In this paper the inventory management is tackled by using control theory. For this, the complete model of the supply chain proposed by Lin et al. [8] is taken into account. This general model considers stock limitations and back orders accumulation providing a better description of the actual supply chain dynamics. Due to the stock limitations of the distributors, the supply chain turns out to be a switched system since its behaviour changes according to distributor's stock availability. This fact motivates us to propose a switched control system for a serial supply chain under a decentralized control strategy (independent switched control to each echelon). This control system selects automatically the adequate control policy through time according the current dynamics of the supply chain. Moreover, the control policies are designed by internal model control (IMC) techniques. The results of controller evaluations demonstrate that the proposed switched control approach enhances the behaviour with respect to the inventory target tracking, back-order reduction and bullwhip effect mitigation in the supply chain systems in comparison to previous approaches. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.