supply chain management course

supply chain management course

The Essentials of Supply Chain Management: A Comprehensive Course Guide

1. Introduction to Supply Chain Management

When companies have implemented their primary objectives such as product development, marketing, and manufacturing, the focus shifts to product availability and service levels, which are other aspects of the supply chain. Supply chain activities can be defined as the management of key business relationships that are of greatest value, the overall network approach to managing the links that connect all partners which contribute to an organization, and the notion of made to order is no longer a unique requirement, while continual operation with zero hidden cost is no longer required.

Supply chain management (SCM) is an important part of any organization, whether small or big, because in order to be successful in today’s world, every organization has to concentrate and nurture its specialization and source other products which are not produced and cannot be produced economically. That is why the concept of supply chain management is being more and more valued over time. SCM goes beyond the manufacturing processes. The supply chain starts with the customer need for a particular product or service and consists of a series of interlinked value-adding activities including sourcing, procurement, logistics, and production, through which a product or service is transformed and delivered to the customer. Supply chain management becomes more and more complicated and elongated as business increases in global base and starts to operate in different time zones.

2. Key Concepts and Components of Supply Chain Management

Companies no longer compete merely with their direct competitors at earlier or later stages in the value chain. Increasingly, companies find that they are part of larger ecosystems that offer complete solutions to consumers and may even involve directly competing companies working together. The best example of this is Apple, which offers an ecosystem made up of products from categories where Apple is dominant as well as categories where Apple competes with other companies.

The extended supply chain covers all the stakeholders in the complete product supply chain, including suppliers, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, logistics providers, even consumers, and involves the complete life cycle of products and beyond. Puma, for example, offers promotions such as a 20% discount on the purchase of new shoes to consumers who bring old shoes (of any brand) into their stores for recycling.

Supply chain management (SCM) – Very simply, SCM is about ensuring the right products get to the right place at the right time. But, as you can imagine, coordinating all the steps in such a process is usually complex and often problematic and costly. So, SCM uses a range of strategies and tactics to make all the steps in the process go smoothly.

3. Strategies for Effective Supply Chain Management

3.1 Importance of Channel Integration for Effective Supply Chain Management Channel integration and strategic management of the business often lay in beating the competitors by capturing more of the end users surplus that was left over by the competitors. Such surplus generally was recognized by the customers in the form of lower prices. This objective of capturing the greater share of end users surplus from the entire value chain can be achieved by any of the firm both singly or by exercising a level of control over the other players as well. The customer surplus today is being captured by the firms who surrounds and this is the notion which is well reflected in the popular definition of the nationalism that is “the location of generated surplus with the nation.” A vision only can take the firm to the leading edge and gives the ability to create new path. The benefits held by the leading edge firm are due to the complementary, alliance, and acquisition in the non-core businesses. In any firm, the linkages between the firms are otherwise known as the channels of market. Organizations that are buying from a supplier or are selling to a customer are all part of the channel of market. The channel of market is defined by two dimensions, one is the inclusion of other partners and the other is the task of activity providers or the suppliers. The channel optimization activity is a vital part of strategic management. The degree of channel integration which is required to obtain the maximum end user surplus is decided during the strategy planning which involves the answer from the two categories that is the combining of the depth of control over each participant and the issues of channel members.

SCM is a concept in which the beyond the organization boundaries, the material flow, information flow and capital flow are synchronized with each other with the idea of improving the performance of the entire supply chain. Since all the functions in an organization are in some way linked to the management of supply chain, the effective management of supply chain is the combination of all major business functions which are interrelated with each other. The items treated as key management responsibilities for collective supply chain functions characterized as Supply chain management (SCM). The improvement of the supply chain bottleneck activity is the essence of the theory and it is the key to gaining competitive edge in the recent scenarios. The improvement can only be carried out if information and labor can be shared between the multiple partners involved in the chain so that joint gain can be realized by working together as a chain.

4. Technological Innovations and Tools in Supply Chain Management

This chapter has provided an overview of the most important tools and frameworks that use technology to provide comprehensive solutions to companies. It is important to highlight the need to bring these advanced technologies to students in order to make them willing and able to exploit the innovative power of the technology. The supply chain management tools provide key competences that are advancing continuously to help companies efficiently react to the challenges posed in the current business environment and streamline their supply chains. As far as students are concerned, SCT classes have to comply with the need for usable knowledge; for this reason, our aim is to present the main SCT currently used in practice, apply case studies, and promote student-implemented projects.

Technological innovations and tools utilized in supply chain management provide key competences which help companies to efficiently respond to the challenges in the current business environment. This chapter describes some essential technological enablers for supply chain integration, such as ERP, RFID, information technology, and other relevant tools. These tools could revolutionize the approach to supply chain management, making the exchange of products and information faster, more secure, and increasingly efficient. The selection and use of the right tool for a given purpose are the main steps in order to achieve tangible supply chain benefits.

5. Case Studies and Best Practices in Supply Chain Management

The use of supply chain management not only significantly reduces purchases and inventory carrying cost as a percentage of sales value, but also reduces distribution and other costs as well. Supply chain management reduces such costs and maximizes revenues by synchronizing and optimizing the flow of products, services, and information throughout the supply chain. A supply chain is a network of facilities and distribution options that serves procurement of materials and production of a product.

Having completed this portion of the course, you should be able to explain the key points related to supply chain management, supply chain integration, disinvestment and/or vertical integration, e-commerce, and build-to-order strategies. To explain why firms outsource, to provide a framework for outsourcing decisions, and to compare areas that are commonly outsourced. Finally, to provide an overview of e-hubs. Progress in current supply chain management practices and technologies, every company can benefit from creating a supply chain competency.

In this part of our course, we will highlight some best practices that are beneficial to successful supply chain management. We will also examine the benefits of effective supply chain management. There are a number of case studies that describe different sections of supply chain management that provide a wide and comprehensive view of necessary functions in a real-world environment.