MBA Admission Management Quota Supply Chain Course

Supply chain management (SCM)

( MBA Admission Management Quota in Supply Chain Course )
SCM is the broad range of activities required to plan, control and execute a product’s flow, from acquiring raw materials and production through distribution to the final customer, in the most streamlined and cost-effective way possible. ( MBA Admission Management Quota in Supply Chain Course ) SCM encompasses the integrated planning and execution of processes required to optimize the flow of materials, information and financial capital in the areas that broadly include demand planning, sourcing, production, inventory management and storage, transportation — or logistics — and return for excess or defective products. Both business strategy and specialized software are used in these endeavors to create a competitive advantage.

What is the difference between a value chain and a supply chain?

( MBA Admission Management Quota in Supply Chain Course )
The difference between a value chain and a supply chain is the process of all parties involved in fulfilling a customer request, while a value chain is a set of interrelated activities a company uses to create a competitive advantage.

Value Chain
( MBA Admission Management Quota in Supply Chain Course )
The idea of value chain was pioneered by Michael Porter. Five steps in the value chain give a company the ability to create value exceeding the cost of providing its good or service to customers. Maximizing the activities in any one of the five steps allows a company to have a competitive advantage over competitors in its industry. The five steps or activities are: ( MBA Admission Management Quota in Supply Chain Course )

1. Inbound logistics: receiving, warehousing and inventory control
2. Operations: value-creating activities that transform inputs into products.
3. Outbound logistics: activities required to get a finished product to a customer
4. Marketing and sales: activities associated with getting a buyer to purchase a product
5. Service: activities that maintain and enhance a product’s value, such as customer support

A profitable value chain requires connections between what consumers demand and what a company produces. Value chains place a great amount of focus on things such as product testing, innovation, research and development, and marketing.  

Supply Chain
The SCM comprises the flow of all information, products, materials and funds between the different stages of creating and selling a product. Every step in the process, including creating a good or service, manufacturing it, transporting it to a place of sale and selling it is a company’s SCM. The SCM includes all functions involved in receiving and filling a customer request. These functions include

1. Product development
2. Marketing
3. Operations
4. Distribution
5. Finance
6. Customer service

The primary concerns of SCM are materials costs and effective product delivery. Proper SCM can reduce consumer costs and increase profits for the manufacturer.

Supply Chain Manager Career: How Does It Differ from an Operations Manager?

How they’re Alike
These two job titles are often used interchangeably and while they do indeed share many common traits, they each have a set of roles and purposes that are entirely unique. Some of the confusion stems from the fact that the two career fields are interdependent with each other. While that may be true, a supply chain manager career would be considered a subset of an operations manager career because it is just one part of the entire production operation. But they do share a similar end goal: to enhance the bottom line by reducing costs and increasing efficiency. How they achieve this is very different, nonetheless.

Operations Management is Internally-focused
OM focuses primarily upon activities that happen within a company’s walls to manufacture a product or service. This includes formulating policies, managing the daily operations and workflow, overseeing workers, and participating in the design, planning and the physical production of the product. In short, it’s the giant bucket that contains all of the smaller buckets of jobs necessary to complete the goal.

Supply Chain Management Is Externally Focused
Supply chain manager’s work with external partners to procure parts and raw materials needed to produce the product, create the inventory, and sell the product to outside markets. These professionals evaluate suppliers and negotiate contracts with vendors. Because this role is a vital necessity, you can see why SCM lives under the umbrella of OM. Without materials, there are no products to manage and no need for workers to make the products.

Skills for the New Era of SCM – A Look to the Future
As we approach the end of the year, many of us are wondering what the New Year will bring for us, as well as what it will take to keep our individual organizations on top.

Supply Chain Manager Career: How Does It Differ from an Operations Manager?

How they’re Alike
These two job titles are often used interchangeably and while they do indeed share many common traits, they each have a set of roles and purposes that are entirely unique. Some of the confusion stems from the fact that the two career fields are interdependent with each other. While that may be true, a supply chain manager career would be considered a subset of an operations manager career because it is just one part of the entire production operation. But they do share a similar end goal: to enhance the bottom line by reducing costs and increasing efficiency. How they achieve this is very different, nonetheless.

Operations Management is Internally-focused
OM focuses primarily upon activities that happen within a company’s walls to manufacture a product or service. This includes formulating policies, managing the daily operations and workflow, overseeing workers, and participating in the design, planning and the physical production of the product. In short, it’s the giant bucket that contains all of the smaller buckets of jobs necessary to complete the goal.

Supply Chain Management Is Externally Focused
Supply chain manager’s work with external partners to procure parts and raw materials needed to produce the product, create the inventory, and sell the product to outside markets. These professionals evaluate suppliers and negotiate contracts with vendors. Because this role is a vital necessity, you can see why SCM lives under the umbrella of OM. Without materials, there are no products to manage and no need for workers to make the products.

Skills for the New Era of SCM – A Look to the Future
As we approach the end of the year, many of us are wondering what the New Year will bring for us, as well as what it will take to keep our individual organizations on top.

Supply chain challenges facing companies include:

• Inability of supply chain personnel to keep up with the rapid environmental changes and technological changes in procurement systems. ( MBA Admission Management Quota in Supply Chain Course )
• Integrating multiple systems existing internally
• Managing inventory levels – accumulation of inventory in the pipeline
• Maintaining training budgets in a difficult economy
• Greater emphasis on price rather than total cost in the wake of the growing pressure to increase revenue and reduce cost.
  
  

Soft skills and personality attributes required in future supply managers include:

• Ability to communicate effectively through presentations, email, one-on-one, and team discussion
• Ability to logically organize thoughts
• Ability as a natural facilitator to enable team-based decisions
• Time management
• Leadership
• Understanding of customer’s expectations
• Vision – creating the environment
• Desire to learn
• Ability to present oneself with confidence
• Ability to think on ones feet
• Ability to pass on knowledge and mentoring

In the future, we are likely to see:

• Growing emphasis on “Demand Chain Management”
• Greater expertise in effectively managing relationships through collaboration and measurement
• Increased visibility of price, but focus on cost management
• Alternative training technologies will become commonplace