Supply Chain Management: An Overview

This assignment delves into the crucial subject of supply chain management. It examines the fundamental aspects of managing a complex network of organizations involved in producing and delivering goods or services. The assignment highlights the significance of logistics, information sharing, risk management, and technology integration within supply chains. It also discusses various real-world examples and challenges faced by businesses in effectively managing their supply chains.

PROJECT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE: Understanding operations, logistics and supply chain management..................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

TITLE: Understanding operations, logistics and supply chain management
Understanding is a wider term and is a variable entity that lays an emphasis of an ability
to be aware about any abstract commodity or process. Hereby, it has become a necessary tool to
comprehend the meaning of components in relation to the operations, logistics and supply chain
management. These three key terms are significant in underpinning the conceptual framework of
gaining insights to demonstrate the overview while managing the operations and supply chain
management at several organisations (Roth and et.al., 2016). Operations are pivotal in building
the image of an enterprise and is proportional with the supply chain to manage the strategic
planning in production involving the staffing, designing and many more.
Additionally, the supply chain management is that zone where interchangeability of
unprocessed raw materials into finished products' occurs with an emphasis of logistical processes
to fulfil the demands and requirements of vendors, distributors and customers'. Along with this,
there is a great deal in understanding these activities for smooth running of processes, businesses
and entire set up for gaining profitability and productivity as well. There is further a classic
segregation of using methodologies in the operations' management including both supply chain
and logistics. It provides assistance to bring radical changes by eliminating wastage, reducing
costs, maintaining risks and challenges in procuring the competitive advantages at the global
competitive marketplaces.
In the same regard, St Mary's Hospital, London has been taken as the organization to
understand the various nuances of operations, logistics with supply chain. This was founded in
the year 1845 and is situated at Paddington, the City of Westminster. It has been considered as
one of the four major trauma centres of London. Along with, it is well established for the
maternity centre with the focus on acute services in relation to the North West London. There are
several specialities which are in working for 24*7 and includes a wide range of services like
midwife-led services, child care or consultancy etc (Swink and et.al., 2017).
With reference to the chosen arenas, the following have been considered: managing
people in operations and supply chains and managing quality. Both these regions are
interconnected but have different significance. Quality management is crucial for instilling
proper arrangement of sanitation, hygiene and adoption of standards for conducting processes,
tests, usage of equipments etc. Moreover, the management of operations and supply chain

explains the flow of regulatory configuration that further pushes the forwarding button by
involving the allocation of resources, management of supplies and delivery of services and goods
so that there will be prevalent of suitable methodologies and techniques to meet the targets and
objectives (Jacobs, Chase and Lummus,2014). Nonetheless, there is a significant need of
demonstrating an understanding for interlinking the operations with the proper implementation
of the supply chain aspects including logistical processes.
Nonetheless, operations and supply chain are in relative with each other to maintain and
monitor entire purchasing for proper evaluation. In a hospital setup, this plays an imperative role
in providing the services for managing employees and patients needs and requirements.
However, this flow of information is essential for encompassing the supply network of procuring
resources, management of supplies with suitable delivery. This SCM theory is that approach in
which cross functionality is employed to strive for satisfying the clients/customers demands with
managerial control. The focus here is to reduce the number of unnecessary steps while
maintaining the movement of medicines, equipments, surgical tools and other related objects
which are needed for the processing of distribution channels along with getting better control of
daily logistics required.
With reference to SCM theory, it is useful in attaining better control over supplies,
making an interactive channel for achieving regular details and information to access the
visibility. Along with, warehousing and inventory must have bulky items in case of any
emergency or critical situation. SCM paves the path to have a control on the labour and other
procurement costs (Dobrzykowski and et.al., 2014). On the other hand, it is an expensive method
for effective implementation and becomes difficult to manage which needs experience, skills,
functions etc. Furthermore, there might be resistance from staff along with threats from the
competitors to duplicate the strategic decision making. Moreover, it emphasis on better
information exchange to reduce the failure rate but it can become complicated to implement for
people understanding it.
In this regard, this hospital has adopted the 'value added activities' which shed light on
the evaluation of revenue generation for delivering the superior services at affordable costs
including the patients, shareholders, dealers and others. They always concentrated on the
assessment of timely availability of resources in terms of medicines, first-aid, tools, equipment

