Supply Chain Management

A supply chain is a network of manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, transporters, providers of storage facilities and retailers. It performs the functions of procurement and acquisition of material, processing and transformation of the material into intermediate and finished tangible goods and finally, the physical distribution of the finished goods to the intermediate or final customers.

This chapter explained the concept of supply chain and supply chain management. Supply chain management involves the use of a set of approaches to integrate efficiently the activities of suppliers, manufacturers, warehousing providers and retailers, so that goods are produced and distributed in right quantities, to the right locations, and at the right time, in order to minimize system-wide costs while meeting customer service expectations.

It also traced the evolution of supply chain management by studying the definitions of theorists belonging to different schools of thought.