Here’s how we should re-think the value chain

An interesting opinion piece in the ever-excellent Sourcing Journal, arguing that the creation of value in the apparel industry effectively means the end of traditional supply chain concepts. Jeff Wilson from Textile Exchange says that today’s era is all about collaboration and that supply chains have effectively become supply networks, with the traditional linear concept of different companies partly competing through the operation of different supply chains is redundant: “In reality, value creation has become a collaborative ‘network’ of activities among organisations. Think of it as dynamic ecosystem of services, information, materials, knowledge, and innovation. It’s time to move beyond the linear conceptualisation, language and behaviours generated by referring to value creation as supply and value chains and begin calling them for what they are: supply and value networks.”