Systems thinking benefits in supply change management: an illustration of the viable systems model in a Supply Chain

Abstract

Existing product development models are solely an organisational matter. They do not take into consideration the whole Supply Chain (SC) and its different actors. In this article, we investigate how Supply Chain Management and Viable System Model (VSM) can support and create an effective use of information in product development and hence identify critical linkages in the SC. The aim is to introduce VSM as a framework that enables an analysis of companies' SCs and visualise vital inter-organisational relationships that should be integrated in product development.