cycle view of supply chain

Process views of Supply Chain

A supply chain starting from supplier’s supplier till customer undergoes various stages in view of satisfying and delighting customers. These stages are studied with two different views. They are:

·         Cycle view

·         Push/ Pull view.

A.    Cycle view: Supply chain management involves various stages in supplying the products from suplier’s supplier to customer. At each stage they perform certain function. the function between two successive stage is called a cycle. The supply chain between C&F agent and Distributor is one stage. The diagram depicts the various cycles in the supply chain.

Sourcing               Sourcing               operation   Replenishment  Replenishment  Replenishment      customer                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    order cycle

From the diagram we can interpret that each successive stages have one cycle and totally there are four important cycles.  They are

a.       Sourcing cycle

b.      Operation cycle

c.       Replenishment cycle

d.      customer order cycle

The example that taken in the above diagram holds good only for few companies in FMCG sector.  Some companies have direct model of business and others have very short channel length.

Each cycle is having six sub processes. They are explained in the diagram.

From the diagram it is clear that the cycle between manufacturer and supplier undergoes this six sub processes. For example when customer orders a book on the Flipkart Company is in a customer order cycle where as Flipkart orders book with distributor they are in replenishment cycle. Each stage of the cycle view every supply chain member try to forecast the order comes into their organization and looks to fulfill the order effectively within given time.

Though each cycle is having six sub processes but the length and the way they are processed and managed are quite different. Take example of FMCG sector. Buyer orders for Mysore sandal soap. This customer demand is external to the retailer and KSDL manufacturer of Mysore sandal. Therefore it is uncertain. Secondly as one moves from buyer stage to supplier stage in the supply chain th order level will increase. To illustrate, customer may order one Mysore sandal but retail will order four Mysore sandals with distributor. Continuing, distributor orders 10 Mysore sandals and Manufacturer manufacturers 20 Mysore sandals. This example proves that size of the order increases as one moves up in the supply chain.

The cycle view understanding helps IT managers to provide software solution across the supply chain. Further it helps in Supply chain integration. Cycle view describes the role of each supply chain member clearly.