Supply Chain Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Supply Chain Management - Assignment Example Supply chain management includes a series of well-coordinated decisions and activities that are used to provide sufficient integrated supplier services, transporters, ware houses and customer. This often ensures that the correct products and services are taken to delivered at the right locations in the right quantities while minimizing the cost of undertaking these activities. The essence of this is to acquire sustainable competitive market advantage. A company supply chain can be immensely complicated because it entails a large number of customers and suppliers. Logistic functions may be used to help the flow of raw material from the producer of the item, to the manufacturer then the distributor and finally the end user of the product(Wisner 104). The internal supply chain involves the manufacturers. In this case, it entails sourcing, distributing and production as a whole. Sourcing is where the company makes some purchases, process orders, make negotiations for contracts and formul ate the purchase process. In production, the raw materials are transformed into components of an end product or the product itself. Distribution is where the flow of material or end product is managed as from the manufacture to the customers. To ensure that the process is done successfully, enterprise resource planning systems should be used. The enterprise resource planning system usually store and processes the data of the company. In addition, it integrates the company’s information system as a whole. ERP is beneficial as it facilitates the flow of all the details in the company and also ensures that the daily company processes are managed appropriately (Wisner222). The supplier networks are also another key component of the supply chain. They may be the organizations responsible for all the direct and indirect service and product provision. For instance, a computer manufacture supplier may include all the organizations responsible for the provision of all items of the com puter. This may include computer chips, motherboards and hard drives just to mention a few. The distribution networks the real movement of goods from the manufacture to the customers. The main focus is on the packaging, storing and how the materials are handled at the receiving ends; the warehouses, docks and the retail stores. One crucial consideration in the distribution process is the mode of transportation and its management. This includes how the external carriers have been managed or how the private carriers are selected. Another important thing to consider is the e - commerce sector. This plays a vital role as it facilitates the flow of funds and information. E commerce is when advanced technology is used to carry out the business transactions in a company. E commerce is conducted in a variety of electronic media. It entails business to customer transactions, business to business transactions, and customer to customer transactions. A few websites that carry out such include e -bay, Covisint, priceline.com and the likes of Amazon.com. The types of electronic media are bar codes, fax, electronic fund transfer (EFT), electronic data interchange (EDI) and many others (Wisner 10). In e- distribution, one is advised on where to pick their supplies and how to use them via the internet or web based environment. E- Procurement has changed the whole supply chain where the distribution and manufacturing bit is concerned. There is a seamless flow of information on fulfillment from the manufact