1、A supply chain is dynamic and involves the constant flow of,頁腳A supply chain consists of all parties involved, directly or indirectly, in,頁腳fulfilling a customer request The supply chain includes not only the manufacturer and suppliers, but also transporters, warehouses, retailers, and even customer

2、s themselves. Within each organization, such as a manufacturer; the supply chain includes all functions involved in receiving and filling a customer request. These functions include, but are not limited to, new product, development, marketing, operations distribution, finance, and customer service.C

3、onsider a customer walking into a Wal-Mart store to purchase detergent. The supply chain begins with the customer and his or her need for detergent. The next stage of this supply chain is the Wal-Mart retail store that the customer visits. Wal-Mart stocks its shelves using inventory that may have be

4、en supplied from a finished-goodswarehouse or a distributor using trucks supplied by a third party. The distributor in turn is stocked by the manufacturer (say, Procter &Gamble P&G in this case). The P&G manufacturing plant receives raw material from a variety of suppliers, who may themselves have b

5、een supplied by lower-tier suppliers. For examplez packaging material may come from Pactiv Corporation (formerly Tenneco Packaging) while Pactiv receives raw materials to manufacture the packaging from other suppliers. This supply chain is illustrated in Figure 11, with the arrows corresponding to t

6、he direction of physical product rmation, product, and funds between different stages. In our example, Wal-Mart provides the product as well as pricing and availability information, to the customer. The customer transfers funds to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart conveys point-of-sales data as well as re

7、plenishment orders to the warehouse or distributor; who transfers the replenishment order via trucks back to the store. Wal-Mart transfers funds to the distributor after the replenishment. The distributor also provides pricing information and sends delivery schedules to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart may send b

8、ack packaging material to be recycled. Similar information, material, and fund flows take place across the entire supply chain.In another example, when a customer makes a purchase online from Dell Computer; the supply chain includes, among others, the customer; Dells Web site, the Dell assembly plan

9、t, and all of Dells suppliers and their suppliers. The Web site provides the customer with information regarding pricing, product variety, and product availability. Having made a product choice； the customer enters the order information and pays for the product. The customer may later return to the

10、Web site to check the status of the order. Stages further up the supply chain use customer order information to fill the request. That process involves an additional flow of information, product, and funds among various stages of thesupply chain.,頁腳These examples illustrate that the customer is an i

11、ntegral part of the supply chain. In fact, the primary purpose of any supply chain is to satisfy customer needs and, in the process generate profit for itself. The term supply chain conjures up images of product or supply moving from suppliers to manufacturers to distributors to retailers to custome

12、rs along a chain. This is certainly part of the supply chain, but it is also important to visualize information, funds, and product flows along both directions of this chain. The term supply chain may also imply that only one player is involved at each stage. In reality, a manufacturer may receive m

13、aterial from several suppliers and then supply several distributors. Thus, most supply chains are actually networks. It may be more accurate to use the term supply network or supply web to describe the structure of most supply chains, as shown in Figure 1-2.A typical supply chain may involve a varie

14、ty of stages, including the following: Customers, Retailers, Wholesalers/distributors, Manufacturers Component/raw material suppliersEach stage in a supply chain is connected through the flow of products, information, and funds. These flows often occur in both directions and may be managed by one of

15、 the stages or an intermediary.Each stage in Figure 1-2 need not be present in a supply chain. As discussed in Chapter 4Z the appropriate design of the supply chain,頁腳depends on both the customers needs and the roles played by the stages involved. For example, Dell has two supply chain structures th

16、at it uses to serve its customers.For its corporate clients and also some individuals who want a customized personal computer (PC), Dell builds to order; that is, a customer order initiates manufacturing at Dell. For these customers, Dell does not have a separate retailer; distributor; or wholesaler

17、 in the supply chain. Since 2007, Dell has also sold its PCs through Wal-Mart in the United States and the GOME Group, Chinas largest electronics retailer. Both Wal-Mart and the GOME Group carry Dell machines in inventory. This supply chain thus contains an extra stage (the retailer) compared to the

18、 direct sales model also used by Dell.In the case of other retail stores, the supply chain may also contain a wholesaler or distributor between the store and the manufacturer.The objective of every supply chain should be to maximize the overall value generated. The value (also known as supply chain

19、surplus) a supply chain generates is the difference between what the value of the final product is to the customer and the costs the supply chain incurs in filling the customers request.Supply Chain Surplus=Customer Value-Supply Chain CostThe value of the final product may vary for each customer and

