Abstract
As companies grow and expand internationally, the complexity of their operations and man-agement grow and expand exponentially (Rieckmann 1991). On the other hand the focus of management control and influence seems to shrink as companies grow and expand quickly (Henning 1991). The challenge managers of companies with widely distributed facilities all over the world face, is to integrate all the different organisational parts to minimize dysfunc-tions and maximize control of the entire organisation. This paper describes the challenges and obstacles of an international pharmaceutical company and its struggle to implement an integrated internal supply chain incorporating all international subsidiaries and how these challenges were overcome.

Introduction
The integration of an internal supply chain which crosses different subsidiaries in different countries is a very complex project. A huge change effort resulting in an organisational trans-formation is usually required for such projects, as changes in all three dimensions of the or-ganisation (Humans, Organisation and Technology) are likely. During the entire change process, cooperation between all involved parties therefore seems vital. In order to reach a high level of cooperation between many different international subsidiaries so that the inter-nal supply chain is truly integrated, cooperative behaviour of the employees has to be en-couraged, organisational processes have to be redesigned to demand cooperation between all involved parties and organisational tools that support and enable cooperation have to be implemented.

Humans Dimension
In the early stages of the project the company set up international, cross functional teams. Those teams were supposed to be the change facilitators during the entire project. Employ-ees and managers have to be aware of the different team phases (forming, storming, norm-ing and performing) and need knowledge about the problem solving process in teams (Hen-ning & Kutscha 2003). As team members come from different countries one has to pay atten-tion to the diversity management process, otherwise good cooperation between all the differ-ent people of different backgrounds will not be reached (Uribe, Strina, Preuschoff 2003). A lot of attention has to be paid to the people and the teams in which they work in. Only then will they become real change facilitators that support the organisational transformation and co-operation that is necessary to reach an integrated internal supply chain.

Organisation Dimension
First it is important to realise that companies with international subsidiaries show many of the characteristics known from network theories. Such company internal networks are most likely to exist within companies that show alternative as well as complementary production possi-bilities at several locations and other supporting facilities such as warehouses or distribution centres. These networks develop over time through mergers and acquisitions, partnerships, joint ventures or other forms of inter-organisational cooperation. Therefore it is important to be aware of the different development phases of networks (Schmette, Geiger, Franssen 2003). Soon the company came to realise that the planning and coordination of the interac-tions between these sites and the different organisational functions is not supported ade-quately and therefore started to centralise the control of many processes with a business process reengineering initiative.

Technology Dimension
Within such a
Within such a decentralised and distributed network, the different entities tend to act like self-containing units leading to ‘local’ optimisation (Simchi-Levi & Kaminsky 2000). This means, in the presence of a lack of process transparency of the material, information and financial flows within the network, each facility will try to achieve the optimal outcome for its own, which leads to sub-optimal outcomes for the entire system. The centralisation of critical in-formation like demand, sales and production forecasts helps to achieve ‘global’ optimisation of the entire system (Simchi-Levi & Kaminsky 2000).To enable the cooperation of the people within the international subsidiaries and to support the necessary new, reengineered proc-esses it was regarded as necessary to install a new information system that provides the people with the necessary information and supports the new processes. Therefore the com-pany started to implement an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system, including an entire software-reengineering process.

Conclusion
Moving towards an integrated internal logistic network is a very difficult and complex process. Both restructuring and reorganisation are necessary to increase the efficiency of the internal logistic network. Changes in the organisational culture, structure and technology have to take place (Hughes, Ralf & Michels 1998). In particular, employees must refocus their activities and take the whole network into account. Changes in tasks and processes are a logical con-sequence. The whole initiative can result in a major project, which has the potential of high returns on one hand, but also due to the given complexity high risks on the other.

References:

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• Uribe, J., Strina, G., Preuschoff, S. (2003): Diversity Management – Betriebliche Integration kultureller Vielfalt. In: Kulturelle Vielfalt als Ressource – Neue Nutzungspotenzial für Betriebe und ihre Kunden. Hrsg. v. Preuschoff, S., Hees, F. Aachen: 21-42.

Hier erreichen Sie den Autor Drs. Paul Flachkampf ;Institut für Unternehmenskybernetik, Institut an der RWTH Aachen