i m going to do my project in a trading company who buys finished products and sells in the market 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.
The definition one America professional association put forward is that Supply Chain Management encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing, procurement, conversion, and 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, while others consider the terms to be interchangeable.
Supply chain management is also a category of software products.
[edit] Supply chain management problems
Supply chain management must address the following problems:
* Distribution Network Configuration: Number and location of suppliers, production facilities, distribution centers, warehouses and customers.
* Distribution Strategy: Centralized versus decentralized, direct shipment, Cross docking, pull or push strategies, third party logistics.
* Information: Integrate systems and processes through the supply chain to share valuable information, including demand signals, forecasts, inventory and transportation etc.
* Inventory Management: Quantity and location of inventory including raw materials, work-in-process and finished goods.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Strategic
* Strategic network optimization, including the number, location, and size of warehouses, distribution centers and facilities.
* Strategic partnership with suppliers, distributors, and customers, creating communication channels for critical information and operational improvements such as cross docking, direct shipping, and third-party logistics.
* Product design coordination, so that new and existing products can be optimally integrated into the supply chain, load management
* Information Technology infrastructure, to support supply chain operations.
* Where to make and what to make or buy decisions
* Align Overall Organizational Strategy with supply strategy
[edit] Tactical
* Sourcing contracts and other purchasing decisions.
* Production decisions, including contracting, locations, scheduling, and planning process definition.
* Inventory decisions, including quantity, location, and quality of inventory.
* Transportation strategy, including frequency, routes, and contracting.
* Benchmarking of all operations against competitors and implementation of best practices throughout the enterprise.
* Milestone Payments
[edit] Operational
* Daily production and distribution planning, including all nodes in the supply chain.
* Production scheduling for each manufacturing facility in the supply chain (minute by minute).
* Demand planning and forecasting, coordinating the demand forecast of all customers and sharing the forecast with all suppliers.
* Sourcing planning, including current inventory and forecast demand, in collaboration with all suppliers.
* Inbound operations, including transportation from suppliers and receiving inventory.
* Production operations, including the consumption of materials and flow of finished goods.
* Outbound operations, including all fulfillment activities and transportation to customers.
* Order promising, accounting for all constraints in the supply chain, including all suppliers, manufacturing facilities. distribution centers, and other customers.
* Performance tracking of all activities.
[edit] Supply Chain Management
Organizations increasingly find that they must rely on effective supply chains, or networks, to successfully compete in the global market and networked economy[1]. In 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 and 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.[2] 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".[3] In general, such a structure 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).
for more
just click
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_chai... You can cover the whole supply chain or pick a vertical such as warehouse management or order management etc.
For the report, you could cover the following topics:
1. Entities in the supply chain
2. Role of entities
3. Integration among the entities
4. IT in the supply chain integration and visibility across partners
5. Risk mitigation and disaster recovery processes.
Hope that helps. http://www.nait.org/jit/Articles/meier01... |
