Supply Chain Management

In 1810 Napoleon Bonaparte said "An army marches on its stomach." And after this event many people began to understand the importance of the concept of Supply Chain Management. The expression of General Bonaparte was dramatic because he was close to losing an important battle for insufficient resources.

Once made this brief comment which highlights the importance of the subject of this essay. Let us see the topics or aspects of this work: What is Supply Chain Management?  The most important elements of the chain supply and conclusions

What is Supply Chain Management?

Let's start with a simple but conscious identification by: Michael Hugo’s (2006)... "Supply Chain Management is the co-ordination of production, transportation Among the Participants in a supply chain to Achieve the best mix of responsiveness and efficiency for the market being served "(P.4).

To complement the recently quoted may be added that in any process of Effective Management Must take into account coordinating all pieces chain without losing the quality control in order to maintain high degree of satisfaction to our customers.

Another element to consider is the speed in all activities. And that can be achieved with small inventories, lower operating costs and sufficient availability of product to our customers. At the same time all decisions related to supply chain management must cover all aspects related to the company's corporate policies.

The most important elements for a supply chain

           These elements are six: Production, supply, inventory, location, transportation and information.

Production

            Production decisions are based on the needs of our customers. In this part of the chain must consider what products will be produced and how many units will be manufactured and of course we cannot forget about the production processes and quality.

Supply

            Every organization must determine the size of its facilities and the amount of equipment needed for their operations. Once you have determined to the above mentioned is selected the possible suppliers. This should be the most flexible and reliable as possible. Because depending on this the chain of production this is will be more reliable for the company.

Inventory

The inventory is critical throughout the supply chain. It is important to establish flexible policies to have a good efficient control inventories. And establish appropriate levels of raw material because otherwise it can be inaccurate and this can bring big problems for the firm.

Location

Basically the location of the facilities of the company depends on where is the market for the firm. And accordance with the above mentioned. And all strategic business decisions should be directed towards this goal (Logistics, technology etc). Other aspects to consider at this point are taxes (Federal, State and Municipal) because the taxes of any kind have a significant impact on any company.

Transport

This aspect is closely linked to the location of our clients and our suppliers. The company must ensure the ability to move their goods. For this objective should be to maximize the resources available because the transportation is a cost that may eventually be very expensive.

Information

An efficient administration in any supply chain passes through the information. Currently there are various methods for the collection and information management. One example is the account management software, scanners etc. Without good information the manager loses control of all processes in the chain. And this causes serious problems for the organization.

Conclusion

The concept and treatment this subject is extremely complex when at analyzing large companies such as Ford or Sonny that has great production lines. The theme is a range of stages from production, through inventory management and ending with the monitoring schemes and information. It is a topic that should be studied in order to fully understand the complex processes of production for companies such as those mentioned above.

References

Christopher R Thomas and S Charles Maurice (2005). Managerial Economics.McGraw-Hill New York NY.

Stephen L. Slavin. Microeconomics. Edition 10. McGraw-Hill Companies.New York.NY.

N.-Gregory-Mankiw. Principles of  Economics. (2008). Kindle Edition. 5th Edition.

Michael Hugo’s (2006) Essentials of Supply Chain Management. Second Edition. Wiley & Sons. Inc. New Jersey.