What Is the Right Supply Chain for Your Product?

What is the Right Supply Chain for Your Product?

by Marshall L. Fisher

Harvard Business Review

Reprint 97205

Harvard Business Review

MARCH-APRIL 1997

Reprint Number

ARIE DE GEUS THE LIVING COMPANY 97203

WALTER KUEMMERLE DEVELOPING GLOBAL NETWORKS

BUILDING EFFECTIVE R&D CAPABILITIES ABROAD 97206

KASRA FERDOWS MAKING THE MOST OF FOREIGN FACTORIES 97204

GEORGE S. DAY STRATEGIES FOR SURVIVING A SHAKEOUT 97202

MARSHALL L. FISHER WHAT IS THE HIGH SUPPLY CHAIN FOR YOUR PRODUCT? 97205

JOHN CASE OPENING THE BOOKS

97201JOAN MAGRETTA HBR CASE STUDY

WILL SHE FIT IN? 97208

CHRISTINE W. LETTS, WILLIAM RYAN, AND ALLEN GROSSMAN SOCIAL ENTERPRISE

VIRTUOUS CAPITAL: WHAT FOUNDATIONS CAN LEARN FROM VENTURE CAPITALISTS 97207

WILFRIED VANHONACKER WORLD VIEW

ENTERING CHINA: AN UNCONVENTIONAL APPROACH 97210

EILEEN SHAPIRO BOOKS IN REVIEW

MANAGING IN THE AGE OF GURUS 97209

What Is the Right Supply Chain for Your Product?

A simple framework can help you figure out the answer.

Never has so much technology and brainpower been applied to improving supply chain performance. Point-of sale scanners allow companies to capture the customer’s voice. Electronic data interchange lets all stages of the supply chain hear that voice and react to it by using flexible manufacturing, automated warehousing, and rapid logistics. And new concepts such as quick response, efficient consumer response, accurate response, mass customization, lean manufacturing, and agile manufacturing offer models for applying the