Supply chain management

Supply chain management is a major strategic challenge for industrial and commercial companies operating in competitive sectors. It is a real source of added value for customers, in the form of service quality and performance in terms of lead times and responsiveness. Furthermore, logistics is one of the key areas in which a company's profitability is at stake, through the optimization of production capacities, inventories and distribution costs. In the past, logistics was seen as a necessary stewardship function, designed to keep pace with production and enable products to be transported. Nowadays, it is at the heart of projects for configuring production, sourcing and sales systems, to enable their global competitiveness.

This trend is further reinforced by the economic context, in which demands are becoming more stringent, trade globalization is giving rise to international networks, product diversification and shorter product life cycles, and co-contracting partnerships between companies are on the increase. At the same time, new opportunities are being opened up by the evolution of technologies and methodologies, particularly with regard to information systems, which are tending to renew issues and solutions.

This article traces the evolution of the logistics approach, and then describes the concepts of the supply chain. It then sets out the challenges of logistics performance. The logistics information system is discussed, along with the organizational components of the logistics function. The logistics concept is viewed from the angle of the successive phases of the product life cycle.