For the last year and a half I have been working on projects to improve and implement quality tools in companies in the Panamanian logistics sector. The beginning of the second half of this decade has brought a greater boom and popularity to this area of the economy, so it surprises me that people still do not have a clear understanding of what the supply chain is and how it relates to logistics (exactly! they are not the same, although the difference between them is not the purpose of this "post").
Being in the XXI century, the basic way to learn about the Supply Chain is to go to Google and type "Supply Chain" in the search engine. In Wikipedia we will find an explanation that tells us that:
After the acronym and definition so "mystical" Wikipedia has killed my interest in knowing what a supply chain is, so let me do a better attempt to sell you the concept.
Let's start by understanding what a supply chain does. From the title of the post, you already know that I am a millennial, so it is not difficult to imagine that I have a cell phone next to me, which will be the subject of my example. My cell phone is manufactured by a Korean company. This company could have had the cell phone parts created in the United States, Japan or Singapore. The pieces were placed in boxes and sent to South Korea, where the assembly is local, however the plastics used for the cell phone cover are probably from China, as is the box in which the cell phone was packed; which by the way needed labels that had to be designed, printed and glued. Beyond the origin of the materials, let's think now about the places that cell phone touches.
Once assembled, the cell phone goes to a warehouse, where it is joined with 100 other cell phones inside a box that also had an origin and somehow reached the warehouse. The large cell phone box is placed on a pallet that is moved by a forklift, with an operator who had to receive some training. After a Panamanian company placed an order; probably using shopping software, the cell phone box is loaded into a truck that must have insurance, a driver and obviously gasoline.
The driver takes the cell phones to the airport where the box is unloaded with another forklift and another operator. The box is reviewed by a group of verifiers and after a period of storage it is loaded onto the plane that will take it to its destination, in this case, Panama City, where the cell phone will most likely go to a local warehouse (it could be within Free Zone, which would include additional steps). After planning local deliveries, a truck (which also needs another driver, gas, and insurance) drops the cell phone at a retail store; where finally, after my market research, it was bought by your server for use for the next 18 months. Solo para cerrar algunos «gaps» recordemos que bajo todos estos pasos existieron personas que trabajaron en oficinas que necesitaban internet, energía, útiles, equipos de seguridad y obviamente recibieron un salario y entrenamiento para saber cómo trabajar. Estas personas fueron las que investigaron donde se podría obtener la materia prima para los componentes del celular, pronosticaron en qué periodo era más probable que yo hiciera la compra, crearon campañas publicitarias para que yo supiera que ese celular estaba en el mercado, se aseguraron que el celular cumpliera con requisitos de calidad, coordinaron la reserva con la aerolínea, cargaron y descargaron las cajetas con el celular, vendieron el celular y todavía probablemente exista un grupo de profesionales destinados a atenderme si necesito hacer un reclamo si por alguna razón mi celular explota o algún similar. Este tipo de ejercicio se puede realizar de manera más o menos sencilla con todos los artículos que nos rodean.
One of the obvious questions would be, if that makes a supply chain then service companies don't have a supply chain?
The supply chain of a service company is similarly related to its "product." For example, after registering their guest in their reservation system, hotels "produce" experiences of relaxation through their massages, "buffets" and "housekeeping" services. Hotels "move" their customers from the airports to their facilities, not to mention that they sell us internet access and services such as washing and ironing clothes. Hotels offer conference services for those who need conditioned spaces, tables and audiovisual equipment; All of these must be purchased and maintained, which clearly helps us to see that service companies are also part of the supply chain.
Trying to decide if it would be worth doing a little blog about this, I came across a site where they said that the supply chain is the WHOLE of a business. While this definition is totally correct, I think this kind of approach doesn't make us look good to those of us who aspire to be supply chain professionals.
A more practical (and less arrogant) definition of supply chain is that this is the set of paths and components that an organization uses to plan how, when and in what quantity to obtain the raw material necessary to produce a product, move this product to markets and sell it at a reasonable price that will meet the needs of your customers.
Why then are there better supply chains than others? Not all companies have the resources to put together Apple or Amazon supply chains. Generically, the best supply chains are those that allow the delivery of a product in the quantity, shape and time desired by the customer with greater efficiency. Even Panamanian SMEs have supply chains that, when assembled, cannot forget about their end customer.
Investments in warehouses, technological equipment, marketing and the army of a thousand professionals who are behind the cell phone, wallet or laptop that we have at the moment find their reason for being in us. We are all customers from various supply chains.
I invite you to post your definition of supply chain. As customers, what do you think we can do to generate improvements in a supply chain? I appreciate your feedback and comments on this post as I will be trying to make future similar contributions.
Regards!
