Supply Chain : An Integrated Process

The main elements of a supply chain include purchasing, operations, distribution, and integration. The supply chain begins with purchasing. Purchasing managers or buyers are typically responsible for determining which products their company will sell, sourcing product suppliers and vendors, and procuring products from vendors at prices and terms that meets profitability goals.

A supply chain is a net work of firms. Thus, each firm in the chain should build its own supply chains to support the competitive priorities of its services or products. Two distinct designs used to competitive advantage are efficient supply chains and responsive supply chains. Efficient supply chains work best in environments where demand is highly predictable. The focus of the supply chain is on efficient flows of services and materials keeping inventories to a minimum. The firm’s competitive priorities are low-cost operations, consistent quality, and on-time delivery. Responsive supply chains designed to react quickly in order to hedge against uncertainties in demand. Work best when firms offer a great variety of services or products and demand predictability is low. Typical competitive priorities are development speed, fast delivery times, customization, variety, volume flexibility, and top quality. Tables below show the environments and design features that best suit each design.

Supply chains manage the movement of products from the acquisition of raw materials through production and finally distribution to the end user. A properly designed supply chain can create many opportunities to drive down cost and increase revenue opportunities. In order to create a supply chain that is sustainable and flexible it is necessary to identify and align company goals and initiatives with the manufacturing and distribution of products.

Many companies produce products from parts of raw materials that are purchased from suppliers, till these products are reach the markets and presented for the customers, then you have the supply chain starting from the purchase of raw material from different areas , through the manufacturing steps and stages till is being sold by the consumer. Some of supply chains are well defined and easy to determined, while there are other supply chains complex to analyze. However, supply chains vary with the size of the facility such as; complexities, performance, abilities, flexibility, quality, speed, dependability and cost of preparing goods for manufacturing and the chain length distribution. So the supply chain is a network of wholesalers, retailers, distributors, workers in the transport, storage facilities, suppliers, and manufacturers who participate in the production, delivery and sale of the product to the last consumer. A supply chain is a group of facilities that coordinate activities among it and to avoid the competitors. Moreover, to ensure the supply chain management is operating efficiently and generating the highest level of customer

The globalization of organizations and more competitive forces have compelled more manufacturing businesses to improve an efficient supply chain planning for reducing the cost of supply chain. Planning of supply chain is being the critical component of business’ management. Supply chains have conventionally been split, being unsuccessful to assimilate the business utilities in the chain of logistics process. Such difficulties, as extended order lead times, high inventory costs, and struggle in answering proactive to real time variations, having lower profits and weak client goodwill that can be determined by putting together supply chain management schemes for transportation and warehousing. Supply chain can be explained as a combined practice where actually numerous different organizations individuals such as manufactures, retailers, distributors, and suppliers perform together in order to obtain raw materials, transform these raw materials into wanted ultimate products and supply these ultimate products to the vendors. The key methods in this combined procedure are the distribution, logistics, production planning and control. The production and planning steps are two of the most crucial parts to obtain worldwide optimization in supply chain management. And, this should be explained inside the integrated planning infrastructure. Interactive parts of supply chain included key parts such as purchase, production, logistics planning, sale, production and manufacturing

Supply chains represent the procurement, production and distribution activities of an organisation. Within a supply chain, these activities are viewed as linked and reliant on one another to produce the final outcome. It is believed that if one component of the chain fails, the whole chain is broken and product/service delivery goals will not be achieved.

A supply chain involved a variety of stages. These supply chain stages includeSuppliers , Manufacturers, Distributors, Retailers and Customers or Consumers. Each stage in a supply chain is connected through the flow of products, information and funds. These flows often occur in both directions and may be managed by one of the stages or an

The average company spends nearly half of every dollar it earns on production needs—goods and services it needs from external suppliers to keep producing. A supply chain consists of all parties involved, directly or indirectly, in the procurement of a product or raw material. Supply chain management (SCM) involves the management of information flows between and among stages in a supply chain to maximize total supply chain effectiveness and profitability.

industry. The paper critically evaluates the existing supply chain of the company against its current performance and

Organizations always seek to have an efficient system of running operations. If operations are running smoothly, an organization can cut costs and increase its profitability. Since there are so many organizations offering the same goods or services, competition becomes very fierce. For an organization that wants to stay ahead of competition, efficiency in the supply chain is no longer an option but a priority. Each organization must therefore device techniques of streamlining its supply chain. Simply put, there must be a precise management of movement of goods along the chain. From suppliers, the actual productions until the goods get to the intended customer. Time and quantities of those good is essential to

The term Supply Chain is generally used to describe the all of the possible processes which are involved in the flow of goods starting with the raw material supplier, and ending with the customer. This includes the processes of manufacturing, distribution and transportation to the end user or consumer. Supply chain management not only involves all of the steps mentioned above, but also affects other company activities such as marketing decisions, fulfilling customer demand, and even general corporate strategy or goals. Managing a supply chain has typically been considered to be a complex and intensive process, and many methods have been developed over the years in an effort to deal with supply issues related to the logistics involved in the production and distribution of goods.

However, the team Management and employees is both internal and external colleague, reflecting the new interdependencies in today’s competitive market. The supply chain manager takes into deliberation that each facility that has an impact on price and plays a role in making the merchandise conforms to the consumer requirements: from supplier and manufacturing facilities through warehouse and distribution centers to retailers and stores. “A firm’s supply system includes all internal functions plus external suppliers involved in the identification and fulfillment of needs for materials, equipment, and services in an optimized fashion” (Burt, Dobler, & Starling, 2003). However, implementing this type of system within the firm has a vital role in helping the company satisfy the role in the supply chain. “The Internet allows supply chain managers to manage their supply chains collaboratively and to synchronize their operations” (Burt, Dobler, & Starling, 2003). “The cash register reads the bar code price tag and reportedly within fourteen seconds, the Wal-Mart central warehouse is notified that the Wal-Mart retail store needs a new flashlight for the shelf to replenish the purchased item” (Wal-Mart, 2008). “Even the raw material suppliers are notified that the manufacturer now needs a little more raw materials (plastic

The individuals in charge of outlining those supply chains and creating and actualizing the most fitting system are subsequently confronted with a variety of variables to be

The integrated management of the supply chain is a topic that is becoming more important in the business world, given its importance, conjurations and development of enterprise networks. Which is why, today is the underlying logic of the structure of dynamic alignment ca, companies need to be integrated with your customers or markets in the context of a prevailing operating environment. The power of this structure rests on its ability to reveal the interaction between customer needs, helping to formulate appropriate response strategies, and then the successful implementation of these strategies by the relevant leadership, through the formation of cultural capacities internal, by raising awareness of the fundamental needs of customers and their buying behavior already dominant is necessary, as well as reducing delivery times [1].

The aim is to develop an effective and efficient system of supply chain to enhance service delivery. This section will discuss the research design developed to explore the aim of this study. Firstly, a justification for the research design and a description of the research setting will be provided. Next, the data collection method including measures and the research instruments employed will be discussed. Finally the procedure employed for the analysis of data collected using the various research instruments will be provided.