Achieving excellence in today's web-speed global economy depends on tightly integrating all the participating organizations across the supply chain, which can move beyond the win-lose negotiations of traditional trading relationships and work together to deliver the right products, at the right time, at the right place and at the best price. Aim of the organizations, therefore, should be to create a closely coupled, near real-time, high velocity supply chain network. While offering dynamic integration and real-time access across supply chain partners, crafting a real-time collaborative environment that unlocks the information, knowledge and capacities of suppliers, trading partners and customers by leveraging IT and web-based technologies is vital for managing and fostering supply chains and product innovation effectively.

Supply chains are complex networks of relationships that organizations maintain with trading partners to source, manufacture and deliver products. The management of supply chain involves coordination of material, information and financial flows between (or among) all the participating enterprises. Effective management of supply chains results in reduced lead times, inventory and operational costs, while improving Efficient Customer Responsiveness (ECR) and customization, ultimately leading to enhanced customer satisfaction and retention. To thrive and excel in today's connected and vibrant economy, a holistic approach to Supply Chain Management (SCM) that helps streamline, plan, execute, coordinate, and adapt supply chain processes in response to demand signals cost-effectively is crucial.

In recent years, the relationships among the supply chain members viz., suppliers, manufacturers, retailers and customers have changed. The fundamentals of manufacturing have changed across almost in every industry. With the advent of the Internet, customers are just a click away from the competitors seeking more specific products and services suiting their needs. Supply chains are, therefore, becoming more customer-focused, tending to offer customization with responsiveness. Better enabling the supply chains will not only help improve the efficiency of business processes but also ensure that the right products/services are delivered at the right place and at the right time.

Global CEO Magazine, Supply Chain Management, SCM, Global Economy, Information Technology, IT, Business Environment, E-business, Business Models, Electronic Data Interchange, Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP, Electronic Commerce, Customer Relationship Management, CRM, Event Management, Radio Frequency Identification, RFID, Product Lifecycle Management, PLM, Customer Service Management.