What is Supply Chain Management? Supply Chain Management Definition

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Definition of Supply Chain Management

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Supply Chain Management is the management of the supply chain. So before we can understand the Supply Chain Management definition, we must first understand the supply chain definition.

The practice of supply chain management is still relatively a new concept and some businesses are just recently setting up supply chain management teams. It is therefore natural for those involved in supply chain management to have different sets of responsibilities and varying scopes of influence. However the definition of supply chain management that we use here is a very broad one that all involved with supply chain management should adhere to follow at some point in their future.

The supply chain management definitions below are handpicked across different sources and represent well the meaning of supply chain management.

Wikipedia.com Supply Chain Management Definition:

Supply Chain Management is the management of a network of interconnected businesses involved in the ultimate provision of product and service packages required by end customers (Harland, 1996).

SearchCIO.com Supply Chain Management Definition:

Supply chain management (SCM) is the oversight of materials, information, and finances as they move in a process from supplier to manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer. Supply chain management involves coordinating and integrating these flows both within and among companies.

BusinessDictionary.com Supply Chain Management Definition:

Management of material and information flow in a supply chain to provide the highest degree of customer satisfaction at the lowest possible cost.

If you want a simple definition of what supply chain management means, then the definition used by global-supply-chain-management.com is as follows:

The planning, management, coordination and collaboration of all activities involved in sourcing, procurement, conversion, logistics and storage.

No single supply chain management definition will give you the complete picture as it is a very broad topic that warrants multiple posts in of itself. Therefore to really understand the definition of supply chain management you need to read further on in the area that interests you