DESIGNING AND MANAGING MULTIPLE PIPELINES

✍ Scribed by James Aitken; Paul Childerhouse; Martin Christopher; Denis Towill

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 289 KB
• Volume: 26
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0735-3766
• DOI: 10.1002/j.2158-1592.2005.tb00206.x

✦ Synopsis

The general tendency in the past has been for organizations to take a "supply-centric" view of supply chain design rather than a "customer-centric" perspective. It could be argued that conventional supply chains have been developed "from the factory outwards" rather than "from the customer backward." In other words, supply chain decisions have traditionally been made with the objective of maximizing the supplying company's efficiencies with the aim of providing an acceptable level of service at least cost. This approach is becoming less viable as customers move into the driving seat with increasing demands for a tailored logistic response (Fuller, O'Connor, and Rawlinson 1993).

To be successful in the challenging markets of the 21 st century, organizations need to develop the capabilities necessary to achieve a much higher level of customized response to the different needs of different customers. Indeed it seems that to be successful in these markets companies will need not just one supply chain solution but many. The implications of this transformation are significant: designing and managing multiple pipelines will become a necessary competence in the search for competitive advantage. This paper builds partly on the earlier work of Hill (1993) who emphasized the importance of recognizing the Order Winners/Market Qualifiers (OW/MQ) in specific markets in order that appropriate operations strategies can be defined. Market Qualifiers are the "givens" that have to be embedded in the offer in order to be considered as a supplier. Order Winners are the critical elements that influence the final purchase decision. Our proposal is that once the Order Winners and Market