Supply Chain Management

[Name of the Institute]

Supply Chain Management

Introduction

Supply chain management is a relatively new form of management type, which has been established for the contemporary organization, with vast operational networks. Instead of single basic functions of any organization the Supply Chain function is based on the movement of goods. In this perspective different stakeholders involved in the process are all involved in the supply chain management orientation. Any product manufactured by an organization has to move through various process and value added functions. From the first stage of the raw materials where the goods are stored and later taken to the relevant production processes; to the final distribution to the end customer is included in the field of supply chain management. Supply chain management is not only concerned with the internal operations of a company, as this would be a highly limited and intrinsic approach (Mentzer et Al, 2001). Rather the field of management is concentrated on the entire process of value addition and distribution of the product, until it is consumed by the end customers. Supply chain is a holistic perspective where the company focuses on the entire process of raw material procurement, processing, production, transportation, and inventory and at the end sale.

Supply Chain Management is a field of management which has emerged to manage the comprehensive and complex operational networks of contemporary organizations. Companies no longer have operation s in only a lim8ited geographic consumer market where the business environments stable (Cooper et Al, 1997). In the contemporary business environment companies have to expand their operations throughout the world, in order to provide the ideal products to the end customers. Supply chain is the function through which a company can ensure that it is able to enhance the overall quality of the products offered to the end customers and hence enhance the target market. As there are numerous stages of production and value addition that a product must go through, it is the role of the supply chain manager to ensure that all of these stakeholders collaborate to produce the most effective and efficient product to the end customer.

Discussion

Scope & History of Supply Chain Management

Keith Oliver was one of the primary individuals who introduced the concept of supply chain management to the corporate world. In a 1982 interview for the Financial Times the consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, described the importance of the supply chain function. He described that it is holistic function in which the entire production and distribution process of the product is covered. The concept was not widely accepted at the initial level, however with the advances in the world trade activities and the development of the globalization factors, supply chain management became a buzz word. It became the necessary requirement for the majority of the organization, as they proceeded to expand their operation on the global scale. The requirement for an organizational supply chain management department becomes more relevant in the globalization era, where the company has to integrate geographically dispersed stakeholders (Lambert ...