It is a universal truism that necessity is the mother of invention. For according to Plato, the great philosopher, “our need will be the real creator.” This simply suggests that the primary driving force for most new inventions is a need. No doubt supply chain management is evolving in the contemporary business community.
In commerce, supply chain management, the management of the flow of goods and services, between businesses and locations, and includes the movement and storage of raw materials, of work-in-process inventory, and of finished goods as well as end to end order fulfilment from point of origin to point of consumption.
When we hear “supply chain,” we think “Logistics”. For a non-professional, the whole concept might sound pretty simple. The truth is that supply chain management is a complex issue that started as a simple idea. The core of it was to implement mild changes to improve work.
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However, since its development, it has morphed into a more complex structure.
Today, there are many components of supply chain management. Some of them are planning and control, organisation structure, information flow facility structure or product flow facility structure. Of course, the components vary depending on the nature of the business and the size of the company.
As supply chain management is a live business organism, its structures and range of activity changes with time. With globalisation in full swing, companies face more than ever the pressure of dealing with complex networks involving multiple processes and countries. The processes require constant control, management and optimisation of a company’s day to day operations.
Logistics is a word that you see most often on the side of trucks. But it has a bigger meaning: the management of the flow of materials through an organization, from raw materials to finished goods. It is to deliver the right product to the right place at the right time.
Logistics might sound like a simple enough business of moving things around, but it is growing more complex. Customers are demanding more custom-tailored services. Innovative technology and greater use of the internet opens up new ways of passing the information around,
Now that companies re-engineered and scrubbed the waste from their assembly lines, logistics seems to get closer attention. Now companies are more demanding and looking for the right products at the right time, logistics plays a key role in their business plan.
Good logistics can make all the difference to a company’s ability to serve its customers. Besides the primary function of delivering the products, logistics serves many other functions to businesses. It is not just what you make or how you make it. These functions include warehousing, customer service, and coordinating with manufacturers. It is how quickly you get the parts together or shift finished products from mainly the factories to desired markets.
The success of retailers depends largely on getting the right goods to the right place at the right time. Indeed, some companies lost control and were anxious to go in search of lower costs, it failed to maintain a system that could adapt quickly to what was selling and what was not without logistical help.
In an ever-changing world, as the process of doing business with end-users evolves, the importance of logistics becomes more paramount. From importers to freight forwarders to truckers to carriers, everyone has a significant function. Supply chain management continuously evolves with the ever-changing supply and demand.
