Supply Chain Management : Case Study

Better communication lets you ignore day to day fluctuations and gives you better chance of equilibrium between your chains and the demand for your product. There are various tools/techniques to increase communication with technology at the forefront. The key is to get information rapidly down the supply chain. The internet and other forms of electronic commerce have transformed supply chain management. Phones, cameras, bar code technology and computer software are all examples of technology that has improved communication. Standardized parts have also led to better supply chain results. This was only possible due to improvements in technology.

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.

The concept of Supply Chain Management is based on two core ideas. The first is that practically every product that reaches an end user represents the cumulative effort of multiple organizations. These organizations are referred to collectively as the supply chain. Supply chain management, then, is the active management of supply chain activities to maximize customer value and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. It represents a conscious effort by the supply chain firms to develop and run supply chains in the most effective & efficient ways possible. Supply chain activities cover everything from product development, sourcing, production, and logistics, as well as the information systems needed to coordinate these activities.

Over the years, the competition landscape for most companies has shifted from the highest-quality, lowest priced product or best performing product to the ability to respond to market needs quickly and get the right product at the right time to the right customer. This has in turn forced organizations to compete with their supply chain. Understanding supply chain management and putting this knowledge into practice has become a mandate to improve supply chain relationships in the entire world.

In today’s competitive business world, the best companies have discovered a powerful new source which encompasses on all the integrated activities that bring the product to the market and create satisfied customers and is called “Supply-Chain Management”.

The leading companies around the world utilize a new method of business coordination that gives them a competitive edge in the market. Supply chain management gives companies the power of that competitive edge. Supply chain management (SCM) is defined as including all the activities that must take place to the right product into the right consumer’s hands in the right quantity and at the right time. This can vary from raw material extraction to consumer purchase. SCM is able to process and coordinate information from the supply chain, creating a smooth network. It

By the use of a world leading inventory and distribution system, Walmart’s telecommunications are connected directly to its central computer system and from that system to its supplier’s system. This helps Walmart to know exactly which products are selling well (Hayden, 2002). With proper coordination, suppliers can have reliable manufacturing runs, thus lower their cost, and pass the savings on to Walmart and finally to the customer. Through its warehouses which are computerized, many products reach and leave without even sitting on a self.

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.

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.

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

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,

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.

Supply-chain management consists of developing a strategy to organize, control, and motivate the resources involved in the flow of services and materials within the supply chain. A supply chain strategy, an essential aspect of supply chain management, seeks to design a firm’s supply chain to meet the competitive priorities of the firm’s operations strategy.

Supply chain management is a main process in all kinds of companies. That’s because an optimized supply chain results in lower costs and a faster production cycle.

The challenges that organizations face in supply chain integration is the ability to successfully coordinate activities across the supply chain so that they can improve performance in the areas of increase service level, reduce cost, better utilize resources, reduce bullwhip effect, and effectively respond to changes in the marketplace. According to Levi (2008),