Supply chain execution (SCE) is the execution of SCP. Essentially, SCE puts the Supply chain management planning into motion and reflects the processes involved in improving the collaboration of all members of the supply chain. SCE involves the management of three key elements of the supply chain: product flow, information flow, and financial flow.
5. How does supply chain visibility help and organization react to external events?
Supply chain visibility refers to the company’s ability to track products as they move through the supply chain but also to foresee external events. Being able to see where a shipment is at any given time can be of tremendous help. For example, knowing where a shipment is and being able to expedite it can help in not losing a sale or help in taking a sale from a competitor. Also, knowing where a supplier is located can help to anticipate and react to natural disasters. For example if the supplier is in Taiwan, supply chain visibility would allow the company to plan for a possible tsunami to hit Taiwan. Without supply chain visibility, the company would not even know the supplier was located in Taiwan, and thus not be able to plan effectively.
6. Contrast supply chain effectiveness and supply chain efficiency.
Supply chain efficiency is the extent to which a company’s supply chain is focusing on minimizing procurement, production, and transportation costs. Supply chain effectiveness is the extent to which a company’s supply chain is focusing on maximizing customer service regardless of procurement, production, and transportation costs.
7. What is XML, and how does it impact SCM?
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a data presentation that allows designers of Web documents to create their own customized tags, enabling the definition, transmission, validation, and interpretation of data between applications and between organizations. With these advanced data definition capabilities built into Web applications, organizations can then use the Web as the worldwide network for business-to-customer electronic commerce and SCM.
8. What is RFID, and how does it impact SCM?
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is the use of electromagnetic energy to transmit information between a reader (transceiver) and a processing device, or RFID tag. RFID systems offer great opportunities for managing supply chains. RFID eliminates the need for line-of-sight reading, and contains much more information than bar codes. Through RFID technology, it is possible to retrieve information about an entity’s version, origin, location, maintenance history, and other important information and to manipulate that information on the tag.
9. How does CRM differ from SCM?
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is not simply technology but also a corporate-level strategy to create, maintain, through the introduction of reliable systems, processes, and procedures, lasting relationships with customers by concentrating on the downstream information flows. In other words, CRM focuses more on the customer relationship perspective more so than SCM.
10. What is a CRM system and what are its primary components?
CRM systems are systems that pursue customer satisfaction as a competitive advantage,