Supply Chain Management development

Finally, an interesting trend in supply-chain management is improving business practices by providing capabilities to improve service for customers. One such concept is capability to promise. The idea is not just to ensure that the product is available, but that the supply chain is capable of delivering the product. This involves, for instance, capability to rapidly change the schedule to accommodate the customer order and interact with the active plant schedule. Such a system was developed at Celanese Fibers, which is integrated with a Customer Order System and enabled via a Web browser. 

The Supply Chain Operations Reference-model [12] has been developed and endorsed by the Supply-Chain Council (SCC), an independent non-profit-making corporation, as the cross-industry standard for supply-chain management. 

The optimization of value-added processes is a subject that scientists all over the world have been dealing with for more than 70 years. The first basic algorithms for so-called Linear Programming (LP) were developed at American and European universities already in the 1930s, for the first time allowing the planning and simulation of simple business processes. LP soon became the base of the first software systems and even today almost all Supply Chain Management (SCM) or... 

In addition to their use as stand-alone systems, LPs are often included within larger systems intended for decision support. In this role, the LP solver is usually hidden from the user, who sees only a set of critical problem input parameters and a set of suitably formatted solution reports. Many such systems are available for supply chain management—for example, planning raw material acquisitions and deliveries, production and inventories, and product distribution. In fact, the process industries—oil, chemicals, pharmaceuticals—have been among the earliest users. Almost every refinery in the developed world plans production using linear programming. 

Bryant, G. F. Developments in Supply Chain Management Control Systems Design. In Foundations of Computer Aided Process Operations (FOCAPO), D. W. T. Rippin J. C. Hale and J. F. Davis, eds. CACHE Corporation, Austin, TX (1993), pp. 317-340. 

Special SCM Concepts in addition, some industry-specific terms have been developed in the context of supply chain management in the last... 

Delfinann and Albers (2000) discuss further specifics of global supply chain management and network characteristics. They review characteristics such as geographical configuration and production spatial dispersion in global supply chains developed by Dicken (1998). 

Chemical-industry related literature addressing value chain management focuses on production and supply chain management as well as selectively procurement. Companies in the oil and chemical industries have been leaders for almost 50 years in the development and use of linear and mixed integer programming models to support decision-making at all levels of planning (Shapiro 2004). 

Fandel G, Stammen M (2004) A general model for extended strategic supply chain management with emphasis on product life cycles including development and recycling. International Journal of Production Economics 89 293-308... 

Focusing on the complex area of the market where chemicals are required at short notice and in fairly small quantities, chemical distributors have developed over time into important players in the value chain from producers to consumers in a broad role, serving as supply chain managers offering a wide range of logistics and value-added services. 

Over the course of time, however, leading distributors like Brenntag developed more and more towards the concept of supply chain management. Today, chemical distributors play a number of essential roles in the value chain between chemical producers and consumers (Fig. 12.1). 

Andrea Cappello is a consultant in McKinsey s Milan office. He is a member of the European supply chain management practice and has worked in various fields with a particular focus on chemicals, consumer goods, and retail. Before joining McKinsey, he worked at SAP on supply chain management, manufacturing, and product development. He holds a degree in electronic engineering, with a specialization in automatic control, from the Politecnico di Milano. 

Process management as a supplement to a process control system tools allow the product manufacturer to visualize and optimize their production efficiency. A new market space just develops which addresses enterprise operation management. These tools help to integrate existing plant floor and business applications in order to prepare management decisions. The idea is to create a transparent production tool throughout the whole production process in the form of a so-called supply chain management. 

Additionally, international experience in terms of proven technology capability should be considered further. A number of nations have had substantial clean-up programmes over the previous two decades, with proven delivery capability. As improvements in the supply chain management take place within the competitive clean-up market, more proven technology options will be proposed, requiring minimal development activities. 

One company formed a cross-functional team to use the tool to help evaluate corporate SD status. Some gaps were identified (e.g., supply chain management and some stakeholder communication topics) that helped to develop corresponding programs. In addition, one of the key benefits of the approach was that it enabled learning and productive discussion within the crossfunctional team that enhanced everyone s understanding of the SD issue and its importance for the company. 

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