etc. Additionally, the accounting of hospital has an interpretation that ascertain the financial
operating positioning to gather the results about their targets and objectives. Moreover, this gives
pressure on having a packed and additional supplies in the inventory to combat the unexpected
medical care whether in any crisis or emergency or when any scheduled or unscheduled surgeries
needs to be done (Holm, Rudis and Wilson,2015). With the comparative analysis, Arnold Palmer
Hospital has managed its tenders in proper manner with assurance of legal contractual terms in
order to obtain the best prices. This has led them to reach the top positioning by adhering the
products supplies in a pre-qualified approachability. They never treated their patients like ill or
diseased persons but provided them with the best facilities to counter the treatment in progressive
manner by forming an amiable environment. Moreover, there is a need of collaborations in the
hospital sector because of the appropriate supply chain management with the logistics
department. This would make the processing of operations maintenance and supervision in a
more convenient approach by simplifying the responsibilities and allocation by maximising the
utility of available resources (Why Logistics is Fundamental to Supply Chain Success, 2018).
Along with this, the quality is one of the important key attributes while providing
services in the healthcare sector. Henceforth, Total Quality Management (TQM) is an integrated
and quality oriented approach to be adopted by most of the organizations especially at St. Mary's
Hospital. This highlights the three principles such as continuous quality improvement, teamwork
and customer focus. This technique must not be executed in isolation rather it must be employed
in unison with the focus on proper engagement of operations and supply chain management.
Furthermore, this TQM in accordance with SERVQUAL Model's ulterior aim is to satisfy the
patients'. However, there are variety of factors that put an influence in the working practises of
this hospital (Fosso Wamba and et.al., 2015).
This methodology is based on the quantifiable relationship between the healthcare
delivery and overall contentment level at all the levels for appropriate execution of operations. It
consists of major five dimensions such as reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and
responsiveness. Reliability is that ability that infers the dependability quotient to perform the
tasks with accuracy and precision. Additionally, knowledge with moral values emphasized on the
completion of tasks and assignments in proper manner to be assured to improvise the physical
environment consisting of equipment, personnel, interactive networks and more. Among this,
empathy is that attribute to gain the individualized attention from the users to provide proper care

to the patients. Lastly, there must be apt responsiveness that willingly assist the customers' for
prompt services. For instance, it involves surgical units with laboratory work, professionals
profiles like doctors, physicians, consultants and nurses in an organizational branching.
In relation to the above, there are ten classifications that falls under the criteria to
understand the implications of managing quality. These comprises responsiveness, competence,
courtesy, communication, reliability, access, credibility, security and understanding.
Additionally, these parameters revolutionize the necessary framework in the best possible
manner by identifying and implementing the loopholes to combat it with better tactics. The
major advantages are assessment of the quality parameter from the perspective of patients and
their families. These aid in laying a foundation that determines the bifurcation between the
expectations of services and perceptions of services. Along with, it helps in monitoring the gaps
of communications, knowledge, standards and delivery to avoid any obstacles or problems.
There is also a performance heterogeneity that brings an inseparability for clients and service
users (Chen, Preston and Swink, 2015). Here, there is also an involvement of collaboration for
the ongoing enhancements in the work ethics that engages the staff in more effective modes.
Furthermore, the disadvantages involves a number of causes such as uniform applicability is
difficult to plan, implement and execute as there are no means to measure and evaluate the
results in quantitative entities. It involves restricted commitment of service users by providing
the direct work profiles with the structural framework and put additional burden. Along with,
individualized goals of professionals that gets entangled with the organisation's goals and leads
to a hostile environment at workplace by bridging gaps among the employees'.
With its inclusion as one of the best trauma centres of UK, it is demonstrated that its
quality management is at pars with that of its other contemporary organizations. Its services
consists of more than fifty specialized services that offer details in all the medical services. The
accessibility is in relation to the accommodation services and others like amenities, food in cafes
along with parking areas and waiting zones. This hospital has remarkable positioning and is
known for its well known services. Many a time, this TQM is being neglected from overview of
making a shift from general to specialization, however with advent of globalization and
awareness through technological advancements, the patients have also become careful in
responding to the specifications asked from them while getting admitted to any clinic or health
facility (Zahiri and Pishvaee, 2017). Moreover, it is easy and convenient to demonstrate the

benchmarking and the associated performance metrics for comparative analysis between two
establishments. The components include are time, quality and cost. With Arnold Palmer
Hospital, its one of the well established names in the world which concentrates on the consistent
child care that have been providing the best services for meeting their patients' needs and
concerns. Whereas on the other hand, St Mary's still in the progression of marking themselves as
the top-notch trauma centre along with other services. There is still a scope of improvement by
focusing on the immediate areas which would assist them to grow steadily by gaining
momentum in using methods, techniques to improve the quality standards with safety and other
issues to give a platform of concise and coherent approach (Dani, 2015).
In relation to the supply chain and logistics, this quality management holds a special
place by recognizing the mechanism to provide a sustainable improvement. Along with, there is
a supervision of the performance management in comprehending the clinical practices in orderly
mode for making it convenient to the staff. It is imperative to know the application of suitable
infrastructural composition that benefits in making sufficient modifications to attain the vision
and mission of this hospital to evolve into the pragmatic management to fulfil the quality
oriented approaches (Zepeda, Nyaga and Young, 2016). Thus, both the managements must be
done with proper segregation of responsibilities to avoid any distractions and assist in workings
of this hospital effectively.
Along with this, the triple bottom line in St Mary’s is aimed at provisioning better care to
the patients by together enhancing the population health and decrease the per capita cost. It is a
common tool of almost all healthcare organizations and depicts a framework that is used for a
sustainable performance of the hospitals (Mangan,Lalwani and Lalwani,2016). Triple bottom
line represents the 3 dimensions of sustainability involving environmental, economic and social
aspects of the business. This agenda is thereby used to attain the triple aim of healthcare
organizations and are as specified below-
11 Patient care- It is the foremost aspect of the cited firm and meet the social
considerations of the cited firm. Herein, St Mary’s is required to take care of its patients
as well as workers by ensuring the provision of safe and non-hazardous medicinal
equipment’s to avoid causing any sort of harm.

