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Supply Chain Management: History
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Supply chain management refers to the integrated planning, coordination, execution, and control of all business activities associated with the flow of goods, services, information, and financial resources from raw-material sourcing through production, distribution, and final-product delivery to end customers across participating organisations within a supply-chain network [1]. It encompasses cross-organisational coordination among suppliers, manufacturers, logistics providers, distributors, and end-users, aiming to align material and information flows under defined operational, cost, and service-level objectives [2]. Unlike isolated intra-enterprise functional management, SCM emphasises end-to-end governance of the entire network boundary rather than optimisation of any single firm's internal departments in isolation. It covers both forward physical-product flow and reverse-logistics product returns, and it integrates demand forecasting, inventory planning, transportation scheduling, procurement decision-making, warehouse management, and customer-service fulfilment as interconnected components. The discipline treats the supply chain as an interdependent system in which local decisions by one member propagate effects throughout the network, and it seeks to balance total system cost against required service levels rather than minimising any single node's cost independently [3].

  • supply-chain management
  • end-to-end logistics
  • cross-organisational coordination
  • material flow governance

Sustainable Supply Chain Management •  Strategy and Management •  Business, Management and Accounting •  Social Sciences

References

  1. Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. CSCMP Glossary of Supply Chain Management Terms; CSCMP: Chicago, IL, USA. https://cscmp.org/CSCMP/CSCMP/Educate/SCM_Definitions_and_Glossary_of_Terms.aspx.
  2. Chopra, S.; Meindl, P. Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning, and Operation, 6th ed.; Pearson: Boston, MA, USA, 2015. ISBN: 9780133800203
  3. John T. Mentzer; William DeWitt; James S. Keebler; Soonhong Min; Nancy W. Nix; Carlo D. Smith; Zach G. Zacharia; DEFINING SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT. J. Bus. Logist. 2001, 22, 1-25, 10.1002/j.2158-1592.2001.tb00001.x.
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