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• Module overview
• 1. Introduction to supply chain management
  • Introduction
  • 1.1 What is supply chain management?
    • 1.1.1 Supply chain management: The concept
    • 1.1.2 Supply chain management: Evolution
    • 1.1.3 Supply chain management: The search for a definition
    • 1.1.4 Supply chain management: The drivers:
  • 1.2 Technology and supply chain management
  • 1.3 Supply chain management: New business models and challenges
    • 1.3.1 New supply chain business models
    • 1.3.2 Challenges
  • 1.4 Key issues in supply chain management

• 2. Supply chain management and information systems

  • 2.1 Introduction
  • 2.2 Goals of supply chain IT systems
  • 2.3 Supply chain IT goals: Challenges and means
    • 2.3.1 Standardisation
    • 2.3.2 Infrastructure
    • 2.3.3 Electronic commerce
    • 2.3.4 Supply chain management issues and IT
  • 2.4 Integrating the supply chain information systems
  • 2.5 Decision support systems
    • 2.5.1 The characteristics of decision support systems
    • 2.5.2 DSS components
    • 2.5.3 DSS in supply chain management
  • 2.6 Summary

• 3. Logistic network configuration

  • 3.1 Introduction
  • 3.2 The supply chain network
    • 3.2.1 Network design decisions
    • 3.2.2 Design consideration
  • 3.3 Logistics and facility costs in logistics network configuration
  • 3.4 Logistics network design and decision support systems
    • 3.4.1 The supply chain model
    • 3.4.2 Data and a network model
    • 3.4.3 Model and data validation
    • 3.4.4 Solution techniques
  • 3.5 Key features of a network configuration DSS

• 4. Inventory management and risk pooling

  • 4.1 Introduction
  • 4.2 Inventory: Basic concepts
    • 4.2.1 Why hold inventory: Inventory functionality
    • 4.2.2 Inventory related definitions
    • 4.2.3 Inventory related issues
  • 4.3 The inventory policy
    • 4.3.1 Basic inventory decisions and EOQ
    • 4.3.2 Inventory policy under conditions of uncertainty
  • 4.4 Risk pooling
    • 4.4.1 The Square Root Law of Inventory
    • 4.4.2 Centralised versus the decentralised system
    • 4.4.3 Supply chain inventory
    • 4.4.4 Inventory management: Practical issues
  • 4.5 Summary

• 5. Supply chain integration: The value of information

  • 5.1 Introduction
  • 5.2 Information and supply chain integration
    • 5.2.1 The bullwhip effect
    • 5.2.2 The reasons for bullwhip effect
    • 5.2.3 Quantifying the bullwhip effect
    • 5.2.4 Measuring bullwhip effect: The practical issues
    • 5.2.5 Bullwhip effect: Managerial insight
    • 5.2.6 Reducing bullwhip effects
  • 5.3 Effective forecasts and supply chain integration
  • 5.4 Collaborative supply chains and information integration
  • 5.5 Supply chain systems and information integration
  • 5.6 Information and the synchronised supply chain
  • 5.7 Summary

• 6. Supply chain integration: Distribution strategies

  • 6.1 Introduction
  • 6.2 Transportation and distribution
    • 6.2.1 Transport modes
    • 6.2.2 Inbound transportation
    • 6.2.3 Distribution
  • 6.3 Centralised versus decentralised control
  • 6.4 Distribution strategies
    • 6.4.1 Direct shipment
    • 6.4.2 Cross docking
    • 6.4.3 Warehousing and distribution strategies
    • 6.4.4 Transhipment
  • 6.5 Central versus local facilities
  • 6.6 Push versus pull systems
    • 6.6.1 Push systems
    • 6.6.2 Pull systems
  • 6.7 Summary

• 7. Supply chain simulation games:

  • 7.1 Introduction
  • 7.2 The Beer Game
    • 7.2.1 The purpose
    • 7.2.2 The Beer Game scenario
    • 7.2.3 Features and options
  • 7.3 Playing the Beer Game
    • 7.3.1 Beer Game projects
    • 7.3.2 The Beer Game: The learning tool
  • 7.4 The Risk Pooling Game
    • 7.4.1 Playing the Risk Pooling Game
    • 7.4.2 Risk pooling project
  • 7.5 Summary

