In commerce, supply chain management (SCM) deals with a system of procurement, operations management, logistics and marketing channels, through which raw materials can be developed into finished products and delivered to their end customers. A more narrow definition of supply chain management is the "design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of supply chain activities with the objective of creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics, synchronising supply with demand and measuring performance globally". This can include the movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, finished goods, and end to end order fulfilment from the point of origin to the point of consumption. Interconnected, interrelated or interlinked networks, channels and node businesses combine in the provision of products and services required by end customers in a supply chain.
Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption according to the needs of customers. Logistics management is a component that holds the supply chain together. The resources managed in logistics may include tangible goods such as materials, equipment, and supplies, as well as food and other consumable items.
Samuel Moore Walton was an American business magnate best known for founding the retailers Walmart and Sam's Club, which he started in Rogers, Arkansas and Midwest City, Oklahoma in 1962 and 1983 respectively. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. grew to be the world's largest corporation by revenue as well as the biggest private employer in the world. For a period of time, Walton was the richest person in the United States. His family has remained the richest family in the U.S. for several consecutive years, with a net worth of around US$240.6 billion as of January 2022. In 1992 at the age of 74, Walton died of blood cancer and was laid to rest at the Bentonville Cemetery in his longtime home of Bentonville, Arkansas.
A supply chain is a complex logistics system that consists of facilities that convert raw materials into finished products and distribute them to end consumers or end customers. Meanwhile, supply chain management deals with the flow of goods in distribution channels within the supply chain in the most efficient manner.
A value chain is a progression of activities that a business or firm performs in order to deliver goods and services of value to an end customer. The concept comes from the field of business management and was first described by Michael Porter in his 1985 best-seller, Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance.
The idea of [Porter's Value Chain] is based on the process view of organizations, the idea of seeing a manufacturing organization as a system, made up of subsystems each with inputs, transformation processes and outputs. Inputs, transformation processes, and outputs involve the acquisition and consumption of resources – money, labour, materials, equipment, buildings, land, administration and management. How value chain activities are carried out determines costs and affects profits.
William Asa Hutchinson II is an American attorney, businessman, and politician who served as the 46th governor of Arkansas from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a U.S. attorney, U.S. representative, and in two roles in the George W. Bush administration. He was a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Reverse logistics encompasses all operations related to the upstream movement of products and materials. It is "the process of moving goods from their typical final destination for the purpose of capturing value, or proper disposal. Remanufacturing and refurbishing activities also may be included in the definition of reverse logistics." Growing green concerns and advancement of green supply chain management concepts and practices make it all the more relevant. The number of publications on the topic of reverse logistics have increased significantly over the past two decades. The first use of the term "reverse logistics" in a publication was by James R. Stock in a White Paper titled "Reverse Logistics," published by the Council of Logistics Management in 1992. The concept was further refined in subsequent publications by Stock (1998) in another Council of Logistics Management book, titled Development and Implementation of Reverse Logistics Programs, and by Rogers and Tibben-Lembke (1999) in a book published by the Reverse Logistics Association titled Going Backwards: Reverse Logistics Trends and Practices. The reverse logistics process includes the management and the sale of surplus as well as returned equipment and machines from the hardware leasing business. Normally, logistics deal with events that bring the product towards the customer. In the case of reverse logistics, the resource goes at least one step back in the supply chain. For instance, goods move from the customer to the distributor or to the manufacturer.
The Eli Broad College of Business is the business college at Michigan State University. The college has programs in accounting, finance, human resource management, management, marketing, supply chain management, and hospitality business, which is an independent, industry-specific school within the Broad College. This independent, industry-specific school has 800 admitted undergraduate students and 36 graduate students not included in the college's totals.
Infor Nexus is an independent business unit of Infor LLC offering a multienterprise supply chain network. The on-demand global supply chain management platform and integrated applications are used worldwide by businesses to manage global direct procurement, supplier networks, global logistics and global trade processes. Founded in 1998, in Oakland, California, it merged with TradeCard in 2013, and in September 2015, GT Nexus was acquired by Infor. Today, Infor Nexus is a business unit of Infor.
