The scope of supply chain management 

Supply chain management includes the determination of suppliers; distributors, distribution channels and warehousing; manufacturing information and manufacturing schedules; capacity requirements and means of order fulfilment; means of finance; means of information handling; credit and cash transfers; methods of accounts payable and receivable; forecasting methods; means of managing customer information. Often there are misconceptions about supply chain management and it is confused with logistics. Logistics concerns the physical material flow in supply chain processes. The purpose of SCM is to integrate all tasks associated with the bi-directional flow of materials, information and finance into organised, coherent, managed processes in order to provide end-to-end management and control. 

The processes discussed in this section include: 

• Procurement
• Inventory management
• Evaluation of suppliers or vendors
• Logistics management
• Materials management
• Just-in-time scheduling
• Information systems integration: mrp to erp
• Evolution of the supply chain