What is Supply Chain Management? (Guide to SCM) | ecadema
Supply chain management is the process of integrating supply and demand management not just within the business, but also across all of the supply chain’s many members and channels in order for them to function together as efficiently and effectively as possible. ecadema is an online interactive learning platform that provides supply chain professional trainers who are experts in SCM.
How does Supply Chain Management (SCM) Work?
Suppliers’ efforts to build and operate supply networks that are as efficient and cost-effective as feasible are referred to as supply chain management (SCM). Supply chains are comprised of everything from manufacturing to product development to the information systems that guide these activities.
SCM seeks to regulate or link the production, shipment, and distribution of a product from a central location. Companies can decrease costs and deliver items to consumers faster by optimizing the supply chain. This is accomplished by maintaining tighter control over internal inventories, internal manufacturing, distribution, sales, and corporate vendor stocks.
SCM is founded on the premise that practically every product that makes it to market is the result of the efforts of many different businesses that make up a supply chain. Despite the fact that supply chains have been around for a long time, most businesses have only lately recognized them as a value-add to their operations.
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Components of Supply Chain Management
A supply chain management system consists of five main components:
Planning
Supply chain managers must plan ahead in order to satisfy client requests. Forecasting demand, intentionally designing the supply chain, and determining how the organization will evaluate the supply chain to ensure it is performing as expected in terms of efficiency, delivering value to customers, and assisting in the achievement of organizational goals are all examples of this.
Sourcing
An important component of the supply chain is choosing suppliers who will deliver the items, raw materials, or services needed to manufacture the product. This encompasses not only the creation of contracts that control suppliers, but also the management and monitoring of existing ties. Supply chain managers are responsible for overseeing the ordering, receiving, inventory management, and invoice payment procedures for suppliers as part of strategic sourcing.
Making
Supply chain managers must also assist in the coordination of all phases involved in the product’s creation. This comprises inspecting and accepting raw supplies, producing the product, testing its quality, and packaging it. In general, firms assess quality, output, and personnel productivity to ensure that overall requirements are met.
Delivering
Logistics is essential to supply chain performance because it ensures that items reach their intended destinations. Coordinating orders, dispatching, scheduling deliveries, invoicing, and receiving payments are all part of this process. To ship the items, a fleet of vehicles must be managed from tankers delivering products created overseas to fleet trucks and parcel services managing last-mile delivery. In certain circumstances, businesses outsource the delivery procedure to other companies that can handle unique handling needs or residential delivery.
Returning
Managers of supply chains must also create a network that facilitates product returns. This might include scraping or re-producing a defective product in certain situations or just returning a product to the warehouse in others. To meet client demands, this network must be accountable and adaptable.
A robust network of supporting procedures that can efficiently monitor information across the supply chain and ensure compliance with laws and regulations is the foundation for each of these components. HR, IT, quality assurance, finance, product design, and sales are among the areas involved, according to CIO.
Importance of Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management is critical for any business since it may provide several advantages; yet, bad supply chain management can result in extremely costly delays, quality difficulties, or a negative image. When vendors or processes aren’t compliant, poor supply chain management can lead to legal concerns. Technology advancements have opened enormous possibilities for supply chain management, allowing supply chain managers to collaborate closely with supply chain participants in real-time. Organizations may do the following using supply chain management:
Identifying possible issues: When a consumer purchases more merchandise than the manufacturer is able to supply, the customer may complain about bad service. Manufacturers may be able to predict a scarcity through data analysis before the consumer is disappointed.
Dynamic pricing optimization: Seasonal items have a short shelf life. These items are usually discarded or sold at a steep discount towards the end of the season. Airlines, hotels, and other businesses that sell perishable “goods” usually modify rates on the fly to match demand. Similar forecasting strategies can enhance margins, even for hard commodities, by applying analytic tools.
Improving “available to promise” inventory allocation: Analytical software solutions aid in the dynamic allocation of resources and scheduling of work based on sales forecasts, actual orders, and promised raw material deliveries. Manufacturers can confirm a product delivery date when an order is placed, which reduces the number of orders that are mistakenly filled.
Benefits of Supply Chain Management
An organization benefits from effective supply chain management in three ways.
Lowered Costs:
Organizations can reduce operational expenses by responding more flexibly to consumer requirements by integrating suppliers and implementing technology. For example, managing based on demand prevents companies from overproducing, which saves money on labor and raw materials, as well as inventory management and transportation.
Increased Revenue:
When businesses employ technology to stay closer to client demand and respond more rapidly, items are more likely to be available for purchase. When production is optimized to create just enough, more time and resources can be spent on developing new products to offer customers and expanding the product mix. Customers may be offered extra services outside of the product domain.
Asset Utilization:
Organizations may employ capital assets, such as manufacturing or transportation equipment, more effectively with proper supply chain management. Businesses may produce to demand instead of putting unnecessary wear and tear on industrial equipment.
Supply chain management enables businesses to deliver items more rapidly, assure product availability, decrease quality concerns, and negotiate returns with ease, eventually increasing value for both the business and its consumers. To learn more in detail about supply chain management from professional experts, join the supply chain risk management workshop at ecadema, the best interactive learning platform.