M. Eric Johnson is Dean of the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University. Formerly, he was Associate Dean and the Benjamin Ames Kimball Professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. He was also Director of the Glassmeyer/McNamee Center for Digital Strategies. Prior to Tuck, he was a professor at management at Vanderbilt University and a development engineer at Hewlett-Packard.
The Sam M. Walton College of Business is the business school at the University of Arkansas, a public research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Created in 1926, the college is the second-largest college at the University of Arkansas, with over 5,000 undergraduate students as of Fall 2016. Walton College offers undergraduate, master's, and doctoral programs and is known nationally for its strong programs in retail, finance, information systems, and supply chain management. U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks Walton College among the top business schools in the country. The college has a close relationship with Walmart Stores, Inc., based in nearby Bentonville, Arkansas, and related vendor community.
The Journal of Business Logistics is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), covering research and best practices in logistics and supply chain management. In October 2020, Robert 'Glenn' Richey, Jr. and Beth Davis-Sramek, both of Auburn University's Harbert College of Business, were appointed as the incoming editors-in-chief, taking over from Thomas J. Goldsby and Walter Zinn, of The University of Tennessee-Knoxville and The Ohio State University Fischer College of Business, respectively. Some notable writers include Dean Matthew Waller of the University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business, Stanley E. Fawcett, and John T. Mentzer. According to the Journal Citation Reports, its 2020 impact factor is 6.677 and its 5-year impact factor is 7.362, ranking it 48th out of 226 journals in the category "Management".
Richard Wilding is a British academic and business professional specialising in logistics, transport and supply chain management. He is recognised as one of the world's leading experts in logistics and supply chain management.
Bill Hardgrave is an American academic who currently serves as the president of the University of Memphis, a role he's held since April 1, 2022. He was previously the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Auburn University. Prior to his time at Auburn, he served as the Bradberry Chair in Information Systems in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.
Eli Jones III is an academic administrator, entrepreneur, professor, business leader, corporate board member, author, and professional speaker. He is a professor of Marketing and Lowry and Peggy Mays Eminent Scholar at his alma mater, Texas A&M University. He served as a business dean for three flagship business schools, including Dean of Mays Business School at Texas A&M University for six years. He is the former dean of the E. J. Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University, followed by the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.
Dr. Erick Christopher Jones Sr. is an industrial engineer and professor at the University of Nevada at Reno. He is an expert in radio-frequency identification (RFID), quality engineering, and Lean Six Sigma. Jones was the program director of The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering Research Centers. He is currently Chair of the Supply Chain Technology Committee of International Supply Chain Education Alliance's (ISCEA) International Standards Board (IISB) and Editor in Chief of the International Supply Chain Technology Journal (ISCTJ).
Remko I. Van Hoek is a professor of Supply Chain Management in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. He has held several executive roles including positions at Disney and PwC. He is also a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.
The International Supply Chain Education Alliance (ISCEA) is a certifying body. Founded in 2003 and currently holding over 100,000 members, ISCEA has its World HQ office in Beachwood, OH, USA and regional offices in LATAM, EMEA and APAC. ISCEA is the governing body for the Ptak Prize.
Robert Sroufe is a scholar of sustainability, integrated management, high-performance buildings, supply chain management and operations. He is the Falk Chair of Sustainable Business at Chatham University. His research utilizes a systemic outlook to understand triple bottom line performance, extending TBL to the contemporary term integrated bottom line (IBL) metrics reported to internal and external stakeholders. More specifically, he focuses on the most successful systems and tools for measuring and managing the relationship between performance and the environmental, social, and financial practices of businesses. His list of publications is primarily about: how firms can create productive management systems, integrate them across business functions, and measure and manage their performance; the main drivers of sustainability; the process and importance of existing buildings becoming high-performance buildings; the UN Sustainable Development Goals; and the strategic change process that occurs during a firm's sustainable development. Michigan State University conferred him a Ph.D.
Nada R. Sanders is an American university professor specializing in forecasting and supply-chain management. She is the Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management at the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University. She is also a research scholar, academic editor, reference book author, keynote speaker, business consultant, and corporate board member. Her forecasts describing the impact of the economic crisis on supply disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic received media coverage. Her latest book The Humachine, as well as her 2023 article published in HBR explore the influence of artificial intelligence over world business, culture and skills.
