As we known, supply chain means that suppliers transfer the materials from the sources to the end of customers. In the processing of supply chain, it mainly includes purchasing, manufacturing, storage, transportation, customer service, demand planning, supply planning and supply chain management. Besides, the supply chain can achieve efficient management by three types of relationships, and that is simple supply chain, management through intermediaries and supply partnerships.
When it comes to supply chain management, there is viewed by Johnston and Clarks in 2008 that ‘A supply chain is a set of links, or networks, that joins together internal and external suppliers with internal and external customers. Supply chain management (SCM) is concerned with managing the network and the flow of information, materials, services and even customers’. Besides, the purposes of SCM are ensuring coordination and collaboration within supply network, ensuring the timely flow of information, goods and services, and minimising inventory while maximising service levels.
In the process of supply chain management, whatever suppliers and customers, their partnerships play a key role in achieving joint benefits. Suppliers and customers should trust each other, and share their own skills and information by cooperation. Especially, in the views of suppliers, they should have a long-term thinking, and satisfy customer’s satisfaction by some policies, such as paying more attention to customer’s feedbacks and joint problems solving. For example, Dell enterprise adapts simple supply chain management which makes customers as the score. As we known, Dell enterprise adapts the model of minimising inventory, and provides their products or services according to customers’ needs. In other words, the products the customers get from the Dell include their own ideas and joints.
This is an example under simple supply chain management, and it mainly performs on the simply cooperation between suppliers and customers, and it is useful for joint benefits. Except that, management also can through intermediaries and others expending through outsourcing.
For the supply chain management by intermediaries, it means that the enterprise will employ intermediaries to be responsible for the part of their supply chain, and these intermediaries can take more advantages than the enterprises in managing chain. As we known, at first, the intermediaries are the focused expertise who has professional skills and knowledge in communication with customers and dealing with the problem of customers. And by advantage of closeness to customers, they can attract more customers on supplier’s services and products. Secondly, when suppliers want to open a new market, the intermediaries can play an important role in managing supply chain, because the intermediaries know more about local conditions and