Supply Chain Management
According to APICS, a supply chain is a “Global network used to deliver products and services from raw materials to end customers through an engineered flow of information, physical distribution and cash.” The Basic Supply Chain consists of three units….Supplier, Producer and Customer Four basic flows connect these entities together: 1. The flow of physical materials and services from suppliers to producer to customer 2. The flow of cash from the customer back “upstream” toward the supplier 3. The flow of information back and forth along the chain 4. The reverse flow of products returned for repairs, recycling or disposal.(This is called reverse supply chain and is handled by reverse logistics.) Value Chain (Vs) Supply Chain A Value Chain can be any series of activities that increases the value of a product or service as it passes through stages of development and distribution before reaching the end user. Supply Chain is but one part of value Chain. In basic terms, your supply chain consists of your suppliers, your customers and of course, yourself—the producer. Your extended supply chain adds your supplier’s supplier and your customer’s customers to create your extended supply chain. In order to maximize your competitive advantage you need to strengthen your whole supply chain (the extended supply chain) and turn-it into a value chain. Converting supply chains into value chains is a powerful strategy. Supply chains consist of weak bonds and can be broken easily by a new supplier. Value chains are made of strong bonds and are harder to break. Also, Supply Chains generally include activities like, Inbound logistics, Operations, Outbound logistics, Marketing and Sales, Customer Service. These activities are generally categorized under primary activities of value chain. Support activities of value chain include infrastructure, HR, Technology