Saturday, June 18, 2016

How To Implement Effective Supply Chain Management

By Frank Ellis


The supply chain is the process through which products, information and financial resources move from a supplier to the consumer. Often, manufactures, wholesalers and retailers exist as intermediaries. Supply chain management, SCM, is simply exercising oversight over this process and ensuring that it is seamless. Coordination and integration may be done either within a company or between two companies. The process is said to be successful if there is a reduction in inventory.

The three types of flow (product, information and financial) all contribute the success of SCM. Product flow is simply the movement of goods (and services) downstream (from the supplier to the target consumer). Information flow is bidirectional. This means that it may originate from the consumer or the supplier. Financial flow is concerned with aspects such as consignments, payment schedules, ownership arrangements and credit agreements among others.

The increased use of web-based applications in SCM is one of the measures that have been undertaken to increase the efficiency. The available applications fall under two major categories: planning and execution applications. Those that fall under the planning category are mainly involved with the placement of orders. Those classified as execution orders, in contrast, are used in tracking products, financial information and other materials.

One of the most commonly used data plans is what is termed the open data model. With this plan, data is shared between different departments in an enterprise as well as between enterprises doing business with each other. Information is stored in data warehouses that will be typically located in different companies. The act of sharing data has been demonstrated to significantly reduce the time-to-market of products.

Business integration is another step that should be taken so as to make the most use of SCM. What this means is that rather than focusing on the management of individual units, the focus should be on integrating different departments and related enterprises. Suppliers, customers, product developers and other stakeholders should be facilitated to communicate each other if this is to be successful.

Sustainability and social responsibility are issues that have to be addressed by all companies. As a supply manager, you need to ensure that all the enterprises involved meet the minimum requirements. Environmental sustainability is in particular an important factor in modern businesses. Consumers are becoming increasingly environmental conscious and are likely to favor products from companies that share their beliefs. Choose suppliers that care about their environmental.

To be certified as a supply chain manager, you will need to meet a number of requirements. One of these requirements is that you need to acquire the relevant skills and knowledge. This relates to functions such as warehousing, transportation, management of inventory and business continuity strategies and so on. In most countries, there is a certification exam that one has to sit before they are registered by the relevant professional body.

Proper management of the supply chain is needed for goods and services to flow efficiently from the producer to the end consumer. A delay in the chain affects all that are involved. Sharing of information between departments and enterprises doing business with each other goes a long way into ensuring that everybody gets what they want when they want it.




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