Index

Introduction
2.The term ‘Supply chain’ was originally associated with classical
multinational enterprises that were vertically integrated. But, now
1.The term supply chain management was coined by a supply
chain management has become relevant in situations where in
consultant
there are
Keith Oliver, of strategy consulting firm Booz Allen more than one autonomous players. In such cases, there is often a
Hamilton in 1982. dominant enterprise that uses its power to organize and plan the
Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the process of chain
planning, by involving customers and suppliers. Supply chain management
implementing and controlling the operations of the involves an organizational or institutional perspective involving
supply chain with the collaboration, business environment, power and trust; a
purpose to satisfy customer requirements as efficiently performance
perspective involving performance measurements and consumer
as possible.
behaviour; and a process perspective involving process
Supply chain management spans all movement and management
storage of raw issues such as costing, organizing supply chain, targets and decision
materials, work-in-process, inventory and finished goods making. Basically supply chain management is demand driven i.e.
from point-oforigin the
to point-of-consumption. overriding criterion is the satisfaction of the client/customer (Singh,
2006).
3.A supply chain refers to different actors being linked from farm to
fork to achieve more effective and market oriented flow of products. The
supply chain may include growers, pickers, packers, processors, storage
and transport facilitators, marketers, exporters, importers, distributors,
wholesaler and retailers. The development of supply chains requires
knowledge and expertise about chains and within chains. The knowledge
about chains is about chains strategy, chain formulation, chain
organization, chain design, chain management and partnership. On the
other hand, knowledge within chains is about chain marketing, chain
logistic, quality assurance, information flows, added value, technology
and interaction. Managing supply chains requires an integral approach
in which chain partners jointly plan and control the flow of goods,
information technology and capital from farm to fork and vice versa.
Various innovations in supply chain management include efficient
consumer response (ECR), information and communication technology
(ICT) and new generation cooperatives (NGCs) besides strategic
partnering and vertical alliances, which create more sustainable
partnership in supply chain. The development of supply chain requires
knowledge and expertise about the functioning of the complete chain
including strategic aspects i.e. framing strategies pertaining to chain
design, chain formulation, chain organization, chain management and
partnership. And the functioning aspects i.e. chain marketing, chain
logistic, quality assurance, material flow, information flow, value
addition, technology and interaction. Supply Chain Management is
concerned with the efficient integration of the entities involved so that
merchandise is produced and distributed in the right quantity, to the
right locations and at the right time.
4.Agri-food supply chains are more concerned with control of food
quality and safety and supply variability which is unique to this sector.
Perishable goods like food require a time efficient supply chain even if
rapid delivery is costly. Seasonality of agricultural production can affect
supply chain approaches. There have been studies on the governance of
conventional supply chains in India e.g. in cashew, and fruits and
vegetables. The newly emergent organic produce supply chains across
the globe have also been found to be excluding small producers due to
reasons of high certification costs, smaller volumes they produce, and
tighter control by the chain leaders in the absence of any local market
outlets for the organic producers.
Acknowlegement
 Supply Chain:
• A supply chain is the network of all the individuals, organizations,
resources, activities and technology involved in the creation and sale
of a product, from the delivery of source materials from the supplier
to the manufacturer, through to its eventual delivery to the end user.

Supply Chain Management:

Supply chain management (SCM) is the oversight of materials, information, and
finances as they move in a process from supplier to manufacturer to
wholesaler to retailer to consumer. The three main flows of the supply chain
are the product flow, the information flow and the finances flow. SCM involves
coordinating and integrating these flows both within and among companies.