Taming the Aerospace Supply Chain-A Case Study in Organizational Integration (Defense Acquisition Review Journal)

Integrating suppliers and customers to capture supply chain efficiencies and effectiveness is critical in today's increasingly competitive environment. However, knowing this and doing it are two different matters. The methodology described here is an effective means to develop inter-organizational coordination. To achieve this coordination companies must first be made aware of the fundamental dynamics of supply chains. Awareness can disengage the individual personalities within different organizations and allow members of the supply chain to objectively view their value stream. Then, the individual organizations can define and measure the current state of their supply chain and finally agree to corrective actions that benefit the entire supply chain. Thus, our question is, how do firms that are traditionally isolated in their supply chain dealings introduce a greater degree of cooperation to their relationships? We will provide an answer to this question with a supply chain case study.