ABSTRACT
Each firm in the supply chain typically has three functions involved in its material management. These are purchasing, manufacturing (including production control), and distribution (including marketing). Each group needs to be effective and efficient to ensure that the needed materials arrive on time, are produced on time, and are shipped on time. As we discussed earlier, to ensure that the overall system is performing as well as possible, it is necessary that goals be set for the entire system and that there be system-wide performance measures that will induce each function to perform in a way that improves the entire system.
