From the many factors potentially involved, we believe that six business and economic forces will most impact future supply chain management. And they will get it. Corporations today work to balance low cost with high level of service, and customization with availability. The bar will continue to rise inexorably on expectations of choice, service, speed, and cost. In these areas, products are becoming better, cheaper, and available faster and faster.
Customers now expect such performance from other segments of the economy as well.
In fact, the 1998 Toyota Camry and Ford Taurus are better equipped and less expensive than the 1997 models they replace. Cadillac already offers near-custom vehicles within 24 hours of customer order in the Florida market. The trend clearly is to offer consumers what they want, when they want it, and at a price lower than today's, in real terms. Most observers expect dramatic shifts, in the medium term, in global demographics and economic power. Corporations based in the United States and Europe discovered long ago the attractiveness of parts and product sourcing from China, Mexico, and other emerging economies.