供应链管理外文文献.docx

A supply chain consists of all parties involved, directly or indirectly, in fulfilling a customer request. The supply chain includes not only the manufacturer and suppliers, but also transporters, warehouses, retailers, and even customers themselves. Within each organization, such as a manufacturer, the supply chain includes all functions involved in receiving and filling a customer request. These functions include, but are not limited to, new product, development, marketing, operations, distribution, finance, and customer service.Consider a customer walking into a Wal -Mart store to purchase detergent. The supply chain begins with the customer and his or her need for detergent. The next stage of this supply chain is the Wal-Mart retail store that the customer visits. Wal-Mart stocks its shelves using inventory that may have been supplied from a finished-goodswarehouse or a distributor using trucks supplied by a third party. The distributor in turn is stocked by the manufacturer (say, Procter &Gamble [P&G] in this case). The P&G manufacturing plant receives raw material from a variety of suppliers, who may themselves have been supplied by lower -tier suppliers. For example, packaging material may come from Pactiv Corporation (formerly Tenneco Packaging) while Pactiv receives raw materials to manufacture the packaging from other suppliers. This supply chain is illustrated in Figure 1—1, with the arrows corresponding to the direction of physical product flow.A supply chain is dynamic and involves the constant flow of information, product, and funds between different stages. In our example, Wal -Mart provides the product, as well as pricing and availability information, to the customer. The customer transfers funds to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart conveys point-of-sales data as well as replenishment orders to the warehouse or distributor, who transfers the replenishment order via trucks back to the store. Wal -Mart transfers funds to the distributor after the replenishment. The distributor also provides pricing information and sends delivery schedules to Wal -Mart. Wal-Mart may send back packaging material to be recycled. Similar information, material, and fund flows take place across the entire supply chain.In another example, when a customer makes a purchase online from Dell Computer, the supply chain includes, among others, the customer, Dell's Web site, the Dell assembly plant, and all of Dell's suppliers and their suppliers. The Web site provides the customer with information regarding pricing, product variety, and product availability. Having made a product choice, the customer enters the order information and pays for the product. The customer may later return to the Web site to check the status of the order. Stages further up the supply chain use customer order information to fill the request. That process involves an additional flow of information, product, and funds among various stages of the supply chain.These examples illustrate that the customer is an integral part of the supply chain. In fact, the primary purpose of any supply chain is to satisfy customer needs and, in the process, generate profit for itself. The term supply chain conjures up images of product or supply moving from suppliers to manufacturers to distributors to retailers to customers along a chain. This is certainly part of the supply chain, but it is also important to visualize information, funds, and product flows along both directions of this chain. The term supply chain may also imply that only one player is involved at each stage. In reality, a manufacturer may receive material from several suppliers and then supply several distributors. Thus, most supply chains are actually networks. It may be more accurate to use the term supply network or supply web to describe the structure of most supply chains, as shown in Figure 1-2.A typical supply chain may involve a variety of stages, including the following: Customers, Retailers, Wholesalers/distributors, Manufacturers, Component/raw material suppliersEach stage in a supply chain is connected through the flow of products, information, and funds. These flows often occur in both directions and may be managed by one of the stages or an intermediary.Each stage in Figure 1 -2 need not be present in a supply chain. As discussed inChapter 4, the appropriate design of the supply chain depends on both the customer's needs and the roles played by the stages involved. For example, Dell has two supply chain structures that it uses to serve its customers.For its corporate clients and also some individuals who want a customized personal computer (PC), Dell builds to order; that is, a customer order initiates manufacturing at Dell. For these customers, Dell does not have a separate retailer, distributor, or wholesaler in the supply chain. Since 2007, Dell has also sold its PCs through Wal-Mart in the United States and the GOME Group, China's largest electronics retailer. Both Wal-Mart a。