Project managment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Project managment - Assignment Example Supply Chain management Review, one of the industry’s leading prints published an article by David Anderson, Frank Brit and Donavon Favre titled: The seven principles of Supply Chain Management. This came at the time when the depth of SCM as a concept was relatively unexplored and the article therefore opened a door into further studies on how to better the idea and come up with improved models. According to Bowersox, Closs, & Cooper (2007), the 1997 article properly discussed the need to adapt supply chain to the needs of customers. The agreement with this is an indicator of the futuristic nature of the article by Anderson et al, who suggested that customers should be segmented according to their diverse service needs. The suggestion to use sales volume and profitability as the matrices for segmentation has since the production of this literature been adopted by industries and major trade channels. Amazon for example, applied this concept to initiate a program dubbed; Amazon Prime where free 2 day and one day shipping at a discounted rate is provided. In the midst of scepticism, customer numbers at Amazon has continued to rise since the launch of this program as evidence of its success. Chopra & Meindl (2001) in their book- Supply chain management: strategy, planning, and operation discussed the need to customize logistics networks if service to customers if to be optimised. According to them, once customers have been segments and their needs clearly outlined, logistics networks must then be tailored to best serve each segment. This in the end ensures that custom made solutions apply among the many groupings for maximum efficiency and profitability. Wang, Heng & Chau (2007) discussed the need to align demand planning across the entire supply chain so that data on demand is shared on a common platform among associates to ensure all those involved do not keep excess stock. This sharing of demand data ensured that partners know in real time where a specific