Supply chain

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Supply chains
)
Supply and demand stacked in a conceptual chain.

A supply chain, sometimes expressed as a "supply-chain",

finished products and distribute them[2] to end consumers[3] or end customers.[4] Meanwhile, supply chain management deals with the flow of goods within the supply chain in the most efficient manner.[5]

In sophisticated supply chain systems, used products may re-enter the supply chain at any point where residual value is recyclable. Supply chains link value chains.[6] Suppliers in a supply chain are often ranked by "tier", with first-tier suppliers supplying directly to the client, second-tier suppliers supplying to the first tier, and so on.[7]

The phrase "supply chain" may have been first published in a 1905 article in The Independent which briefly mentions the difficulty of "keeping a supply chain with India unbroken" during the British expedition to Tibet.[8]

Overview

A chain is actually a complex and dynamic supply and demand network.[9]

A typical supply chain can be divided into two stages namely, production and distribution stages. In the production stage, components and semi-finished parts are produced in manufacturing centres. The components are then put together in an assembly plant. The distribution stage consists of central and regional distribution centres that transport products to end-consumers.[3] Mentzer et al. suggest that at least three entities are required for there to be a "supply chain".[10]

At the end of the supply chain, materials and finished products only flow there because of the

Janet Godsell argue that "supply chain processes should be co-ordinated in order to focus on end customer buying behaviour", and look for "customer responsiveness" as an indicator confirming that materials are able to flow "through a sequence of supply chain processes in order to meet end customer buying behaviour".[4]

Many of the exchanges encountered in the supply chain take place between varied companies that seek to maximize their revenue within their sphere of interest but may have little or no knowledge or interest in the remaining players in the supply chain. More recently, the loosely coupled, self-organizing network of businesses who cooperate in providing product and service offerings has been called the extended enterprise,[12] and the use of the term "chain" and the linear structure it appears to represent have been criticised as "harder to relate ... to the way supply networks really operate.[13] A chain is actually a complex and dynamic supply and demand network.[9]

As part of their efforts to demonstrate

suppliers (facilities, farms, subcontracted services such as cleaning, canteen, security etc.) and verifying, through social audits, that they are complying with the required standard. A lack of transparency in the supply chain can bar consumers from knowledge of where their purchases originated and facilitate socially irresponsible practices. In 2018, the Loyola University Chicago's Supply and Value Chain Center found in a survey that 53% of supply chain professionals considered ethics to be "extremely" important to their organization.[14]

Typologies

Marshall L. Fisher (1997) asks the question in a key article, "Which is the right supply chain for your product?"[15] Fisher, and also Naylor, Naim and Berry (1999), identify two matching characteristics of supply chain strategy: a combination of "functional" and "efficient", or a combination of "responsive" and "innovative" (Harrison and Godsell).[4][16]

Mentzer et al. distinguish between "direct supply chains", "extended supply chains", and "ultimate supply chains"; in their usage:

  • a "direct" supply chain involves a company, a supplier and a customer
  • an "extended" supply chain includes suppliers of the immediate supplier and customers of the immediate customer
  • an "ultimate" supply chain includes all of the organisations involved in the supply of the product or service.

In each case, the flow of information and finances is part of the chain as well as the product or service.[10] Fazel Zarandi et al. add "buyer-seller relations" (at each stage), in addition to the flow of information, as the third main component of a supply chain.[17] Mentzer et al. remind readers also that the focus of a supply chain is on the product or service in its end state: they refer to "the supply chain for candy" and "the supply chain for clothing".[10] Individual supply chain actors may be positioned at different points in different supply chains: a bank, for example, may play a supporting role in certain supply chains, but acts as either the customer or the nearest supplier to the customer in the supply chain for security printing.

