Supply networks and the changing role of operations managers

This paper reports on the first stage of an investigation into the progress which organisations are making towards fully integrated supply chains and the effect that this is having on the role of the operations manager. Five companies were identified who are currently trying to improve the management of their supply chain. Senior managers in each company were interviewed in order to establish the degree of integration of their supply chains and the way in which the supply chain was managed. None of the companies had achieved full supply chain integration but each had achieved some progress, yielding improvements in customer service levels and reduced costs. The main change for operations managers was in the focus on end-to-end management of flows of information and materials rather than functionally based performance targets.