning and implementing green strategy.
