Supply Chain Management - Key Components

m Supply Chain Management is a very familiar term inchanges in the corporate world due to globalization.
today's business world. It refers to the processesThe planning for distribution is done to determine
which involves from the acquiring of the raw materialwhich demands can be fulfilled by the existing supply
stage to the production stage to the distribution untilelements.
it finally reaches the customer in an efficient and4.Manufacturing Planning: The manufacturing division is
effective manner. It involves activities like sourcing,usually confronted with a lot of complexities when
procurement, production along with the logisticscompared to other divisions. Meeting the demands in
activities.terms of maximization of the assets like people,
With globalization having a great impact on the supplymaterials, equipment and capital and planning has to
chain management, it has become very important forbe done accordingly in terms of planning related to
the organizations to have global networking. A lot ofengineering, assemble and the manufacturing
changes are seen in the corporates in terms ofenvironments. It would help in delivering advanced
procurement, production and distribution. With thecapabilities that would help the organization make the
organizations becoming more and more focused onbest use of the production resources, improve
the efficiency and the effectiveness of the variousefficiencies, increase output and lower costs.
core competencies stated earlier the companies have5.Production Planning: Under production planning
relatively opted to outsource the other activities to adetailed scheduling is done with proper planning for
much effective destination. The main focus here is toprocurement. The comparison of the capacity
satisfy the existing and the new customers byrequirements from the production orders with the
matching or bettering the demands of the customers.available production capacity is done through detailed
This in turn will ensure the smooth functioning of thescheduling.
supply chain partners thus giving way for better and6.Transportation and logistics planning: The planning is
competitive edge to the work flow.done in terms of route, management is done in
Strategic planning, operative planning, productterms of transportation and the planning for the billing
planning, production planning, supplierand delivery of the products are done accordingly.
management,logistics management, sales forecastingFurther the end to end fulfillment would be done
and order fulfillment play a very vital role in thegiving ways for the benefits mentioned below:
success of the smooth work flow. SCM has to go* With the adaptability and visibility in the supply chain
through a lot of complexities both internally andmanagement there is better and almost immediate
externally ranging from product designs to the priceresponse to the existing and new supply and
configurations till the delivery of them to thedemand. Opportunities are more quickly capitalized on.
customers.* The level of customer satisfaction is relatively more
The key components of Supply Chain Managementand hence boosts each and every aspect of the
includes :supply chain management.
1.Strategic planning: Quality planning has to be done* Monitoring and tracking of the compliance can be
for the implementation and optimization of thedone.
necessary tools for determining the location, size and* Better planning for procurement, management and
the kind of facilities opted in order to meet thetransportation can be done because of relatively
customer service goals.lower operational expenditure.
2.Demand Planning: Based on the customer demand* The business relationship gets strengthened more
predictions the demand planning is done thus, ensuringpaving way for the achievement of goals with
better and accurate customer demand.excellence.
3.Distribution Planning: There are a lot of recent