Supply chain management
This is a business research paper topic outline on supply chain management. Custom business case studies are Paper Masters specialty. You can have any particular industry, business or case study written on the supply chain management side of the business or organization. Paper Masters' writers will write the project according to whatever you need explored in business management issues for an MBA or Undergraduate business project.
Supply Chain Management Research Paper from Paper Masters
- International supply chain management and strategies to prevent the breakdown of supply chain under such events.
- Service supply chain: strategy, planning, performance measurement, and management
Written as a:
- Academic research paper
- Case study
- Practice of supply chain management in one particular service industry
In each of the above case, numerical data to support your points are important.
The business world has undergone dramatic changes over the past decade, including globalization, increased customer demands, technological advancements, and more frequent inter-firm collaborations, among others. Such changes have forced organizations to focus on managing and improving their entire supply chains, rather than simply concentrating on the manufacturing or product aspect of businesses as was a prevalent focus in the past. And whereas market competition previously occurred between companies, global market competition today is heavily rooted in supply chains. Indeed, supply chain performance is a critical source of organizational competitive advantage, especially in today's global environment. In order to reduce complexity and enhance the efficacy of supply chain architectures, the importance of supply chain management is increasingly emphasized. The primary goals of supply chain management are threefold: reduce inventory, expedite transactions, and increase sales through the enhancement of customer services. This paper examines the highly interrelated aspects of supply and demand within the framework of supply chain management.
A major trend in supply chain management is an increased focus on the demand side of businesses, where organizations pay close attention to better comprehending and addressing customer needs. According to Godsell, Harrison, Emberson, and Storey, "Fueled by increasing market fragmentation, the desire to consume "experiences" and increased market literacy, consumers are becoming increasingly discerning". Thus, consumers are becoming more demanding with needs and intelligent companies are strategizing to best meet and even exceed such demands. Accordingly, the alignment of demand creation and demand fulfillment as the primary supply chain management issue.
In effective supply chain management paradigms, supply and demand are intimately linked and are inseparable. Lapide discusses demand management, in which supply is managed proactively rather than reactively. The author explains, "customer demand is variable and somewhat controllable, so that it can be optimally generated and shaped in conjunction with supply". Thus, supply and demand must be effectively matched, which can be accomplished through strategic short-, medium-, and long-term demand planning. A company's supply chain is necessarily linked to its demand chain.
Supply chain management strategies should consider demand as well as the related topic of product uncertainty. Products with stable demand and dependable supply sources should be managed differently than products that are highly unpredictable with unstable supply sources.
Effective supply chain management matches strategies to customer needs (demands). Demand for stable products is predictable, while demand for innovative products is often unpredictable. However, innovative products often yield higher product profit margins than functional products. Research papers describe "lean" and "agile" supply chain strategies as having viability in varying market environments. Again, the value of one strategy over the other is largely impacted by product demand, lending itself to the conclusion that supply chain management strategies should be led by demand. Inventory control is widely considered an important aspect of supply chain management. You will want to compare the methodologies of the following:
- Material requirements planning (MRP) - Push inventory systems
- Just-in-time (JIT) - Pull inventory systems
- Hybrid methodological approaches to inventory management.
Research indicates that MRP is appropriate for companies with multiple product options, recurrent engineering adaptations, and unpredictable product systems. JIT, on the other hand, is better suited for companies with limited product choices, infrequent engineering changes, and not as much demand-level variation. Hybrid methodologies have also become popular as a method of exploiting the advantages of both systems to best enhance supply chain (and demand chain) performance