20、 can be estimated by the maximum amount the customer is willing to pay for it. The difference between the value of the product and its price remains with the customer as consumer surplus. The rest of the supply chain surplus becomes supply chain profitability, the difference between the revenue gene

21、rated from the customer and the overall cost across the supply chain. For example, a customer purchasing a wireless muter from Best Buy pays $60, which represents the revenue the supply chain receives. Customers who purchase the muter clearly value it at or above $60. Thus, part of the supply chain

22、surplus is left with the customer as consumer surplus. The rest stays with the supply chain as profit. Best Buy and other stages of the supply chain incur costs to convey information, produce components, store them, transport them, transfer fundsz and so on. The difference between the $60 that the c

23、ustomer paid and the sum of all costs incurred by the supply chain to produce and distribute the muter represents the supply chain profitability.Supply chain profitability is the total profit to be shared across all supply chain stages and intermediaries. The higher the supply chain profitability, t

24、he more successful is the supply chain.For most profit-making supply chains, the supply chain surplus will be strongly correlated with profits. Supply chain success should be measured in terms of supply chain profitability and not in terms of the profits at an individual stage. (In subsequent chapte

25、rs, we see that a focus on profitability at individual stages may lead to a reduction inoverall supply chain profits.),頁腳A focus on growing the supply chain surplus pushes all members of the supply chain toward growing the size of the overall pie.Having defined the success of a supply chain in terms

26、 of supply chain profitability, the next logical step is to look for sources of value, revenue, and cost. For any supply chain, there is only one source of revenue: the customer. The value obtained by a customer purchasing detergent at Wal-Mart depends upon several factors including the functionalit

27、y of the detergent, how far the customer has to travel to Wal-Mart, and the likelihood of finding the detergent in stock. The customer is the only one providing positive cash flow for the Wal-Mart supply chain. All other cash flows are simply fund exchanges that occur within the supply chain, given

28、that different stages have different owners. When Wal-Mart pays its supplier; it is taking a portion of the funds the customer provides and passing that money on to the supplier. All flows of information product, or funds generate costs within the supply chain. Thus； the appropriate management of th

29、ese flows is a key to supply chain success. Effective supply chain management involves the management of supply chain assets and product, information and fund flows to maximize total supply chain surplus. A growth in supply chain surplus increases the size of the total pie, allowing contributing mem

30、bers of the supply chain to benefit.,頁腳In this book; we have a strong focus on analyzing all supply chain decisions in terms of their impact on the supply chain surplus. These decisions and their impact can vary for a wide variety of reasons. For instance, consider the difference in the supply chain

31、 structure for fast-moving consumer goods observed in the United States and India. U.S. distributors play a much smaller role in this supply chain compared to their Indian counterparts. We argue that the difference in supply chain structure can be explained by the impact a distributor has on the sup

32、ply chain surplus in the two countries.Retailing in the United States is largely consolidated, with large chains buying consumer goods from most manufacturers. This consolidation gives retailers sufficient scale that the introduction of an intermediary such as a distributor does little to reduce cos

33、ts and may actually increase costs because of an additional transaction. In contrast, India has millions of small retail outlets. The small size of Indian retail outlets limits the amount of inventory they can hold, thus requiring frequent replenishment-an order can be compared with the weekly groce

34、ry shopping for a family in the United States. The only way for a manufacturer to keep transportation costs low is to bring full truckloads of product close to the market and then distribute locally using milk runs1 with smaller vehicles. The presence of an intermediary who can receive a full truckl

35、oad shipment, break bulk, and then make smaller deliveries to the retailers is crucial if transportation costs are to be kept low. Most Indian distributors are one-stop shops, stocking everything from cooking oil to soaps and detergents made by a variety of manufacturers. Besides the convenience pro

36、vided by one-stop shopping/ distributors in India are also able to reduce transportation costs for outbound delivery to the retailer by aggregating products across multiple manufacturers during the delivery runs. Distributors in India also handle collections, because their cost of collection is sign

37、ificantly lower than that of each manufacturer collecting from retailers on its own would be. Thus, the important role of distributors in India can be explained by the growth in supply chain surplus that results from their presence. The supply chain surplus argument implies that as retailing in Indi

38、a begins to consolidate, the role of distributors will diminish.There is a close connection between the design and management of supply chain flows (product, information and funds) and the success of a supply chain. Wal-Mart, Amazon, and Seven-Eleven Japan are examples of companies that have built t

39、heir success on superior design, planning, and operation of their supply chain. In contrast the failure of many online businesses such as Webvan can be attributed to weaknesses in their supply chain design and planning. The rise and subsequent fall of the bookstore chain Borders illustrates how a failu