Military supply chain management

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Military supply chain management is a cross-functional approach to procuring, producing and delivering products and services for military applications. The broad management scope includes sub-suppliers, suppliers, internal information and funds flow. [1]

Procurement is the process of finding and agreeing to terms, and acquiring goods, services, or works from an external source, often via a tendering or competitive bidding process. Procurement is used to ensure the buyer receives goods, services, or works at the best possible price when aspects such as quality, quantity, time, and location are compared. Corporations and public bodies often define processes intended to promote fair and open competition for their business while minimizing risks such as exposure to fraud and collusion.

Manufacturing industrial activity producing goods for sale using labor and machines

Manufacturing is the production of products for use or sale using labour and machines, tools, chemical and biological processing, or formulation. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial design, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale. Such finished goods may be sold to other manufacturers for the production of other, more complex products, such as aircraft, household appliances, furniture, sports equipment or automobiles, or sold to wholesalers, who in turn sell them to retailers, who then sell them to end users and consumers.

Delivery (commerce) process of transporting goods from a source location to a predefined destination

Delivery is the process of transporting goods from a source location to a predefined destination. There are different delivery types. Cargo are primarily delivered via roads and railroads on land, shipping lanes on the sea and airline networks in the air. Certain specialized goods may be delivered via other networks, such as pipelines for liquid goods, power grids for electrical power and computer networks such as the Internet or broadcast networks for electronic information.

Contents

Supply

A supply is the procurement, distribution, maintenance while in storage and salvage of supplies, including the determination of kind and quantity of supplies. The producer phase of a military supply extends from determination of procurement schedules to acceptance of finished supplies by the military services. The consumer phase of a military supply extends from receipt of finished supplies by the military services, through issue for use or consumption. [2]

Warehouse commercial storage building for goods in transit

A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities, towns or villages.

Quantity is a property that can exist as a multitude or magnitude. Quantities can be compared in terms of "more", "less", or "equal", or by assigning a numerical value in terms of a unit of measurement. Quantity is among the basic classes of things along with quality, substance, change, and relation. Some quantities are such by their inner nature, while others are functioning as states of things such as heavy and light, long and short, broad and narrow, small and great, or much and little.

Military service Performing the service in the armed forces of a state

Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, whether as a chosen job (volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription).

Supply chain

The supply chain is the linked activities associated with providing material from a raw material stage to an end user as a finished good. [3] Supply control is the process by which an item of supply is controlled within the supply system, including requisitioning, receipt, storage, stock control, shipment, disposition, identification, and accounting. [4] The supply point is a location where supplies, services and materials are located and issued. These locations are temporary and mobile, normally being occupied for up to 72 hours. [5]

Supply chain system of organizations, people, activities, information, and resources involved in moving a product or service from the point where it is manufactured to where it is consumed

In business and finance, supply chain is a system of organizations, people, activities, information, and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities involve the transformation of natural resources, raw materials, and components into a finished product that is delivered to the end customer. In sophisticated supply chain systems, used products may re-enter the supply chain at any point where residual value is recyclable. Supply chains link value chains.

Finished goods are goods that have completed the manufacturing process but have not yet been sold or distributed to the end user.

Logistics

Military logistics is the science of planning and carrying out the movement and maintenance of armed forces. In its most comprehensive sense, those aspects of military operations that deal with: a. design and development, acquisition, storage, movement, distribution, maintenance, evacuation, and disposition of materiel; b. movement, evacuation, and hospitalization of personnel; c. acquisition or construction, maintenance, operation and disposition of facilities; and d. acquisition or furnishing of services. [6]

Military logistics Military operations to move and maintain military forces

Military logistics is the discipline of planning and carrying out the movement and maintenance of military forces. In its most comprehensive sense, it is those aspects or military operations that deal with:

A military operation is the coordinated military actions of a state, or a non-state actor, in response to a developing situation. These actions are designed as a military plan to resolve the situation in the state or actor's favor. Operations may be of a combat or non-combat nature and may be referred to by a code name for the purpose of national security. Military operations are often known for their more generally accepted common usage names than their actual operational objectives.

Design can have different connotations in different fields of application, but there are two basic meanings of design: as a verb and as a noun.

Logistics versus supply chain management

The major difference between the concept of logistic management and supply chain management is the level of information gathered, processes, analysed and used for decision making. An SCM-based organization not only having concerns with its immediate clients but also handles and forecasts the factors affecting directly or indirectly their supplier or suppliers or on their client or clients. If we exclude this information part out of supply chain model then we can see the logistic management part of the business.

The up / down stream flow of information, showing the flow of information in supply chain management vs. logistics management systems. Sup chain org.jpg
The up / down stream flow of information, showing the flow of information in supply chain management vs. logistics management systems.

Limitations of military supply chain

Unlike standard supply chain management practices world-wide, some major concepts are not supported in the military domain. For example, the "just-in-time" (JIT) model emphasizes holding less (or no) inventory, whereas in military supply chains, due to the high costs of a stock-out (potentially placing lives in danger), keeping huge inventory is a more acceptable practice. Some examples of these are the ammunition dump and oil depot.

Ammunition dump a place where ammunition is left

An ammunition dump, ammunition supply point (ASP), ammunition handling area (AHA) or ammunition depot is a military storage facility for live ammunition and explosives.

Likewise, the military procurement process has much different criteria than the normal business procurement process. Military needs call for reliability of supply during peace and war, as compared to price and technology factors.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms – Supply Chain Management
  2. ↑ DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms – Supply
  3. ↑ DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms – Supply Chain
  4. ↑ DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms – Supply Control
  5. ↑ DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms – Supply Point
  6. ↑ DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms – Logistics
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