A Short Note On The Supply Chain Management

Success for many organizations depends on the firm’s ability to balance product and process changes while exceeding customer expectations for improved cost delivery and quality. In lieu of these issues firms have started to implement principles of supply chain management. Supply chain management mainly involves managing the flow of incoming materials, manufacturing operations, and downstream distribution has to be in alignment that is responsive to change in customer demands eliminating a surplus of inventory.

Reorders are placed at the time of review (T), and the safety stock that must be reordered is:

Supply chain management is a practice that involves the planning, supervision, and implementation of strategies and controls to direct the movement of goods and services provided to customers. The intent of this essay is to incorporate a synopsis of existing literature and to provide the reader with a general understanding of how supply chain management correlates with the organizational design and structure of modern firms. The essay comprehensively reviews the components of supply chain management and their integration with functional areas within an organization. The information presented in this essay

To start, Schroeder, R., Goldstein, S., and Rungtusanatham define supply chain as “the set of entities and relationships that cumulatively define materials and information flows both downstream toward the customer and upstream toward the very first supplier.” Schroeder, R., Goldstein, S., and Rungtusanatham goes on to identify supply chain management as “the design and management of seamless, value-added processes across organizational boundaries to meet the real needs of the end customer.” Organizations have to prepare themselves to the best of their ability in order to provide or their customers. Customers expect to receive the upmost service, regardless of the type of organization they make contact with.

Effective supply chain management can provide an important competitive advantage for a business marketer, resulting in improved communication and involvement among members of the chain, increased motivation, and decreased costs. Tracking the movement of and demand for components used to manufacture a product across a variety of potential and actual suppliers, provides insight and the ability to respond instantly to shortages, surpluses, and changes in market conditions. It seeks to optimize production, decrease manufacturing time, minimize inventory, streamline order fulfillment, and reduce cost.

According to Stevenson, supply chain management is the strategic coordination of business functions within a business organization and throughout its supply chain for the purpose of integrating supply and demand management. Supply chains are sometimes referred to as value chains and have two components for each organization: supply and demand. Suppliers, producers and final customers are connected through the supply chain. Global supply chains have additional complexities that may not exist in domestic supply markets. Language and cultural differences, and increased need for trust and cooperation among the supply market are among some of these complexities. There are also risks that exist among

Supply chain management is a complex undertaking that must involve more than one organization’s efforts to succeed. A tremendous amount of skill, time, and money must be present to build and develop relationships, discover and implement a strategy, and use the capabilities of the chain to build quality at an efficient financial rate. Allowing for these requirements, it leaves one to wonder whether supply chain management is a viable option. The answer is yes, because an organization needs a strong supply chain to compete and be profitable in the marketplace. The key points for supply chain management should be to meet customer demand, produce excellent customer value, enhance responsiveness to change, build a network that can resist risk, and develop financial success.

Supply chain management (SCM) is based on the philosophy that firms operating in a supply chain are oriented to the provision of goods and services for the ‘final customer’ (Lambert and Cooper, 2000) . The literature strongly suggests that that cohesive collaboration in the supply chain can provide important benefits such as added value, efficiencies and client satisfaction (Stock, Boyer and Harmon,

The supply chain has evolved over the years. With new businesses that are on the rise in the competitive world it is important to stay on top. Different merchants create better deals that cause relationships between the suppliers and their customers to the end. I wanted to explore those relationships and research the history of the “supply chain”. I wanted to know how things were ran and how they are able to sustain business when the economy changes.

As supply chains have moved from a cost focus to a customer focus and now currently to a strategic focus, the need to think strategically about the supply chain has never been more important. The success of a strategy is only as good as the company’s ability to fully and properly execute it. A great supply chain strategy, linked with operational excellence, can provide success for not only the company in question but also its partners and customers.

Every organization strives to ensure that all of its operations are efficient and effective to the highest level, thereby enabling them to achieve a sustained competitive advantage. Over the years, experts have introduced various specializations in various parts of business operations. One of the key aspects of any business that firms are required to manage efficiently is supply chain. Supply chain is an

Supply Chain Management: An International Journal Volume 17 · Number 1 · 2012 · 15 –28

“The best supply chains aren’t just fast and cost effective, they are also agile and adaptable and they ensure that all their companies interests stay aligned.”- Hall L Lee

Supply chain management is the coordination of the processes and functions within a business, adopted by most companies in the UK in the late 1990’s. It deals with the internal and external factors that, when dealt with correctly and systematically, can determine a businesses success or failure. A supply chain is the network of activities that delivers a finished product service to the customer. By definition, supply chain management (SCM) is “the management of the flows of materials from suppliers to customers in order to reduce overall cost and increase responsiveness to the customers” (Reid & Sanders). SCM entails the co-ordination of the movement of good through the

The concept first emerged in the 1980s after an extensive study was done on the time it takes