Supply chain management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Supply chain management - Essay Example Supply chain management, on the other side is viewed as a management philosophy (Mentzer, 2001). Supply chain management can be defined as the encompassment of management and planning of various activities that are involved in sourcing, procurement, conversion as well as various other activities regarding logistics. The most important aspect of SCM is that it includes collaboration and co-ordination of different channel partners including suppliers, intermediaries and customers. In simple words, SCM integrates the demand and supply management across and within the companies (Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, n.d.). The SCM concept views all the channel partners as a ‘single entity’ instead of considering them fragmented parts. According to Stevens, main objective of maintaining the supply chain is synchronizing the flow of goods and services with the needs of the customers so as to manage the balance among the high customer service, low unit cost and low inventory management (Mentzer, 2001). Monczka opined that SCM’s primary objective is managing and integrating the source, flow as well as the control of materials by using a perspective of ‘total system’ across different tiers of suppliers and different functions (Mentzer, 2001).