Tasks of supply chain management
According to Cooper and Ellram, SCM is an integrative approach to managing the overall flow of a sales channel from the supplier to the end customer. The task of SCM also includes the design and control of all associated administrative information and coordination processes.
Goals
The overriding aim is to develop all processes to such an extent that an error-free and efficient supply to the end customer can be guaranteed.
Delimitation of supplier management
Supplier management is an important part of SCM. Supplier management is used to control and develop the supply chain from the direct supplier to the company’s own production. SCM, on the other hand, includes upstream suppliers and manages the supply chain from there to the company’s own customers.
Applying Supply Chain Management in a project
Supply chain management balances availability, inventory, cost, risk and responsiveness across company boundaries rather than optimising one local function.
Before applying Supply Chain Management, define the objective, system boundary and decision to be supported. The distinction from adjacent methods and systems is equally important: which processes are included, which interfaces remain outside the scope and which metrics indicate an improvement? This prevents a term from becoming a label and avoids local optimisation that creates new problems elsewhere.
A reliable assessment of Supply Chain Management combines current-state data with documented assumptions. Sources, reference periods, units and exceptions need to be transparent. Alternatives or measures can then be compared using consistent criteria. Depending on the task, these include performance and cost as well as space, inventory, ergonomics, quality, feasibility, risk and expandability.
The output from applying Supply Chain Management should support a concrete decision or a verifiable next step. Ownership, a target value and a review date make the expected effect measurable. To transfer the concept to a real assignment, it can be combined with the relevant consulting, planning, optimisation and digital capture services.
Supply Chain Management in practice: Our services overview brings together the relevant planning and consulting approaches.