• 8. Supply chain integration: Strategic partnering

  • 8.1 Introduction
  • 8.2 Strategic partnering
    • 8.2.1 Strategic partnering: A framework
  • 8.3 Supply chain partnership models
    • 8.3.1 Manufacturer and supplier partnership
    • 8.3.2 Strategic partnering with logistics service providers
    • 8.3.3 RSP or retailer supplier partnership
    • 4.3.4 Distributor integration
  • 8.4 Summary

• 9. International issues in supply chain management

  • 9.1 Introduction
  • 9.2 Globalisation and SCM issues
    • 9.2.1 Global business forces
  • 9.3 International supp ly chain - risks and advantages
    • 9.3.1 Risks in international supply chain
    • 9.3.2 Risk management strategies
    • 9.3.3 Risk management framework
  • 9.4 Issues in intern ational supply chain management
  • 9.5 Logistics infrastructure: Regional issues
  • 9.6 Summary

• 10. Product design and supply chains

  • 10.1 Introduction
    • 10.1.1 Matching the supply chain to the product
  • 10.2 Design for logistics
    • 10.2.1 Packaging
    • 10.2.2 Manufacturing: Concurrent and parallel processing
    • 10.2.3 Postponement or delayed differentiation
  • 10.3 Mass customisation and supply chains
  • 10.4 Supply chain is sues and the push-pull boundary
  • 10.5 Summary

• 11. Supply chain management and customer value

  • 11.1 Introduction
    • 11.1.1 The concept of value
    • 11.1.2 Customer service and value
  • 11.2 Supply chain management and customer value
    • 11.2.1 Tailored logistics
    • 11.2.2 Customer value dimensions
  • 11.3 Customer value measures
    • 11.3.1 Customer based measures
    • 11.3.2 Supply chain performance measures
  • 11.4 Information technology and customer value
  • 11.5 Summary

9.4 Issues in international supply chain management

Many of the issues discussed in your text in Section 8.3 concerning international supply chain management should be familiar to you. These are broader issues which are extensively dealt with in the subjects of international business and marketing. Of course, supply chain management is an all encompassing subject and the management of the supply chain is inextricably linked with the marketing function of the firm. These concerns are therefore legitimate.

Contending issues are the product characteristics and its adaptability for the specific market, as well as the management issue in the internationally extended enterprise of the conflict between centralised control and local autonomy. The other contentious issue is the preservation of the long term business interests of the firm in the changing dynamics of the market.

You should be familiar with the concept of the need for product adaptation for a specific market. The management of the supply chain has to be geared towards this process of adaptation. The degree to which a particular product may require adaptation is related to the product itself and the characteristics of the consumers and the market. This is a well known marketing concept and does not need much elaboration. The question of management is a more complex one as the goal should be to achieve the maximum supply chain efficiency with the minimum cost. In the context of supply chain management, the approach recommended by Christopher is global coordination and local management. The following table summarises some of the possibilities (Christopher 1998).

Table 9.2 Global coordination and local management

Global	Local
Network structuring for production and transportation optimisation	Customer service management
Information systems development and control	Gathering market intelligence
Inventory positioning	Warehouse management and local delivery
Sourcing decisions	Customer profitability analyses
International transport mode and sourcing decisions	Liaison with local sales and marketing management
Trade -off analyses and supply chain cost control	Human resource management

 

The other contentious issues relate to the danger of losing intellectual property to overseas subcontractors involved in manufacturing processes or in technologically innovative service sector businesses. There are many examples of subcontracting companies emerging as competitors of their traditional business partners. This is a critical issue in a world where legal systems are very fragmented, and when emerging concepts like intellectual property rights are not very strongly entrenched. Furthermore, there is a sense of protectionism which protects indigenous business firms. These are critical issues but are likely to be streamlined in the future with consensus for a uniform legal regime for most trading nations.

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