Brown et al. refer to supply chains as either "loosely coupled" or "tightly coupled":

Cutting-edge companies are swapping their tightly coupled processes for loosely coupled ones, making themselves not only more flexible but also more

profitable.[18]

These ideas refer to two polar models of collaboration: tightly coupled, or "hard-wired", also known as "linked", collaboration represents a close relationship between a buyer and supplier within the chain, whereas a loosely-coupled link relates to low interdependency between buyer and seller and therefore greater flexibility.[19] The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply's professional guidance suggests that the aim of a tightly coupled relationship is to reduce inventory and avoid stock-outs.[19]

Modeling

APICS) became the cross-industry de facto standard defining the scope of supply-chain management. SCOR measures total supply-chain performance. It is a process reference model for supply-chain management, extending "from the supplier's supplier to the customer's customer".[20] It includes delivery and order fulfillment performance, production flexibility, warranty and returns processing costs, inventory and asset turns, and other factors in evaluating the overall effective performance of a supply chain.[21]

A supply chain can often be split into different segments: the earlier stages of a supply chain, such as

financial costs associated with all the stages of a supply chain model.[citation needed
]

The Global Supply Chain Forum has introduced an alternative supply chain model.[22] This framework is built on eight key business processes that are both cross-functional and cross-firm in nature. Each process is managed by a cross-functional team including representatives from logistics, production, purchasing, finance, marketing, and research and development. While each process interfaces with key customers and suppliers, the processes of customer relationship management and supplier relationship management form the critical linkages in the supply chain.

The American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) Process Classification Framework (PCF) SM is a high-level, industry-neutral enterprise process model that allows organizations to see their business processes from a cross-industry viewpoint. The PCF was developed by APQC and its member organizations as an open standard to facilitate improvement through process management and benchmarking, regardless of industry, size, or geography. The PCF organizes operating and management processes into 12 enterprise-level categories, including process groups, and over 1,000 processes and associated activities.[citation needed]

In the developing country public health setting, John Snow, Inc. has developed the JSI Framework for Integrated Supply Chain Management in Public Health, which draws from commercial sector best practices to solve problems in public health supply chains.[23]

Mapping

Similarly, supply chain mapping involves documenting information regarding all participants in an organisation's supply chain and assembling the information as a global map of the organisation's supply network.[24]

Management

A German paper factory receives its daily supply of 75 tons of recyclable paper as its raw material.

In the 1980s, the term supply-chain management (SCM) was developed to express the need to integrate the key business processes, from end user through original suppliers.

market demand, distribution capacity and production capabilities. Keith Oliver, a consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton, is credited with the term's invention after using it in an interview for the Financial Times in 1982.[26][27][28] The term was used earlier by Alizamir et al. in 1981,[29] and Burns and Sivazlian in 1978.[30]

If all relevant information is accessible to any relevant company, every company in the supply chain has the ability to help optimize the entire supply chain rather than to sub-optimize based on local optimization. This will lead to better-planned overall production and distribution, which can cut costs and give a more attractive final product, leading to better sales and better overall results for the companies involved. This is one form of vertical integration. Yet, it has been shown that the motives for and performance efficacy of vertical integration differ by global region.[31]

Incorporating SCM successfully leads to a new kind of competition on the global market, where competition is no longer of the company-versus-company form but rather takes on a supply-chain-versus-supply-chain form.[citation needed]

Many electronics manufacturers of Guangdong and beyond rely on the supply of parts from numerous component shops in Shenzhen.

The primary objective of SCM is to fulfill customer demands through the most efficient use of resources, including distribution capacity,

transportation, implementing just-in-time techniques to optimize manufacturing flow; maintaining the right mix and location of factories and warehouses to serve customer markets; and using location allocation, vehicle routing analysis, dynamic programming, and traditional logistics
optimization to maximize the efficiency of distribution.

The term "logistics" applies to activities within one company or organization involving product distribution, whereas "supply chain" additionally encompasses manufacturing and procurement, and therefore has a much broader focus as it involves multiple enterprises (including suppliers, manufacturers, and retailers) working together to meet a customer need for a product or service.[32]

Starting in the 1990s, several companies chose to outsource the logistics aspect of supply-chain management by partnering with a

third-party logistics provider (3PL). Companies also outsource production to contract manufacturers.[33] Technology companies have risen to meet the demand to help manage these complex systems. Cloud-based SCM technologies are at the forefront of next-generation supply chains due to their impact on optimization of time, resources, and inventory visibility.[34] Cloud technologies facilitate work being processed offline from a mobile app which solves the common issue of inventory residing in areas with no online coverage or connectivity.[35]

