Although supply chain management might feel like a recent phenomenon -- in part, no doubt, because it has become synonymous with high-tech solutions and software -- supply chains themselves have existed for thousands of years. But it wasn’t until after the second industrial revolution, due to an increasingly globalized economy, that the modern supply chain was born. With the logistics of shipping between point A and point B becoming more and more convoluted, logisticians of the early 20th century scrambled to find new ways to help supply meet demand.
By the time World War II rolled around, supply chain management was certainly an established practice, albeit a still-evolving one. Despite the military supply chain’s relatively new status, many historians attribute America’s success during WWII to logistics rather than strategy, according to Fortune. So what made the WWII supply chain so successful?