Let’s take the physical moving of a product from raw material, to the customer placing it in their basket, there are many links to the supply chain and within it many errors can and do occur.

Mastering the supply chain is now seen as a competative advantage by many firms and is now given that recognition at boardroom level.  With the rise of globalisation and the internet, not only can firms operate further afield but are also open to competition in ways deemed unimaginable a decade ago.

So to be a supply chain professional today is for me interesting and exciting. I look at how the internet has changed the way we work today and feel that there is so much more to come in how supply chains interact.

I work in logistics?

Logistics?  What’s that?

It’s warehousing, and transport, part of a supply chain?

Supply chain what’s that?”

This is a typical conversation I’ve had with countless people and for something so ubiquitous it’s amazing how people are unaware of what we in this business do.  Every time people go to a supermarket and put a product into their basket, they themselves are the last part of the supply chain.

Maybe, this is a good thing, because people only realise when something goes wrong and there is a hole on the shelf.

“A supply chain is a network of facilities and distribution options that performs the functions of procurement of materials, transformation of these materials into intermediate and finished products, and the distribution of these finished products to customers.”

You may also hear someone say it’s getting “the right product (and quantities) in the right place at the right time for the right price”.

I guess either way the supply chain can be complicated, whether it’s sourcing products, storage, transport, procurement, manufacture, there are many links in the chain and it only takes one to fail for the chain to break.  That’s when things can get interesting…or frightening depending on your outlook.

Tags: SuplyChain