Performance

Supply chain managers are under constant scrutiny to secure the best pricing for their resources, which becomes a difficult task when faced with the inherent lack of transparency.[clarification needed] Cost benchmarking helps to identify competitive pricing within the industry but benchmarking across a range of supply chain performance factors has been recommended as best practice.[36] The SCOR model contains more than 150 key indicators which measure the performance of supply chain operations:[37] see also Supply chain operations reference#Performance measurements. Debra Hofman has noted that "measuring supply chain performance is not a new practice. Most companies today measure at least some aspect of their supply chain and understand the need for a more comprehensive measurement program." However, the abundance of options for potential performance metrics to use is seen as a challenge for supply chain managers. One approach is to relate multiple measures in a hierarchical structure so that interdependencies and the contribution of multiple indicators to the "key" or most significant imetrics can be more easily seen. Hofman suggests that the three key indicators of a well-functioning supply chain are:

  • Demand forecast accuracy: referring to the difference (if any) between forecasted demand and actual demand. The ability of a supply chain to respond to customer demand is the most significant factor and functions as a predictor of successful delivery throughout the chain
  • Perfect
    on time
    and in perfect condition
  • Supply chain cost, combining all sourcing, production, distribution and customer service costs.[38]

A

Cranfield University boardroom survey in 2010 found evidence that many organisations recognised the importance of the supply chain contribution to their business success, with a focus on cost, customer lead-time and customer quality being the primary performance indicators.[39]

Resilience

panarchical interpretation of a supply chain, embedding it into a system of systems, allowing to analyze the interactions of the supply chain with systems that operate at other levels (e.g. society, political economy, planet Earth).[43] For example, these three components of resilience can be identified in relation to the 2021 Suez Canal obstruction, when a ship blocked the canal for several days.[44]
Persistence means to "bounce back"; in our example it is about removing the ship as quickly as possible to allow "normal" operations. Adaptation means to accept that the system has reached to a "new normal" state and to act accordingly; here, this can be implemented by redirecting ships around the African cape or use alternative modes of transport. Finally, transformation means to question the assumptions of globalization, outsourcing, and linear supply chains and to envision alternatives; in this example this could lead to local and circular supply chains.

Supply chain resilience has been identified as an important business issue. The United Kingdom's

reshored parts of their supply chain to European locations, with many identifying supply chain resilience as "a key factor in their decision to do so".[45]

Social responsibility

Incidents like the

2013 Savar building collapse with more than 1,100 victims have led to widespread discussions about corporate social responsibility across global supply chains. Wieland and Handfield (2013) suggest that companies need to audit products and suppliers and that supplier auditing needs to go beyond direct relationships with first-tier suppliers (those who supply the main customer directly). They also demonstrate that visibility needs to be improved if the supply cannot be directly controlled and that smart and electronic technologies play a key role to improve visibility. Finally, they highlight that collaboration with local partners, across the industry and with universities is crucial to successfully manage social responsibility in supply chains.[46] This incident also highlights the need to improve workers safety standards in organizations. Hoi and Lin (2012) note that corporate social responsibility can influence the enacting of policies that can improve occupational safety and health management in organizations. In fact, international organizations with presence in other nations have a responsibility to ensure that workers are well protected by policies in an organization to avoid safety related incidents.[47]

Food supply chains

Many

environmental sustainability as well as a desire to increase productivity and improve crop quality.[48]

In October 2009, the

European economy which comprise the food supply chain: agriculture, food processing industries, and the distribution sectors.[49] An earlier interim report on food prices (published in December 2008) had already raised concerns about the food supply chain.[49] Arising out of the two reports, the Commission established a "European Food Prices Monitoring Tool", an initiative developed by Eurostat and intended to "increase transparency in the food supply chain".[50]

In March 2022 the Commission noted "the need for EU agriculture and food supply chains to become more resilient and sustainable".[51]

