In the last few decades, companies have moved away from a hierarchical, integrated supply chains in favor of fragmented network of strategic partnerships with external organizations. This change has caused ripples throughout the old power supply and raised questions about the future. The authors consider the influence of vertical disintegration in large networks food, especially in the textile and electronics industries. They focus on the supply chain strategies that have been adopted in the network of players to meet the changing governance and ownership structure. Their broad hypothesis is that the process of decay in many areas is not sustainable in terms of coordination and control, and, therefore, will be followed by subsequent reintegration - although it may take different forms in different industries. They discuss the expansion of the role of system integrator, which in many cases goes beyond the critical services coordination and covers issues related to the control and direction of the parts of the supply network. They also examine the challenges that system integrators are likely to face, and they contrast two different models of coordination and management, which could be adopted by these players. "Hide
by Gabriel R. Bitran, Suri Gurumurthi, Shiou Lin Sam Source: MIT Sloan Management Review 10 pages. Publication Date: April 1, 2007. Prod. #: SMR243-PDF-ENG
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