Supply Chain Management (SCM) has always been important to any business, whether in a B2B or B2C environment. This has now become even more of a focus to both manufacturing and service environments. The discussion has focused on how is it possible to maximise value for the end consumer whilst simultaneously stripping out the cost of manufacture and process along the supply chain? The win win is to achieve an equilibrium where the customers gets what they want at a reasonable and competitive price, and the company maximises its profit because:
The Global Supply Chain Management Forum defines SCM as: The integration of business processes from end user through original suppliers that provide products, services, and information that add value to customers. SCM has its roots in manufacturing. In many industries suppliers and partners work together to strip out costs and improve efficiency in the supply chain for mutual benefit. They have found that to survive they have had to be more responsive and nimble on their feet, to respond swiftly to bottlenecks and share information. To achieve this, partners need to have balanced power in a co-operative venture. In the marketing context this means choosing which aspects to collaborate on, and sharing information about mutual customers and, often, integrating campaigns and activities. In this context it is not sur- prising to find associations between Ford and Chrysler, or Ford and Seat in Spain.