01649nas a2200169   4500008004100000245011900041210006900160260000900229300001200238490000600250520102000256653001501276653001701291100001701308700001601325856013801341       2006                        eng d00aEnhancing integration of supply chain functions within a firm: Exploring the critical factors through eleven cases0 aEnhancing integration of supply chain functions within a firm Ex  c2006  a295-3150 v23 aSupply chain managers recognise that seamless supply chain operations require a high level of integration within and across organisations. Existing study and management focus have dealt with how to integrate supply chain activities across different organisations. However, it is not clear how a company should integrate supply chain functions within the company. One might assume that integration of the internal supply chain is easy to accomplish because top management has control over the functional areas. Yet, many companies suffer from supply chain disruptions due to internal coordination problems. As we started to investigate this issue we realised that the level of internal supply chain integration varies significantly from company to company. This discovery motivated us to take a systematic approach to investigating how companies integrate their internal supply chain. This study reports our findings with a focus on prescribing behaviours that managers can use to guide internal integration efforts.10aManagement10aSupply Chain1 aPagell, Mark1 aWu, Zhaohui  u/biblio/enhancing-integration-supply-chain-functions-within-firm-exploring-critical-factors-through-0