Dynamic supply chain alignment

Supply chain management has to change in a century marked by erratic, hard-to-forecast demand and supply. Older practices have stopped serving firms well. John Gattorna argues that companies must tie their internal operations closer together, link up with suppliers and distributors along each chain, and read customer behaviour more carefully to understand what buyers actually want. Those insights only matter if staff and managers, from the top down, act on them and stay focused on customer needs. In this view, the supply chain is increasingly the business itself.

This book, a follow-up to Gattorna's earlier Strategic Supply Chain Alignment, explains how to build and maintain several supply chains at once. Each should be flexible and quick enough to seize opportunities and withstand threats, while aligning suppliers, partners and customers. Gattorna suggests that firms reaching this stage will find profits easier to secure and sustained performance less of a struggle. He urges readers to move beyond traditional thinking and adopt these new approaches.

The book is a collection of chapters, most by Gattorna and several by other contributors. Topics include relationship building, lean and agile supply chains, the evolution of fully flexible supply chains, and humanitarian supply chains, including civil-military collaboration. Other chapters cover reverse logistics, sales and operations planning, performance measurement, network optimisation, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, managing disruption, third-party logistics, and tax-aligned supply chains. Case studies examine DHL Taiwan, Fonterra's global network, and alignment in Brazil and Europe. The volume closes with a look at the supply chains of 2030.

The book is aimed at executives, managers and students of business, logistics and operations who want to understand how supply chains can drive company strategy.