Identify an improvement project in inventory and supply chain operations in your organisation or an organisation you are familiar with. 1. Describe how this improvement is planned in terms of: · the...

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction    3
Improvement in Operations    3
Planning and Technology    3
The Project Planning Approach    4
The Quality Improvement Approach    4
Risk Factors and Mitigation of Risks    5
Financial Concepts    6
Conclusion    7
References    8
Introduction
Supply chain management is comprised of all businesses and individual contributors, which help in creating a product from raw material to finished stage of merchandise. It is the end-to-end supply and manufacture of goods and services. In 1998, the Council of Logistics Management modified its definition of logistics. Logistics is now a small part of the entire supply chain. The improvement in supply change is addressed in industry to ensure cost effectiveness in manufacture and supply to the consumer. The improvement is also necessary in the non-manufacturing sector such as retail and other services sectors. In this project, the improvement in supply chain is addressed as an ongoing process and as a project planning approach. The organisation in focus is a pharmaceutical company.
Improvement in Operations
Suppliers can have a substantial role in improving profitability. Managing supplier relationship has undergone a sea change in the past few years due to the growth in technology, globalisation of businesses and significant need of integration and automation. Two important areas of improvement considered for the purpose of this exercise are supplier relationship management (SRM) and adoption of new digital technologies (Lyall, Mercier & Gstettner, 2018).
Planning and Technology
The main types of suppliers in a business are wholesalers and distributors, manufacturers and vendors, and import sources. The supply chain of a pharmaceutical business can have companies involved in logistics such as warehousing and shipping companies, freight and cargo carries. The companies engaged in manufacture and packaging and several individual contributors are important in the retail chain (The Balance Small Business, 2019). This makes the supply chain logistics management extremely complicated. Thus, the approach is in improving operations should be a strategic one rather than a reactive one.
The companies, which adopt a reactive approach, find out a way to improve the performance of unreliable suppliers. It involves trouble shooting and is a time-consuming process. It results in delay in supplies and subsequent production delay causing customer dissatisfaction. A strategic approach is employed when the company wants to ensure a competitive edge in the end. The agreements and negotiations with potential suppliers begin even before an agreement is formally signed (Vousinas & Ponis, 2014). The most recent example of such supplier relationships is between vaccine manufacturers or pharmaceutical companies and vaccine research institutes for the Covid vaccine.
The second area of improvement is adoption of new digital technologies. The foundations of digitalisation have already replaced the traditional ways of the supply chain management. The companies need to now easily capture, integrate, analyse and interpret real time data to make quick and transparent decisions. This involves a paradigm shift in thinking and can cause a major disruption. However, companies are considering options. As mentioned by Stefanovic (2014) the automation of labour intensive and repetitive tasks such as invoicing and accounting has already leaded to substantial improvement in...