Managing long supply chain networks: some emerging issues and challenges

Abstract

PurposeThe emergence of new manufacturing technologies, spurred by intense competition, will lead to dramatically new products and processes. New management systems, organizational structures, and decision‐making methods will also emerge as complements to new products and processes. This paper attempts to investigate technologies, systems and paradigms for the effective management of networked enterprise (supply chain networks), especially long supply chains. In doing so, the paper presents not only an exhaustive literature review to identify the complexities, gaps and challenges associated with long supply chains but also the emerging enabling technologies to support these gaps and challenges.Design/methodology/approachThe approach takes the form of an interview of industrials, researchers and a literature review.Findings“Competition in the future will not be between individual enterprises but between competing supply chains.” Business opportunities are captured by groups of enterprises in the same enterprise network. This is due to the global competition that forces enterprises to focus on their core competences.Practical implicationsThe paper presents a vision of the future technical issues relating to long supply chains and an insight into the future scientific and industrial advances required to meet future market and public demands.Originality/valueThis research work highlights the research issues and discusses the key enabling features, which will need to evolve and be perfected in industry in the future manufacturing networked enterprises and especially long manufacturing supply chains.