What are supply chain strategic decisions?
Strategic decisions determine the overall direction of the company's supply chain. They should be made in conjunction with the companies overall objectives and not biased towards any particular product or regional location.
There are 4 fundamental supply chain strategies that focus on customer-centricity, predictive maintenance, automation, and visibility. Incorporating these strategies will enable businesses to meet customer demand and boost profitability.
The Top-level of this model has five different processes which are also known as components of Supply Chain Management – Plan, Source, Make, Deliver and Return. Let's deep dive into each component: Plan: Planning is imperative to control inventory and manufacturing processes.
Model answer: The 3 decision phases that occur within a supply chain are supply chain strategy (or design), supply chain planning and supply chain operation.
Supply Chain Management (SCM) involves the following three levels: Strategic Level. Tactical Level. Operational Level.
- INTEGRATION. Integration starts at your strategic planning phase and is critical throughout your communications and information sharing and data analysis and storage. ...
- OPERATIONS. ...
- PURCHASING. ...
- DISTRIBUTION.
- Recruit & Develop Supply Chain Professionals. ...
- Align the Supply Chain Team. ...
- Establish Alliances with Suppliers. ...
- Purchase Supplies in Volume to Reduce Costs. ...
- Diversify Supplier Relationships to Avoid Delays. ...
- Improve Demand Forecasting. ...
- Optimize Inventory Management.
While supply chain is a very broad career field, it has 7 primary functional areas: Purchasing, Manufacturing, Inventory Management, Demand Planning, Warehousing, Transportation, and Customer Service.
Q. | Which of the following is true for supply chain management? |
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B. | Flow of cash backwards through the chain |
C. | Exchange of information moves in both the |
D. | All of the above |
Answer» d. All of the above |
But having a supply chain strategy helps companies know how to work with their products' distributors and vendors to improve operational efficiencies and drive down costs—and that can help enable profitable growth.
What is supply chain process?
Supply chain management is the management of the flow of goods and services and includes all processes that transform raw materials into final products. It involves the active streamlining of a business's supply-side activities to maximize customer value and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Decision phases can be defined as the different stages involved in supply chain management for taking an action or decision related to some product or services. Successful supply chain management requires decisions on the flow of information, product, and funds that fall into three decision phases.

The purpose of the supply chain is to make product available to meet customer demand – and that includes delivery to the appropriate location, on time, in sufficient quantity. Supply chain management is focused on doing that in the most efficient and effective way. Everything else is of secondary importance.
Generally the key aspects of Supply Chain management are Purchasing (sourcing), Planning (scheduling) and Logistics (delivery).
Supply chain design is the process by which a company structures and manages the supply chain in order to identify the right balance between inventory, transportation, and manufacturing cost.
Operations and Supply Chain Strategy is the setting of broad policies and plans for using the firm's resources optimally. This must be integrated with corporate strategy. Operations effectiveness is performing activities in a manner that best implements strategic priorities at minimum cost.
Planning
This is one of the most important stages. Before the beginning of the entire supply chain, it is essential to finalise the strategies and put them into place. Checking the demand for the product or service, checking the viability, costing, profit, and manpower etc., are vital.
Q. | Which of the following is not a part of supply chain management system? |
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B. | manufacturer |
C. | information flow |
D. | competitor |
Answer» d. competitor |
Answer» c. Longer product life cycle.
Answer» d. faster response-to-market changes.
How do you develop a supply chain strategy?
- Align with Your Overall Business Strategy. ...
- Keep Customers Front of Mind. ...
- Compare and Contrast with Competitors. ...
- Look into the Future. ...
- Assemble a team and define your goals.
Plan. The initial stage of the supply chain process is the planning stage. We need to develop a plan or strategy in order to address how the products and services will satisfy the demands and necessities of the customers. In this stage, the planning should mainly focus on designing a strategy that yields maximum profit ...
The characteristics of a good supply chain are visibility, optimization, having the lowest cost possible, timeliness, and consistency.
the three characteristics of an effective supply chain are consistency of leadership, technology implementations, effective supply chain planning and network design.
Reactive Supply Chain Strategy | Data-Driven Supply Chain Strategy |
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Operational improvements based on guesswork or imitating competitors | A data-driven approach helps even best-in-class manufacturing operations find new ways to improve efficiency[iii] |