Strategic Design and Digitalisation of the Supply Chain: Achieving Competitive Advantage with the Digital Supply Chain

Digital supply chains increase companies' competitiveness. A systematic approach describes the development of strategies to achieve challenging corporate goals with the supply chain and its digitalisation. These include better fulfilling customer requirements, increasing sales, and simultaneously reducing costs. Strategy patterns are presented, and their implementation in companies is described. Entrepreneurs, supply chain, and operations managers receive a practice-oriented guide on how to align their company for the future. The tried-and-tested methods and approaches accelerate and facilitate strategy development, implementation, and support through digital solutions.
The focus is on making/buying decisions, finding solutions for skills, digital solutions in production technology (3D printing), and the impact of Industry 4.0 and environmental aspects on the supply chain. Practical examples will show how new solution concepts support the design of future-oriented supply chains. The trigger points that could jeopardise a successful supply chain will also be presented, as well as the design for time and cost optimisation in the overall chain. How must a company fundamentally question the historically grown supply chain? What is essential in supply chain optimisation? The strategies presented define the processes, architectures, the use of digital technologies and the deployment of resources - considering the overarching corporate strategy, which calls for shorter delivery times and lower costs to remain competitive.