Rosanna Fornasiero (editor) - Next Generation Supply Chains: A Roadmap for Research and Innovation (Lecture Notes in Management and Industrial Engineering)

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I have always subscribed to the view that the supply chain can provide a powerful platform for creating competitive advantage and that it can enable the business to differentiate itself in the marketplace.

The complexity and turbulence that increasingly characterises the business environment today requires supply chains to be adaptive and open to innovation in the face of unexpected challenges. More than ever, supply chain management has become a paramount strategic area to support companies, the economy and society as we seek to respond to those challenges.

We are witnessing a shift in organisations priorities when it comes to supply chain design and strategy. Words such as resilience, visibility and flexibility feature in corporate policy statements and many programmes are underway to transform our capability to respond to unanticipated events. At the same time, in recognition of new consumption habits and demands, sustainabilityand all the elements that enable itand digital transformationor industry 4.0have been incorporatedto a greater or lesser extentinto many supply chains.

The pace of change has been so intense that it is a hard task trying to predict what the supply chain future will look like. Obviously, there is no such a thing as a common recipe to deal with all the current challenges and trends. In this sense, I believe that we have to continuously reflect on possible future scenarios and try to prepare to respond to them. This is exactly what this book is about!

For the past two years, I had been following the NEXT-NET project ( https://nextnetproject.eu/ ) and it was no surprise to realise that this book can actually help supply chain managers, researchers and policy makers navigate in times of crisis. The book describes six possible macro-scenarios for supply chains in 2030, which give the opportunity for supply chain managers to prepare for various future settings. It formalizes ten supply chain strategies with the related research and innovation priorities as a guide for academia and industry for their development and implementation. I particularly appreciate that this book also gives the perspective of eight industrial sectors, setting the research in specific contexts. Finally, the book proposes concrete policy actions to support companies dealing with their current supply chains challenges. I hope that readers will derive as much value as I have from the insights contained within this work.