Integrated Materials Management: The Value Chain Redefined

The paper presents a new explanatory methodology designed to capture the role of Integrated Materials Management in the world's leading manufacturing companies. This methodology is explained via the Integrated Materials Value Pipeline drawing on the earlier Porter Value Chain/System. This new Pipeline describes the primary and secondary processes required in a leading edge company adopting a consumer led pull system rather than a traditional push system. In order to add some reality to the Integrated Materials Value Pipeline, the scope of this essentially micro model is broadened by taking into account the multitude of Materials Pipelines that exist in a typical supplier network. This macro model has been called the Ten Force Partnership Model. This second model is employed to help explain how the best companies can achieve wider supplier network development. In order to demonstrate that the Partnership Model can be applied outside Japan a brief case study of its (partial) application to a Welsh example is presented.