Supply chain management refers to the entire process of obtaining the raw goods from a supplier, converting those goods into products, shipping products, and placing them in front of customers. Operations management typically focuses on the production side of supply chain management, but a good manager is concerned with the entire process. In this unit, we will look at the management of firm resources on the supply side as well as the distribution of finished goods to the consumer.
Many of the problems associated with supply chain management are closely related to the typical problems of operations management. Instead of the question: “How should we make this?”, it becomes: “How should we get this from point A to B?” It may be best to ship the product straight from the factory to the customer, but it may be prohibitively expensive to do so. Many firms find it easier and cheaper to ship products to distribution warehouses first and distribute to customers on a more local level.
Supply chain management is the business function that coordinates and manages all the activities of the supply chain, including suppliers of raw materials, components and services, transportation providers, internal departments, and information systems. Figure 7.5 illustrates a supply chain for providing packaged milk to consumers.
Figure 7.5 Illustration of a supply chain
In the manufacturing sector, supply chain management addresses the movement of goods through the supply chain from the supplier to the manufacturer, to wholesalers or warehouse distribution centers, to retailers and finally to the consumer. For example, Apple, Inc uses sophisticated information systems to accept orders for custom-built computers from individual customers all over the world. Apple assembles the computers in Shanghai, China, to the customers’ specifications. It uses parts and components that are provided by outside suppliers who can deliver the right parts in the right quantity in a timely way to satisfy the immediate production schedule. The completed computers are flown from Shanghai by FedEx, reaching the end-user customers only a few days after the orders were placed. Apple’s supply chain allows it to provide fast delivery of high-quality custom computers at competitive prices.
Supply chain concepts also apply to the service sector, where service firms must coordinate equipment, materials, and human resources to provide services to their customers in a timely manner. For example, a retail store that sells electronic products may contract with an outside business to provide installation services to its customers. In many cases, the customer does not even know the installation was done by an outside contractor. Information and communication technologies such as global positioning systems (GPS), barcode technology, customer relationship management (CRM) databases, and the Internet allow service businesses to coordinate external and internal service suppliers to efficiently and effectively respond to customer demand.
The supply chain is not just a one way process that runs from raw materials to the end customer. Although goods tend to flow this way, important data such as forecasts, inventory status, shipping schedules, and sales data are examples of information that is constantly being conveyed to different links in the supply chain. Money also tends to flow “upstream” in the supply chain so goods and service providers can be paid.
Causes of the Bullwhip Effect
The bullwhip effect relates to supply chain inefficiencies and changes in inventory levels as they relate to changes in consumer demand. Factors include demand forecasting, order batching, price fluctuations, rationing and gaming.
The bullwhip effect is caused by demand forecast updating, order batching, price fluctuation, and rationing and gaming.
- Demand forecast updating is done individually by all members of a supply chain. Each member updates its own demand forecast based on orders received from its “downstream” customer. The more members in the chain, the less these forecast updates reflect actual end-customer demand.
- Order batching occurs when each member takes order quantities it receives from its downstream customer and rounds up or down to suit production constraints such as equipment setup times or truckload quantities. The more members who conduct such rounding of order quantities, the more distortion occurs of the original quantities that were demanded.
- Price fluctuations due to inflationary factors, quantity discounts, or sales tend to encourage customers to buy larger quantities than they require. This behavior tends to add variability to quantities ordered and uncertainty to forecasts.
- Rationing and gaming is when a seller attempts to limit order quantities by delivering only a percentage of the order placed by the buyer. The buyer, knowing that the seller is delivering only a fraction of the order placed, attempts to “game” the system by making an upward adjustment to the order quantity. Rationing and gaming create distortions in the ordering information that is being received by the supply chain.
Text adapted from “Supply Chain Management” and “Causes of the Bullwhip Effect” by Saylor Academy under a CC BY: Attribution license.