Supply Chain Management Strategies

According to Mentzer, et al (Ballou, 2004), "Supply chain Management (SCM) is defined as the systematic, strategic coordination of the traditional business functions and the tactics across these business functions within a particular company and across businesses within the supply chain, for the purpose of improving the long-term performance of the individual companies and the supply chain as a whole" (p.5).

In order to build an efficient and successful supply chain management an efficient and successful supply chain management system, there must be five basic components that are considered and acted upon. These components are Plan, source, make, deliver, and return. Each of these components is discussed in the following paragraphs.

The planning component is critical to the success of a good SCM system. This is the step where strategies are developed as well as metrics to measure the performance of the system. Ben Worthen(2006) states, "You need a strategy for managing all the resources that go toward meeting customer demand…. A big piece of planning is developing a set of metrics to monitor the supply chain so that it is efficient, costs less and delivers high quality and value to customers". In a medical setting, such as a hospital, it is of utmost importance that physicians have all the supplies they need to care for the patients at their fingertips – especially in life or death situation when time is too precious to waste. The main objective to any strategy a hospital chooses should be to have materials available at all times in order to ensure the smooth flow of care for patients while keeping costs under control.

According to Susanna Moon(2004), "Supplies routinely consume one-fifth of hospitals' net patient revenue, repr...

... middle of paper ...

... have failed to survive because they did not recognize the importance of these issues.

Resources:

Ballou, Richard H. (2004). Business Logistics/Supply Chain Management, Fifth Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Pearson Prentice Hall, Inc.

Laith Abuhilal, Ghaith Rabadi, Andres Sousa-Poza. (2006). Supply Chain Inventory Control: A Comparison Among JIT, MRP, and MRP With Information Sharing Using Simulation. Engineering Management Journal, 18(2), 51-57. Retrieved February 15, 2007, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1091380801).

Moon, S. (2004). Taking cost off supply shelf.. Modern Healthcare, 34(47), 26-28. Retrieved Sunday, February 11, 2007 from the Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition database.

Worthen, Ben (2006). ABC's of Supply Chain Management . Retrieved Sunday, February 11, 2007 from http://www.cio.com/research/scm/edit/012202_scm.html