Five Components to Supply Chain Management

Canbide has sub-contracted with a transportation management company to perform the analysis. When the analysis is complete, Canbide will receive an unbiased, numbers based recommendation of whether they should proceed with the project. "Should Canbide proceed with the project based purely on the numbers, or are there other factors, which need to be considered?" (Task list, n.d.) Transportation costs are definitely the highest cost of this project. However, many other factors should be acknowledged in addition to the transportation management company's analysis.

Planning, sourcing, making, delivering, and returning are the five components to supply chain management. Companies need a plan that is efficient in that it is cost effective, valuable to its customers, and provides high quality products or services. Finding a reliable source to deliver the goods is challenging and takes time. Making the product requires testing, packaging and preparation before it can be delivered. Delivering the product may sound easy but there are other steps involved. Educating carriers on safety through training seminars is also a good investment for the company. Creating an invoice system is also part of the delivery component. The final component is to develop a place where defective products will be returned.

I already mentioned that transportation will consume most of our budget but there are other factors that should be considered in the decision of whether to proceed with the project. I work for a construction company where every day is a threat to the completion of the project. Construction workers fall and end up in the hospital. It may be too windy for the construction workers to be up on the rafters. I mean, let's face it, finances, health, weather, employees, etc. may affect our project. According to American Society of Civil Engineers, "Five major groups of independent variables,namely project-related factors, project procedures, project management actions, human-related factors,and external environment are identified as crucial to project success." (Chan, Scott, & Chan, 2004)