Supply Chain Management and its Applications in Computer Science

Introduction

A supply chain (SC) is a network of different entities or nodes (suppliers, manufacturers, distribution centers, warehouses, stores, etc.) that provide materials, transform them into intermediate or finished products and deliver them to customers to satisfy market requests. Among others, two main factors characterize an SC node: the demand and the productive capacity. The definition of these parameters usually requires a huge effort in terms of data collection. In effect, the information management related to demand and productive capacity is a very complex task characterized by a great number of critical issues: market needs (volumes and production ranges), industrial processes (machine downtimes and transportation modes) and supplies (part quality and delivery schedules). The market demand and the productive capacity also generate a flow of items and finances toward and from the SC nodes. Needless to say, the SC management takes care of the above mentioned issues, studying and optimizing the flow of materials, information and finances along the entire SC. The main goal of a SC manager is to guarantee the correct flows of goods and information throughout the SC nodes to ensure the right goods are at the right place at the right time.