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Supply chain management (SCM) is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the operations of the 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. The term supply chain management was coined by consultant Keith Oliver, of strategy consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton in 1982. According to the CSCMP, a professional association that developed a definition in 2004, Supply Chain Management encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing and procurement, conversion, and all logistics management activities. Importantly, it also includes coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third-party service providers, and customers. In essence, Supply Chain Management integrates supply and demand management within and across companies." Supply chain event management (abbreviated as SCEM) is a consideration of all possible occurring events and factors that can cause a disruption in a supply chain. With SCEM possible scenarios can be created and solutions can be planned. Some experts distinguish supply chain management and logistics management, while others consider the terms to be interchangeable. From the point of view of an enterprise, the scope of supply chain management is usually bounded on the supply side by your supplier's suppliers and on the customer side by your customer's customers. Supply chain management is also a category of software products. Opportunities enabled by Supply Chain Management The following strategic and competitive areas can be used to their full advantage if a supply chain management system is properly implemented. Supply chain management problems Supply chain management must address the following problems: Activities/Functions Supply chain management 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. As corporations strive to focus on core competencies and become more flexible, they have reduced their ownership of raw materials sources and distribution channels. These functions are increasingly being outsourced to other corporations that can perform the activities better or more cost effectively. The effect has been to increase the number of companies involved in satisfying consumer demand, while reducing management control of daily logistics operations. Less control and more supply chain partners led to the creation of supply chain management concepts. The purpose of supply chain management is to improve trust and collaboration among supply chain partners, thus improving inventory visibility and improving inventory velocity. Several models have been proposed for understanding the activities required to manage material movements across organizational and functional boundaries. SCOR is a supply chain management model promoted by the Supply Chain Management Council. Another model is the SCM Model proposed by the Global Supply Chain Forum (GSCF). Supply chain activities can be grouped into strategic, tactical, and operational levels of activities. Strategic Tactical Operational Supply Chain Management Nowadays, one of the few outcomes in the constantly changing business world is that organizations can no longer compete solely as individual entities. Increasingly, they must rely on effective supply chains, or networks, to successfully compete in the global market and networked economy (Baziotopoulos, 2004). Peter Drucker’s (1998) management’s new paradigms, this concept of business relationships extends beyond traditional enterprise boundaries and seeks to organize entire business processes throughout a value chain of multiple companies. During the past decades, globalization, outsourcing and information technology have enabled many organizations such as Dell and Hewlett Packard, to successfully operate solid collaborative supply networks in which each specialized business partner focuses on only a few key strategic activities (Scott, 1993). This inter-organizational supply network can be acknowledged as a new form of organization. However, with the complicated interactions among the players, the network structure fits neither “market” nor “hierarchy” categories (Powell, 1990). It is not clear what kind of performance impacts different supply network structures could have on firms, and little is known about the coordination conditions trade-offs that may exist among the players. From a system’s point of view, a complex network structure can be decomposed into individual component firms (Zhang and Dilts, 2004). Traditionally, companies in a supply network concentrate on the inputs and outputs of the processes, with little concern for the internal management working of other individual players. Therefore, the choice of internal management control structure is known to impact local firm performance (Mintzberg, 1979). In the 21st century, there have been few changes in business environment that have contributed to the development of supply chain networks. First, as an outcome of globalization and proliferation of multi-national companies, joint ventures, strategic alliances and business partnerships were found to be significant success factors, following the earlier “Just-In-Time”, “Lean Management” and “Agile Manufacturing” practices (MacDuffie and Helper, 1997; Monden, 1993; Womack and Jones, 1996; Gunasekaran, 1999). Second, technological changes, particularly the dramatic fall in information communication costs, a paramount component of transaction costs, has led to changes in coordination among the members of the supply chain network (Coase, 1998). Many researchers have recognized these kinds of supply network structure as a new organization form, using terms such as “Keiretsu”, “Extended Enterprise”, “Virtual Corporation”, Global Production Network”, and “Next Generation Manufacturing System” (Drucker, 1998; Tapscott, 1996; Dilts, 1999). In general, such structures, can be defined as “a group of semi-independent organizations, each with their capabilities, which collaborate in ever-changing constellations to serve one or more markets in order to achieve some business goal specific to that collaboration” (Akkermans, 2001). Supply Chain Business Process Integration Successful SCM requires a change from managing individual functions to integrating activities into key supply chain processes. An example scenario: the purchasing department places orders as requirements become appropriate. Marketing, responding to customer demand, communicates with several distributors and retailers, and attempts to satisfy this demand. Shared information between supply chain partners can only be fully leveraged through process integration. Supply chain business process integration involves collaborative work between buyers and suppliers, joint product development, common systems and shared information. According to Lambert and Cooper (2000) operating an integrated supply chain requires continuous information flows, which in turn assist to achieve the best product flows. However, in many companies, management has reached the conclusion that optimizing the product flows cannot be accomplished without implementing a process approach to the business. The key supply chain processes stated by Lambert (2004) are: One could suggest other key critical supply business processes combining these processes stated by Lambert such as:
