We are living in turbulent times. So are our supply chains. Nonetheless, the standard tenets of supply chain management prescribe that supply chains are most efficient when fully controlled from end to end, without any volatility or uncertainty. The basic idea is that variability is detrimental to performance as it causes cost in the form of stock-outs, poor capacity utilisation, and costly buffers. Really? Martin Christopher and Matthias Holweg disagree,  and that is why they wrote “Supply Chain 2.0”: managing supply chains in the era of turbulence.  This paper questions the established approach and argues that in the light of increasing turbulence a different approach to supply chain management is needed. What is needed is an approach that builds structural flexibility into the supply chain decision making. Only thus can we create the level of adaptability that is needed to remain competitive in the face of turbulence.

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