Semi-integrated supply chains: Towards the new era of supply chain management

This paper discusses trends in contemporary management that reflect the need for reassessing the notion of supply chain integration. Recent developments in the areas of strategy, channels, processes, relationships, organisation and performance measurement show pressures that call for attention to the various dimensions and varying intensities of integration. It is concluded that emphasis should be directed to focused efforts instead of holistic overall integration, and the concept of semiintegrated supply chains is offered for collectively describing the phenomena in today's supply chain management.