ABSTRACT
The term "supply chain management" has become a part of the business lexicon. This chapter defines supply chain management (SCM) as the integrated management of the business processes associated with the direct and reverse flows of physical goods, financial assets, and information from the producers of basic inputs to the final consumer's use. SCM seeks to optimize the creation of value for all customers–intermediary and final–and for other legitimate and relevant stakeholders in the chain. The technological changes in the industrial world have made it difficult for companies to use their internal resources alone to keep up with developments that influence their products and services. Operations managers realized the necessity of crossing the "functional border" between the operations function and the marketing/sales function for a better understanding of what precise combination of performance characteristics (cost, quality, delivery, flexibility, or service) would be needed to produce and deliver to compete in the target markets of the organization.
