Process Steps in Supply Chain Management
A lot of persons tend to get confused about what supply chain management really is. Some persons think it’s managing of products, others think it’s managing of suppliers. While even others think it’s the process of managing supplies in inventory then distributing it to customers.
These answers are mostly half right because supply chain management is combination of all those processes and operations. Supply chain management is the overview of the processes that ranges from getting the materials from suppliers, creating it and delivering it to customers.
To simplify everything, the supply chain management process can be broken down into 5 main steps these are. Planning, managing suppliers, managing manufacturing, logistics and then you have the defect and review stage. You can see each in more detail below.
Key Supply Chain Management Process Steps
Planning
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. This is really true when you come to think of it. It’s important that you plan out your supply chain management process before you start off everything. You are going to gather around the main figures of your company from managers to upper executives and also certain team members. To let them know what is going to be required of them to get the work done.
Additionally you are going to look at how you are going to execute the different strategies. It’s also important to use key performance indicators. This will help you to set certain metrics in place to track and measure the different processes in your supply chain management.
A huge benefit of this is that it will help you to see inefficient processes. That you can then work hard to improve on.
Managing suppliers
It’s important to choose and build the right relationship with suppliers. When you do this it will help you to get better deals which can result in cheaper purchases of materials and supplies. Another great benefit is that you can also get faster delivery of supplies, because they are going to see you as very important.
Managing Manufacturing
In the manufacturing step you are going to basically manage your manufacturing activities and operations. This will help to ensure everything performs seamlessly in order to create a good quality product.
You are going to monitor worker activity, testing product quality, checking product outputs etc. you are going to see if they are all at an acceptable level that your company can work with.
Logistics
This step is all about delivering the product to customers through the right channels. Choose your carriers carefully in order to deliver the product to customers on time.
Try and create a network of warehouses which will make the process of delivering and pick up the products easier. This will help to save you a lot of cash going forward.
Defect and review stage
This is where you as manager are going to look over your plan and the execution that have been done. Additionally you are going to review your different processes to see if anything can be improved such as the manufacturing processes, delivering the product to consumers etc.
In summary by looking at the steps shown above you can see that the supply chain management processes are pretty easy to implement in your organization.
The good thing is that these processes can also be modified to your company’s goals. As a result of this it can help in making them more effective for your organization.