a) Customer service management process: Customer service provides the source of customer information. It also provides the customer with real-time information on promising dates and product availability through interfaces with the company’s production and distribution operations. b) Procurement process: Strategic plans are developed with suppliers to support the manufacturing flow management process and development of new products. In firms where operations extend globally, sourcing should be managed on a global basis. The desired outcome is a win-win relationship, where both parties benefit, and reduction times in the design cycle and product development is achieved. Also, the purchasing function develops rapid communication systems, such as electronic data interchange (EDI) and Internet linkages to transfer possible requirements more rapidly. Activities related to obtaining products and materials from outside suppliers. This requires performing resource planning, supply sourcing, negotiation, order placement, inbound transportation, storage and handling and quality assurance. Also, includes the responsibility to coordinate with suppliers in scheduling, supply continuity, hedging, and research to new sources or programmes. c) Product development and commercialization: Here, customers and suppliers must be united into the product development process, thus to reduce time to market. As product life cycles shorten, the appropriate products must be developed and successfully launched in ever shorter time-schedules to remain competitive. According to Lambert and Cooper (2000), managers of the product development and commercialization process must: d) Manufacturing flow management process: The manufacturing process is produced and supplies products to the distribution channels based on past forecasts. Manufacturing processes must be flexible to respond to market changes, and must accommodate mass customization. Orders are processes operating on a just-in-time (JIT) basis in minimum lot sizes. Also, changes in the manufacturing flow process lead to shorter cycle times, meaning improved responsiveness and efficiency of demand to customers. Activities related to planning, scheduling and supporting manufacturing operations, such as work-in-process storage, handling, transportation, and time phasing of components, inventory at manufacturing sites and maximum flexibility in the coordination of geographic and final assemblies postponement of physical distribution operations. e) Physical Distribution: This concerns movement of a finished product/service to customers. In physical distribution, the customer is the final destination of a marketing channel, and the availability of the product/service is a vital part of each channel participant’s marketing effort. It is also through the physical distribution process that the time and space of customer service become an integral part of marketing, thus it links a marketing channel with its customers (e.g. links manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers). f) Outsourcing/Partnerships: This is not just outsourcing the procurement of materials and components, but also outsourcing of services that traditionally have been provided in-house. The logic of this trend is that the company will increasingly focus on those activities in the value chain where it has a distinctive advantage and everything else it will outsource. This movement has been particularly evident in logistics where the provision of transport, warehousing and inventory control is increasingly subcontracted to specialists or logistics partners. Also, to manage and control this network of partners and suppliers requires a blend of both central and local involvement. Hence, strategic decisions need to be taken centrally with the monitoring and control of supplier performance and day-to-day liaison with logistics partners being best managed at a local level. g) Performance Measurement: Experts found a strong relationship from the largest arcs of supplier and customer integration to market share and profitability. By taking advantage of supplier capabilities and emphasizing a long-term supply chain perspective in customer relationships can be both correlated with firm performance. As logistics competency becomes a more critical factor in creating and maintaining competitive advantage, logistics measurement becomes increasingly important because the difference between profitable and unprofitable operations becomes more narrow. A.T. Kearney Consultants (1985) noted that firms engaging in comprehensive performance measurement realized improvements in overall productivity. According to experts internal measures are generally collected and analyzed by the firm including Supply Chain Management Components Integration The management components of SCM: The SCM management components are the third element of the four-square circulation framework. The level of integration and management of a business process link is a function of the number and level, ranging from low to high, of components added to the link (Ellram and Cooper, 1990; Houlihan, 1985). Consequently, adding more management components or increasing the level of each component can increase the level of integration of the business process link. The literature on business process reengineering (Macneil ,1975; Williamson, 1974; Hewitt, 1994), buyer-supplier relationships (Stevens, 1989; Ellram and Cooper, 1993; Ellram and Cooper, 1990; Houlihan, 1985), and SCM (Cooper et al., 1997; Lambert et al.,1996; Turnbull, 1990) suggests various possible components that must receive managerial attention when managing supply relationships. Lambert and Cooper (2000) identified the following components which are: However, a more careful examination of the existing literature (Zhang and Dilts, 2004 Vickery et al., 2003; Hemila, 2002; Christopher, 1998; Joyce et al., 1997; Bowersox and Closs, 1996; Williamson, 1991; Courtright et al., 1989; Hofstede, 1978) will lead us to a more comprehensive structure of what should be the key critical supply chain components, the “branches” of the previous identified supply chain business processes, that is what kind of relationship the components may have that are related with suppliers and customers accordingly. Bowersox and Closs states that the emphasis on cooperation represents the synergism leading to the highest level of joint achievement (Bowersox and Closs, 1996). A primary level channel participant is a business that is willing to participate in the inventory ownership responsibility or assume other aspects financial risk, thus including primary level components (Bowersox and Closs, 1996). A secondary level participant (specialized), is a business that participates in channel relationships by performing essential services for primary participants, thus including secondary level components, which are supporting the primary ones. Also, third level channel participants and components may be included, that will support the primary level channel participants, and which are the fundamental branches of the secondary level components. Consequently, Lambert and Cooper’s framework of supply chain components, does not lead us to the conclusion about what are the primary or secondary (specialized) level supply chain components ( see Bowersox and Closs, 1996, p.g. 93), that is what supply chain components should be viewed as primary or secondary, and how should these components be structured in order to have a more comprehensive supply chain structure and to examine the supply chain as an integrative one (See above sections 2.1 and 3.1). Therefore, as a consequence of reviewing the literature (Stevens, 1989; Ellram and Cooper, 1993; Mills et al., 2004; Lewis and Talalayevsky, 2004; Hedberg and Olhager, 2002; Hemila, 2002; Vickery et.al., 2003; Yusuf et al., 2003; Handfield and Bechtel, 2001; Prater et al., 2001; Kern and Willcocks, 2000;; Bowersox and Closs, 1996; Christopher, 1992; Bowersox, 1989), Baziotopoulos (2004) suggests the following supply chain components, which are as follows (Fig.8): Literature Rolf G. Poluha: Application of the SCOR Model in Supply Chain Management. Youngstown, NY 2006, ISBN: 1-934043-10-9. See also | |||||||
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