11 Population health- This in regard to assure the sustainability of environment with an
initiative of minimizing any practice leading to make a negative impact on the planet. It
is also on referring to a fact which states that a sick planet results in sick individuals.11 Profit- This indicates the economic aspect of the firm where provision of good quality
care requires the adoption of efficient practices. This is on referring to both short term
and long-term sustainable initiatives that in turn leads to save costs. It is also on
considering a case of the year 2012, in which, more than $32 million was saved by
around 185 healthcare organizations. This has been done by recycling the single used
devices. After which, a strategic energy master plan was also applied which is in process
and is saving around $16 million each year. Another pivotal strategy could be the
promotion of a healthy food system that is also expected to result in long term savings
of approximate $500 billion that is usually expended on the treatments related to chronic
illness related to diet, every year (Stolze, Mollenkopf and Flint,2016).
Furthermore, this hospital's must also use the third party approach as one of the
recommendations in context of suitable maintenance of standards and norms for their staff in
order to establish professional decorum devoid of any emotions or attachments while handling
critical cases or emergencies. Along with this, self- distribution models must be applicable to
reduce the costing and improvising the inventory management through minimising the wastage
while delivering the functions and other benefits to the patients. Moreover, taskforce must be self
motivated in following the policies, norms and regulations in relation to fulfilling the
expectations made to inculcate the sense of responsibility towards understanding the implications
of prescribed medication or treatments to be availed for fulfilment of the patients' requirements
in reliable and validated approach (Riley and et.al., 2016). It also must focus on bringing the
planning and capabilities for tapping on the tangibles to upgrade the supply chain by catapulting
the value added services. Furthermore, there must be inclusion of random auditing that must be
promoted to bring transparency in the working practices of this hospital's establishment through
incorporating the operational units properly and appropriately.
It has been summarized that understanding operations, logistics and supply chain
management is pivotal in laying a comprehensive exploration to bridge the gaps that heathcare
sector has been seeing in recent times. Furthermore, all the regulatory bodies have started putting

the compliance of regulations and policies to support the needs and requirements of patients in
well established manner by generating awareness. Moreover, it also brought revolutionary
changes in the chosen organisation's approach to plagued down all its hurdles and issues by
cooperating and laying team spirit between the employers-employees'. To sum up, the health
care supply chain management with the operations and logistics have brought significant changes
to bring this hospital among the top-notch establishments.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Jacobs, F.R., Chase, R.B. and Lummus, R.R., 2014.Operations and supply chain management
(pp. 533-535). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Zepeda, E.D., Nyaga, G.N. and Young, G.J., 2016. Supply chain risk management and hospital
inventory: Effects of system affiliation. Journal of Operations Management.44. pp.30-47.
Mangan, J., Lalwani, C. and Lalwani, C.L., 2016. Global logistics and supply chain
management. John Wiley & Sons.
Dobrzykowski, D. and et.al., 2014. A structured analysis of operations and supply chain
management research in healthcare (1982–2011).International Journal of Production
Economics.147. pp.514-530.
Holm, M.R., Rudis, M.I. and Wilson, J.W., 2015. Medication supply chain management through
implementation of a hospital pharmacy computerized inventory program in Haiti. Global
health action.8(1). p.26546.
Riley, J.M. and et.al., 2016. How internal integration, information sharing, and training affect
supply chain risk management capabilities. International Journal of Physical Distribution
& Logistics Management.46(10). pp.953-980.
Chen, D.Q., Preston, D.S. and Swink, M., 2015. How the use of big data analytics affects value
creation in supply chain management. Journal of Management Information Systems.32(4).
pp.4-39.
Roth, A. and et.al., 2016. Knowledge creation and dissemination in operations and supply chain
management. Production and Operations Management. 25(9). pp.1473-1488.
Swink, M. and et.al., 2017.Managing operations across the supply chain. New York, NY:
McGraw-Hill Education.
Dani, S., 2015. Food supply chain management and logistics: From farm to fork. Kogan Page
Publishers.
Stolze, H.J., Mollenkopf, D.A. and Flint, D.J., 2016. What is the right supply chain for your
shopper? Exploring the shopper service ecosystem. Journal of Business Logistics. 37(2).
pp.185-197.
Zahiri, B. and Pishvaee, M.S., 2017. Blood supply chain network design considering blood group
compatibility under uncertainty. International Journal of Production Research. 55(7).
pp.2013-2033.
Fosso Wamba, S. and et.al., 2015. Guest editorial: information technology-enabled supply chain
management.Production Planning & Control.26(12). pp.933-944.
Online
Why Logistics is Fundamental to Supply Chain Success, 2018. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.michiganstateuniversityonline.com/resources/supply-chain/
logistics-fundamental-to-supply-chain-success/>.