Scope of Ict

PATRICK KIBET

NRB 43875

PROCUREMENT AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT:

DCM-111-PSM

WORK BASED ASSIGNMENT

CLASS: MONDAY 5.30-7.00 PM, EP12

QUESTION ONE

DISCUSSING THE SCOPE AND CONTRIBUTION OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT AND KEY DRIVERS IN DELIVERING VALUE TO THE ULTIMATE CONSUMER.

Supply chains encompass the companies and the business activities needed to design, make, deliver, and use a product or service. Businesses depend on their supply chains to provide them with what they need to survive and thrive. Every business fits into one or more supply chains and has a role to play in each of them.

“A supply chain is a network of facilities and distribution options that performs the functions of procurement of materials, transformation of these materials into intermediate and finished products, and the distribution of these finished products to customers.”—from Ganeshan and Harrison at Penn State University in their article An Introduction to Supply Chain .There is differences between the concepts of supply chain manage- ment and the traditional concept of logistics.

Each market or group of customers has a specific set of needs. The supply chains that serve different markets need to respond effectively to these needs. Some markets demand and will pay for high levels of responsiveness. Other markets require their supply chains to focus more on efficiency. The overall effect of the decisions made concerning each driver will determine how well the supply chain serves its market and how profitable it is for the participants in that supply chain.

There is a basic pattern to the practice of supply chain manage ment. Each supply chain has its own unique set of market demands and operating challenges and yet the issues remain essentially the same in every case. The key drivers in delivering value to the ultimate customers include:

1. Production—what products does the market want? How much of which products should be produced and by when? This activity includes the...