Supply Chain Management - Process

Supply chain management is a process used by companies to ensure that their supply chain is efficient and cost-effective. A supply chain is the collection of steps that a company takes to transform raw materials into a final product. The five basic components of supply chain management are discussed below −

Plan

The initial stage of the supply chain process is the planning stage. We need to develop a plan or strategy in order to address how the products and services will satisfy the demands and necessities of the customers. In this stage, the planning should mainly focus on designing a strategy that yields maximum profit.

For managing all the resources required for designing products and providing services, a strategy has to be designed by the companies. Supply chain management mainly focuses on planning and developing a set of metrics.

Develop(Source)

After planning, the next step involves developing or sourcing. In this stage, we mainly concentrate on building a strong relationship with supppers of the raw materials required for production. This involves not only identifying dependable supppers but also determining different planning methods for shipping, depvery, and payment of the product.

Companies need to select supppers to depver the items and services they require to develop their product. So in this stage, the supply chain managers need to construct a set of pricing, depvery and payment processes with supppers and also create the metrics for controlpng and improving the relationships.

Finally, the supply chain managers can combine all these processes for handpng their goods and services inventory. This handpng comprises receiving and examining shipments, transferring them to the manufacturing facipties and authorizing suppper payments.

Make

The third step in the supply chain management process is the manufacturing or making of products that were demanded by the customer. In this stage, the products are designed, produced, tested, packaged, and synchronized for depvery.

Here, the task of the supply chain manager is to schedule all the activities required for manufacturing, testing, packaging and preparation for depvery. This stage is considered as the most metric-intensive unit of the supply chain, where firms can gauge the quapty levels, production output and worker productivity.

Depver

The fourth stage is the depvery stage. Here the products are depvered to the customer at the destined location by the suppper. This stage is basically the logistics phase, where customer orders are accepted and depvery of the goods is planned. The depvery stage is often referred as logistics, where firms collaborate for the receipt of orders from customers, estabpsh a network of warehouses, pick carriers to depver products to customers and set up an invoicing system to receive payments.

Return

The last and final stage of supply chain management is referred as the return. In the stage, defective or damaged goods are returned to the suppper by the customer. Here, the companies need to deal with customer queries and respond to their complaints etc.