Strategic Supply Chain Managemnt - Essay Example

Any product or service which reaches to its ultimate consumer has to go through a supply chain which involves the suppliers, manufacturer, distributor, retailer, and the final consumer. The recycling of end products and services are also a part of the supply chain. The supply chains often involve a series of companies and business organizations involved in carrying out a product or service to the market place (Wisner et al. p7, 2008). The supply chain of an organization requires a proper management to allow its effect over the performance of the organization.

Supply Chain Management is the term which refers to the set of tasks which are performed in order to optimize all of the tasks and activities which are involved to provide the final product or service to the customers and meet their demands. The concept of supply chain management involves the idea to provide the products and services which are of right quantity, high quality, available at the right time at a reasonable price to the customers. The supply chain management involves a set of activities which helps in planning and scheduling of the production and distribution and improve the delivery time.

The different activities under the method of supply chain management can be classified into categories such as Demand Planning, Planning and Scheduling of Manufacturing processes, Supply Planning, and Transportation Planning. Providing organizations with a forecast of demand and market condition is an important benefit of supply chain management. The planning of demand is used for the same purpose of forecasting the demand in near future which assists organization in the production planning. The forecasting of customer demand helps organizations to improve their customer service and also supports them in reducing their additional cost which is incurred from the uncertainty of the continuously changing market environment.

The production planning supports organization to