Title: Systems thinking benefits in supply change management: an illustration of the viable systems model in a Supply Chain

Authors: Diana Chroneer, Anita Mirijamdotter

Addresses: Division of Industrial Management, Lulea University of Technology, S-971 87 Lulea, Sweden. ' Department of Informatics, Vaxjo University, SE-351 95 Vaxjo, Sweden

Abstract: Existing product development models are solely an organisational matter. They do not take into consideration the whole Supply Chain (SC) and its different actors. In this article, we investigate how Supply Chain Management and Viable System Model (VSM) can support and create an effective use of information in product development and hence identify critical linkages in the SC. The aim is to introduce VSM as a framework that enables an analysis of companies| SCs and visualise vital inter-organisational relationships that should be integrated in product development.

Keywords: lead user; process industry; product development; SCM; supply chain management; VSM; viable system model.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISTA.2009.024256

International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies and Applications, 2009 Vol.6 No.3/4, pp.227 - 248

Published online: 30 Mar 2009 *

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