Supply Chain Management : Strategic Management

When dealing with supply chain management companies need a strategy for managing resources that go toward meeting customer demands for their product or service. Developing a set of

Reorders are placed at the time of review (T), and the safety stock that must be reordered is:

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.

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

A supply chain is a system of people, activities, information, and resource involved in creating a product and moving it their customers. First is the strategic supply chain management. Best value supply chains strive to excel along four measures. Speed is the time duration from initiation to completion of the production and distribution process. Quality refers to the relative reliability of supply chain activities. Supply chains’ efforts at managing cost involve enhancing value by either reducing expenses or increasing customer benefits for the same cost level. Flexibility refers to a supply chain’s responsiveness to changes in customers’ needs. The second component of the strategic supply chain is agility, the supply chain’s relative capacity to act rapidly in response to dramatic change in supply and demand. Adaptability refers to a willingness and capacity to reshape supply chains when necessary. Lastly, alignment refers to creating consistency in the interest of all participants in a supply

Chopra, S., Meindl, P., & Vir Kalra, D. (2016). Supply chain management: strategy, planning, and operation (6 ed.). (pp. 439-440). Person. Retrieved October 7, 2017

Supply chains include the end-to-end flow of information, goods and products, and money. That is why the way they are managed powerfully affects an organization's competitiveness in such areas as merchandise cost, working capital requirements, rapidity to market, and service perception, among others. The proper arrangement of the supply chain with business strategy is necessary to guarantee a high level of business performance. There are many benefits of the supply chain strategy in terms of time, cost, quality, and flexibility ability groups. Supply chain strategy reduces useless processes, in return speeds the production process. It also focuses on delivering a product or a service to consumers at the lowest possible cost without losing quality.

This is a case that illustrates several facets at once: Globalization & Rapid Expansion, Supply Chain Management, ERP Implementation, and IT Infrastructure. This case takes place in 1997.

Supply chain management has emerged as an important aspect in the modern business environment in light of the challenges businesses face because of rapidly changing customer expectations, inefficient product development processes, and increased cost of operations and human resources. This concept is increasingly considered as a new means of managing businesses and increasing performance and profitability. However, business enterprises must consider various aspects related to supply chain management during its implementation to gain performance and increase profitability. These elements include supply chain strategies and policies, suitable infrastructures or technologies, and logistics function.

A supply chain may be defined as an integrated process wherein a number of various business entities (i.e., suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers) work together in an effort to: (1) acquire raw materials, (2) convert these raw materials into specified final products, and (3) deliver these final products to retailers. This chain is traditionally characterized by a forward flow of materials and a backward flow of information. For years, researchers and practitioners have primarily investigated the various processes of the supply chain individually. Recently, however, there has been increasing attention placed on the performance, design, and analysis of the supply chain as a whole. From a practical standpoint, the supply chain

1.1 Forecasting is the basic and initial step in supply chain planning. Matching supply and demand is at the heart of operational planning. As most of the production systems fail to give an instantaneous response to customer demand, forecast of future demand is very necessary to make efficient and effective operational plans.

The strategic management of the supply chain does not consist of introducing innovations in order just to innovate. It is about creating a configuration that will make the strategic objectives progress. According to Slack et al. (2004, p.67) an « operations strategy concerns the pattern of strategic choices and actions that set the purpose, objectives and activities of operations ». According to Hayes (2005), efficient operations strategies need to be consistent and contribute to competitive advantage. The process of operations strategy covers the activities and dynamics of strategy elaboration and implementation (Swink and Way, 1995), whereas the content of operations strategy consists of the particular decisions regarding competitive priorities, objectives, and action plans that specify the operation 's strategic direction.Several authors gave their definition of operations strategy; four interrelated perspectives then emerged. The top-down approach is « what the business wants operations to do » and the bottom-up perspective represent « what day-to-day experience should do ». Top-down strategy can be distinguished from a bottom-up strategy in terms of two aspects: the initiative 's origin and the sequence of events amongst purposes, actions, and results. Top-down strategy is triggered by top management 's aims and manifests in the performance outcomes of stipulated actions. Bottom-up strategy is initiated by lower managers’ actions realizing their own interpretations

In recent times, it is believed that Strategic Purchasing and Supply Management (SPSM) play an important role in the activities of a company. One of the important goals of a company is to achieve a high level of profit. This is why, it is vital for every company to achieve such benefit which are usually achieved through the reduction of costs. In other words, firms should always strive for the best in terms of “value for money” from their suppliers in order to achieve a long-term stable growth in the market. Furthermore, this reduced cost by companies can be used as increased dividends on their shareholders or be reinvested in these companies by spending them on research and development (R&D) which will strengthen companies’

Supply Chain Management already exists for more than hundred years. It wasn’t defined as terminology for some period of time and it took years to develop it. It began with Fredrick Taylor’s “The Principles of Scientific Management” that was concentrated on improvement of manual loading processes all the way to Supply Chain Management we have now (Lamprecht, James; Page 180). Because Supply Chain Management spreading beyond location of production, everyone have different view on it. Many view Supply Chain Management from operational point of view where SCM is flow of materials. Others view SCM as an operational process. And others consider it as implementation of previously listed operational process in organization (Kotzab, Seuring, Muller and Reiner; Page 398). Here are some popular definitions of Supply Chain Management: