Quality management could offer some help for shippers struggling with new security rules. (Management Update).

Logistics Management (Highlands Ranch, Co.), March, 2003

Stanford University professor Hau L. Lee and Michael Wolfe of the North River Consulting Group make that case in their article "Supply Chain Security Without Tears" in the January/February issue of Supply Chain Management Review. By applying the principles of total quality management, the authors write, shippers may be able to create strategies that both prevent and mitigate security breaches while strengthening productivity.

The key, they say, is for shippers to think about supply chain security in terms of prevention, process control, and design improvements. To read the article and find out more about Supply Chain Management Review, a sister publication of Logistics Management, go to www.supplychainlink.com.