The supply chain is the end-to-end, cross-enterprise, flow of materials and services from their point of origination to the end consumer, plus the related flow of information. Procurement is one of the key processes within the Supply Chain.

A great supply chain is the competition ground for successful organizations. A great supply chain can never compensate for a poor, or poorly articulated, proposition to the customer; but a great supply chain supports great organizations such as Amazon, Dell, Tesco, Walmart, and Zara. These winning organizations have understood and exploited the supply chain pyramid as seen on the right.

Good Procurement is critical for commercial organizations, and is the main drivers of cash-able savings within the public sector.

For more information on the various aspects of Supply Chain Management please take a look at the following documents:

• Fulfilling the promise
• Making cross business alliances work
• Managing complex manufacturing and maintenance processes
• Multi-site business effectiveness
• Procurement
• Supply chain

We hope these publications add value to you as you continue to build your businesses and we encourage you to email us with your questions observations and suggestions.