The Cost‐to‐Serve Method

Integrating business processes across functions is at the heart of logistics and supply chain management. The fundamentals of compressing time across the chain are well understood. There is a common expectation among logistics professionals that cost will fall out of the supply chain from such programs. The theme of supply chain management is that many businesses are not in the trade‐off zone where cost must be balanced against service, but are in the area where good supply chain practice can drive service up and cost down simultaneously.