The Strengths And Weaknesses Of Mainstream Supply Chain Management

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

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.

As the world is going to be a central hub in the form of globalization the Concept of global supply chain management (GCSM) flourish since the last 15 years. So Global Supply Chain Management can be best defined as activities, functions and facilities that are involved in manufacturing and distributing a product or service, from producer to end consumer). The Global Supply Chain Management (GSCM) has both positive and negative impact on the operation of the business in the form of the cost reduction, values creation and help the company to gain the competitive advantage in the era of globalization. So GSCM helps the firm to gain the competitive advantage in the given world marketplace and this all leads to the advantages of the location specific, improvement

The scope of this investigation is limited to a pure academic exercise of Supply Chain Analysis in a real world situation. Even though, the study aims to provide insight on how to improve Tsingtao’s Supply Chain. The report is also limited to a specific division in South China. This method was chosen to enable detailed analysis of a current supply chain in action. Moreover, anglicizing on the Tsingtao’s supply chain in general would be too complex, and therefore not generate meaningful outcomes or strategies. In addition, the availability of information limits the study to a suggestion of a series of broader initiatives.

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

This paper was done to cover the DDBA-8510-1 Seminar Global Supply Chain Management final seminar research paper. Supply chain management, 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 (Handfield, 2011). Global Supply Chain Management involves a business or a company’s worldwide interests and suppliers rather than simply a local or national orientation.

The supply chain has been defined as ‘the network of organizations that are involved, through upstream and downstream linkages, in the different processes and activities that produce value in the form of products and services in the hands of the ultimate customer’ (Christopher, 1992, p.74).

When thinking about the idea of Supply Chain Management (SCM) there are two core ideas that can be taken into account. Nearly every product that is obtained by a consumer is done so through the efforts of multiple companies working collaboratively. Secondly, many companies within these systems have historically been focused only on what role they play individually. SCM strives to bridge the gap between companies and organizations by providing effective management of supply chain activities in a way that maximizes profitability and consumer satisfaction.

It turns into principle of enterprise SCM and makes it to attract more and more enterprises.SCM increases adaptability and effectiveness by changing critical path for enterprises. Furthermore SCM became essential in worldwide business management.

From mentioned above it is clear that M&S sees the importance of developing in supply chain management along with maintaining suppliers relationship. In this sub-subject, there will be the illustration of the usage of supply chain management in the past compared with the improved supply chain management with the focus on implementation of

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.

Supply chains management (SCM) is one of popular concept in business administration both in practical areas and academic discipline. Supply chains management can be seen as a response to the changing of global market conditions. Level of uncertainty in almost every aspect of our life from political to economy, from natural disaster to advance technology has lead massive changes in global and local market. SCM then is one of the concepts used by both scholar and company to overcome the challenge of recent drastic market change (paconsulting.com n.d.).

The framework takes into account a limited number of actors including, the firm, suppliers and customers. However, although this carries a weakness for resulting in a narrow view with limited number of actors and too much focus on the firm, its strength lies in its deep focus into the firm which has laid the foundation on how firms operate, over which the GCC and GNP approach is built such as comparative advantage and flow of value. There is repeated emphasis on ‘interdependent relationship’ and coordination between parties within supply chains however “the authors appear to assume that everyone knows who is a member of the supply chain. There has been little effort to identify specific supply chain members, key processes that require integration or what management must do to successfully manage the supply chain.” (Lambert, Cooper ; 2000)

BRIEF CONTENTS Preface xiii Part I -- Building a Strategic Framework to Analyze Supply Chains