Summary
What is a 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… [Wikipedia]
• Supply chain activities involve the transformation of natural resources, raw materials, and
components into a finished product that is delivered to the end customer… [LumenLearning]
• A supply chain is a network between a company and its suppliers to produce and distribute a
specific product, and the supply chain represents the steps it takes to get the product or service to
the customer. [Investopedia]
The goal of supply chains:
• Every organization must make a product or a service that someone values
Supply chains are distributed and decentralised:
• Most organizations function as part of larger supply chains.
Supply chains are often expensive:
• Think of all costs from materials, staff, buildings, …
• Think of the time it takes to bring products from China (electronics, sneakers, solar cells, …) to
Europe
• Organizations must carefully manage their operations and supply chains in order to prosper, and
indeed, surviv
,Overlapping Terminology
Supply Chain Management
The active management of supply chain activities and relationships over the longer term, in order to
maximize customer value and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Includes contracts,
audits, forecasting,
Operations Management
The planning, scheduling, and control of the activities that transform inputs into finished goods and
services. Often used interchangeably with Supply Chain Management but typically refers to the day-
to-day running of the supply chain or a particular company location
Key terms
Upstream – Activities positioned earlier in the supply chain.
Downstream – Activities positioned later in the supply chain.
First-tier supplier – A supplier that provides products or services directly to a firm
Second-tier supplier – A supplier that provides products or services to a firsttier supplier
Inbound Logistics – Goods arriving to a location, either from upstream or downstream
Outbound Logistics – Goods leaving a location, either going upstream or downstream
One-off versus Repeated
Many types or ways of categorizing supply chains but there are basically:
Project… one-off, unique, often unpredictable, based on some experience, heavily supervised
Continuous… repeatable activities, managed closely through processes, automation,
supervision, based on lots of experience
Between these two there is a spectrum of supply chains which share elements of both (e.g.
building a new windfarm at sea is a project; manufacturing the windmills is continuous)
, Typical Functions
Operations Manager/Director:
• Officially representing the operations area in decisions with sales, finance, regulators.
• Process selection, design, and improvement.
• Forecasting for decision making.
• Capacity planning for capital investment and resource levels.
• Controlling execution.
Production Manager
• Inventory management for amount and location.
• Planning and control for work scheduling and meeting demand.
• Ordering from suppliers, logistics and arranging distribution. Order Desk Administrator
• Entering orders from customers into the order system.
• Ensuring correct documentation is included with shipments and customers are kept informed,
invoiced.
Purchaser/Buyer
• Purchasing, managing supplier relationships… supplier contracts.
Project Manager
• In overall charge of the planning and execution of a particular logistics project.
Quality Manager
• In charge of planning responses to incidents, the documentation, process descriptions, records of
problems; being ready for audits.
What is a 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… [Wikipedia]
• Supply chain activities involve the transformation of natural resources, raw materials, and
components into a finished product that is delivered to the end customer… [LumenLearning]
• A supply chain is a network between a company and its suppliers to produce and distribute a
specific product, and the supply chain represents the steps it takes to get the product or service to
the customer. [Investopedia]
The goal of supply chains:
• Every organization must make a product or a service that someone values
Supply chains are distributed and decentralised:
• Most organizations function as part of larger supply chains.
Supply chains are often expensive:
• Think of all costs from materials, staff, buildings, …
• Think of the time it takes to bring products from China (electronics, sneakers, solar cells, …) to
Europe
• Organizations must carefully manage their operations and supply chains in order to prosper, and
indeed, surviv
,Overlapping Terminology
Supply Chain Management
The active management of supply chain activities and relationships over the longer term, in order to
maximize customer value and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Includes contracts,
audits, forecasting,
Operations Management
The planning, scheduling, and control of the activities that transform inputs into finished goods and
services. Often used interchangeably with Supply Chain Management but typically refers to the day-
to-day running of the supply chain or a particular company location
Key terms
Upstream – Activities positioned earlier in the supply chain.
Downstream – Activities positioned later in the supply chain.
First-tier supplier – A supplier that provides products or services directly to a firm
Second-tier supplier – A supplier that provides products or services to a firsttier supplier
Inbound Logistics – Goods arriving to a location, either from upstream or downstream
Outbound Logistics – Goods leaving a location, either going upstream or downstream
One-off versus Repeated
Many types or ways of categorizing supply chains but there are basically:
Project… one-off, unique, often unpredictable, based on some experience, heavily supervised
Continuous… repeatable activities, managed closely through processes, automation,
supervision, based on lots of experience
Between these two there is a spectrum of supply chains which share elements of both (e.g.
building a new windfarm at sea is a project; manufacturing the windmills is continuous)
, Typical Functions
Operations Manager/Director:
• Officially representing the operations area in decisions with sales, finance, regulators.
• Process selection, design, and improvement.
• Forecasting for decision making.
• Capacity planning for capital investment and resource levels.
• Controlling execution.
Production Manager
• Inventory management for amount and location.
• Planning and control for work scheduling and meeting demand.
• Ordering from suppliers, logistics and arranging distribution. Order Desk Administrator
• Entering orders from customers into the order system.
• Ensuring correct documentation is included with shipments and customers are kept informed,
invoiced.
Purchaser/Buyer
• Purchasing, managing supplier relationships… supplier contracts.
Project Manager
• In overall charge of the planning and execution of a particular logistics project.
Quality Manager
• In charge of planning responses to incidents, the documentation, process descriptions, records of
problems; being ready for audits.
