Critical Factors affecting Supply Chain Management (SCM)

Globalization with the advent of information technology and the rapid improvements of industry standards has open doors to various opportunities in areas such as Warehouse Management, Supply Chain Management, Logistics and other areas just to mention a few.

Supply chain management is applied by companies across the globe due to its demonstrated

results such as delivery time reduction, improved financial performance, greater customer

satisfaction, building trust among suppliers, and others. The image below identifies some components of Supply chain Management.

Factors that affecting SCM

In order to understand how a supply chain works, it is important to identify the factors affecting supply chain management. The identification of these factors has been based on previous work by Li (2002), and Quesada and Meneses (2010). The following sections show generic supply chain management factors and sub-factors that might affect supply chain management activities.

1.      Environmental uncertainty

·   Company environment

·   Government support

·   Uncertainty aspects from overseas for international operations

2.      Information technology

·      Communication tools

·      Planning tools

3.      Supply chain relationships

·      Relationships with suppliers

·      Relationships with customers

4.      Value-added process

·      Flexibility

·      Quality

·      Production system

5.      Business management

·      Process strategy

·      Process performance

·      Marketing strategy