Supply Chain

About Supply Chain

A supply chain or logistics network is the system of organizations, people, technology, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities transform natural resources, raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to the end customer. In sophisticated supply chain systems, used products may re-enter the supply chain at any point where residual value is recyclable. Supply chains link value chains.

A typical supply chain begins with ecological and biological regulation of natural resources, followed by the human extraction of raw material and includes several production links, for instance; component construction, assembly and merging before moving onto several layers of storage facilities of ever decreasing size and ever more remote geographical locations, and finally reaching the consumer.

Many of the exchanges encountered in the supply chain will therefore be between different companies who will seek to maximize their revenue within their sphere of interest, but may have little or no knowledge or interest in the remaining players in the supply chain. More recently, the loosely coupled, self-organizing network of businesses that cooperates to provide product and service offerings has been called the Extended Enterprise.

Five Key Elements of Business

The current business could be described as the following five key elements:

• Supply chain: this is the source of the world.
• Markets: consumer of the world is the support for the suppliers.
• Logistics: the link between suppliers and the markets.
• Promotion: the link between the suppliers and the consumers.
• Cultural: culture effect the production.