Setting standard of business expectation

Most of the world’s top successful supply chain management companies have one focus in common, that is to set the clear expectations regarding business process and real time deliverable to their suppliers from the very beginning of a business undertaking. To manage the delivery in conformity with this standard of expectation the company needs to engage in continuous communication at different level with their suppliers with the position of a experienced facilitator. In many cases this principle resolves a great amount of issues between suppliers and the company and for this crucial role it is considered across the industries as primary and one of the best principles of supply chain management.

Maximizing the system benefits

In today’s world to increase the business outcome every company is more dependent on the functional brilliance of their system and strict adherence to it. Technological advancement and their subsequent use in the working practices of supply chain process have opened more opportunities to maintain the supply and delivery of supplier vendor in a more disciplined and tested fashion. Project team members in a company today are more apt to take the advantage of the system functionality than as it was before.

Initiating cost saving measures at every level

This is the inevitable choice in any discussion regarding the best supply chain management principles, not only because of the experience of recession and global economic crisis in the recent past but also because of the fact that globalization paved the way for many smaller companies from various parts of the world to stand in a competitive ground with big corporations which definitely is factor behind the business urge of being cost competitive.

The evolving principles of a hugely competitive business field called supply chain cannot be conveyed within this short span, only the immediacies and latest as well as most prominent business requirements are addressed here through this list of best supply chain management principles.

MIT Master’s Degree Program in Supply Chain Management
This is a 9 month graduate program in the discipline of supply chain management and logistics. MIT or Massachusetts Institute Of Technology has a worldwide reputation for its academic excellence  and technological brilliance in diverse range of professionally acknowledged fields of education. In conformity to this reputation this program prepares the student in the intricate management skills and concepts of supply chain management.

Michigan State University
It is a unavoidable choice in the list of best graduate schools in supply chain management. The graduate program in supply chain management offered by this business school prepares the student in the modern business expansion and distribution challenges in a globally competitive market scenario.

University of Dallas, Graduate School of Management, Texas
This graduate school in supply chain management is well known for its specializations in number of business and operational fields which are significant for the global  career exposure of the aspirants.

Saint Louis University, Missouri
There are not too many graduate programs in the discipline of supply chain management in the country. Among the graduate business schools in the country this school deserves to be mentioned as one of the best graduate schools in supply chain management because of its reputation of graduating many of the great business minds who have excelled in the business practice related with the principle of supply chain management.

University of San Diego, School of Business Administration, California
This is the only business school in California which should be mentioned here in this list of best graduate schools in supply chain management. The graduate program offered by this business school in supply chain management is specific in preparing the career aspirants of business students for the supply chain business skills and operative disciplines like logistics, local procurement and distribution etc.

The above business schools and institutions are chosen here in this short list of best graduate schools in supply chain management in consideration to few important parameters which are crucial to the success of any management school and the career of the aspiring students as well.

1st Principle: Localized Production, Distribution and Marketing
Through the export and import of goods, products in their end price become costly and which is also affected into a meager sell and revenue generation from the foreign markets. Another factor is delay in time. In days of past when export and import of goods was the main international mode of doing business, demands for many foreign produced goods used to take a very long time to reach to the customer. For a better customer friendly, timely delivery of goods and services, for dealing with customer grievances, for local service facilities and also for cost effectiveness and the resulting revenue generation of the company, the old principles of supply chain management came with a more refined practice and the emergence of global supply chain management was imminent to meet the business demands in the age of globalization. So, a local production, distribution and localized sales and marketing became the first working principles of global supply chain management to meet the demands of market expansion better client reach.

2nd Principle: Strategic Partnership and Sharing
The whole concept of distribution went through dramatic changes in the practicing principles of global supply chain management. The distributor is given much of the authorities in decision and business strategy making in regard to the business operation in local level. Moreover, distributor is given a better share of profit in comparison to the so called sales commission in yesteryears business practice. The profile of a distributor transformed into professional task based partnership. These practices resulted into a sense of ownership in the mindset of the distribution forces which paved the way for new reaches of success for the company. This principle of Strategic Partnership and sharing is one of the major principles of global supply chain management.

3rd Principle: Building a Local, Culture Specific Image
To enjoy a wider acceptance of the delivered products and services throughout every level of society and to make the marketing and promotional campaign more successful, building a local image of the company and its services was very much essential and for this reason the campaigns and marketing should include the local cultural as well as traditional ingredients. This is precisely what has happened in relation to the marketing success of many world renowned brands. So, the principle of local and culture specific image building is one of the most important principles of global supply chain management.

