Facilities of Supply Chain Essay Example

Supply chain refers to a company's network where the company is involved with its suppliers to make distributions for specific products that they produce. Supply chain represents the steps that the company takes to enable the product get to its customers. The activities of supply chain cover everything that includes the development of products, production of the same product, other logistics and information systems that help coordinate the general operations. The strategy of the supply chain is that it evaluates the cost-benefit trade-offs that involve the ideal competencies of the organization to attain the set high-level goals. There are different facilities of the supply chain, and they include the likes of production, inventory and information systems among others. Decisions that the company makes regarding any of the facilities determines the level of responsiveness as well as efficiency that the chain can achieve in the end.Production is a major facility of the supply chain which involves the company building factories that can accommodate large capacities of products and are flexible with the manufacturing techniques. It is the responsibility of an organization to do their manufacture in other plants closer to their target market in their full range of delivery (Hugos, 2018). Efficiency is the key in this kind of facility because the goods reach to the customer in a short span of time. Institutions can improve efficiency through the company centralizing their production in large central plants from where they do their distribution. Thus, they can get better economies of scale.

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Inventory is also a vital facility of the supply chain. The company needs to be responsible for having high levels of a wide range of products. Companies often have several institutions in various locations, and they could add their responsiveness by stocking products in the different places so that the inventory may get closer to the customers (Blanchard, 2010). Inventory management is essential in the supply chain where it is used to reduce the inventory levels of most items especially those that do not frequently sell. Stocking inventories in only a few of the locations are good for the institution because it gets the economies of scale and saves on cost.A company needs to engage in transportation because this is the only way that goods get to the customer. Transportation modes have to be fast and flexible, and they could include the likes of trucks and airplanes (Hugos, 2018). Modern companies have switched to selling their items via the internet by the use of catalogs, and they could add to their responsiveness levels by transporting these products to the locations of their clients within the given 24 hours. Making few large shipments helps the company to save on costs of transportation similar to using cheaper modes with frequent deliveries.Companies that consider information as an essential facility of the supply chain are likely to manage their chain better because they collect and share information to all members involved making knowledge widespread, less expensive and very easy to use. Companies are required to receive only beneficial information and accurately share it with the involved persons. The company also needs to generate timely data so that they give quick responses to their clients and any other market demands and situations.

References

Blanchard, D., (2010). Supply chain management best practices(Vol. 45). John Wiley & Sons.

Hugos, M.H., (2018). Essentials of supply chain management. John Wiley & Sons.