Well established companies globally are realizing a strong new source of achieving competitive advantage. Supply chain management encapsulates all the related activities that deliver product to the consumers and satisfy the users. SCM combines different areas such as operations, manufacturing, purchasing, physical distribution and transportation. A good supply chain management is responsible for integrating and coordinating the task into processes that are seamless. Carries, vendor, information system and third party companies are also involved.
In organizations, supply chain encompasses a varied functional areas and activities that are related to supply chain management. These include warehousing, inventory control, procurement, supply management and transportation. The information system is also part of the supply chain. Generally, supply chain entails all the tasks and activities related to the distribution of goods starting from raw-materials to the consumer. Experts in the filed argues that productivity can improve significantly is all the relationships, material flow and information are well managed.
The provision of economic values and enhanced customer via combination management of distribution of goods and associated information. The objective of enterprise is to improve and serve the ultimate consumer with superior services leading to increased market share. Raising the market share brings about a competitive advantage such as transportation costs, lower warehousing and reduced inventory levels. The consumer is the primary in both in communicating and quantifying the values of the supply chain (Eskigun et al., 2005).
Importance of supply chain
Doing things in a speedy way is currently the order of the day in the business environment. It is the sole way of achieving a competitive advantage. The business organization should devise ways of ensuring that that the issues that surround the supply chain are addresses. These include load planning, supply chain management, route planning and redesign of the distribution network. The organization should address corporate issues such s outsourcing, globalization and SCM.
Work Cited
References
Listeş, O. (2007). A generic stochastic model for supply-and-return network design. Computers & Operations Research, 34(2), 417-442. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305054805001024
Altiparmak, F., Gen, M., Lin, L., & Karaoglan, I. (2009). A steady-state genetic algorithm for multi-product supply chain network design. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 56(2), 521-537. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360835207000903
Montreuil, B., & Poulin*, M. (2005). Demand and supply network design scope for personalized manufacturing. Production Planning & Control, 16(5), 454-469. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09537280500088068
Eskigun, E., Uzsoy, R., Preckel, P. V., Beaujon, G., Krishnan, S., & Tew, J. D. (2005). Outbound supply chain network design with mode selection, lead times and capacitated vehicle distribution centers. European Journal of Operational Research, 165(1), 182-206. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221704000633
Sha, D. Y., & Che, Z. H. (2005). Supply chain network design: partner selection and production/distribution planning using a systematic model. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 57(1), 52-62. Retrieved from http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jors/journal/v57/n1/abs/2601949a.html
