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Beyond Management Coaching: When Things Are Getting Out of Control
Leaders and Managers often ask us, ‘What do you do when you have tried to coach and counsel an employee about a performance concern, and the employee has not responded? Unfortunately, we see far too many cases where the leader hasn’t, in good...
Creativity and Innovation Management- why products fail.
There is no sure fire route to commercial success but the probability of success can be increased. This is important for at least two reasons: a)Resource Management. The Economist (2003) states that 3000 bright ideas result in 100 worthwhile...
Document Management Services
5 Ways a Document Management Service Can Improve Your
Business
Documents can be the bane of any businessman's existence.
Documents are a fact of life in the business world. From
advertisements to legal contracts to protocols, from...
The Seven Deadly Sins of Management
Pride. Envy. Gluttony. Lust. Anger. Greed. Sloth. You either recognize these as the seven deadly sins or as themes for prime-time television. Nonetheless, you were probably taught as a child that these are bad and you shouldn't do them. For purposes...
Why Asset Management Is A Vital Key To Your Future
Our home, car, property and credit lines are all assets. Proper asset management is a necessity for all of us. When we think of asset management ofttimes we forget that we need to protect our assets not only for ourselves but for our children as...
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Supply chain management 101
Answering the question of what Supply Chain Management is, is as
simple as breaking down the phrase into its component parts.
Supplies are those inputs that a company relies upon to produce
the product that will ultimately reach its customers. The chain
is the group of suppliers that bring those inputs to a company
and the process whereby those inputs are integrated into the
company. And finally, management is the coordination and
organization of all these inputs and their implementation. So
put it all together, and Supply Chain Management is the science
and art of improving the processes that bring suppliers of raw
materials together and move those materials through the company
until they reach the endpoint, the customer.
What SCM Involves If defining the term takes a full paragraph to
cover even in its most basic sense, you can imagine how complex
the industry surrounding Supply Chain Management truly is. It
involves managers who map out the entire process and look for
inefficiencies and others who develop and maintain relationships
with suppliers to ensure a steady supply of inputs. It involves
the actual process of manufacturing or value add in which those
inputs become the products that will be sold as well as
"logistics" or the process of getting those value added products
to customers. And finally it involves dealing with and
compensating for supply chain returns, such as defective
products. Supply Chain Management covers every aspect of the
business from input to output and as such requires an extensive
array of tools and strategies to help managers to coordinate and
organize a company.
The Dilemma of SCM Software One of the most innovative and
revolutionary tools in use by managers involved in the supply
chain is Supply Chain Management Software. While I have outlined
five general sections that make up Supply Chain Management, each
of these sections is unique to a particular business. As such,
no single product has been developed to handle the software
needs of a company from start to finish. As a result,
Associated Websites
when
industry insiders talk about Supply Chain Software, they are
really talking about a combination of many different programs
that, when applied together, help manage the supply chain. While
literally thousands of different products are on the market
today, they all fall into one of two broad categories, Supply
Chain Planning (SCP) or Supply Chain Execution (SCE) software.
Supply Chain Planning software covers those programs which use
advanced mathematical algorithms to map out the flow of products
through a company and to identify any inefficiencies. The
ultimate goal of this type of software is to help reduce faulty
products, to speed up the time to market, and to reduce
inventory. Supply Chain Execution software is designed to
automate different components of the supply chain. For example,
Supply Chain Execution Software might update inventory listings
in a central directory as soon as inputs are brought in from a
supplier or are sold off to the customer. In this way, SCE
software eliminates the costly and time consuming task of
tabulating the total current supply so as to know when to place
the next order.
The Goals of Supply Chain Management Ultimately the goal of
Supply Chain Management is to bring greater efficiency to a
company by reducing errors, maintaining steady inputs, and
reducing excess inventories. With the growth of the internet,
however, it is transitioning into a means of collaboration
between companies. By concentrating their efforts on better
communication with suppliers and customers, inefficiencies are
ironed out not only within the company but in those surrounding
it as well. The internet has made the communication between
firms necessary for this to take place possible. Consequently,
the hope for Supply Chain Management in the future is not only
to create a more efficient and profitable business, but to
contribute to a more efficient and profitable global marketplace
as well.
About the author:
Dan Johnson enjoys writing about supply chain management.
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