SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Distribution and Transportation Management



Distribution and Transportation Management

Assignment 1

Distribution management consists of many competitive activities which are mutually reinforcing. Discuss critically how these activities should be structured to make sure that the way the products are distributed is appropriate to the strategy the company competes for business.

Introduction

To understand and comprehend the whereabouts of how far and wide can a person pave way for employing success in their organization, supply chain management is amongst the new concepts that people are beginning to pay attention to and at the same time are pertain to deploy their core competencies in this area for the purpose and objective of creating a powerful, resourceful, long-term and competitive edge to the entire organization. These days, people are now competing against one another in the area of supply chain and at the same time creating more impact and capturing more customers and continuing their path to national, international, multinational and global presence.

Supply Chain Management: A newly recognized discipline

Supply Chain Management implies the phenomenon which covers the third 'P' of marketing, falling under the 'place' category, which embodies the whereabouts of adopting strategies and tactics which pave way for the circulation of goods and services (Gattorna, 2006, pp.42). Generally, when it comes to transportation of goods or services from the place of production to the center of consumption, people tend to adopt supply chain management processes within their facility for several benefits, which cover:

Holding a strategic fit with businesses that directly impact the success of the business; fashion brand Zara is amongst the best and most prominent examples, who have been renowned for creating a brand reputation that, although has been positioned and famous for its extremely swift and promptly involved in the development of new and improved designs, cuts and curves, which shall help gain Zara a more competitive standing and be ahead of all the other brands that are exist and enter the fashion industry as part of the global phenomenon;

Procuring materials;

Greater bargaining power;

Benefits of added collaboration with suppliers; and

Added leverage with suppliers, and many more to add to the phenomenon.

The concept of Supply chain management (SCM) is vital for the efficient operations of any organization. SCM refers to the management of a meshing of interlinked businesses engaged in the quality supplying of goods and service packages asked by end customers. The process of SCM ranges from the transference and warehousing of raw materials, work-in-process inventory and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption.

According to the definition of APICS Dictionary, the term SCM pertains to the designing, plan, executing, controlling and monitoring of the activities concerning with the supply chain activities. These activities indulge in the creation of net value, building an extremely efficient and effectively competitive infrastructure, and providing a global leverage to the organization's logistics.

The logistics issue is evolution from a passive cost-absorbing function to a strategic one that provides competitive advantage to the company. Third party logistics extended their capabilities for involving a wide range of ...