An Investigation into the Best Current Practice of Supply Chain Management

Supply chains must be managed to coordinate the inputs with the outputs in a firm to achieve the appropriate competitive priorities of the firm’s enterprise processes. The Internet offers firms an alternative to traditional methods for managing supply chains. A supply chain strategy is essential

Supply chains manage the movement of products from the acquisition of raw materials through production and finally distribution to the end user. A properly designed supply chain can create many opportunities to drive down cost and increase revenue opportunities. In order to create a supply chain that is sustainable and flexible it is necessary to identify and align company goals and initiatives with the manufacturing and distribution of products.

Wal-mart Stores Inc was the world’s largest retailer and was started by Sam Walton in 1962 who named it as “Wal-Mart Discount City”. However before Wal-mart; Sam Walton owned a number of Ben Franklin Store Chains. Due to this prior experience of owning smaller variety stores and dealing with its franchised supply chain, he learnt various business concepts and also was able to selectively purchase merchandise in bulk from new suppliers and then transport these goods to his stores directly. And then he realized a new trend of discount retailing which was based on driving high volumes of product through low cost retail outlets. He also started a new concept of “Everyday Low

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.

Defined by Investopiedia.com,” Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a process by which a company, usually a manufacturer, manages and integrates the important parts of its business. An ERP management information system integrates areas such as planning, purchasing, inventory, sales, marketing, finance, human resources, etc. (Investopedia).Today, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are extremely important, especially towards the Manufacturing Business. Looking back at the history of manufacturing solutions, the industry began with Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) systems that, similar to ERP systems, were used for enhancement and basic

The processes involved in the supply chain are very critical to the business organization. It is therefore very central and critical for the organization to make sure that it is operating or running a supply chain process that is very practical, efficient and sustainable as well as those that are simple to implement in terms of the operational costs. Sustainability means that the company is operating on renewable resources, no environmental pollution, generates products that meet the needs of the customer among others. As such the company or the business entity is in a position to operate in a way that is beneficial to itself, to the environment and to the society within which it operates (Cooper 14). There are three major

The globalization has led to much reliance on the automation and the latest technology in the organizations. No organization can survive today without a pool of latest technology and resources. The oil and gas industry is a key player in the global market. All other companies are somewhere dependent on the oil and gas industry (Lakkad, 2009). Therefore, it is very critical

on Simchi-Levi et al (2002), Designing and managing the Supply Chain: Concepts, Strategies and Case Studies

The purpose of this report is to examine the impacts of technology principles, practices and information technology solutions into improving the material and information flows that the pharmaceutical supplier, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, uses several systems, such as vendor managed inventory, decision support system and e-procurement, in their business operations. The next part of this report introduces the technology implementation barriers when applying these systems and models in the process management. The report closes with giving some solutions to tackle the technology problems and barriers to the effective implementation of supply chain management.

4. In a service supply chain, the (explicit) cost of information is higher than in a product

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is a systematic integration of suppliers, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), distributors and customers in order to produce and distribute the right quantities, to the right time, and at the cheaper cost, while satisfying the entire supply chain partners (Balsubramanium & Roosebelt). In simple words, it is a process of moving goods from manufacturers to a consumer. Today successful companies, uses softwares or web based application service provider (ASPs) to provide them a better supply chain solutions. Technology has been the life and blood in all the fields since many years but in supply chain, it is playing an extraordinary role. Not only by cutting the cost, enhancing

Enterprises around the world have a need to keep up with the technology, not only within the office walls but also throughout the supply chain. IT has become an integrated part of any system because people these days rely on technology for almost everything they do. Customers can search, compare and order goods via internet.

The Company strives to become the leading organization in the industry by establishing an adaptive supply network which excels in speed, innovation, agility and connectivity. This could not happen without the support and commitment of its product suppliers. Thus this is essential for them to share the same values and principles so as to drive the success of the supply chain as a whole.

With the World War II, pressure grew on manufacturing which led to adoption of quantitative models for different areas of operations management such as project management, forecasting and inventory.

Dell developed its internal business process by creating production cells that start assembly at the point of order. It also established an internal information system to make the details of the products under production electronically available to all parties within the chain. To manage the supply of computer parts, Dell maintained close relationships with their suppliers and logistics providers to make their vendors manage the inventory system while Dell focused on product assembly (Kumar and Craig 2007)[4]. In addition, Dell used enterprise technology to make their database and methodologies available to the supplier to understand how Dell works. On the consumer side, orders made through the phone or online