SCM categories

Supply Chain Management (SCM) has been developed progressively for several last decades. Researchers had been taking into account many different aspects that gave new categories such, as: Supply Chain Design, Lean SCM, Sustainable SCM and Green SCM.

Supply Chain Management

Let's take a look at some categories for supply chain management (SCM). But firstly there is a simple definition of supply chain

A supply chain is a set of relationships among suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers that facilitates the transformation of raw materials into final products.

(Benita M. Beamon (1998) Supply Chain Design and Analysis: Models and Methods. International Journal of Production Economic. Vol. 55, No. 3, 281-294)

And next is definition of supply chain management

Supply Chain Management is integrative approach to managing supply and distribution networks, that allows making the chain work better and at lower cost than would be possible by managing each segment of the chain independently.

It is the management of physical materials, services, information, money, and time across and between organizations in a business relationship in a manner that achieves the objectives of all the organizations at the least total cost.

(Thomas A. Crimi and Ralph G. Kauffman (2001) Supply Chain Design: A Necessary Core Competency to Build Sustainable Competitive Advantage. In 86th Annual International Conference Proceedings - 2001)

Supply Chain Design

Successful supply chain design is about deploying assets in ways that enhance profitability and shareholder value. You need to consider market and sourcing strategies that will generate the best financial performance. You must identify the optimal number of plants, warehouses and distribution centers to maximize long-term profit.  (c) viewlocity

Lean Supply Chain Management

Lean SCM is a new way of thinking about supplier network that implies balancing cooperation and competition to manage uncertainty and risk, align core competencies, ensure visibility and transparency, develop quick response capability, synchronize flows, eliminate waste and non-value activities, reduce production and transaction costs. Lean SCM interacts with Lean Manufacturing. One from important parts of Lean is quality.

Sustainable Supply Chain Management

This is characterized by explicit integration of environmental and/or social objectives, is focused on the forward SC and is complemented by closed-loop including reverse logistics, remanufacturing, and product recovery.

(Marcus Brandenburg, Kannan Govindan, Joseph Sarkis, Stefan Seuring (2014) Quantitative models for sustainable supply chain management: developments and directions. European Journal of Operational Research, 233 (2), 299-312.)

Green Supply Chain Management

Green supply chain management may be defined as sustainable SCM, because it inherently integrates environmental thinking into supply chain design and control.

Some companies have converted the public’s interest in how green are their business processes into increased profits. For example, General Motors reduced disposal costs by $12 million by establishing a reusable container program with their suppliers. Toyota has reduced emissions connected with its logistics processes, achieving results through improved assets utilisation, sharing vehicle transportation with other companies, and modal shifts. Such big manufactures as Marks&Spencer and Nike are also focused on Green supply chain.

There are such benefits of sustainable and green SCM, as:

• reduce waste and save operational cost
• reduce compliance penalty
• reduce health and safety costs
• improve working conditions, increase productivity and decrease labour costs
• reduce water, energy, fuel and transportation costs
• make a company more attractive to suppliers and customers and enhance reputation
• increase revenue from better customer relationship, etc.

Green SCM can be regarded as an environmental innovation.

Nowadays, most organizations are starting to go green in  their business  as  concern  to  environmental sustainability.

(Noor Aslinda Abu Seman, Norhayati Zakuan, Ahmad Jusoh, Mohd Shoki Md Arif and Muhamad Zameri Mat Saman (2012) Green Supply Chain Management: A Review and Research Direction. International Journal of Managing Value and Supply Chains. Vol. 3, No. 1)

GSCM = Green purchasing + Green manufacturing / materials management + Green Distribution / marketing + Reverse logistics

(Nimawat Dheeraj and Namdev Vishal (2012) An Overview of Green Supply Chain Management in India. Research Journal of Recent Sciences, Vol. 1(6), 77-82)