Supply Chain Management For Dummies. Daniel Stanton

274

      269  275

      270  276

      271  277

      272  278

      273  279

      274  280

      275  281

      276  282

      277  283

      278  284

      279  285

      280  287

      281  288

      282  289

      283  290

      284  291

      285  292

      286  293

      287 294

      288  295

      289 296

      290  297

      291 298

      292  299

      293  300

      294  301

      295 302

      296  303

      297  304

      298  305

      299 306

      300  307

      301  308

      302  309

      303  310

      304  311

      305 312

      306  313

      307  314

      308  315

      309  316

      310  317

      311  318

      312  319

      313  320

      314  321

      315  322

      316  323

      317  325

      318  326

      319  327

      320  328

      321  329

      322  330

      323  331

      324 332

      325  333

      326  335

      327 336

      328 337

      329 338

      330 339

      331 340

      332 341

      333 342

      334 343

      335 344

      336 345

      337 346

      338 347

      339 348

      340  349

      341  350

      342  351

Introduction

      Supply chain management is about seeing your business as an interconnected system. Supply Chain Management For Dummies covers the tools, rules, and language that you need to understand how the parts of your company’s supply chain fit together. The book also shows you how to plan and manage your supply chain in ways that reduce costs, increase profits, and minimize risk.

About This Book

      Many books treat supply chain management as part of operations, logistics, or procurement, but this book takes a broader approach, showing that those functions are interconnected parts of a system.

      I include lots of everyday examples that make it easy to understand each step in any supply chain and how virtually any company can employ supply chain principles.

      Most people get to see only a small part of the supply chains that they work in. This book helps you understand all the other processes and systems in a supply chain, as well as how decisions that you make affect others up and down the supply chain, including your customers and suppliers. The book uses language that’s easy to understand and is organized in a way that makes access to specific topics easy.

Foolish Assumptions

      In writing this book, I assumed that supply chain management is important to you because

       You need to understand it for your current job.

       You need to understand it for a future job.

       You need to explain it to other people so that they can do their jobs better.

I assume that you have some connection to supply chain management, probably because you’ve studied or worked in logistics, operations, or procurement. I assume that you may have been taught to see supply chain management from a narrow, functional perspective rather than as an end-to-end, integrated system.

      I assume that you want to understand how decisions made in one part of a supply chain can influence the results in another. Many companies have made bad choices with expensive consequences simply because they didn’t recognize the effects of those choices on their supply chains. When you consider that more than 70 percent of costs and 100 percent of revenue depend on supply decisions, it’s clearly worth the time and energy to understand how to manage a supply chain efficiently.

Icons Used in This Book

      Icons emphasize a point to remember, a danger to be aware of, or information that you may find helpful.

      

The Tip icon marks tips (duh!) and shortcuts that you can use to make supply chain management easier.

      

Remember icons mark information that’s especially important to know. To siphon off the most important information in each chapter, skim the paragraphs that have these icons.

      

The Technical Stuff icon marks information of a highly technical nature that you can normally skip.

      

The Warning icon tells you to watch out! It marks important information that may save you headaches.

Where to Go from Here

      You can read this book in different ways, depending on why you’re reading it. You can certainly start at the beginning and skip the