Value Cycle Management: A "Non-Linear" Approach to Supply Chain Management

Over the past several years, companies everywhere have attempted to realize greater efficiency and improved quality by integrating business processes across the extended enterprise. Many began looking to combine technology, data and resources in a manner that would yield increased profits, better customer retention, and enhanced productivity. In theory, a closed-loop approach such as this would deliver unprecedented visibility into end-to-end supply chain processes and lead to better, more informed business decisions. In practice, however, this sort of process optimization was not so easy to achieve. While its benefits appealed greatly to nearly every mid-to large-sized organization, particularly those in high-growth, competitive markets, time would show that the ability to execute this vision would be challenged by a single prevailing thought: that production follows a linear path in the form of a "supply chain." The supply chain, a staple of every capitalist economy, holds that the manufacturer of goods and services is part of a linear process-a chain with a beginning and an end.