| Chapter 1: | Objectives, methodology, approach and definition of terms |
Leading companies proactively occupy themselves with these questions and integrate their partners more closely into the planning process. Their aim is to constantly increase the continuity and transparency of all the business processes and to simultaneously recognize and remedy bottlenecks and missed deadlines. The main challenge facing a company in this process is to secure an economically favorable and flexible integration of the business partners’ data (suppliers, logistic services, sales branches etc.) into their own marketing, procurement, production, distribution and transport planning, and thereby create unified and consistent plans.26
These topics and requirements are at present being intensively discussed in economic science as well as in business practice. One question that has become associated with this debate is that of whether Supply Chain Management (SCM) is just a fashion or is poised to developed further into a recognized management concept in its own right.27
This study cannot offer a definitive answer to such a question at this time: a number of scientific contributions already exist for that purpose.28 Rather, this study stands as an empirical contribution that answers the question how companies’ Supply Chains can be analyzed and optimized through an ongoing process of study.
1.3 Representation of the Supply Chain as a Business Reference System
In order to be able to observe the Supply Chain (SC)29 more closely, it is necessary to establish a definition of the term. In literature a multitude of definitions can be found which are described in this chapter. As the term was mainly developed and disseminated in the USA, its characterization is strongly influenced by authors from the Anglo-Saxon speaking regions.