In every corporational setup, there’s a procedure in place for looking after the raw materials, resources and other utilities. The personnel concerned with maintaining a stock of these raw materials and utilities to manufacture products and deliver them across different organisations and customers forms part of the supply chain.
The management of the supply chain and its processes, movement of raw materials and transformation of rugged materials into finished products is all performed under the supply chain sector. This management type focuses on providing maximum value to customers and attaining competitive advantage over their competitors. A supply chain management online course will render professionals with its fundamental intricacies and practices.
Understanding Supply Chain Management and its Key Intricacies
Supply chain management is based on certain core fundamentals and flows that optimise its processes and effectiveness. Moreover, supply chain management incorporates specific information flows that help in acute movement of resources within the supply chain scope.
The fundamental concept of supply chain management is based on a couple of ideas. The supply chain management course from IIM Kozhikode is instrumental in teaching the following ideas to learners:-
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The First Idea
The consistent and combined effort of different firms that goes in manufacturing products and supplying them to end-users. These independent firms are grouped as supply chains.
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The Second Idea
The second idea is based on what went wrong while providing products to customers. Modern manufacturers are focused on the internal supply chain and its management without interacting with the outside world. This restricted interaction with other manufacturers and suppliers lead to failures and products not performing well in the international market.
What can be understood from the ideologies mentioned above is that supply chain management isn’t a mere amalgamation of suppliers, manufacturers and end-users, rather a top-down approach of how goods and services are utilised and deployed to other corporates, end-users and businesses.
Flows that Rule Supply Chain Management
A supply chain management online course offered by a reputable source renders executives with its ideologies, process flows and other critical elements. This brilliantly laid out process flows to help identify key issues in supply chain management and provide practical ways of overcoming them.
The enlisted process flows help monitor, refine, and introduce policies that enable companies to maximise their bottom line by providing customer-oriented products. Some of the processes flows utilised by supply chain managers include the following:-
- Product Flows
As the name suggests, product flow focuses on the movement of organisational process, goods, and services from suppliers to consumers. These movements can be both internal and external. Product flows aim to make consumers’ lives easier by rendering input materials and other consumables. Moreover, product flows provide services such as housekeeping, cleaning and others.
- Financial Flows
The financial flows deal with the economic and asset-driven aspects of supply chain management. The financial chain cost is directly proportional to its estimated profitability, given that the chain is optimised, enhanced and tracked regularly.
The noticeable features of financial flows include optimisation of supply chain investment, return of investment (ROI), bringing in more funds, and deploying supply chain protocols to make a huge profit turnover.
- Information Flow
Supply chain management accumulates information about various things such as material receipts and bills, product pricing and their description, documentation of new products and services, inventory management, status of delivery, deployment and other information.
Supply chain management takes databases and leverages technology available to draft efficient information flows across the supply chain scope.
- The Value Flow
Perhaps amongst the most vital and essential flows in the supply chain management world is the value flow. Given the importance of value flow in corporational settings, the supply chain management course from IIM Kozhikode aims at teaching this process flow in detail.
Products, goods and services deployed by the firms have a shared objective of adding value to their lives. The value flow integrates a series of tasks that take products through a different phase and upon each hase adds value to the products or goods being deployed.
As can be seen from the flows mentioned above, there’s a need for different supply chains to assist the supply chain in developing customer-faceted products and maximising profits.
Different Types of Supply Chain Management
Different types of supply chain management help in performing varied functions of this managerial type. Young and aspiring managers need to be aware of supply chain management types to introduce them in their corporations as per the corporate objectives. The supply chain management online course equips learners with the following types of supply chain management models:-
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Transaction and Cost Analysis
The transaction and cost analysis surveys the prices of organisational goods and journals the selling and buying of products. This analysis is performed over a specific period of time, and reports are generated accordingly.
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Network Perspective Model (NP)
This model allows companies to expand their networks either through collaboration or via mutual connections. The NP model shares contacts with third-party logistics providers and involves new members across the supply chain, thereby increasing its value.
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Materials Requirement Planning
This planning model aims at reducing cost and maximising profits by finding the lowest material inventory without comprising product production and its consumer-market. Material requirements planning aims at reducing warehousing and other costs and prevents businesses from over-purchasing exhaustive raw materials.
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Total Quality Management
Total quality management looks at increasing the quality and robustness of products, goods and other services by streamlining the entire supply chain. All the chain processes from manufacturing products, training employees and looking after the product’s performance at the market level are all managed as part of this managerial type.
Summing it Up!
As can be seen from the above mentioned supply chain management approaches, there are critical aspects of this managerial style while manufacturing, deploying and tracking products and goods. Enrolling for a well-curated supply chain management online course via a renowned source can assist professionals to understand its core practices. The supply chain management course from IIM Kozhikode is one such program that aims to develop professional’s knowledge about this domain as per corporate needs.
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