Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management professionals, defines supply chain management as: “the design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of supply chain activities with the objective of creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics, synchronizing supply with demand, and measuring performance globally.
Supply chain planning focuses on setting policies and procedures for promotional activities, inventory replenishment policies and production replenishment policies. Basically, it defines the parameters for the supply chain.
SUPPLY CHAIN PLANNING ACTIVITIES
- Forecasting
- Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP)
- Procurement
- Warehousing
- Logistics Management
CONCLUSION
Supply chain Management is effectively is one of the best ways to achieve dominance in a market. Home Depot, for example, is acknowledged as having one of the best supply chains in the ‘big box” retail category. Wal-Mart has made its global supply chain a key differentiation by helping it to keep prices and inventories low.
Clearly orchestrating and optimizing your supply chain for maximum efficiency and visibility is a quick route to beating your competition.