Supply chain management

Supply chain is a network of organization that work together to convert and move goods from the raw materials stage to the end customers.

Known also as the value chain, it is the sequence, which involves producing and delivering of a product or service.

While supply chain management often refers to coordinating multiple organizations, it can also refer to managing operations with a single organization.

Firms with large system inventories, many suppliers, complex product assemblies and highly valued customers with large purchasing budgets have the most to gain from the practice of supply chain management.

The supply chain should manage three important flows, namely, materials/products, information and financials.

Consider that Americans spend over $35 million per hour, 24 hours per day; 365 days of the year in Wal-Mart stores and the stores stock over 65,000 different items a year. None of the above is meant to imply that the supply chains that Wal-Mart is a part of operate perfectly each and every time.

There are five major trends that have merged to make supply chain management critical success factor in most industries.
*Proliferation in product lines
*Shorter product life cycles
*Higher level of outsourcing
*Shift in power structure in the chain
*Globalization of manufacturing
Supply chain management

Supply chain

Fierce competition in today’s global markets, the introduction of products with shorter and shorter life cycles and the heightened expectations of customers have force business enterprises to invest in and focus attention on their supply chains.

Several experts define supply chain as a collective term for procurement, material logistics and distribution.

While others regard supply chain as a bundle of logistic processes including inter-organizational flows or material, information and finance funds.

Supply chain management has its roots in a central logistical problem, which is the control over material, service, information and cash flows.

Supply chain encompass the companies and the business activities needed to design, make deliver and use a product or service. Business depend on their supply chains to provide them with they need to survive and thrive.

Supply chain in their most fundamental realization, consist of manufacturers and suppliers, distributors, retailers and consumers at the demand markets.

Companies all over the word have realized that the difference between good and supply chain management can affect their profitability significantly.

Supply chain