Definition of Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management can be defined as the process of planning, implementation and monitoring of daily operations of a supply chain. Supply chain management is an inclusive process that engages in the management of the availability of raw materials, their transformation into finished goods and distribution thereof. The purpose of this is to provide the highest level of customer satisfaction and therefore increase the company's business. And with the growing complexity of supply chain, supply chain management has also become to coordinate and collaborate with trading partners several hours involved in the supply chain.

Supply chain management is supposed to be undertaken by the Management Committee at a high level of society. Employees must adhere voluntarily to their decisions, in order to achieve maximum efficiency in the supply chain.

Decisions concerning the management of the supply chain are made of three layers, the different levels of tactical, strategic and operational. Strategic level involves long-term decisions, while the tactical level includes medium term decisions, while the operational level deals with short-term day to day operational problems. The problems that the system is supposed to address chain includes the following:

* Distributor Network Configuration: Number and positions of those involved with the whole process of the supply chain, including suppliers, customers, warehouses, manufacturing plants and distribution centers.

* Strategies for deployment: centralized, direct shipments, push and pull strategies, cross-docking and third-party logistics.

* Information: integration of systems and processes across the supply chain to share information consisting of relevant and significant demand signals, forecasts, transportation and, of course, the inventory.

* Inventory Management: The number and location of inventory and also covers raw materials, finished goods and work in progress.

The execution flow of the supply chain is always bi-directional and operates at the bottom and coordinates the movement of materials, information and finances of the supply chain. There are some fundamental processes of supply chain management that have been identified. They are:

* Managing relationships with customers.

* Managing the customer service

* Request Management.

* Compliance with orders.

* Management of production flows.

* Managing relationships with suppliers.

* Develop and commercialize the product.

* Management of returns.

Other key business processes that are used as procedures of supply chain and are a vital part of the process and include:

* Customer Service Management: Steps used by companies to develop successful relationships are focusing on areas of common satisfaction, establish and maintain relationships with customers, produce feelings of positivity and confidence among customers and the organization.

* Procurement processes.

* Product development and marketing: This includes coordination with the management of relationships with customers to identify customer needs articulated, and selection of suppliers of materials and developing production technology to integrate and produce the best flow supply chain.
* Management processes of the production flow.

* The physical distribution.

* Outsourcing and partnership.

* Performance measurement in respect of costs, measures of productivity, customer service, metering and asset quality.

Along with all these systems of supply chain management has been able to implement an integrated supply and demand management within and between business enterprises .......