Introduction
Supply Chain Management is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the operations of supply chain with the purpose to satisfy customer requirements as efficiently as possible. Supply chain management spans all movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from point-of-origin to point-of-consumption. It is a cross functional approach to managing the movement of raw materials into an organization and the movement of finished goods out of the organization toward the end consumer.
Supply Chain management is also the combination of art and science of improving the way company finds the raw components it needs to make a product or service and deliver it to customers. It seeks to enhance competitive performance by closely integrating the internal functions within a company and effectively linking them with external operations of suppliers and channel members. Moreover, this has been a prominent concern for both large and small companies as they strive for better quality and higher customer satisfaction.
In a supply chain, a company links to its supplier upstream and to its distributors downstream in order to serve its customer. The goal of supply chain management is to provide maximum customer service at the lowest possible costs.
Companies now are competing supply chain-to-supply chain rather than enterprise-to-enterprise requiring for more intimately connected relationships. Customer markets and supply chains are no longer limited by physical proximity, and businesses are sourcing from and managing a greater number of far-flung partners and channels.
Success of a company now depends on effective global supply chain management, its ability to deliver the right product to the right market at the right time. The complexity involved in managing supply chains that span continents and dominate markets demands strategies and systems that are adaptable. Managing Supply Chain