Speed of response to customer demand has long been recognized as a key attribute to business success since customer loyalty can be won or lost on product availability. With everyone implementing lean manufacturing philosophies, companies additionally need to become smart chain managers and...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to exploit site‐based research evidence from a range of value streams so as to prioritise the industrial engineering (IE) foci necessary to move towards the goal of a seamless demand chain. Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 40 real‐world...