Regulation

Supply chain security has become particularly important in recent years.[when?] As a result, supply chains are often subject to global and local regulations. In the United States, several major regulations emerged in 2010 that have had a lasting impact on how global supply chains operate. These new regulations include the Importer Security Filing (ISF)[52] and additional provisions of the Certified Cargo Screening Program.[53] EU's draft supply chain law are due diligence requirements to protect human rights and the environment in the supply chain. [54]

Trends affecting supply chains

With the increasing globalization and easier access to different kinds of alternative products in today's markets, the contribution of product design to generating demand is more significant than ever. In addition, as supply, and therefore competition, among companies for the limited market demand increases and as pricing and other marketing elements become less distinguishing factors, product design likewise plays a different role by providing attractive features to generate demand. In this context, demand generation is used to define how attractive a product design is in terms of creating demand. In other words, it is the ability of a product's design to generate demand by satisfying customer expectations. But product design affects not only demand generation but also manufacturing processes, cost, quality, and lead time. The product design affects the associated supply chain and its requirements directly, including manufacturing, transportation, quality, quantity, production schedule, material selection, production technologies, production policies, regulations, and laws. Broadly, the success of the supply chain depends on the product design and the capabilities of the supply chain, but the reverse is also true: the success of the product depends on the supply chain that produces it.

According to an industrial engineering study which looked at a process for Design for Supply Chain (DFSC), since the product design imposes multiple requirements on the supply chain, then once a product design is completed, it drives the structure of the supply chain, limiting the flexibility of engineers to generate and evaluate different (and potentially more cost-effective) supply-chain alternatives. Design for Supply Chain is described as

a process that aims to drastically reduce the product life cycle costs ... improve product quality, improve efficiency and improve profitability for all partners in the supply chain.[55]

Supply chain consultant Anthony Tarantino has identified a number of best practices affecting the resilience and operation of supply chains, including the formation of multi-disciplinary centres of excellence, hybrid supply chain organizations which optimise the balance between centralisation and de-centralisation, and more extensive use of both

structured and unstructured data.[56]

Big Data is increasingly being utilized in supply chain management, especially in the strategic purchasing and supply management sector.[57] Effective application of Big Data can improve the performance of supply chain activities through improved decision-making capabilities.[58]

With the increased complexity and b2b activity associated with economic growth, actors often seek to view supply chain collaboration as a part of the value adding activities in a value chain.[59]

