Supply Chain Management For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Chapter 2

Seeing Supply Chains from Different Perspectives

IN THIS CHAPTER

Looking at the three flows in every supply chain

Aligning key supply chain functions and groups

Designing and monitoring supply chain performance

There are several ways to analyze what’s happening in a supply chain. Each of these perspectives can help you understand how your supply chain really works and reveal opportunities for improvement. Because there are so many ways to look at the same issue, supply chain managers can encounter confusion and miscommunication about which options are the best. In this chapter, you see several of these approaches and examples that illustrate how useful they can be for managing your own supply chain.

Managing Supply Chain Flows

One great way to explain a supply chain is to think of it as three rivers that flow from a customer all the way back to the source of raw materials. These rivers, or flows, are materials, money, and information, as shown in Figure 2-1. Materials flow downstream in the supply chain, starting with raw materials and flowing through value-added steps until a product finally ends up in the hands of a customer. Money flows upstream from the customer ...