Supply Chain Management For Dummies

Chapter 5

Connecting Supply Chain Processes

IN THIS CHAPTER

Breaking the supply chain into processes

Organizing processes with the SCOR framework

Creating metrics and targets for your supply chain

Chapter 2 covers several different ways that you can describe a supply chain, and one of the options was to look at it as a series of processes. This chapter goes deeper into that process-focused perspective and shows how to set targets, measure performance, and make better management decisions.

Supply chain management is such a new field that there aren’t official rules or standards for many of these processes. A consortium of companies has been working together in the last few years to develop a shared framework called the Supply Chain Operations Reference Model (SCOR Model). As these companies have begun to incorporate the SCOR Model into their management systems, it has become easier for all of us to communicate more effectively about what’s really happening in our supply chains.

Understanding Supply Chain Processes

I define a supply chain process as any activity or series of activities that adds value to a product or service. Making a hamburger is a supply chain process, for example, because ...