The term ‘supply chain management’ was first coined by Keith Oliver in a public interview with Financial Times in 1982. Since then, the term has become a buzzword in the logistics industry and is used to refer to all kinds of operational models and logistical processes.
Today, the supply chain management industry forms the backbone for all manufacturing and e-commerce businesses across the globe. It also employs millions of people and is a great career domain to opt for.
Before you consider investing in a relevant programme, let’s explore the term in-depth in this blog and dive deeper into its elemental concepts.
What is supply chain management?
The process of supply chain management begins with the design and development of a product and ends at handing it over to the customers. The entire process involves the planning of supply models, product design, demand estimation, sales and pricing and vendor recruitment.
What kind of supply chain models exist in the modern age?
Today, we have quite a few supplies chain models that can fit the logistics needs of your business. Here are the most popular supply-chain models in the business domain in 2022.
- Agile model
- Continuous flow model
- Custom configured model
- Efficient chain model
- Fast chain model
- Flexible mode
- Supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model
What are the five primary components of the supply chain management process?
An ideal supply chain management process can be divided into five primary elements that are described below:
- Plan: Although it is panned out as the first stage of any supply chain management process, planning is an indispensable part of every step in the process. Effective planning can ensure clarity in your operational goals and optimise your manufacturing and delivery processes.
- Source: Once you have proper plans in place, you will need to source raw materials, tools, resources, and other things from vendors economically and efficiently.
- Make: Once you have all the raw materials, manpower and tools required for your products, the next step would be to use them in their logical order to manufacture your products while maintaining their quality and keeping in mind customer requirements.
- Deliver: The next logical course of action would be to deliver the fully finished or manufactured products to distribution vendors or directly to the customers.
- Return: This step is often referred to as reverse logistics and is an important part of modern-day logistics processes. It aims to improve customer satisfaction and relationships and ensures that the customer need not suffer because of low quality, defective or expired products.
Ensuring each step is seamlessly flowing into the next one without any hiccups can give you a self-sustaining supply chain model that can promise optimum company efficiency.
A good supply chain management programme can help you delve deeper into each of these steps and understand the common challenges and ways to overcome them, in-depth. Additionally, it also allows you to develop a deeper understanding of the pros and cons of different supply chain models and incorporate them in your organisation in real life.
Invest in a good supply chain management programme today to secure a well-paying managerial job within the international logistics industry.