Except the very basic three principles mentioned above, there has been a lot of room left for further discussion in regard to the principles of global supply chain management and its successive development  and variance, but as far as the aim of this article is concerned, it nevertheless provides the basic idea of the working and guiding principles of global supply chain management.

Employment and Empowerment: Hopes accentuated by global supply chain management
In an environment where most of the large MNCs are keen on outsourcing their manufacturing or services from business houses of different nations, a large number of companies with a small market capitalization and limited customer reach entered into the global platform by simply catering their production facility and services to the worldwide business network. By virtue of their low production cost and plentitude of quality manpower they proved themselves to be indispensible in a tremendously cost-competitive global scenario. It explains the dynamics of global supply chain management behind the robust industrial growth experience of many nations of Asia and South America. Consequently, in these countries, over the past decade these fostered massive employment and a professionally focused environment of education. To supplement this astounding truth there can be numerous instances. Consider the boom of IT and ITES industry in India and China and the giant manufacturing plants located all over South-East Asia which supplies as big as 40% to 60% of the global demand of many multinational brands. Thanks to the global supply chain management and its sharpened business tools such as outsourcing, relocation and local joint ventures, this new growth aspect in developing nations rapidly gave birth to an aspiring middle class empowered with technical expertise, well-paid employment and a vigorous buying capacity for its new and variable consumer needs.

The Rise and fall of Buying Capacity: How one reciprocated the other
What global supply chain management as a business principle did to foster growth in one part of the world is in turn reciprocated into a massive sales growth of the global companies headquartered in U.S., Europe and Japan, which prior to the dominance of globalization were facing a saturation in the buying capacity of the consumers and consequent fall in revenue. This explains the new boost in both production and sales and services of various multinational giants like Sony, Volkswagen, Toyota, General Motors, IBM, Motorola and many more. In some industries the business process outsourcing proved to be more effective like in IT sector, when in some cases the relocation of manufacturing plants paved the way for new, promising market or in some cases joint venture with national or local companies proved to be fruitful. Thus, as a modern and superior business principle global supply chain management with its innovative management tools like outsourcing, local partnership, relocation or joint venture played a crucial role in uplifting the spirit of global economy.

New technology and research: Market-proactive boost of global supply chain management
With the onset of globalization and its encompassing business principle of global supply chain management, as the scope of various regional, local or national economy broadened to make the sharing among different cultures possible, this caused an upsurge in demand of various culture-specific local goods. Even some family run businesses, small-scale handicraft manufacturers, small technical and maintenance service providers, automobile parts vendors or local designer garment boutique became unexpectedly exposed to global market demand. Apart from boosting revenue growth in various ends it did a wonder in fostering new and need-based technologies and subsequent research to provide multiple manufacturing, logistics and information-sharing platforms. Secondarily, once perfectly stood on the global platform, these newly-emerged companies understood that in competition with other companies of the same or bigger stature they have to continuously evolve in multiple directions, such as, business ideas, technology and research and management skills. These two perspectives actually made way for creating various culture- specific, need-oriented business principles which added to the standard tools of global supply management chain. With the upsurge of new market, new consumer behavior and need and a wagon full of new business ventures, technology took the control of various layers of business processes in way which is never thought for, in a completely unprecedented way. This exemplifies the war of technologies to offer to customer goods with a better value-for-money. Now, after two decades of running into the era of globalization and the practices of its much-evolved principle of global supply chain management, we can see the enraged technological war between the warlords of old multinational giants versus the emerging, aspiring companies of developing nations.

To conclude, one must see that the very decentralizing principles of traditional supply chain management evolved stronger in the hands of multinational companies, became more variable and improvising in application and market control in the hands of companies in a globalised business atmosphere and finally with the emergence of a band of flourishing, new brand names in the developing world it evolved into a new culture specific, technology driven variant of its former self. So, not only as a business principle it evolved through all business and economic endeavour of twentieth century, but it actually, as a guiding principle shown the human side of economic enterprise. Some basic operative truths of global supply chain management which we can summarize here are, ‘to augment your production you need to get close to your buyer geographically’, ‘to enrich your distribution reach you need to make them your partner’, ‘to maximize your sales you need to become part of their cultures and sentiments’ and ‘to optimize your revenue from what you sell you need to add different value in different cultures’.