Editing Supply chain management (section)

==Roles and responsibilities==
Supply chain professionals play major roles in the design and management of supply chains. In the design of supply chains, they help determine whether a product or service is provided by the firm itself (insourcing) or by another firm elsewhere (outsourcing). In the management of supply chains, supply chain professionals coordinate production among multiple providers, ensuring that production and transport of goods happen with minimal quality control or inventory problems. One goal of a well-designed and maintained supply chain for a product is to successfully build the product at minimal cost. Such a supply chain could be considered a competitive advantage for a firm.<ref name="auto">Enver Yücesan, (2007) Competitive Supply Chains a Value-Based Management Perspective, PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, {{ISBN|9780230515673}}</ref><ref>David Blanchard (2007), Supply Chain Management Best Practices, Wiley, {{ISBN|9780471781417}}</ref>

Beyond design and maintenance of a supply chain itself, supply chain professionals participate in aspects of business that have a bearing on supply chains, such as [[sales forecasting]], [[quality management]], strategy development, [[customer service]], and [[systems analysis]]. Production of a good may evolve over time, rendering an existing supply chain design obsolete. Supply chain professionals need to be aware of changes in production and business climate that affect supply chains and create alternative supply chains as the need arises.

In a research project undertaken by [[Michigan State University]]'s Broad College of Business, with input from 50 participating organizations, the main issues of concern to supply chain managers were identified as capacity/resource availability, talent ([[recruitment]]), [[complexity]], threats/challenges ([[Supply chain risk management|supply chain risk]]s), compliance and cost/purchasing issues. Keeping up with frequent changes in regulation was identified as a particular concern.<ref>Daugherty, P. ''et al'' (n.d.), [http://www.apics.org/docs/default-source/scc-non-research/supply-chain-issues.pdf Supply Chain Issues: What's Keeping Supply Chain Managers Awake at Night?], APICS ''Beyond the Horizon'' series</ref> Complexity within supply chains has also been highlighted in ''Supply Chain Digest'' and by [[Gartner]] as a perennial challenge.<ref>Gilmore, D., [https://www.scdigest.com/assets/FirstThoughts/08-06-12.php?cid=1750&ctype=content Supply Chain Complexity Crisis], ''Supply Chain Digest'', published 12 June 2008, accessed 4 December 2022</ref><ref>Gartner for Supply Chain Leaders, [https://emtemp.gcom.cloud/ngw/globalassets/en/supply-chain/documents/trends/how_to_reduce_supply_chain_complexity.pdf How to Reduce Supply Chain Complexity], accessed 4 December 2022</ref>

Supply chain consultants may provide expert knowledge in order to assess the productivity of a [[supply chain]] and, ideally, to enhance its productivity. Supply chain consulting involves the transfer of knowledge on how to exploit existing assets through improved coordination and can hence be a source of competitive advantage: the role of the consultant is to help management by adding value to the whole process through the various sectors from the ordering of the raw materials to the final product.<ref>S. H. Ma, Y. Lin, Supply chain management, Beijing, China, Machinery Industry Press, 2005</ref> In this regard, firms may either build internal teams of consultants to tackle the issue or engage external ones: companies choose between these two approaches taking into consideration various factors.<ref>Melissa Conley-Tyler, A fundamental choice: internal or external evaluation?, Evaluation Journal of Australasia, Vol. 4 (new series), Nos. 1 & 2, March/April 2005, pp. 3–11.</ref>

The use of external consultants is a common practice among companies.<ref>Goldberg, B and Sifonis, J G (1994), Dynamic planning: the art of managing beyond tomorrow, Oxford University Press, New York</ref> The whole consulting process generally involves the analysis of the entire supply chain process, including the countermeasures or correctives to take to achieve a better overall performance.<ref>Shuangqin Liu and Bo Wu, Study on the Supply Chain Management of Global Companies</ref>