Following are the key elements in Supply Chain Management:
- Customers
- Producers (includes Retailer, Distributor, Manufacturer)
- Suppliers
Customers, Producers and Suppliers can be interconnected in the Supply chain as follows:
Interrelationship of the elements:
- A number of companies can be linked in the supply chain network.
- A supplier to one manufacturing facility can be a customer to another manufacturing facility and so on. Hence a number of supplier / customer relationships exist in the supply chain network.
- A number of intermediaries (distributors, wholesalers, retailers etc.,) form part of the supply chain network.
In defining the supply chain network and the integrations between the elements, the following decisions must be made
- Identifying the key supply chain elements in the network to link the processes.
- Identifying the processes that are to be linked with the key elements.
- Identifying the level of integration and management control to be applied for each of the processes
