What is Supply Chain Management?

Supply chain management, simply put, is the mission center that integrates suppliers to work together efficiently and calibrates supply and demand throughout the process, from the creation of a product to its delivery to the customer.

Supply Chain Management, which should not be defined as separate parts but as a fully interconnected network, includes supply planning, product planning, demand planning, sales and operations planning, and supply management, with each element depending on the preceding and following elements.

Importance of Supply Chain Management

The advantages of supply chain management for companies can be briefly summarized in a few main points;

A proper supply chain management strategy helps to eliminate the need for an expensive warehouse, as it ensures fast delivery of products from the manufacturer to the retail outlet. A well-planned and well-functioning supply chain management reduces purchasing costs by eliminating warehouses.
In time, a supply chain management strategy will allow businesses to predict stock shortages before they occur. Using data such as reorder frequency, order quantity received and number of orders, they can prevent potential lost sales. It also ensures that the right number of products are available to customers at the right time and in the right places. All these factors improve customer service.
Reaching optimum – or even near-optimal – performances yields significant financial gains for your business. Efficient use of limited resources, which are categorized under three main headings: money, time and energy, naturally has a direct impact on costs.
Utilizing the right data with the right analysis tools, planners reduce a range of supply chain disruptions such as demand forecasting and coordination, redundancies, overstocks and inventories.

Regardless of the service you provide, the most important step on the road to growth is taken for any organization that ensures consistency in service quality on the customer side. Customer satisfaction and the standard set, first and every time, builds trust with the customer. And trust continues to be the most valid reference all over the world.

Supply Chain Management Strategy

Supply chain management strategy may vary in line with company objectives. Market position, expansion strategy and internal dynamics can be factors that directly affect this strategy. However, we would like to share a few tips with you.

Focus on segmentation

Segment your customers according to their service needs and adapt your supply chain to serve each segment efficiently and profitably. Track the buying habits of your individual customers and always be ready to deliver as much value as needed.

Customize logistics by segments

Customize the logistics network according to the service requirements and profitability of each segment. Once you have segmented your customers, make sure your processes are tailored to meet their individual needs.

Build demand forecasts

Listening to market signals and orchestrating demand planning along the supply chain ensures consistent forecasts and optimal resource allocation. Build flexibility into your supply chain management initiatives so you are prepared to deal with extenuating circumstances that may arise over time.

Diversify Your Products

Differentiate your products to be closer to the customer in the supply chain to enable you to be more specific in identifying true demand metrics.

Reduce costs

Manage supply sources strategically to reduce the total cost of owning materials and services. Work with your suppliers to optimize the costs of doing business with you, rather than just reducing your company’s supply chain-related costs. If you reduce costs while maximizing efficiency, both parties will benefit greatly from the relationship.

Implement technology

Develop a technology strategy that supports multiple levels of decision making, providing a clear view of products, services and information to do so. This ensures that all personnel involved in the supply chain have full access to all the information they may need at a given point in time.

Analyze performance

Adopt multi-point performance metrics to measure your ability to reach the end user effectively, efficiently, and economically. This allows you to easily identify areas for improvement as well as areas where your supply chain processes are running smoothly.

In conclusion, it is important to remember that every element in the supply chain is connected to people. Their tastes, behaviors and desires change every day. It is important to read this change correctly and to be able to see the changes. Transforming your own supply chain in the light of these changes should be one of the basic building blocks for the continuity of your existence. It is important to remember that in nature, it is not the strongest that survive, but the ones with the strongest adaptability.