Supply Chain Management
Introduction
Supply chain management is emerging as one of the most powerful business practices. It is transforming the way manufactures operate and work with partners - even the way they think about business. Why all the sudden interest? Mere observation of industrial practice brings to light a simple truth; very few materials remain in the constant ownership of one person, persons or company from their source to the time they are sold to the end customer. "Almost invariably, material flows through a series of 'players' whose role may be to transform (manufacturing plants), store (warehouses) or move (distributors) material." This results in the establishment of complex systems that industry has labeled supply chains or supply networks.
Supply chains are not new; they have been around as long as the market place. Historically, however, each supply chain "link" tended to regard its role as satisfying the demand of its immediate customer. "A more holistic view point suggests that each is just a part of a wider supply chain system whose role is to satisfy end customer demand. This refocusing of the company roles in terms of end customer satisfaction is in line with a systems thinking approach to management." From a conceptual viewpoint, one could view the ideal supply chain as a pipeline with laminar flow.
Traditionally, most supply chains simply evolved rather than being designed. This fact makes supply chains susceptible to turbulence. "Companies are discovering that the vast majority of supply chains are logistically inefficient and therefore prone to poor supply chain dynamic behavior." Because of the huge success of a couple of retaliators, the concepts of supply chain ...
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In the 1960s through the 1970s, companies realized strong engineering, design, and manufacturing functions were strong market strategy keys to create and capture customer loyalty. As the demand for new products rose in the 1980s, these market requirements were to increase their flexibility and responsiveness to adapt existing products and processes or to develop new ones in order to meet customer needs. As manufacturing improved in the 1990s, managers began noticing material and service inputs involving suppliers and their major impact on an organization’s ability to meet customer needs. As a result of these changes, organizations now find that it difficult to manage their own organizations. First, they must be involved in the management of their network of all upstream firms that provide directly or indirectly, as well as the network of downstream firms, which are responsible for delivery and market service of the product to the end customer. In order to succeed, managers have to realize that they cannot do it alone and they must work together on a daily basis with the whole organizations in their supply chains. Because supply chain management involves all functions within an organization, managers need to know what a supply chain is, why it is important, and the impact of supply chain management on the success and profitability of their organization. Today, Wal-Mart topped the list of the America’s biggest companies on the Fortune 500 list, “with sales of almost $345 billion — more than a quarter of a trillion dollars” (Forbs). Wal-Mart’s supply chain management is becoming recognized as a core competitive strategy.
Another lesson of the game materialized gradually at first, but steadily became more and more evident with each round of play. This lesson was the demonstration of the overwhelming ineffectiveness and utter futility of approaching logistics from the position of total ignorance. With no forecast or sales history to serve as a guide or predictive tool, the participating supply elements simply had nothing to base their projected order quantities upon other than pure conjecture. Operating in a vacuum relative to the other players of the supply chain was nothing less than counterproductive. Closely related was the development of a subdued, but underlying, sense of hostility within the supply chain as orders were placed that didn’t correspond with anticipated amounts. When this type of communication breakdown exists in the real world, an irritation between supply elements invariably manifests itself. Additionally, the resulting waste of time, material, storing of inventory and other resources expenses further fuel the fires of frustration and discord between supply elements.
One thing connecting all parts of local to national business, effected by billions of people each day and managed by thousands of businesses individually or together, the supply chain is an effective and much needed tool is our enterprises today. Compared to the business practices in the 90s and earlier back through time, the average business model today is very complex and intertwined with other businesses. No more are the days businesses could run off of a poster or simple advertisement in the community, now the business of social media and the internet are essential to running any establishment and earning money. A very integrated business is more than just advertisement and sales though, the enterprise needs coordination and it will decide to take part in information sharing within the supply chain management it will run. The supply chain
In a traditional manufacturing company, the supply chain covers the following roles: suppliers, labour, engineering, production, product, quality assurance, inventory, competitors and customers. The last role, that of customers, is different from the rest of the roles within a classic supply chain, meaning that suppliers are oriented upstream, while customers downstream; the labour is situated internally, while customers are external; engineering is done only by qualified engineers; production is protected from customers; products represent the offering that the customers obtain; quality assurance prevents faulty products to get to the customers; inventory can be managed in order to saturate the demand in time; and finally competitors offer customers different choices to satisfy their needs. Taking separately, the customer role in the traditional supply chain often resumes at “selecting, paying for, and using the outputs” and sometimes proving feed-back and promoting a company’s offerings by recommending to others (Sampson and Spring,
If someone were to be asked what their profession is and they replied with supply chain management, they would likely be met with blank stares and the question, “what is that”? To briefly sum it up, supply chain management (SCM) is the overseeing of flow efficiency and storage of a product from the point of origin to the point of consumption. In the fairly recent past the implementation of supply chain managers has been increasingly more necessary for businesses to cut costs in manufacturing and distribution. Therefore, as technological advances continue to leap forward, SCM is able to be constantly modified to increase the growth of businesses and generate greater profit.
