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Last few years have seen a sudden spurt in the courses related to Supply chain management. Not many are aware of the reasons behind and what exactly comes under the purview of SCM. This article is intended to throw some light on this exciting career field. Supply chain management is all about managing the networks of organizations for efficient movement of raw material within the business framework, and later the products and the services to the end user. This comprises implementation, control and plan about how the service or the product will reach its intended destination. Also sometimes referred to as Logistics and Supply Chain Management, this field plays a significant role in the success of a business and total customer satisfaction. It entirely depends on the scale and range of the business that how complex the supply chain is going to be. The supply chain manager or logistics manager take care of this aspect of business, which consequently helps in ensuring complete customer satisfaction. Sustainability: A major issue The global economic crisis has resulted in cautious business tactics. Companies are opting for sustainable initiatives, which not only help in cutting costs but also reduce their carbon footprints. Supply chain is the first place where these sustainable business strategies need to be applied. No company can be sustainable until or unless the suppliers, which comprises component providers, transport & logistics, raw material producers and other connected businesses do not work on sustainability. Moreover, supply chain accounts for more than 50 percent of the total cost of the manufacturing companies. Further, these chains are very fragile and are easily disrupted if some natural disaster or civil conflict takes place, which has a direct impact on the costs and consumer response. For instance, when Thailand, the place where more than half of the world’s storage solutions are made was faced with floods in 2011, it led to a rise in the price by 28 percent. This was a direct manifestation of the disruption of supply chain. Hence, companies have recognised that sustainable supply chain is now not an option but a compulsion, important for the success of any business. Such new initiatives require better management practices and only properly qualified professionals can be expected to understand such concepts. This is the precise reason that companies are now hiring people who have a specialisation in supply chain management and are ready to pay them handsomely. It has emerged as an alluring field for aspirants and greater number of management institutions is now offering dedicated courses in this field. Scope of Supply Chain Management SCM is a broad application area of internet technologies and electronic commerce. Both have contributed to each other in a way that works for advancement of both of these fields. Every supply chain management course in India has two faces to it, the backend, which pertains to the physical building blocks that includes supply facilities, warehouses, production tools and facilities, retailers, distributers and last but not the least logistics. The major functional area that need to be covered under this are: • Procurement • Manufacturing • Distribution • Logistics • Global Decisions The second face is the front-end, where IT and ITEC has to play its role. The front-end facilitates the back-end operations and optimizing them for costs, sustainability and profitability. There are various technologies involved like EDI, Electronic Payment Protocols, E-logistics and Electronic Business Process Optimization. Supply chain management has proved its competence in ensuring better productivity and is now an integral part of ERP packages. Author Bio Saurabh Tyagi is an expert author, with an experience of over 4 years in writing content. He loves to write on topics related to career, education, real estate, MBA in media management and technology.
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