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A supply chain, logistics network, or supply network is the system of organizations, people, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities transform raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to the end customer. Supply chains link value chains^[1].

A typical supply chain begins with the 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.

A diagram of a supply chain. The black arrow represents the flow of materials and informations and the gray arrow represents the flow of informations and backhauls. The elements are (a) the initial supplier, (b) a supplier, (c) a manufacturer, (d) a customer, (e) the final customer.

There are a variety of supply chain models, which address both the upstream and downstream sides.

The SCOR (Supply Chain Operations Reference) model, developed by the Supply Chain Council, measures total supply chain performance. It is a process reference model for supply-chain management, spanning from the supplier's supplier to the customer's customer.^[2]. It includes delivery and order fulfillment performance, production flexibility, warranty and returns processing costs, inventory and asset turns, and other factors in evaluating the overall effective performance of a supply chain.

The Global Supply Chain Forum (GSCF) introduced another Supply Chain Model. This framework ^[3] is built on eight key business processes that are both cross-functional and cross-firm in nature. Each process is managed by a cross-functional team, including representatives from logistics, production, purchasing, finance, marketing and research and development. While each process will interface with key customers and suppliers, the customer relationship management and supplier relationship management processes form the critical linkages in the supply chain.

In the 1980s the term Supply Chain Management (SCM) was developed, to express the need to integrate the key business processes, from end user through original suppliers. Original suppliers being those that provide products, services and information that add value for customers and other stakeholders. The basic idea behind the SCM is that companies and corporations involve themselves in a supply chain by exchanging information regarding market fluctuations, production capabilities.

If all relevant information is accessible to any relevant company, every company in the supply chain has the possibility to and can seek to help optimizing the entire supply chain rather than sub optimize based on a local interest. This will lead to better planned overall production and distribution which can cut costs and give a more attractive final product leading to better sales and better overall results for the companies involved.

Incorporating SCM successfully leads to a new kind of competition on the global market where competition is no longer of the company versus company form but rather takes on a supply chain versus supply chain form.

The primary objective of supply chain management is to fulfill customer demands through the most efficient use of resources, including distribution capacity, inventory and labor. Various aspects of optimizing the supply chain include liasising with suppliers to eliminate bottlenecks; implementing JIT techniques to optimize manufacturing flow; and using location/allocation, vehicle routing analysis, Dynamic programming and, of course, traditional logistics optimization to maximise the efficiency of the distribution side.

Starting in the 1990s several companies choose to outsource their supply chain management by partnering with a 3PL, Third-party logistics provider.

• APICS
• Cold Chain
• C-VARWIP
• Demand chain
• Demand chain management
• Demand optimization
• Distribution
• Distribution Resource Planning
• Industrial Engineering
• Liquid Logistics
• Logistics
• Marketing
• Manufacturing
• Military Supply Chain Management
• Supply network
• Supply chain management
• Supply chain network
• Supply chain optimization
• Supply Chain Security
• Transport
• Value Chain

• Glossary of supply chain standards
• InterOrganisational: Academic Blog on Supply Chain Management

1. ^ Anna Nagurney: Supply Chain Network Economics: Dynamics of Prices, Flows, and Profits, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1-84542-916-8
2. ^ SSC Supply Chain Council, SCOR Model
3. ^ the Supply Chain Management Institute - framework