Supply Chain

• Efficient
• Fast
• Continuous replenishment
• Agile
• LeanAgile
• Flexible

The table below provides more detail on these six archetypes.

These archetypes fully describe all the supply chain process elements that are required to have a well-defined strategy. The BCI framework consists of 40 elements such as management focus, product related strategies (such as inventory strategy, level of customization), sourcing, production and fulfillment strategy elements. The benefit of using an archetype, is that all functional elements are internally consistent and aligned with each other.

Your company can use the archetype that fits best to design your supply chain strategy. This is done through a 3-step approach:

1. Identify key characteristics of your business environment, customer requirements and the unique value proposal you are offering to the market. 
2. Based on this, the framework will indicate which archetype supply chain strategy has the best fit. You can use this as the foundation to design your own supply chain strategy.
3. Once the overall supply chain strategy is determined, the framework will then give guidance on the configuration of your supply chain processes at functional level below (through these 40 elements). Of course you could deviate from this guidance, and in some cases that might be justified on some uniqueness in your business, but in most cases following the framework guidance yields the best results. In this way the BCI framework shows how overall supply chain strategy sets the direction for each function, to ensure alignment between each functional strategy and the overall supply chain strategy.