The business environment is increasingly becoming competitive and challenging. In the recent past, manufacturers have found themselves facing the threat of dwindling profit margins due to unfortunate global events such as the 2007 global financial crisis and the on going Europe economic crisis. The need to improve operation efficiency so as to ensure current and future investment yield the highest rate of return has therefore become extremely important. Manufacturers are now actively engaged in, managing their costs, Research and Development, adopting best procurement strategies, among other Actions. While such actions might eventually lead to positive results, additional business value can be achieved through proper management of the supply chain (Waymer, Ivanaj & Mussa 2009; Krivda 2004).
Have you ever wondered how all those products that you buy everyday get to those stores or how that website is able to ship you what you want? Have you ever wondered how all those companies have those products ready and waiting for you? Well I can tell you that they just don't appear out of nowhere! Businesses use what is called a supply chain to make it possible for them to provide the consumers with the products they desire and need. What exactly is a supply chain and how does it ensure that everyone gets what they need? In this paper we will define a supply chain and also take a look at business to business supply chains and business to consumer supply chains and see how they differ and how they are alike.
In order to have both an effective and efficient supply chain, managers should be focused on trying to achieve not only a cost effective supply chain, but a flexible one. In today’s economy, because the market is so volatile, trendy, and competitive, flexibility is the key to success. In order to respond to customers’ ever-increasing requirement demands, market leaders have positioned themselves well by continually investing in new key performance indicators, additional technology, improved supply chain networks, and streamlining efforts (Source One INC, 2013). This helps to maximize flexibility and overall responsiveness. With increased flexibility, leaders recognize that supply chains must be adjusted to meet different customer needs. In my research I will analyze Gate Gourmet’s use of information technology and the importance of supply chain integration.
“Supply Chain Management encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion and all logistic activities. Importantly, it also includes coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third parties service providers and customers. In essence, Supply Chain Management integrates supply and demand management within and across companies.’
Storey, J and Emberson, C et all (2006). Supply Chain management: theory, practice and future challenges. International journal of operations & production management, vol: 26 (7) pp: 754-774
The main area of focus in this article is on the evolution to a successful business model of Supply-chain management. About two decades ago there were the “traffic” managers with a sole responsibility of transferring freight to outside world. After that came the physical distribution management which was broadened to logistics management. Then the advent of supply-chain management made the transportation distribution and logistics professionals are the key in transforming into an effective business process. The Supply-chain management incorporates the activity of moving goods from raw-materials stage to making it available to the end-user covering the procedures of sourcing and procurement, production scheduling, order processing, inventory management, transportation warehousing, customer service and an information system to monitor all the activities.
Today’s organizations are faced with increasing levels of global competition, customer’s demanding value for their money and high stakeholders expectations on investment returns. Gattorna (2003), notes that firms are now pursuing supply chain management as a strategy to competitive advantage. Firms in a supply chain relate, transact, and partner on different levels; from product design and development to product delivery. Through supply chain management a firm pursues value creation through timely product delivery, cost management, inventory control and customer service (Beamon, 1999).They do so individually or through synergies formed with other organizations to increase customer service
Supply Chain Management is the science that improves the ways companies use raw materials to make a product or service and deliver it to the customer. Every product that reaches an end consumer is the result of a cooperative effort between several organizations. This means companies need to manage their product, not just inside of the business walls, but the path that their product takes to reach the final consumer. If companies only focus on their product and do not follow its way to the market, many inefficiencies may occur in the companies supply chain (Baltzan 2014). Businesses who cooperate in a successful supply chain are linked with one another and allow an easy flow ...
A supply chain refers to all parties to manufacture a product, to transport, to support services, and fulfill a purchase. It is a system that transforms raw materials or resources into a finished good to be delivered to the customer. Thus, the product is moving from suppliers to customers. Supply Chain Management refers to a wide variety of activities that firms and industries use to coordinate the key players in their procurement process (Laudon and Traver, 2015). The supply chain, which is the process to connect different partners to better serve the customers, involves the manufacturing, purchasing, transportation, operations, and physical distribution. Supply Chain Management has the power to control, plan, design, execute, and monitor the supply chain
Supply chain management has been defined as that process that involves the management of information, materials, and all the finances that are handled within and across the entire supply chain process (Christopher, 2016). The management is usually done through out the entire supply chain management from that moment when the suppliers are involved through all the manufacturing activities, different distribution activities, and the way that the products are served to the final product consumer (Turban, et al., 2002). The process also includes all the activities that different organizations offers to their customers as after sale services for purposes perfecting their services and products towards their highly valued customers (Christopher,