An Inter-Industry Comparison of Timing Controllers

Abstract

This paper introduces the diversity in supply chains, from raw materials to finished goods, that the author has identified heretofore by focusing on timing controllers, and then questions differences in timing controllers by comparing supply chains across industries.

The paper comes to the following conclusions: (1) there are companies that can be called timing controllers in supply chains, ranging from raw materials to finished products; (2) timing controllers vary by supply chain, and include diverse industries, from commercial businesses to specialty firms; (3) overall costs are reduced because of their existence; and (4) timing controllers are intermediaries that separate, particularly temporally, production and consumption, and provide a fine tuning system that goes far beyond that imagined in prior studies.