At the Intersection of Operations Management, Process Selection, and Supply Chain: A Strategic Implementation Approach

Supply chain management (SCM) has exploded in the recent business environment. More than 13,000 refereed articles on the subject have been published since 2000. Champions of the new SCM movement have gone so far as to propose the creation of a new senior executive level: that of the Chief Supply Chain Officer. Indeed, there are theorist's who believe that supply chain management is the number one priority in the current marketplace. Yet, what is supply chain management? Is it an operations management, marketing, or logistics function? How should one structure a supply chain: based on what, exactly? This manuscript examines operations strategy and its relationship to both process selection and supply chain decisions. It is our intention to de-mystify the three and to provide a simple heuristic set that will facilitate successful implementation. We begin with a quick look at operations management, which leads to the idea of a value chain approach. We follow with a basic discussion of supply chain elements. Operations strategy is then presented. We move to the rudiments of process selection, show the results of our investigation into the intersection of the three, and propose a three-dimensional model. We conclude with a summary.