Supply chain management - Essay Example

? SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT Introduction Supply management is a completely new field in the business practice and in the academicdiscipline today, but it has proved to possess a great assurance in both doctrines. Supply chain management is a way of influencing people in to particular point of reference in a particular manner whose logics need close consideration. Several business analysts have done their researches to understand and have essentially drawn boundaries about the nature of this field based on its practicability and its theoretical part. For instance, there has been a new well-organized body of inherent knowledge and practicing field, which they propose, to be ‘management supply strategy’1. The reason behind this thinking is that supply strategy can improve few ideologies, which operation management and strategy contain. Researchers carried an extensive research about the emerging field involving several companies across Europe. The objective of the research was to enlighten people about the theory and practical part of supply chain management. The research also wanted to show why most people held many doubts about the new discipline of supply chain in management and why this doubt about the domain will persist for a while. If this field of management is to progress as a field, there must be thorough clarification about it based on its concepts and how it can apply in the current world of business 2. The researchers also wanted to know how the theoretical part of this domain would apply in the practical aspect and this brought them into finer objectives of their research which could be stated as to; 1. Harland, C.M. and Lamming, R.et al., (1999), “Developing the concept of supply strategy”, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 14 No. 6, pp. 40-51. 2. Croom, S. and Romano, P. (2000), “Supply chain management: an analytical framework for critical literature review”, European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management, Vol. 6, pp. 67-83. Show and verify main foundations of the concepts behind the new field of supply chain management Evaluating these foundations in relation to experimental set of information son as to create an idea on the relation between theoretical part and the experimental part of this new field Discover challenges that can arise in future that the found results may create for this new management domain of supply chain as a field and as an activity Discussion Some scholars revealed that, they were unable to find the difference between purchase and supply chain management. Additionally, some marketing analysts have viewed supply chain management as about creating the purchasers creating good relations with their entrusted suppliers. Others argue that supply chain management is not good enough since it does not accommodate all the marketing processes from the industries to the consumers of the goods. The researchers involved these different people to sample their view about the supply chain management as part of the agenda 3. The theory of supply chain management tends to rotate between prescriptions, trend, and description. A major trend identified is the anxiety with the outcome of supply chain management on a variety of marketing functions. The current trend in the market is that supply chain is hastening the corporate theme and there is a lot of proof for this. For instance, some established companies have hired supply chain managers and there has been contest between supply chains rather than between the companies. 3. Christopher, M., (1998), Logistics & Supply Chain Management, Pearson Education Limited, Harlow. The above stated example gives a major problem in the discipline of supply network 4. Most businesspersons use an already established domain related with supplier-buyer behavioral mechanism although it has its own weaknesses. Most of these problems relate management issues, choosing the best supplier of goods among others and these can result from the failure of this field to try the broader concept of supply chain management. Thus, although there seems to be some similarities between the purchasing domain and supply chain management, there are so many visible differences between the two fields. On the academic grounds, the supply chain network has a myriad of concerns where by various intellectuals claim that the field base itself on fragmentation and so much irrelevant idealism. The field draws terms from different related disciplines and the proponents of supply chain have declared that this field depends a lot on description and prescription. The accurate character of the business management disputes to faking a win–win situation in a collaborative relationship in the supply chain management is still under-utilized. Most of the supply management literature is just mere idealism of best possible ways for sustaining demand. The schemas of ideas of the supply network management have come up with several theories with the whole explanation of integrated chain of processes from the supplies to their customers 5. 4. Andersen, P.H. and Rask, M. (2003), “Supply chain management: new organizational practices for changing procurement realities”,Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management, Vol. 9.No. 2, pp. 83-96. 5 Gattorna, J.L. (Ed.). (1998),Strategic Supply Chain Alignment, Gower, Aldershot. The researchers examined several companies in South Korea in order to be able to be able to put the theoretical aspect into practice. The researchers collected the observations from the interviewed companies depending on the major supply network processes that each firm handled. The research findings showed that most of the companies did not reap the full benefits of adopting the idea of supply chain management. The researchers noted various barriers based on the organizational structure and the behavior of the individuals towards achieving a more idealistic network that listens to the demands of the valued customers. Most of the respondents liked the idea of supply chain management although the practical aspect of this domain was very different from the theoretical part. Therefore, this new field has proved to possess double empirical and theoretical approaches that make it to be a contradicting field in the current world of business 6. The concept of the supply chain management is very different from that of the normal purchasing concept in terms of its functionality. In order to realize the achievements of this end-to-end supplier –customer concept, the individuals in the firms need to put more effort. Most of the firms where the research took place seemed to be using some parts of supply management and they still preferred to use logistic director in place of a director specialized in supply chain management. In all the firms, no director managed the supply chain from end to end as expected in the theory of supply chain management 7. There were few instances where directors would take multiple responsibilities but this was a special case. 6. Croom and Romano. (2000), Supply chain management: pp. 67-83. 7. Bates, J. and Slack, N. (1998), “What happens when the supply chain manages you? A knowledge-based response”,European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management ,Vol. 4, pp. 63-72. Despite the lack of any company that used a complete supply network management well, some of the concepts in this domain and seemed to work very well in the logistics departments. In order to improve internal function in the firms there were principal managers with certain designated responsibilities and operators who coordinated boundary-spanning works. In some cases, high skill performance indicators monitored the coordination of activities between various supply network partners 8. The research came into conclusion that a number of factors may enable the full realization of the supply chain concept if the firms take a good consideration of them. On the contrary, these factors may also hinder the implementation of supply chain concept if abused and they include intelligibility of data and knowledge, measurement of the level of performance and supply chain behaviors. Challenges The challenges that faced the supply management study originate from the theory itself due to misalignment. If the purchase concept can change its structures, it can work well as supply chain management 9. Some of the management chains challenges include the following. First, most people view the domain of supply chain as a wider concept of current trends rather than a different complete command. Second, the variety and fragmentation in the firms’ services and products involves many expenses since one requires high skilled laborers and the concept itself is very confusing. Additionally, the issue of globalization dwells a lot on the management logistics since supply network management is problematic and confusion due to its nature of fragmentation. 8. Ibid, p.72 9. Mehra, S. and Inman, R. (2004), “Purchasing management and business competition in the coming decade”, Production Planning & Control , Vol. 15 No. 7, pp. 710-7. Bibliography Andersen, P.H. and Rask, M. (2003), “Supply chain management: new organisational practices for changing procurement realities”,Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management, Vol. 9.No. 2, pp. 83-96. Bates, J. and Slack, N. (1998), “What happens when the supply chain manages you? A knowledge-based response”,European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management ,Vol. 4, pp. 63-72. Christopher, M. (1998), Logistics & Supply Chain Management, Pearson Education Limited, Harlow. Croom, S. and Romano, P. (2000), “Supply chain management: an analytical framework for critical literature review”,European Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management, Vol. 6, pp. 67-83. Gattorna, J.L. (Ed.). (1998),Strategic Supply Chain Alignment, Gower, Aldershot. Harland, C.M. and Lamming, R.et al., (1999), “Developing the concept of supply strategy”, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 14 No. 6, pp. 40-51. Mehra, S. and Inman, R. (2004), “Purchasing management and business competition in the coming decade”,Production Planning & Control , Vol. 15 No. 7, pp. 710-7. Read More