Perhaps it's time to throw out the term, "supply chain." It contains an inherent flaw: One slipup in the sequence of events — a break in the chain — brings the whole business-to-business (B2B) system to a screeching halt. Manufacturers can't afford that.
Even the B2B platforms introduced in the 1990s, which use electronic data interchange (EDI) as a standard method of communication, are similarly marred. Those networks are based on a link-to-link messaging model that requires integration with multiple ERP applications. Same problem: One broken link, and the system comes to a halt. And perhaps more important, somewhere along the line, a small supplier might still be using spreadsheets and faxing documents, making it cumbersome to include the information in the electronic loop.
In the traditional B2B model, there is no control because there is no collaboration, no synchronization of data among disparate systems, and limited visibility.
In the B2B models now emerging, metrics and business processes are shared in a data hub that operates independently of the ERP or procurement systems of the participants. So, the definition of B2B has changed: B2B is no longer a supply chain; rather, it's a partner network.