Software supply chain management: A multiple case study
Andreas Norrman, Christer Lundberg · Lund University Publications (Lund University) · 2005
In many industries software get more and more important – not only to improve opportunities for e.g. postponement but also for delivering the value the customer wants such as capacity and functionality. However, increased importance of software for product functionality and companies’ business models implies that we should probably also take software’s particularities into consideration when designing supply chains for those products that are combinations of hardware and software. The purpose of this paper is to extend the knowledge of how software supply chain issues could be handled in companies that traditionally have had a hardware focus. Ericsson, an automotive company and cell phone manufacturer have been studied, and one result is a tentative model showing how different supply chain-related issues seems to relate to the role software has for product functionality and business model.