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Supply Chain Management : Introduction

Decent Essays

Supply Chain Management
Introduction to Concept Supply Chain Management seeks to guarantee that “merchandise is produced and distributed at the right quantities, to the right locations, and at the right time. . .” (Stock, Boyer, & Harmon, 2010). It is the management of a company’s supply chain by coordination and integration of the multitude of supply chain partners that a company interacts with. Initially, the concept focused on how to make a relationship between supplier and purchaser more efficient but has now been broadened to include the management of many activities, functions, and organizations. In some industries it may include a company’s entire supply chain, including all of its customers, suppliers, and strategic partners (du Toit & Vlok, 2014; Walker & Jones, 2012). The concept has expanded so far today that many argue that there is no longer any competition among individual companies but instead competition among separate supply chains (Brun & Moretto, 2012).
This concept was proposed in the 1980s and began to be implemented in the early 1990s by companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Proctor and Gamble, and Wal-Mart (Oliver & Webber, 1982). Its initial growth was fueled by the rise in globalization, advanced information technologies, and the accompanying need for companies to become more effective, productive, efficient, and profitable organizations (Shiau, Dwivedi, & Tsai, 2015; du Toit & Vlok, 2014). Industries from food procurement to maritime shipping to

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