A supply chain, logistics network, or supply network is a coordinated system of organizations, people, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service in physical or virtual manner from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities (aka value chains or life cycle processes) transform raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to the end customer. Supply chains link value chains.
Today, the ever increasing technical complexity of the distribution of standard consumer goods, combined with the ever increasing size and depth of the global market has meant that the link between consumer and vendor is usually only the final link in a long and complex chain or network of exchanges.
This supply chain begins with the extraction of raw material and includes several production links, for instance; component construction, assembly and merging before moving onto several layers of storage facilities of ever decreasing size and ever more remote geographical locations, and finally reaching the consumer.
Although many companies and corporations today are of importance not just on national or regional but also on global scale, none are of a size that enables them to control the entire supply chain, since no existing company controls every link from raw material extraction to consumer.
Many of the exchanges encountered in the supply chain will therefore be between different companies who will all generally seek to maximize company revenue within their sphere of interest but will have little or no basic knowledge or interest in the remaining players in the supply chain except those to which it is directly linked.
Today, the ever increasing technical complexity of the distribution of standard consumer goods, combined with the ever increasing size and depth of the global market has meant that the link between consumer and vendor is usually only the final link in a long and complex chain or network of exchanges.
This supply chain begins with the extraction of raw material and includes several production links, for instance; component construction, assembly and merging before moving onto several layers of storage facilities of ever decreasing size and ever more remote geographical locations, and finally reaching the consumer.
Although many companies and corporations today are of importance not just on national or regional but also on global scale, none are of a size that enables them to control the entire supply chain, since no existing company controls every link from raw material extraction to consumer.
Many of the exchanges encountered in the supply chain will therefore be between different companies who will all generally seek to maximize company revenue within their sphere of interest but will have little or no basic knowledge or interest in the remaining players in the supply chain except those to which it is directly linked.
The eight key processes in SCM are:
Customer relationship management
Customer service management
Demand management
Order fulfillment
Manufacturing flow management
Supplier relationship management
Product development and commercialization
Returns management / reverse logistics
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