Every company must continually wrestle with the problem of deciding the right quantity and mix of products or services that it should produce as well as when and where to produce them. The problem is challenging because the decision must be made with uncertain and conflicting information about future demand, available production capacity, and sources of supply. The decision is in fact a highly complex balancing act, involving tradeoffs along many dimensions - for example, inventory targets vs. customer service levels, older products vs. newer ones, direct customers vs. channel partners - and requiring the compromise of constituents - sales, marketing, operations, procurement, product development, finance, as well as suppliers and customers - with varied objectives. The ability of a company to nimbly navigate this decision process without giving too much influence to any of the parties involved largely determines how well the company can respond to changing market conditions and ultimately whether the company will continue to thrive. This book focuses on the complex challenges of supply chain planning - the set of business processes that companies use for planning to meet future demand. Supply chain planning comprises a variety of planning processes within an organization: demand planning, sales & operations planning, inventory planning, promotion planning, supply planning, production planning, distribution planning, and capacity planning. Of course, not all companies engage in all of these planning activities and they may refer to these activities by other names but they all struggle with the on-going effort of matching demand with supply. Many textbooks address supply chain planning problems and present mathematical tools and methods for solving certain classes of problems. This book is intended to complement these texts by focusing not on the mathematical models but on the problems that arise in practice that either these models do not adequately address or that make applying the models difficult or impossible. The book is not intended to provide pat solutions to these problems, but more to highlight the complexities and subtleties involved and describe ways to overcome practical issues that have worked for some companies.

Advanced Planning Systems (APS) are a key enabler of the supply chain management. However, APS are highly complex and difficult to comprehend. This book provides students with valuable insights into the capabilities of state-of-the-art APS and bridges the gap between theory (model building and solution algorithms), software implementation, and adaptation to a specific business case. Our business case – named Frutado – provides a unifying framework for illustrating the different planning tasks that arise in a company – from demand planning to the distribution of goods – that are addressed by APS. In addition, the book guides through interactive learning units which have been created and recorded for each module of SAP ́s APS. Learning units can be downloaded free of charge ready to be displayed in a web browser. Together, the textbook and the learning units provide the required skills to better understand the concepts, models, and algorithms underlying today ́s APS.

Supply Chain Management concerns organizational aspects of integrating legally separated firms as well as coordinating materials and information flows within a production-distribution network. The book provides insights regarding the concepts underlying APS, with special emphasis given to modelling supply chains and successfully implementing APS in industry. Understanding is enhanced through the use of case studies as well as an introduction to the solution algorithms used.

Everyone can impact the supply chain Supply Chain Management For Dummies helps you connect the dots between things like purchasing, logistics, and operations to see how the big picture is affected by seemingly isolated inefficiencies. Your business is a system, made of many moving parts that must synchronize to most efficiently meet the needs of your customers—and your shareholders. Interruptions in one area ripple throughout the entire operation, disrupting the careful coordination that makes businesses successful; that's where supply chain management (SCM) comes in. SCM means different things to different people, and many different models exist to meet the needs of different industries. This book focuses on the broadly-applicable Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) Model: Plan, Source, Make, Deliver, Return, and Enable, to describe the basic techniques and key concepts that keep businesses running smoothly. Whether you're in sales, HR, or product development, the decisions you make every day can impact the supply chain. This book shows you how to factor broader impact into your decision making process based on your place in the system. Improve processes by determining your metrics Choose the right software and implement appropriate automation Evaluate and mitigate risks at all steps in the supply chain Help your business function as a system to more effectively meet customer needs We tend to think of the supply chain as suppliers, logistics, and warehousing—but it's so much more than that. Every single person in your organization, from the mailroom to the C-suite, can work to enhance or hinder the flow. Supply Chain Management For Dummies shows you what you need to know to make sure your impact leads to positive outcomes.

Through this book, practitioners will obtain valuable new insights and examples of implementable frameworks and methods for managing their supply chain functions and organizations. The critical role that supply chain planning contributes to a firm’s financial well-being has never been greater. All too often, however, considerable managerial resources are directed toward planning activities with minimal results. In this book, we present proven, practical management frameworks used by the authors to support supply chain operations management and planning in private industry. These frameworks provide methodologies for managing critical activities such as supply chain strategic planning and project selection, manufacturing and distribution planning, performance measurement, supply chain risk management, and customer logistics and inventory deployment. This book is intended for supply chain professionals, as well as for graduate and advanced undergraduate students. Practitioners will obtain valuable new insights and examples of implementable frameworks and methods for managing their supply chain functions and organizations. Students will develop an understanding of real-world approaches for supply chain planning, decision support, and many other key activities.

Manufacturing Planning and Control Systems for Supply Chain Management is both the classic field handbook for manufacturing professionals in virtually any industry and the standard preparatory text for APICS certification courses. This essential reference has been totally revised and updated to give professionals the knowledge they need.