Collaborative Planning in Supply Chains

Book excerpt: In light ofthe vast number ofpublications on Supply Chain Management (SCM) it is not easy to extract those which will have a great impact both on theory and practice. The dissertation of Gregor Dudek certainly is one such valuable source because it tackles inter-organizational collaboration in a novel and effective man ner. SCM is concemed with the coordination of material, information and financial flows within and across often legally separated organizational units. lt has gained great attention both in industry and research as an important area for improving competitiveness. A Supply Chain (SC) can be regarded as a hybrid between a market relationship and a hierarchical organization and as such requires specific tools to support the efficient planning and execution of the order fulfillment proc ess. Software vendors have developed so called Advanced Planning Systems (APS) to overcome deficiencies of traditional Enterprise Resource Planning systems and to better support the planning functions needed in SCM. However, APS are based on the principles of hierarchical planning which are well-suited for intra organizational SCs but fall short when non-hierarchical collaboration between partners (companies) is needed. This is particularly true when a buyer and a sup plier have to align their medium term order and supply plans.