Before products get shipped, someone has to design, manufacture, and store them. This process can be streamlined through strategic supply chain planning techniques. They can influence all components of production and distribution. Each step has to be as affordable and efficient as possible.
To compete in the market and reduce costs, companies use every trick in the book. For example, Tesla wants to make its electric cars cheaper through battery production. If supply chain planning sounds interesting, there will be essay examples at the end of this text.
🔝 Top-13 Strategic Supply Chain Planning Examples
- Unilever PLC.: Strategic Supply Chain Management
- Tesco: Supply Chain Management Strategies
- Procter and Gamble Company's Strategic Supply Chain Management
- Strategic Supply Chain Management in Business
- The Definition of the Supply Chain Strategy
- Supply Chain: Maximize, Manufacture, and Market
- Samsung Electronics: Supply Chain Strategy
- Systems and Operations Management
- Amazon.com Firm's Supply Chain Management
- Tesla’s Supply Chain Management
- Canon's and General Motors' Supply Chain Strategy
- Apple's iPhone Supply Chain Mapping and Risk Assessment
- Strategic Purchasing and Supply Chain Management
🔎 What is a Supply Chain?
A supply chain is a route that takes new products to the market. There are many individuals responsible for each link. Their number varies, depending on supply chain goals. A small group of engineers is enough to work on product concepts. Handling storage or shipment requires more people or even a separate company to pull off.
Supply chains can’t work without the well-planned coordination of all parties. When it breaks down, strategic supply chain planning disasters strike. The 2020s Suez Canal and 2001s Nike fiascos, to name a few. Many believe that supply chains simply turn raw materials into finished products. But there are several steps that often get overlooked:
- Balancing the supply-and-demand scales through inventory planning
- Producing or obtaining materials for the final product
- Assembling components and conducting tests
- Packing products for storage or delivery
- Transporting finished goods to distributors, retailers, or buyers
- Offering customer service for returned products
đźš› Strategic Supply Chain Planning Levels
There are several strategies a business can use, depending on how long-term their goals are. They offer unique methods of supply chain management.
Long-Term Planning
Businesses have to plan ahead if they want to succeed. Long-term or strategic planning allows for arranging things for the next 1-5 years. Supply chain strategic planning can also be revised each quarter or year. These long-term plans are often reserved for deep changes within the chain structure.
This model is also known as operational planning. It’s part of the integrated business planning (IBP) process. IBP tries to find a balance between demand forecasts and cost-effectiveness.
These can include such issues as an increase in production power or the development of new products. Long-term plans often cover new supplier agreements, as well as logistical and storage expansion. Lastly, this can concern new distribution channels and markets.
Medium-Term Planning
Strategic planning is adequate for the long game. But companies need less lengthy strategies as well. That’s where medium-term or tactical planning plays an important part. Such blueprints cover time frames of 12 to 24 months.
The method uses demand planning and the broad model of the supply chain to plan supplies. Several companies make an effort to hold IBP sessions every week. While many believe that it’s difficult to pull off, others believe this approach to be more productive.
Short-Term Planning
Distributors can get information about products they have to ship out immediately. Supply networks are often affected by events they can’t control. Production or distribution lines break down due to external circumstances, such as customers suddenly canceling their orders. Short-term plans can adjust to these challenges.
In the short-term method, supply chain processes are adjusted on a daily or weekly basis. In extreme cases, it happens several times per day. These short sessions can instruct manufacturers about new product requirements.
To avoid making such plans, manufacturers often create supply planning models. They cover all possibilities that can arise in this complex process. This way, everybody knows how to quickly fix issues and put the links back together.
If you found this article interesting, be sure to check out our other materials about business planning below.