What is a Supply Chain? A supply chain comprise of all parties implicated, directly or indirectly, in satisfying a customer demand. The supply chain not only comprises of manufacturer and suppliers, but also includes transporters, warehouses, retailers, and customers themselves. Inside each business unit, such as supplier, the supply chain includes all functions involved in receiving and filling a customer request. A supply chain is vibrant and involves the invariable flow of information, product and funds between different stages A typical supply chain may involve following stages • Customers • Retailers • Wholesalers/Distributors • Manufacturers • Component/Raw material suppliers Every stage is not supposed to be present in a supply chain. The appropriate design and strategy of the supply chain will depend on both the customer’s needs and the roles of the stages involved.(1) What is Supply Chain Strategy? Dan Gilmore in his article defined supply chain strategy as “A supply chain strategy involves adding a new rudder, with a captain and a crew that know exactly how to get to their destination, but with a plan that has some resiliency built-in for the inevitable storms the ship will encounter along the way”. Dan Gilmore (2) Different Supply Chain Strategies according to Literature Review: Strategic management of the supply chain calls for a system, in which an incorporated supply chain strategy is critical to develop a value creating process between supply chain
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.
In today’s competitive business world, the best companies have discovered a powerful new source which encompasses on all the integrated activities that bring the product to the market and create satisfied customers and is called “Supply-Chain Management”.
Supply management can be studied as both an instant field of practice and forming academic domain (Storey, Emberson, Godsell, & Harrison, 2006). It was eventually about influencing behavior in particular directions and in particular ways. The fundamental logics, drivers, enablers and barriers asset and exact close attention in supply management. Manufacturers, retailers, suppliers, and wholesalers are the members in supply chain. Supply chain management (SCM) is normally applying in integrated wholesaling and retail businesses (Wisner & Tan, 2000). SCM is comprehensiveness with logistics and physical distribution functions with reducing lead time of delivery. It is a comprehensive philosophy intent on management’s purpose to sustain or establish competitiveness in a quickly growing environment, through more able distribution, and purchasing activities (Cooper & Ellram, 1993; Giunipero &
Supply-chain management consists of developing a strategy to organize, control, and motivate the resources involved in the flow of services and materials within the supply chain. A supply chain strategy, an essential aspect of supply chain management, seeks to design a firm’s supply chain to meet the competitive priorities of the firm’s operations strategy.
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.
Mellat-Parast and Spillan (2014) defines supply chain management as the method of handling material and information moves from the beginning, through the organization, and to the end-user. This is a very important factor of organizational strategy.
A supply chain is very important to an organization. It can and should show the relationship between suppliers, distributors, managers and consumers. This paper would detail how important suppliers and distributions are to an organization’s success. And how important a supply chain is within an organization and how managers can utilize the supply chain. It is important that companies such as Target Corporations utilize the supply chain and gain competitive advantages. Target is one of the world’s largest retail stores; the first Target was opened in 1962 in Roseville, Minnesota (Target.com). By the end of 1962 there were only four Target and they were all operated in Minnesota.
Today’s world great organizations are emerging in inventing powerful resources for a competitive advantage. It is called supply chain management and it includes all integrated activates which introduce to market place and maintain customer satisfaction. This supply chain management drives from multi- disciplinary departments such as procuring, transportation, manufacturing products, customer services, distribution of product into integrated program. Successful management will be in coordination and integrated in all these activate in an unbroken chain process. It supports and interconnected to all the partners within the organization, where these partners are merchants, third party companies, transporters, third party companies and product providers.
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
Supply chain is the process of getting a product from point A to point B. With how advanced technology has become, there are more ways than ever to transport the product. The goal of a supply chain managers is to get the product into their hands. The mangers negotiate with the suppliers to purchase the raw materials. Then, they ship those materials as efficiently as possible through trucks, ships, and trains. Then finally, they do everything they can to make the product gets to the store on time so the consumer can enjoy the product. Why is this so important? Well, without it, we as the consumer wouldn’t enjoy that fresh produce that Kroger provide or the convenient drive thru pharmacy. Everything we own is because of a company’s supply chain, and without these supply
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.
What are the basic components of a supply chain? Most companies are utilizing a five supply chain components, in order to bring products to the marketplace. The five supply chain components are Suppliers, Manufacturers, Distributors, Retailers, and Consumers/Customers. Effective integration and management of supply chain components and processes is helping to cost reduction and improve customer service. Supply Chain integration also gives a new set of capabilities which helps to the company to increase revenue and
Supply chain is one of the critical aspects that can make or break any company. The research will also concentrate on aspects of supply chain.
A supply chain is a network of retailers, distributors, transporters, storage facilities, and suppliers that participate in the production, delivery, and sale of a product to the consumer. Therefore, both companies focus on three key parts: which
According to Motiwalla (2011) “Supply chain management is the science of developing a strategy to organize, control, and motivate the resources involved in the flow of services and materials within the supply chain.” (P. 305). In fact, Zara’s strategy in the clothing retail business is to comprehend the customers needs, produce new fast styles of clothing, and market it for sale using efficient information systems to gather information, manage product, inventory and distribution. Likewise, Limited Brads strategy managed to consolidate their technology operations into a single shared service for all of its brands using chain technologies and processes to drive the speed to market requirements.