SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PREFACE

Most of the companies have identified supply chain management as a route to competitive advantage. Through supply chain (SC), firms aim to achieve two important goals: cost-effectiveness and customer satisfaction. In fact, supply chain serves as a road map to enterprise success. Supply chain encompasses all the functional areas of an enterprise. Integration of areas such as procurement, processing and distribution is possible through proper management and control of supply chain operations.

Technology plays a vital role in managing supply chain and making it efficient and effective in all its operations. Information Technology (IT) has helped in seamless integration of supply chain. Supply Chain Management (SCM) has emerged over the past few years as the key to success in the Global economy, regardless of industry or company size. Its premise is simple: operational strategies should be designed and managed around customer needs. In the near future only those Enterprises will survive which can provide goods and services to its customers in timely & cost effective manner. Application of Supply Chain Management in effective way to Indian context will definitely upgrade India’s present position. Pressures from low-cost and the new global competitive environment require companies to be more productive, react faster to market changes, and maintain smaller inventories. It involves the cooperation and coordination of activities of all parties for the production and distribution of products to the final consumer with mechanism in place to optimize inventories across the entire supply chain.

In conclusion, Like many complex business systems, Supply Chain Management problems are not so rigid and well defined that they can be delegated entirely to computers. Instead, in almost every case, the flexibility, intuition and wisdom that are unique characteristics of the humans are essentials to manage the system effectively. A Decision Support System (DSS) is a system under the control of one or more Decision Makers that assists in the activity of decision making by providing an organized set of tools to improve the ultimate effectiveness of the decision outcome. The DSS clearly offers management a powerful tool and is rapidly becoming an integral component of managerial work.

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