In this episode Tony Hines describes and explains what is meant by supply chain strategies which is the title of his book on the topic. Supply Chain Strategies demonstrates how organizations must take strategic decisions in order to manage their supply chains to sustain competitiveness in the global economy. Tony Hines defines what the supply chain strategies are, how they work and why firms invest in them as follows: "Supply chain strategies require a total systems view of the linkages in the chain that work together efficiently to create customer satisfaction at the end point of delivery to the consumer. As a consequence, costs must be lowered throughout the chain by driving out unnecessary costs and focusing attention on adding value. Throughput efficiency must be increased, bottlenecks removed and performance measurement must focus on total systems efficiency and equitable reward distribution to those in the supply chain adding  value.  The  supply  chain  system  must  be  responsive  to  customer  requirements"  (  p76).   

Supply chains are service systems linking the customer with a network of suppliers who extract, source, design, manufacture, fabricate, co-operate and combine resources to bring customers what they want (Demand), when they want it (Timeliness), complete at a competitive price.  Supply Chain Advantage is achieved by lowering cost and adding value to customers providing goods and services on time, complete and better than the competition. Supply networks must be both efficient and effective. Efficiency improves productivity, profit and saves the planets resources. Strategies are about choices which need to be ethical, sustainable as well as satisfy customer demand. Organizations become more profitable by being efficient. However, this alone is not sufficient and it is necessary to be effective of you want to raise income, be more profitable and earn higher returns for supply chain partners, shareholders and other stakeholders. Supply chain strategies learn from the past and improve the future position of the organization. 

You can read more about this topic in Supply Chain Strategies by Tony Hines

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About Tony Hines and the Chain Reaction Podcast – All About Supply Chain Advantage
I have been researching and writing about supply chains for over 25 years. I wrote my first book on supply chain strategies in the early 2000s. The latest edition is published in 2024 available from Routledge, Amazon and all good book stores. Each week we have special episodes on particular topics relating to supply chains. We have a weekly news round up every Saturday at 12 noon...