Sustainability is an important aspect of business in modern society where environmental pollution, economics, efficiency, effectiveness, and conservation of energy are issues of concern. As a distribution network that organizations rely on distributing their diverse products, the supply chain has a significant impact on the environment. In this view, the supply chain should be sustainable for it to serve varied organizations optimally and experience growth in the competitive markets. Sustainability is beneficial to the supply chain because it reduces costs, decreases wastage, improves efficiency, saves energy, and enhances competitive advantage. Governments and customers also increase pressure on the supply chain to adopt strategies that are sustainable to protect not only the environment but also encourage prudent use of available resources. Recycle, reuse, reduce, and recover are the four principles, which promote sustainability of operations in the supply chain. In essence, the sustainability of the supply chain is central to improving Continue reading
Supply Chain Management
Value Added Roles of Warehouses
Nowadays, the warehousing is playing a very important role in the supply chain management. Due to the strong competitive market nowadays, the function of warehouse is requiring to extend to a wide range. The warehousing not only provides the function of holding or storage the goods but it also provides the value-added services to improve the performance of the supply chain. The value-added services provided by warehouses are including; Buffer: The warehousing is holding the goods for the downstream stages of supply chain. It is to balance the difference goods schedules and aim to deal the efficiency in the distribution process and achieve the economic of scale. Consolidation center: The warehouse is used for accumulates and consolidates the goods from the different manufacturer or company for combined the goods into a same shipment to the customers. The consolidation can reduce the expenditure of transportation operations because it can reduce the Continue reading
Importance of Customer Service in Supply Chain Management
Supply chain is basically considered as a strategic concept that involves understanding and managing the sequence of activities -from supplier to customer-that add value to the product supply pipeline. The role of customer service in the supply chain management is not incidental. Every company in this chain, irrespective of market size mainly they thankful to its customers as the fact is that in all profit of firm there are customers are in center whom to buy the goods and services produced by each one of them. This century marks the end of monopolies and therefore customers can make an array of choices. When customers decide not to buy products in a particular supply chain, then no doubt the company would collapse without earning any revenue for the expenses incurred in launching the product on the stage of saturation and decline stage. So, the supply chain should be structured in such Continue reading
Inventory Management Concepts in Supply Chain Management
Inventory management aims to handle all function correctly with tracking and management of material. Inventory management is very wide definition like to replenishment lead time, carrying costs of inventory, asset management, forecasting, valuation, visibility, future inventory cost, space, quality etc. The ultimate aim of supply chain management is how well you manage your inventory. Manufacturers face a number of challenges which require not just exceptional planning but also an effective communication setup that keeps you updated at the spur of a moment. From rapid changes of customer demands, globalization or even natural calamities can cause your inventory to be stuck up paving way for no wages to the employees. Therefore there should be a quick information system to discuss the inbound and outbound issues affecting the demand and supply. For this there should be a well managed supply chain inventory management in order to keep the business running without any Continue reading
Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) – Meaning and Importance
Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) is a concept in the Supply Chain Management, which considered in the aspect of establishing and sustaining the business relationship along the supply chain. Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) concerns the practical processes to integrate the communication and coordination between organizations and their suppliers. Supplier chain relationship was considered to be one of the important factors in most business, since it can influence the potential of supply chain concept. Now, the modern business seems to be more complex with high competition. Due to the information has more valuable in the supply chain management, firms then need to re-design the ways of managing and sharing information among each others. Organizations cannot independently run the business by themselves. Not only good relationship can help companies to have more competitive advantage to survive in the market, but it can also help companies expands the market too. Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) Continue reading
Supply Chain Integration Strategies – Vertical and Horizontal Integration
Supply Chain Management (SCM) is defined as the integration strategies aimed at coordinating functions across suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers to ensure that products and services are produced and distributed at the right volume, location and time with the aim of reducing operational costs, maximizing profits and ensuring satisfaction across the supply chain. Supply chain integration strategies are network-based business models used by organizations to align strategic decisions and processes across the network from supplier/manufacturer end to the customer end in order to achieve competitive advantages, synergy and efficiency in their operations as well as to gain more control in the input and output of their operations. Network-based business models are organizational structures that allow companies to operate as interconnected configurations across its value chain usually consisting of partnerships, collaborations and optimized cross-organizational activities. Vertical Integration Vertical integration is a coordination strategy in which a company owns its supply chain Continue reading