a. by coordinating the efforts of supply chain participants, firms that engage in supply chain management are reaching beyond the limits of their own organization's hierarchical structure and creating a new network form of organization among the members of the supply chain b. electronic data interchange (edi) was the first form of electronic commerce to be widely used in business. c. direct materials that companies buy on a recurring basis are called mro supplies. d. many industry value chains no longer consist of a single sequence of companies linked in a single line but include many parallel lines that are interconnected in a web or network configuration.