Supply Chain Management Article Review: Financial Perspective

This report provides a critical evaluation of an article from 'Transport & Logistics News' on Supply Chain Management (SCM). The author of the article discusses strategies to enhance SCM efficiency and financial gains, including the use of S&OP and IBP. The report supports the article's core argument while suggesting alternative approaches like ITESCM. It emphasizes the importance of financial review within all organizational departments, including product, demand, and supply management. The report highlights the significance of gap identification, opportunity identification, and scenario planning to improve SCM knowledge. It concludes that SCM usage varies based on company structure and market demands, and can be optimized using diverse approaches to achieve financial targets. The report also acknowledges the weakness of the monthly review system in managing emergency conditions.

Procurement and Supply Chain
Management
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Dated: March 14, 2018

Supply Chain Management Student Name & ID
Table of Contents
Summary of the Article..............................................................................................................3
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Argument....................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................5
Appendix....................................................................................................................................6
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Summary of the Article
In this document, we shall critically evaluate the article being posted in the famous
newspaper ‘Transport & Logistics News’ on the topic of ‘Supply Chain Management’
(Pauka, 2018). The selected topic has discussed the ways in which the supply chain
management (SCM) system can be made the most efficient and effective in gaining the
financial profits for the organization. The author has presented many ways of utilizing the
SCM method so that it provides maximum benefit to the organization.
Introduction
The SCM is a process or the system used to plan the development of a final product starting
from the ordering of raw materials, transportation, manufacturing and finally the processing
and delivering to the customers (Rouse, 2010). It is a complex system which is being used by
the different set of business especially the product manufacturers like mobile phone suppliers,
steel suppliers, food suppliers etc. to track and manages the system from the raw material to
the customers through many channels (Janvier-James, 2012). I am fully supporting the
article, but with some observations, which shall be discussed in the argument.
Argument
The author has mentioned in the article regarding the introduction of different money
management arrangements which involves the supply chain management and its review at
various levels at different forums for its effective use in an organization. The author,
mentioned the use of S&OP (Sales & Operations Planning) and IBP (Integrated Business
Planning) are the two-different business set-up which can use the SCM effectively but with
different approaches. I think the two-different approaches being adopted by the author are
correct, but there can be many other approaches to suit the organization’s demand. Like there
can be other approaches ITESCM (Integrated Tertiary Educational SCM), which helps all the
stakeholders of the SCM to review and plan for their strategies so that the goal of achieving
the desired target can be achieved quickly (Habib, 2014).
Irrespective of the topic named on the SCM, but the author has initially started the argument
with the involvement of finance in every department of the organization including in SCM. I
think the author got the subject of the article diversified with different verticals of the
organization rather than just concentrating on the subject topic. Rather than discussing more
on the SCM, the author has discussed on the financial arrangement structures to have better
commercial gains.
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While discussing the role of the finance department in the organization, the author has
mentioned that the department needs to review many management departments like the
product management, demand management, supply management and the integration
management. So, in the article, the involvement of SCM to achieve the desired financial gain
is well mentioned which I think is correct, because, without the proper management and
review of SCM, no organization can expect for the gain. To gain more financial benefits, the
proper manufacturing of the product with all quality requirements and the final satisfaction of
the customer’s matters for the business organization should be done.
Discussion on the product and demand management shall not be argued to have focus on the
given topic, but the SCM and the integration management shall be argued critically. I think
the author has explained the method of financial review of the SC which is required to be in a
detailed format as mentioned in the article. The article describes that the finance department
should review the different sections of the SCM like the strategies being adopted for the
functioning, the performance of each strategy adopted, assumptions list or the risks register of
the strategies being implemented along with the strength of the organization. I think the
capability or the weaknesses present in the system should always be reviewed to update and
rectify the systems, which is being taken care in the process mentioned by the author.
The article mentions that the gap identification, opportunity identification, and proper
scenario planning according to the finical projections are required to be done to improve the
knowledge of SCM among the organization. I think it’s true that all the sections of the supply
chain are required to be reviewed to achieve the perfect match between the manufacturing of
product in-house and taking the decisions to outsource the material, and this process can
provide the proper education of the overall SCM among the organization (Wu, 2008). I think
the proper gap identification and the strength of the team identification is a brilliant tool
which shod always be used to identify the strength and weaknesses present in the system and
the regular review of the sections will of course help in developing more revenues for the
organization. In this case, the finance team reviews all such issues of manufacturing to the
delivery points to assess the situation and recommend a proper solution to achieve the finical
projections.
The article has also mentioned another approach to review the effects of the SCM by
reviewing the integrated effects of the system on monthly basis. I think this approach is more
effective due to regular review of the effectiveness of the system on monthly basis, so that the
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overall impact of demand and supply and its proper gap identification can be done in
common hall, and further development of the proper solution to fill the gaps can also be
derived from same discussion forum itself. This approach shall provide an opportunity to all
the departments to keep their view on the same forum so that the consensus common solution
which is aggregable by all departments can be developed for the success of the organization.
But the system has a weakness of managing the emergency condition, as all the stakeholders
are scheduled to meet once in a month only.
Conclusion
After conducting the critical review of the article being posted by the author (Pauka, 2018), it
can be concluded that the usage of SCM can be varied in any organization according to the
company’s set-up and marketing demands to meet the financial targets. The use of SCM can
be made more effective by adopting any of the desired approaches to overall control the
systems of the organization and generate profit according to the organization’s strength and
weaknesses.
References
Habib, M., 2014. Supply Chain Management (SCM): Its Future Implications. Open Journal
of Social Sciences, Volume 2, pp. 238-246.
Janvier-James, A. M., 2012. A New Introduction to Supply Chains and Supply Chain
Management: Definitions and Theories Perspective. International Business Research, 5(1),
pp. 194-207.
Pauka, C., 2018. This week’s MHD article is here!. [Online]
Available at: https://www.tandlnews.com.au/2018/02/16/article/weeks-mhd-article/
[Accessed 13 March 2018].
Rouse, M., 2010. Supply chain management (SCM). [Online]
Available at: http://searcherp.techtarget.com/definition/supply-chain-management-SCM
[Accessed 13 March 2018].
Wu, C., 2008. Knowledge creation in a supply chain. Supply Chain Management: An
International Journal, 13(3), pp. 241-250.
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Appendix
Original article paper
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