The Collaboration Question
Col-lab-o-ra-tion. Noun. 1. The act of working together with others. 2. A process for squeezing further efficiencies from a supply chain by moving information between partners in real-time. 3. The act of investing in unproven systems and overcoming...
[From iSource Business, May 2001] Collaboration. Few know exactly what it means. Fewer still have any idea of how it works or what the potential obstacles might be to obtaining it. But a handful of pioneering companies are taking the first steps to bring the downstream and upstream links in their supply chains together by pursuing collaboration in the design process for new products. The goals, as always, are to offer customers products that are closer to what they want, to offer them the products first, and ultimately to generate higher revenues and shareholder value.
First Up: Definitions
Gartner Group Inc., the Cambridge, Mass., technology consulting firm coined the phrase
