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A guide to Supply Chain Management

A supply chain, in contrast, to supply chain management, is a collection of organizations that are connected directly through one or more upstream and downstream flows of products, services, finances, or information from source to customer.    

Supply-chain management (SCM) optimizes product creation and flow from raw materials sources through manufacturing, logistics, and shipping to a final customer. Circular Supply Chain Management (CSCM) is the ordinating and coordination of organizational functions–marketing, sales, R&D, manufacturing, logistics, IT, finance, and customer services–within and between businesses units and organizations to close, slow down, accelerate, tighten, narrow, and dematerialize the materials and energy cycles, minimize the resources injected into and the leakage of waste and emissions from the system, increase the operational efficiency and efficiency, and create a competitive edge. Supply chain management (SCM) is broadly defined as systematic, strategic coordination of traditional business functions and tactics across these business functions within a particular firm and across firms within the supply chain, to improve the long-term performance of the individual firm and the supply chain as a whole (Mentzer et al., 2001, p. 18). In trade, supply chain management (SCM) is the management of the movement of goods and services, money, and information among businesses and locations. It includes the movement and stocking of raw materials, inventory of work-in-process and finished goods, and the fulfillment of orders end-to-end, from the point of origin to the end of consumption.   

In commerce, supply chain management (SCM ) is managing the flow of goods and services, money, and information between businesses and locations. It includes the movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, finished goods, and end-to-end order fulfillment from the point of origin to the end of consumption. The SSCM concept is thus conceptualized as the creation of coordinated supply chains by voluntarily integrating economic, environmental, and social concerns into critical cross-organizational enterprise systems designed to manage material, information, and capital flows related to sourcing, manufacturing, and distribution of products or services to satisfy stakeholders needs, as well as to enhance organizational profitability, competitiveness, and sustainability over short-term and long-term competitiveness (Ahi and Searcy, 2013, p. 339). SSCM helps enterprises set detailed plans to procure resources, build and ship finished products, and sustain positive consumer relationships. SCM professionals are involved at all levels of a firm’s processes, aiming for sustainable competitive advantages by building and delivering better, faster, and cheaper products. Organizations will approach SCM in different ways depending on their goals, markets, and products that they are offering.    

Using the SCM system’s analytics and materials management features, organizations will build strategic plans to address the customer’s product needs while avoiding a “bullwhip” effect. In supply chain management, supply chain professionals coordinate production between different suppliers, ensuring production and shipment of goods occur with minimum issues related to quality control or inventory. Supply chain management organizes an extensive network of supply chain actors–procurers, manufacturers, shippers, distributors, warehouse agents, plant managers, and service providers–into a system that enables the timely shipment of products from ports, central warehouses, and sub-national warehouses, and eventually service distribution points and communities. SCM covers integrated planning and execution of processes required to manage the movement of materials, information, and financial capital, across activities that generally include demand planning, procurement, manufacturing, inventory management, storage, transportation–or logistics–and return of oversupplied or defective products.  

Sales and operations plans (S&OP) are integrated business-management processes executed monthly, allowing management to focus on the supply chain significant drivers, including sales, marketing, demand management, production, inventory management, and the introduction of new products. Product portfolio management is a process that goes from the ideation of the product idea through its market introduction. Popular software usually includes features such as requirements tracking, supply chain, and manufacturing scheduling. In addition, students take courses on logistics management, sourcing and buying behaviors, manufacturing operations management, and inventory and materials management.  

Jobs in SCM

As a supply chain professional, one can work in many areas, including procurement, logistics, new product development, global purchasing and procurement, quality management, inventory or transportation analytics, operations, and supplier relations management. How supply chain leaders can gain their spot in the C-suite By managing the interdependencies in supply chains and embracing an all-eyes-open perspective on services and costs, supply chain leaders can broaden their organization’s reach and increase their financial contributions to achieve their earned C-suite designation, writes Terry Harris, of Chicago Consulting. Innovative companies know the most effective supply chain management reacts swiftly — and with agility — to even minute changes in demand. AI- and ML-based forecasting models will revolutionize demand sensing, shaping, orchestration, and supply planning processes. 

Supply Chain Trends

Trends–a May 2015 report by Martin Associates points to the importance of continued U.S. port investments; Henry Ford College launches an associates degree in supply chain management; a Freight Cannot Wait for initiative urges Congress to allocate funds to transportation infrastructure projects specifically; manufacturers are finding better ways to design and prototype products using 3-D printing technologies, and McDonald’s has committed to lessening the effects of global deforestation across its entire supply chain. Trends — May 2015 Martin Associates report points to the importance of continuing U.S. port investment; Henry Ford College introduces associates degree in supply chain management; Freight Can not Wait program encourages Congress to earmark funding exclusively for freight infrastructure projects; Manufacturers are finding better ways to engineer and prototype products using 3D printing technology; McDonald’s pledges to lessen the impact on global deforestation throughout its entire supply chain. Online retailers must reconsider how to align distribution networks; Seasonally declining spot market rates while West Coast volumes recover; Staples partners with Syracuse University in driving new research and innovations. Each of the five stages can also be enhanced by relying on strategies specific to any given step, including resource-based views (RBV), transaction cost analysis (TCA), knowledge-based views (KBV), strategic choice theory (SCT), material logistics management (MLM), just-in-time (JIT), material requirements planning (MRP), theory of constraints (TOC), total quality management (TQM), agile manufacturing, time-based competition (TBC), customer relationship management (CRM), requirements chain management (RCM), and available-to-promise (ATP). The SSCM concept integrates environmental and social issues into the product design, materials procurement, production processes, packaging, storage, and disposal phases of products and services (Haake & Seuring, 2009).    

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