The ASQ Supply Chain Management Primer (e-book)

Written to promote the application of basic and sound supply chain management principles, the author and contributors wrote this book for a global audience of practitioners and their managers. In this book, accepted methods used in national and international commerce are highlighted to help readers and include most of the described methods from decades of use in quality management programs. These methods are equally important when managing for environment, safety, security, and sustainability. 

Supply chain management is a system. Like all systems, it is composed of many connected processes, all working in harmony to achieve organizational objectives. There are five basic activities we must implement for superior achievement of those objectives. The processes in typical sequential order are:

• Define your requirements
• Select a supplier
• Award the business
• Build and strengthen relationships
• Monitor the performance

These five activities apply to all organizations, whether government, industry, healthcare, or education to create an enterprise system.