Supply Chain Management

Supply Chain Management

Albert McCrutcheon

BUS 630

Managerial Accounting

Mark Taylor

January 30, 2012

Supply Chain Management

The ultimate goal for the majority of people in the world today is to obtain happiness in some shape, form, or fashion and live prosperously. This same goal of providing happiness to obtain prosperous profits is the driving force and underlining objective for businesses around the world. In this ever-changing global economy, businesses are forever trying to design ways to increase productivity, manage inventory, stream line processes, cut costs and waste, and provide superior customer satisfaction. Supply chain management has been the focus of many industries to improve operational efficiencies, shorten product development cycles, increase product variety, improve quality and customer satisfaction, and better link the supply chain with market demand. Regardless of the industry, businesses need to achieve these objectives, and only through the successful implementation and understanding of the elements of supply chain management will this be attained.

Supply chain is the stream of processes of moving goods from the customer order through the raw materials stage, supply, production, and distribution of products to the customer (Noreen, Brewer, and Garrison, 2011). All organizations have supply chains of different degrees, depending on the size of the organizations and the type of product manufactured. Managing the stream of process within the supply chain is referred to as supply chain management. To successfully manage the supply chain, items such as market demands, customer service, transportation and pricing constraints must be understood in order to structure the supply chain effectively. There are six key elements to a simple supply chain, which are (1) customer orders, (2) planning, (3) purchasing, (4) inventory, (5) production, and (6) transportation. These elements work hand- in- hand to ensure the smooth process...