Supply Chain Structure in Material Movement

Supply Chain Structure in Material Movement Name Institution Supply Chain Structure in Material Movement The supply chain structure and its management plays a significant role in ensuring operational excellence in process of moving materials from one member of the chain to the other. A supply chain refers to a system that is designed to plan, execute, monitor, and control, the activities involved in the movement of materials in their raw form until they reach the final consumption point. The system serves to reduce to the costs incurred in the transition process thus adding value to the products and service by creating a competitive and flexible material movement infrastructure. It is thus evident that the movement of the raw materials from their originating location to the point of consumption involves a vast network of integrated business tasked with different value addition responsibilities desired by the final consumer. The transportation of the raw materials, for instance, their storage, and transitory inventories are some of the activities involved in the process. An organization should invest in the good practice of managing the entire system to ensure that all the actors involved synchronize their actions to meet the desired outcome of the production or manufacturing unit in the supply chain. The management of a supply chain is an intense undertaking that requires the integration of all the stakeholders within the business network created to ensure on-time delivery of quality products to the consumer and through excellent services. A supply chain structure should have a capable management structure, efficient supply chain plan, reliable suppliers, and resilience against external and internal threats, all working in collaboration to meet the desired outcome. The supply chain structure employed by corporate organizations around the world serve to meet various purposes with customer satisfaction being the ultimate goal. It goes without saying that satisfied customers form the backbone of any business organization as it provides a competitive edge over other firms within the industry. Economic advantage in the form of strong financial background, such as reinvestment capital no longer counts as a guaranteed edge to outdoing competitors in the market for a given business entity CITATION Sag12 \l 1033 (Gadekar, 2012). Instead, it is the ability to maintain standardized processes in the production of goods and services, and excellent delivery services of both that makes for an organization’s success in the highly competitive 21st-century economic sector. Evidently, the end-user of a particular product plays a significant role in determining the profitability or rather the viability of any business venture. Consumers’ satisfaction, to be specific, is a genuine cause for concern for stakeholders in an organization as return on revenue is dependent on the number of customers and their base growth in purchasing certain products or services. Production of quality products and efficient delivery of services to clients is thus an added advantage for a firm within the competitive markets around the world. However, complex demands from the customers or the emerging trends of consumer sophistication challenges business organizations to review their business strategies to include the monitoring of the whole process of production up to the point of consummation. Supply chain refers to this entire production process as it starts with the acquisition of raw materials ending at the point of delivery CITATION Pat16 \l 1033 (Patrik & Jan, 2016). First and foremost the supply chain structure for the movement of material should have good management practices aiming to exemplify the activities of each and every department or majors actors involved in the process. Supply chain management, as it is commonly known, plays the overall role of overseeing the activities of the whole network of the integrated business taking part in the movement of materials from the point of origin to the final delivery to the consumer CITATION Sag12 \l 1033 (Gadekar, 2012). It is the duty of the supply chain management to ensure that the system is effective and continuously makes adjustments to meet the ever-shifting or sophistication of the customer demands. Supply chain management comes from the understanding that the handling of materials is a source of revenue for an organization and plays a very important role in an organization as it is revenue generation that keeps it breathing. The supply chain management has to impact the whole network with good practices and ideals aimed at customer satisfaction. Based on the analogy that satisfied customers means increased revenues, the supply chain management should always endeavor to reduce the costs incurred during the movement of materials for the value addition purpose. The reduced cost of the logistics involved and value addition coupled with the competitive prices attached to the products on their delivery to the end user enhances their satisfaction and consequently their loyalty to the brand and the organization of origin CITATION Pat16 \l 1033 (Patrik & Jan, 2016). Supply chain management in a structure for movement of materials serves various functions intertwined to ensure that the product is handled with care and meets all the required processing activities. It functions, for instance, to monitor the movement of the material in its raw form into the destined organization, oversee specific areas of its processing process into finished goods, and subsequent transportation of the finished products from the organization to the customers. Supply chain management purposes to monitor the shared responsibilities created by the division and change of ownership of the outlined functions by various actors within the same production line for a particular product form its raw form. The functions of a supply chain can, therefore, be classified into three categories according to the stages of production or rather the movement process from being raw to finished products at the customer’s end. The supply chain management functions starts at the tactical level CITATION Sag12 \l 1033 (Gadekar, 2012). It is its mandate to make purchasing decisions which also include sourcing of contracts for suppliers. It is also involved in making production decisions such as scheduling of completion times, contracting of manufactures, and creating the production plans. It is the supply management that comes up with the strategy for transportation of material and monitor the consumer behavior to make accommodative improvements and changes accordingly. In regards to the strategic level of the supply chain structure, the management acts as sensitizing agents for the whole network involved in the movement of materials towards the desired outcome of the organization, customer satisfaction CITATION Pat16 \l 1033 (Patrik & Jan, 2016). It accounts for the number of distribution centers and warehouses, their sizes, and their respective locations. It is the supply chain management that is tasked with the responsibility of making strategic partnership with actors involved in the chain including suppliers, distributors, and the customers. It also forms a communication channel connecting all the stakeholders involved in the supply chain thus building a cohesive integrated network embedded on customer satisfaction. The supply chain management also serves to manage the material’s life cycle and thus providing for a smooth integration of the existing product and the newly introduced product in the chain. At the operational level, the supply chain management focuses on planning and forecasting on demand and sharing the information with all the actors in the chain, timely production scheduling for all the processing facilities acting in the supply chain, and attending to challenges arising in the movement of materials. All damage cases are also under the jurisdiction of the supply chain management as it seeks to maintain the continuous movement of material form their points of origin to the final consumer. The services of supply chain management cannot be overlooked as they lay the foundation upon which the structure depends for customer satisfaction and timely delivery of products. It is through efficient supply chain management that activities of the system or network created by the actors involved can be standardized and synchronized to meet the desired effect. Timely delivery of finished goods to the customer depends on good management of the supply chain to offset challenges such as production delays, cost of defective products, dissatisfied partners in the chain, and disappointed customers. Any form of disruption or failure to meet the required standards or requirements by any of the stakeholders in the chain would lead to the occurrence of the outlined challenges. However, a dedicated supply chain management team should integrate all the involved stakeholders and consolidate their efforts towards a common goal of revenue generation. The supply chain management can only achieve the profitable endeavor through putting...