Custom «Supply Chain Management» Essay Paper Sample

A supply chain comes to be when a company makes products for sale to customers from raw materials that have been purchased from suppliers. A supply chain may be simple or complicated but the complexity of a supply chain varies with the size of the business, intricacy and the number of manufactured items.

Movement of products along a simple supply links its elements that are discussed below. Customer; the chain starts when a customer orders a product from a company’s sales department for payment upon the delivery of the product on a specific date. Planning; the planning department creates a production plan of producing products ordered by the customers. Purchasing; purchasing department sends purchase order of raw materials to selected suppliers that the production department requires. Inventory; this stage involves checking of quality and accuracy of the raw materials and moving them to the warehouse once the pass the test. The suppliers then sends an invoice to the company for items delivered. Production; using the production plan, the raw materials are manufactured to finished products and then stored in the warehouse before they are delivered to the customer. Transportation; the shipping department ensures that the goods are safely delivered to the customer followed by an invoice delivery from the company. We note that a customer starts and ends in a supply chain.

Adoption of a supply chain management processes and associated technology by a company enables the supply chain operate efficiently and generate the highest level of customer satisfaction at the lowest cost. Supply chain management has three levels. Strategic; at this level, strategic decisions like size and location of manufacturing site, partnership with suppliers, product to be manufactured and sales markets are considered by a company management. Tactical; this is the level where tactical decisions focusing on adoption of measures that can produce benefits are made. Operational; in this level, decisions that are meant to affect how the products move along the supply chain are made on daily basis. To achieve benefits from a supply chain management process, the company should invest on technology e.g. SAP, Oracle, Internet communications etcetera.