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Introduction
We are pleased that you contacted Strategic Procurements regarding the improvement of your hospitals logistics and supply chain. This briefing is meant to provide you with information regarding modern Supply Chain Management techniques, describe the essential components of a typical supply chain management process, and provide you with recommendations for logistics strategies.
Definition of Supply Chain Management
The supply chain is all activities associated with the movement and production of raw materials into products through to the end user or customer, including all information associted with the product and sales. Supply Chain Management can be defined as "the active management of supply chain activities to maximize customer value and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage." (Supply Chain Resource Consortium, 2006). It can also be defined as " the combination of art and science that goes into improving the way your company finds the raw components it needs to make a product or service and deliver it to customers." (CIO. COM, 2006)
Therefore we can further define it as the study and control of all the processes associated with manufacturing and distributing a product or service to a customer, to include the analysis and planning of the processes.
Components of Supply Chain Management
Supply Chain Management generally consist of distinct components as described below:
· Planning ? This phase analyzes the entire lifecycle of the product. It starts with the initial order from the customer and ends with the final disposition of returned or defective products. This phase determines the overall strategy and defines the metrics by which success is measur ...