Study Materials

Supply Chain Management 

11.1. Supply Chain A supply chain is the sequence of organization-their facilities, functions, and activities- that are involved in producing and delivering a product or service. The sequence begins with basic suppliers of raw materials and extends all the way to the final customer. Facilities include warehouses, factories, processing centers, distribution centers, retail outlets, and offices. Functions and activities include forecasting, purchasing, inventory management, information management, quality assurance, scheduling, production, distribution, delivery, and customer service. There are two kinds of movement in these systems: the physical movement of material, generally in the direction of the end of the chain (although not all material starts at the beginning of the chain), and exchange of information, which moves in both directions along the chain. Every business organization is part of at least one supply chain, and many are part of multiple supply chains. Often the number and type of organization in a supply chain are determined by whether the supply chain is manufacturing or service oriented. Figure 11.1 illustrates typical manufacturing and service supply chains. Supply chain are sometimes referred to as value chains, a term that reflects the concept that value is added as goods and services progress through the chain. The supply chain has two components for each organization: a supply component and a demand component. The supply component starts at the beginning of the chain and ends with the internal operations of the organization, The demand component of the chain starts at the point where the organization’s output is delivered to its immediate customer and ends with the final customer in the chain. The demand chain is the sales and distribution portion of the value chain. The length of each component depends on where a particular organization is in the chain: the closer the organization is to the final customer, the shorter is demand component and the longer its supply component. 

You can download the full chapter from here  download