As manufacturing companies shift towards buying on a system level rather than component level, driven by outsourcing and low cost sourcing strategy, the inbound supply chain becomes somewhat of a “black box” with little transparency beyond the first tier supplier interface.

These supply chains, often complex, stretching over several geographical and organizational boundaries, have made it increasingly challenging to respond rapidly to changes in market demand. Arthur D. Little’s experience is that companies which take control and use a systematic approach for inbound supply chain development (SCD) can achieve high flexibility in supply chain and still reap the fruit of outsourcing and low cost country sourcing. pdf 2012