STUDENTS' CORNER - 127

Supply Chain Management.

Today, supply chain management has grown into a major business concern, apple of the eye of the business, so to say. The sustained success of the business depends on an efficient supply chain and of course, supply chain demands close attention to all details of business, beginning from the procurement of the raw materials for a product or even for service to the end result of customer satisfaction passing through varying and various intermediaries like warehousing, inbound and outbound logistics, so on. In other words, supply chain needs managing closely so that the smooth functioning of the business activities is not disrupted.  Disruption destroys business performance.

Experts have talked about strategies for supply chain management. 

Before we go into the study of strategies for supply chain management, let us spend some time on those factors that normally negatively impact the supply chain management.

Supply chain as an integral part of a business is directly connected with the market.  And any change in the market scenario will affect the supply chain. Supply depends on demand and if a product loses its demand and some other product tends to replace it, the company that was manufacturing that product has to change its marketing technique and even business goals.  The great thing about a market is it is dynamic in nature which implies it inheres in itself an irksome and dangerous element of unpredictability.

Unpredictability is the consequence of innumerable factors that happen either in the attitude of the consumer or in the national and international innovations that invade massively the market.

Consumers’ psychology is a huge subject which we cannot go into here and now. Generally, reaching the consumer with the vital information of the product a company promotes and sells is the necessary beginning of any market activity and today, there information-explosion with digitalization and Internet of things. With a click of the mouse, the consumer can command any information he thinks he needs it to decide upon a purchase. And a supply chain executive or personnel must be sensitive to the external world and its influence on the marketing as a whole. If he fails to wake up to the changing environment outside, he will fail to supply the things that the business wants it from him.

So, having seen the importance of supply chain for any successful enterprise, we shall look into the strategies for supply chain management in our next session.