Essay on Supply Chain Management & IT

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

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.

When the ‘bricks and mortar’ store based retailing is considered, Walmart employs different methods of supply chain. Vendor management inventory is one of the methods run down by Walmart for an efficient

We mentioned earlier the disadvantages of supply chain management, now we will the advantages and the process of supply chain management. Supply Chain Management Solutions helps companies transform supply strategy into a competitive advantage. By combining the expertise, technology and information to help companies bring immediate value and profit. Supply management is clear and direct. The process help companies find the money in their supply base, get the money to the bottom line quickly and keep the money coming with a renewable and repeatable approach. But to make supply chain management effective companies need to:

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

The author Remko van Hoek is Professor in Supply Chain Management at Cranfield School of Management, UK and Head of the Corporate Executive Board, Washington DC, USA. Keywords Internet, Supply chain management, Electronic commerce Abstract There is rapidly growing interest in e-businesses. Its impact on supply chains is currently covered in about 150 papers and articles and the number is growing at the speed of computing power. Unfortunately, most of the published work, in research and practice, is biased to e-commerce and sales and marketing. The supply chain dimension of e-business is largely neglected and managed poorly, while basic logistics mal-performance is currently hampering turnover and revenues of e-commerce applications severely. If basic operational performance is not even assured, more advanced approaches of e-business will not take off, simply because there is inadequate support for the concepts in the physical domaine. Very often virtual integration is applied in an operational manner and in segments of the supply chain only, as opposed to an alternative approach developed here, that of strategic and integral supply chain involvement. This research note calls for an effort to make the supply chain dimension of e-business a reality and suggests practical approaches (create an e-supply chain which is a supply chain that can fulfill orders and assure supply

Finally, there are those costs that are common to both global and domestic sourcing. Direct labor and materials costs, lead-time costs, transportation costs and inventory costs are a part of both domestic and offshore sourcing. Transportation costs, inventory costs, and lead-time costs tend to be higher when sourcing globally. On the

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.

INTRODUCTION Electronic Supply Chain Management is defined as e-SCM. It is an improvement of business process and business value in every corner of the extended enterprise. It uses e-business concepts and Web technology to manage the enterprise. This strategic must implant in the business cycle, from initial product design and purchase of raw materials, shipping, distribution and warehousing until product is delivered to the customer. This is an opportunity to allow businesses to increase revenues and decreased costs, improved customer satisfaction, and inventory reduction across the supply chain.

From 1990s, due to the economic globalization and the increased competitive pressures, lots of firms increase their focus on integrated supply chain management to gain a competitive advantage. Effective supply chain can facilitate a firm to be more competitive not only by reducing the purchasing costs but also improving the competitive dimensions of quality, dependability, flexibility, and innovation.

Supply chain management is a complex undertaking that must involve more than one organization’s efforts to succeed. A tremendous amount of skill, time, and money must be present to build and develop relationships, discover and implement a strategy, and use the capabilities of the chain to build quality at an efficient financial rate. Allowing for these requirements, it leaves one to wonder whether supply chain management is a viable option. The answer is yes, because an organization needs a strong supply chain to compete and be profitable in the marketplace. The key points for supply chain management should be to meet customer demand, produce excellent customer value, enhance responsiveness to change, build a network that can resist risk, and develop financial success.

Electronic business (e-business), the use of Internet-based computing and communications to execute both front-end and back-end business processes – has emerge as a key enabler to drive supply chain integration. As an overarching business concept, e-business has received increasing attention from academics and practitioners alike. E-business solutions in general are seeking to enhance supply chain effectiveness and efficiency through the automation of business processes. The adoption of e-business can result in benefits such as higher transparency, reduced transaction, manufacturing and other cost, reduced

Supply chain management plays a very crucial role in the success of any organization and how it can cater to a customer’s need and provide the maximum satisfaction. Supply chain management is essentially managing the flow of goods/services of an organization. It involves raw materials storage, transportation, inventory management, distribution and procurement.

The class text states that Supply chain management is frequently divided into supply chain planning applications, supply chain execution applications, logistics management, and warehouse management. Often when companies fail at implementing an efficient supply chain because of the planning section, or inaccurate demand forecasts. The text states electronic data interchange is one of the earliest uses of information technology for supply chain management, Electronic data interchange is the use of the Internet for everyday business transactions. “In this era of information a firm’s supply chain should operate at speed of thought and this is possible only by enhanced e-speed communications and information sharing with their critical partners.” (4)

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.