if you manage a small firm that makes a few products or sells a few services, chances are you will have a small number of suppliers. you could coordinate your supplier orders and deliveries using a telephone and fax machine. but if you manage a fire that produces more complex products and services, then you will have hundreds of suppliers, and your suppliers will each have then own set of suppliers. Suddenly, you are in a situation where you will need to coordinate the activities of hundreds or even thousands of other firms in order to produce your products and services. Supply chain management systems, which we introduced in chapter 2, are an answer to these problems of supply chain complexity and scale.