Examining Supply Chains from Practice

Abstract

Companies have to adjust their actions constantly in order to remain competitive in the current world of Internet and e-commerce. In this paper we first give an introduction in supply chains concepts and trends that impact the performance of the supply chains. The issues we discuss include the importance of cycle times reductions, the influence of reverse logistics, e-comrnerce, concentration and centralisation, third party logistics and global lo-gistics. Some practical consequences, threats and opportunities are sketched for six supply chains from real life. For example, the supply chains of mobile phones, glass and design furniture are studied. The intention of this study is to shed some light on the current state of logistic innovations in Dutch companies by means of a number of case studies.