What is supply chain management?

Answered by Abhinash Jena on May 8, 2012 Leave a comment (0) Go to comments

Supply chain management is defined as the strategic and systematic coordination of the traditional functions of business within a specific company and across businesses within the supply chain for the needs of developing the big term performance of individual companies and the supply chain as a whole.

According to Hieber (2002, p 32) supply chain management as a new concept of logistics varies necessarily from manufacturing control and classical materials in this respect. It looks the supply chain as an individual entity rather than assigning fragmented responsibility for different segments in the chain. Thomas (2011, p 2) defines that the supply chain management is defined as the management process across a network of downstream and upstream organizations of information, material and flows of resource that lead to the value creation in the form of services and/or products.

Kannt (2002) defines supply chain management is the maintenance, configuration and operation of supply chain processes including those for expanded and base products for end users satisfaction. In Horch’s (2009) point of view, supply chain management is the combination of all major business processes across the supply chain. Whereas Mentzer (2002) defines that supply chain management is the set of approaches utilized to combine manufacturers, suppliers, stores and warehouses efficiently so that merchandiser is able to deliver products at appropriate quantities to appropriate locations and at appropriate times to lower down huge costs while satisfying the needs of service level (Overback, 2009).

Thus, supply chain management enhances the management and planning of its tasks involved in the procurement, conversion and sourcing and all management tasks of logistics. The supply chain management combined demand and supply chain management across and within companies.

References

Heiber R (2002), Supply chain management: a collaborative performance measurement approach, Hochschulverlag AG, USA, p 32.
Overback S (2009), Supply Chain Management – A Critical Analysis, GRIN Verlag, Germany, p 25
Mentzer J T (2002), Supply Chain Management, SAGE publications, London, p 22.
Kannt A (2002), Supply Chain Management and Design at Global Companies, Books on Demand Publishing, USA, p 5-6
Horch N (2009), Management Control of Global Supply Chains, Verlag, Germany, p 17.