Explain How Each Sector of Industry Is Linked Together Within a Supply Chain?

Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Volume 7, Number 5, 2002, pp. 271 – 282;

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.

The supply chain management is considered as a management concept from past two decades as the customers are concerned about timely and safe delivery. The competitiveness has been increasing among the companies to deliver the products as quickly as possible to the customers all around the world. This has made the supply chain management as a vital tool for the management. This is also measured as a competitive parameter for the companies.

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.

The manufacturers, distributors, and suppliers are all streams that contribute to the presence and quality of products. In the business world they function in a business to business market because their products are not directly available to consumers. Understanding the role that each of the links play is integral to viewing the supply chain as a system.

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.

Supply chains are an important factor in the running of a company. A lot of business decisions can be based on how well the supply chain is flowing. The relationship between different operations within a supply chain can have a huge impact on the way the chain works, depending on how well these relationships are managed. This is why companies try to practice good supply chain management. This essay is going to be looking at supply chains and analysing the way in which the relationship between the different operations can affect the way they work.

Supply chain management has become an important issue in today’s business world, it is used by many companies to improve their competitive advantage (Vickery, Calantone & Droge, 1999). In a supply chain, the customer is the most impart part and seeing that every company seeks to please their customers, supply chain management therefore helps companies in satisfying the needs of the customer which involves the management of various aspects such as manufacturing, suppliers, transportation, information and retailers to deliver value to the customers (Chopra & Meindl, 2007).

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.

Chopra, S., Meindl, P., & Vir Kalra, D. (2016). Supply chain management: strategy, planning, and operation (6 ed.). (pp. 439-440). Person. Retrieved October 7, 2017

In the shed of globalization and intense competition between companies in high variance environment in term of changes in technologies and demands from the customers, many companies have to identify the best ways to overcome such circumstances and uncertainness in their business and operation. The major objective of their identification is to further improve the flexibility. To achieve this objective, the companies have to ensure each component in their supply chain must be designed with respect of flexibility (Borhanazad and Tran, 2012). Relevant theories reveal the linkage between upstream supply chains must be well-maintained through the sourcing strategy.

IKEA’s supply chain has a global spread with growing sales and purchasing in all major regions of the world. It operates 31 distribution centers and 16 customer distribution centers which supply goods to IKEA retail-stores.1 The company also has 31 trading service offices in 26 countries and 1220 suppliers in 55 different nations.1 The widespread of its stores makes its supply chain really complex.

This article is about supply chain management (SCM). Its importance in the field of operation management. Supply chain management was discussed from the past three decades. This article tells about how supply chain management developed and how it will proceed in the future. The term “supply chain management” first appeared in the practitioner literature in 1982, which said that SCM is a way to manage resources and assets in a better way.

4. What is IKEA’s strategy toward suppliers? How important is this strategy to IKEA’s success?