The evolution of supply-chain management into extended enterprise

Abstract

In today's highly competitive, volatile and increasingly global manufacturing environment, manufacturing companies are increasingly aware of the need for agility and effectiveness at the supply-chain level, rather than simply at company level. Business process re-engineering and the resulting emphasis on core competence have influenced a move towards de-centralisation, flatter organisation structures and increased use of "outsourcing". It has been said that it is now supply-chain versus supply-chain and that this poses both opportunity and threat for many organisations, especially SMEs. While some work has been done in relation to developing the concept of integrated supply-chains, relatively little has been published with respect to the concept of "extended enterprise (EE)", the "highest" level of inter-enterprise integration. The major contribution of this paper lies in the bringing together of concepts from supply-chain management, strategic planning and management, concurrent engineering, project/programme management, CIM and human resource management, into development and illustration of an organisational structure based on a project/programme management approach that has the potential to support the effective identification, rationalisation and deployment of core competence across EE.