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Following are the key features that cover Supply Chain activities of a product or service:
1) Sourcing of raw materials and components for a product OR skills / abilities for a service;
2) Manufacturing or creating a finish product OR service;
3) Ensuring the product / service is transported, warehoused and always available for the targeted users;4) Delivering to the end consumer.
Key factors to consider and strive in each process:
1) costs effectiveness;
2) optimum utilization of resources - both the human and inventory;
3) efficiency and dependability on suppliers, manufacturers, and retailers;
4) strong planning and the ability to come up with contingency plans.
The key features of Supply chain management are as follows:
Inventory Management
Order Management
Procurement
Logistics
Forecasting and Planning
Return Management
Supply Chain Management is the management of the flow of goods. It includes the movement and storage of raw materials and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption. Supply chain management has been defined as the "design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of supply chain activities with the objective of creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics, synchronizing supply with demand and measuring performance globally.
Today’s popular supply chain management can help companies achieve and maintain a competitive edge by empowering them to streamline and enhance their most important supply chain operations from start to finish. With supply chain management in place, organizations can maximize cost-efficiency, increase productivity, and give their bottom line a big boost.
How does supply chain management software enable the realization of all these benefits? By offering a broad range of robust features, delivered through a comprehensive suite of tightly integrated modules and applications. This functionality is designed to fully automate and support supply chain processes from end-to-end, and includes:
Inventory ManagementWith supply chain management, companies can significantly improve the way they track and manage their supplies of raw materials and components needed for production, finished goods to satisfy open sales orders, and spare parts required for field service and support. This eliminates excess and waste, frees up valuable real estate for other important purposes, and minimizes related storage costs.
Order ManagementSupply chain management software can dramatically accelerate the execution of the entire order-to-delivery cycle by helping companies to more productively generate and track sales orders. Supply chain management also enables the dynamic scheduling of supplier deliveries to more effectively meet demand, as well as more rapid creation of pricing and product configurations.
ProcurementAll activities and tasks associated with sourcing, purchasing, and payables can be fully automated and streamlined across a company’s entire supplier network with supply chain management software. As a result, businesses can build stronger relationships with vendors, better assess and manage their performance, and improve negotiations to leverage volume or bulk discounts and other cost-cutting measures.
LogisticsAs companies expand globally, their supply chains become more and more complex. This makes the coordination of the numerous warehouses and transportation channels involved quite a challenging endeavor without supply chain software in place. With supply chain management, businesses can improve on-time delivery performance and boost customer satisfaction by achieving complete visibility into how finished goods are stored and distributed, regardless of the number of facilities or partners that participate.
Forecasting and PlanningWith supply chain management, organizations can more accurately anticipate customer demand and plan their procurement and production processes accordingly. As a result, they can avoid unnecessary purchases of raw-materials, eliminate manufacturing over-runs, and prevent the need to store excess finished goods, or slash prices to move products off of warehouse shelves.
Return ManagementSupply chain software can simplify and accelerate the inspection and handling of defective or broken goods – on both the buy and sell side of the business – and automate the processing of claims with suppliers and distributors, as well as insurance companies.
Many supply chain offerings also include add-on options or modules designed to enhance related activities. Through these features, support is provided for a variety of important processes such as contract management, product lifecycle management, capital asset management, and more.