See also

References

  1. ^ McKinsey & Company, Succeeding in the AI supply-chain revolution, published 30 April 2021, accessed 28 June 2023
  2. ^ Ganeshan, R. and Harrison, T. P., An Introduction to Supply Chain Management, updated 22 May 2005, accessed 29 June 2023
  3. ^ . Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Harrison, A. and Godsell, J. (2003), Responsive Supply Chains: An Exploratory Study of Performance Management, Cranfield School of Management, accessed 12 May 2021
  5. . Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  6. .
  7. ^ SCM Portal, Supplier Tiering, Procurement Glossary supplied by CIPS, accessed 11 July 2021
  8. ^ "The Year at Home and Abroad". The Independent. 58 (2927): 7. January 5, 1905. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
  9. ^ .
  10. ^ .
  11. ^ Gattorna, J. L., ed. (1998), Strategic Supply Chain Alignment, Gower, Aldershot
  12. OCLC 66463473
    .
  13. ^ Keith, R., So Why Do We Call it a 'Supply Chain' Anyway?, Industry Week, emphasis added, published 3 December 2012, accessed 6 January 2021
  14. ^ "In this issue of SCMR: The ethical supply chain". www.scmr.com. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  15. ^ Fisher, M. L., What is the Right Supply Chain for your Product?, Harvard Business Review, March–April 1997, pp 105-116
  16. .
  17. ^ Mohammad H. Fazel Zarandi, Mohammad M. Fazel Zarani and Soroosh Saghiri, Five crisp and fuzzy models for supply chain of an automotive manufacturing system, International Journal of Management Science and Engineering Management, Vol. 2 (2007) No. 3, pp. 179, accessed 23 January 2024
  18. ^ Brown, J. S., Hagel, J. III and Durchslag, S. (2002), Loosening up: How process networks unlock the power of specialization, McKinsey Quarterly, vol 2, pp 59-69
  19. ^ a b CIPS, Loosely-Coupled vs Tightly-Coupled Supply Chain, no date, accessed 13 May 2021
  20. ^ ASCM (2022), Supply Chain Operations Reference Model: SCOR Digital Standard, accessed 10 August 2023
  21. . Retrieved 15 September 2022.
  22. ^ "SCM Institute". scm-institute.org. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
  23. ^ "Getting Products to People: The JSI Framework for Integrated Supply Chain Management in Public Health".
  24. ^ American Express, What is Supply Chain Mapping and Why is it Important?, published 4 February 2022, accessed 11 June 2022
  25. .
  26. .
  27. ^ Andrew Feller, Dan Shunk, & Tom Callarman (2006). BPTrends, March 2006 - Value Chains Vs. Supply Chains
  28. .
  29. ^ Alizamir, S., Alptekinoglu, A., & Sapra, A. (1981). Demand management using responsive pricing and product variety in the presence of supply chain disruptions: Working paper, SMU Cox School of Business.
  30. ISSN 0360-8352
    .
  31. .
  32. ^ "eShipGlobal - Ship. Connect. Deliver". eShipGlobal. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
  33. ^ Selecting a Third Party Logistics (3PL) Provider Martin Murray, about.com
  34. ^ "JD.com: Building the Smart Logistic System for the Future". Technology and Operations Management. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  35. ^ Inventory®, Cloud (2021-01-14). "IS YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN PREPARED FOR DISRUPTION? — #1 Cloud Inventory® Software as a Service". Medium. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  36. , published 2016, accessed 13 February 2023
  37. ^ Roland Zimmermann (2006), Agent-based Supply Network Event Management, p. 58.
  38. ^ Hofman, D., The Hierarchy of Supply Chain Metrics: Diagnosing Your Supply Chain Health, AMR Research, published 18 February 2004, archived 29 July 2018, accessed 14 February 2023
  39. ^ Wilding, R. et al., Supply Chain Strategy in the Board Room, Cranfield School of Management with Solving Efeso, published 11 June 2010, accessed 28 June 2023
  40. ^
    S2CID 233812114
    .
  41. .
  42. ^ Simchi‐Levi, D., Wang, H., & Wei, Y. (2018). Increasing supply chain robustness through process flexibility and inventory. Production and Operations Management, 27(8), 1476-1491.
  43. ^
    S2CID 228907252
    .
  44. ^ Bloomberg (29 March 2021). "Ships Get Moving Through Suez as Giant Ever Given Is Freed". www.supplychainbrain.com. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  45. ^ CBI EU Reshoring survey, March 2014, quoted in Confederation of British Industry, Pulling Together: Strengthening the UK's Supply Chains, published October 2014, accessed 10 May 2023
  46. ^ Wieland, Andreas; Handfield, Robert B. (2013). "The Socially Responsible Supply Chain: An Imperative for Global Corporations". Supply Chain Management Review. 17 (5).
  47. . Retrieved 2022-04-21.
  48. ^ International Finance Corporation (2013), Working with Smallholders: A Handbook for Firms Building Sustainable Supply Chains (online).
  49. ^ a b European Commission, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: A better functioning food supply chain in Europe, provisional version published 28 October 2019, accessed 26 April 2022
  50. ^ European Commission, European Food Prices Monitoring Tool, accessed 16 June 2022
  51. ^ European Commission, Commission acts for global food security and for supporting EU farmers and consumers, published 23 March 2022, accessed 26 April 2022
  52. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-10-22. Retrieved 2011-06-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  53. ^ "TSA: Certified Cargo Screening Program". Archived from the original on 2011-06-16. Retrieved 2011-06-13.
  54. ^ "The EU's new supply chain law – what you should know". Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  55. S2CID 109412871
    .
  56. ^ Bowman, R. J., Seven Best Practices for Supply Chains in 2025, SupplyChainBrain, published 4 August 2014, accessed 21 February 2023
  57. ^ "Future supply chains: resilience, agility, sustainability | McKinsey". www.mckinsey.com. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
  58. S2CID 259518667
    .
  59. .

External links