Supply chain network

A Supply Chain Network (SCN) is an evolution of the basic supply chain. Due to rapid technological advancement, organisations with a basic supply chain can develop this chain into a more complex structure involving a higher level of interdependence and connectivity between more organisations, this constitutes a supply chain network.

Businesses are often part of a larger network of organisations, a supply chain networks can be used to highlight interactions between organisations; they can also be used to show the flow of information and materials across organisations. Supply chain networks are now more global than ever and are typically structured with five key areas: external suppliers, production centres, distribution centres (DCs), demand zones, and transportation assets

Overview

All organisations have or can purchase the components to build a supply chain network, it is the collection of physical locations, transportation vehicles and supporting systems through which the products and services firm markets are managed and ultimately delivered.

Supply chain

A supply chain is a system of organizations, people, activities, information, and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities involve the transformation of natural resources, raw materials, and components into a finished product that is delivered to the end customer. In sophisticated supply chain systems, used products may re-enter the supply chain at any point where residual value is recyclable. Supply chains link value chains.

Overview

The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) defines supply chain management as follows:

A typical supply chain begins with the ecological, biological, and political regulation of natural resources, followed by the human extraction of raw material, and includes several production links (e.g., component construction, assembly, and merging) before moving on to several layers of storage facilities of ever-decreasing size and increasingly remote geographical locations, and finally reaching the consumer.