Supply Chain Planning

At Barkers we use a variety of supply chain models for planning, which address both the upstream and downstream elements of supply chain management (SCM). The SCOR (Supply Chain Operations Reference) model, developed by a consortium from industry and the non-profit Supply Chain Council (now part of APICS), has become the cross-industry de facto standard defining the scope of supply chain management.

SCOR measures total supply chain performance. It is a process reference model for supply chain strategy, spanning from the supplier’s supplier to the customer’s customer. It includes delivery and order fulfilment performance, production flexibility, warranty and returns processing costs, inventory and asset turns, and other factors in evaluating the overall effective performance of a supply chain.

The Global Supply Chain Forum has introduced another supply chain model. This framework is built on eight key business processes that are both cross-functional and cross-firm in nature. Each process is managed by a cross-functional team including representatives from logistics, production, purchasing, finance, marketing, and research and development. Whilst each process interfaces with key customers and suppliers, the processes of customer relationship management and supplier relationship management form the critical linkages in the supply chain.

The American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) Process Classification Framework (PCF) Supply Management is a high-level, industry-neutral enterprise process model that allows organisations to see their business processes from a cross-industry viewpoint. The PCF was developed by APQC and its member organisations as an open standard to facilitate improvement through process management and benchmarking, regardless of industry, size, or geography. The PCF organises operating and management processes into 12 enterprise-level categories, including process groups, and over 1,000 processes and associated activities.