Supply Chain Management: The Basics

Introduction

Supply Chain Management has been a popular phrase for the past twenty to twenty-five years. It can be heard in classrooms, large corporations, and tiny operations, supply chain management has become a management phenomenon that has swept across the United States and throughout the world. What is it? Who developed it? How long has it been around? What companies use it? In this paper, I will be delving into the basics of supply chain management, providing the reader with a basic knowledge of the subject as well as examples of companies that practice supply chain management and some up-to-date technological advances in the area.

There are several definitions for supply chain management. Some view it as a new name for a combination of purchasing, operations and logistics. Others consider it to be identical with logistics, inclusive of consumers and suppliers. Business people acknowledge supply chain management as a new way to manage business and relationships with other members of the supply chain such as suppliers, manufacturers, and consumers. The Global Supply Chain Forum defines supply chain management as the integration of key business processes from end user through original suppliers that provides products, services, and information that add value for customers and other stakeholders (Lambert 2004).