Supply Chain Managment

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1. What are the four important elements of Supply Chain Management?

A growing business needs to have an efficient and effective Supply Chain.

The four elements of supply chain management are: 

* Purchasing - is a process that exists in any organization. The larger the organization and the quantity of items and services it purchases, the higher the purchasing, the more regulated it becomes, and becomes a core of process.

* Operation- wright planning of demand for raw materials, planning distribution needs.

*Logistics-Is a flow management advantageous between the target and the starting point.

*Integration-process of technology (data and its collection) which closely coordinates with Supply chain functions. (1)

1. What are the trends that are occurring in each of the four categories in question 1?

 In today’s fast growing global economies, a requirement of an efficient and quality supply chain is a basic need, here is four major trends of it:

* Purchasing- Increased Competition and Price Pressures

*Operation-improving supply coordination performance by aligning the plans and the objectives of individual enterprises

* Logistics- Warehouse Robotics its already well-established in many distribution centers around the world. Transportation, routing and scheduling trucks already elevating to new level.

* Integration- Suppliers share up-to-date information on demand to route their products to warehouses for onward shipment to stores with minimum time in inventory. (2)

1. How are these developments reducing supply chain costs? 

By using an efficient and effective supply chain management we can reduce the costs by:

*Keep costs down and reliability up by designing your network to minimize product handling.

* Measure what is strategically important so that you can manage and improve it.

 *Just In Time- strategy will ensure your inventory carrying costs are where they need to be.

*You need to give your customers what they really want, not just what you think they want.

*When you have a clear understanding of your customers' needs, you can move on to defining a strategy that will achieve your objectives while delivering on your customer service promise.