The Supply Chain Network

The supply chain is the network of organizations that are involved, through upstream and downstream links in the various processes and activities that produce value in terms of products and services to the final: now we speak of virtual organizations or network to which the strategy is focuses on its core business, while everything else is outsourced. This trend implies that managing the logistics challenge of integrating and coordinating the flow of materials from a variety of suppliers, often scattered all over the world, and manage the delivery of finished products through multiple intermediaries

Today and in future there will still be companies that will focus on cost reductions or profit improvements at the expense of their supply chain partners without realizing that the mere transfer of costs before or after does not make them more competitive. The reason lies in the fact that ultimately these costs will reach the market in the final price paid by the consumer or end user. The excellent companies recognize the fallacy of this conventional approach and try to make the supply chain as a whole more competitive through increases in value and reduction of total costs: the real competition is not company against company but rather supply chain against supply chain.