Basics of Supply Chain Management

Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1 Introduction

With significant growth in supply chain activities in manufacturing and other industries in the United States, there has been a tremendous need to prepare our university students for a supply chain management (SCM) career path in this new millennium. Currently, manufacturing and other industries in the United States are facing a critical shortage of personnel in SCM areas, and unless efforts are made to launch some viable programs in SCM areas in American universities for preparing university students for this career path, our manufacturing and other industries may be heading toward a crisis.

Over the past decades, many large companies or conglomerates have successfully integrated vertically from their ...