Relationship Between The Customer And The Company Essay

The main elements of a supply chain include purchasing, operations, distribution, and integration. The supply chain begins with purchasing. Purchasing managers or buyers are typically responsible for determining which products their company will sell, sourcing product suppliers and vendors, and procuring products from vendors at prices and terms that meets profitability goals.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) has been defined by Supply Chain Management Institute to be “the management of relationships in the network of organizations, from end customers through original suppliers, using key cross-functional business processes to create value for customers and other stakeholders”(SCM-Institute, 2016).

Supply chain is starting point before transforming product to customer. Supply Chain Management (SCM) as defined by Tom McGuffog is "Maximizing added value and reducing total cost across the entire trading process through focusing on speed and certainty of response to the market." Supply Chain Management has allowed company to rethink their entire operation and restructure it so that they can focus on its core competencies and outsource processes that are not within the core competencies of the company.

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.

Many companies produce products from parts of raw materials that are purchased from suppliers, till these products are reach the markets and presented for the customers, then you have the supply chain starting from the purchase of raw material from different areas , through the manufacturing steps and stages till is being sold by the consumer. Some of supply chains are well defined and easy to determined, while there are other supply chains complex to analyze. However, supply chains vary with the size of the facility such as; complexities, performance, abilities, flexibility, quality, speed, dependability and cost of preparing goods for manufacturing and the chain length distribution. So the supply chain is a network of wholesalers, retailers, distributors, workers in the transport, storage facilities, suppliers, and manufacturers who participate in the production, delivery and sale of the product to the last consumer. A supply chain is a group of facilities that coordinate activities among it and to avoid the competitors. Moreover, to ensure the supply chain management is operating efficiently and generating the highest level of customer

Supply chains represent the procurement, production and distribution activities of an organisation. Within a supply chain, these activities are viewed as linked and reliant on one another to produce the final outcome. It is believed that if one component of the chain fails, the whole chain is broken and product/service delivery goals will not be achieved.

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).

The average company spends nearly half of every dollar it earns on production needs—goods and services it needs from external suppliers to keep producing. A supply chain consists of all parties involved, directly or indirectly, in the procurement of a product or raw material. Supply chain management (SCM) involves the management of information flows between and among stages in a supply chain to maximize total supply chain effectiveness and profitability.

The main goal of Customer relationship management is to create a strong bond between customers and the company. The strong bond can be build by focusing on the two main objectives of CRM. Providing the organization and all of the employees that treat customers with a single and complete view of every customer at every touch point and across all channels and providing the customer a single and complete view of the company and its extended channels (O’Brien, A & Marakas, G. 2004).

This article tells about the evolution of SCM concept and also considers the present state of supply chain management, whether it is a process, a discipline, a philosophy, a governance structure or a functional area. Here in literature review, supply chain is defined as a set of three or more entities (organizations or individuals) directly involved in the upstream and downstream flows of products, services, finances, or information from a to a customer, which was given by Mentzer et al in 2001 which is still true today. But there always remain a confusion in defining supply chain management. Many researchers and practitioners created their own definitions and names to describe supply chain management. All these concepts were published in many journals in those days like International Journal of Physical

Supply chain management plays a very crucial role in the success of any organization and how it can cater to a customer’s need and provide the maximum satisfaction. Supply chain management is essentially managing the flow of goods/services of an organization. It involves raw materials storage, transportation, inventory management, distribution and procurement.

The product flow refers to the actual physical movement of the product from the manufacturer through all of the parties who take physical possession of the product, from its point of production to final consumers. The other flows (negotiation, ownership, information, and promotion) is part of the flow and the product flow cannot operate independently from them. All flows must be managed and coordinated effectively to achieve the firm’s distribution objectives.

Supply Chain is a system of organizations, people, activities, information and resources related to the transfer of products or services from suppliers (supply chains) to customers. Supply chain operations involve converting natural resources, raw materials and components into a finished product to be delivered to the end customer. In complex supply chain systems, the products used can re-enter the supply chain at any point where the residual value can be recycled. Supply chain links the value chain. Supply chain management includes all planning and management related to supply, procurement, conversion, and logistics management activities. Equally important is that it also involves coordination with partner channels such as vendors, intermediaries, third-party service providers, and customers. Essentially, supply chain management integrates supply and demand management within and outside the company. Supply chain management is an integrated function with the primary responsibility for connecting the core business functions and business processes within companies into a high-performance and engagement business model. It covers all of the logistics management activities outlined above, as well as manufacturing activities, and it promotes collaborative processes and activities with marketing, sales,

Amazon.com Incorporated is company whose retail business is done exclusively online, formally known as electronic commerce or e-commerce. It was the book category that first caught the attention of founder Jeff Bezos, who realized that a Web store could offer more book inventory than an actual shop could offer (Cuneo, 2000). The idea was born and Amazon, a customer-centric company was created. Customer-centric is an approach that allows businesses to drive profits and gain competitive advantage by providing a positive customer experience not only at the point of sale, but also, after the sale (What is customer-centric, n.d.).