What is Supply Chain?
The system which covers the activities, information flow, storage and distribution activities and product life cycle processes from the raw material to the hands of the customers is called supply chain. In short, the supply chain is a collection of successive rings, from the procurement stage of goods and services to production and the delivery of finished products to consumers. The supply chain includes many business processes such as production, material supply, supply, inventory management, distribution, sales forecasting, sales and customer service. In addition to these processes, the processes of distributor, retailer and logistics companies can be included as well as the process of reaching and recycling the product to the consumer.
Customers are the key factor for businesses. Factors that affect businesses in terms of the customer can be listed as follows:
- Increasing number of customers (this factor creates customer pressure in enterprises)
- Increased customer expectations (this factor creates price and quality pressure in enterprises)
- Differentiation of customer expectations (this factor creates pressure on product diversity in enterprises)
- Expansion of geographical distribution of customers (this factor creates pressure on shipment and distribution in enterprises)
The main reasons why businesses tend to suppliers are:
- Businesses prefer this way in order to reduce production costs and make higher quality production.
- More accurate and on-site decision-making problems are experienced when the number of customers increases
- Competition at national and international levels becomes more difficult
- At the same time, customers' expectations and preferences, as well as the choice of companies supplier companies are increasing
- The fact that customers are facing businesses at different points with different requirements creates the need to provide flexibility.
- The development of information technology facilitates the system
- With the diversification of customer needs, focus has begun on more specialized production instead of mass production applications.
- The search for more economical, faster and quality work has increased in the production and delivery of products to the customer.
- It is important for businesses to introduce new products faster to the markets
In addition, it is understood that the improvement of the performance of only a part of the enterprise within the production system will not improve the performance of the whole system.
There are basically four main market functions in the delivery of products to consumers: production, distribution, hand-changing and consumption. These functions follow and complement each other.
The concept of procurement involves the search for ways to provide the resources required for the enterprises or the determination of the options that can provide these resources, namely the supplier companies.
Businesses cannot control the production and distribution of products by themselves. Participation of enterprises and interactions between them are of great importance in the presentation process of products and services. The responsibility and competitiveness of a product or service within the supply chain depends not only on an enterprise but on an entire supply chain. These enterprises are legally independent of each other, but they are economically highly interdependent. As such, supply chains are a production system that encompasses all parties involved in the path it follows from the raw material stage to the consumer.
Therefore the elements of the supply chain can be summarized as follows:
- Supply of raw materials
- Production and assembly works
- Storage and stock control
- Ordering and management
- Delivery to distribution channels and delivery to customers
- Information systems to monitor all these activities
What Does ISO 28001 Supply Chain Management System Bring?
Although the scope of supply chains varies in enterprises, they exist in all enterprises producing goods and services. Supply chains include not only the physical product flow, but also the flow of documents, information and money. In the success of these flows, cooperation and integration of enterprises in the supply chain is an important factor. Therefore, a management approach is needed in supply chains to evaluate relationships and activities as a whole. This can be achieved with the ISO 28001 standard.
A supply chain is a system of concern to many sectors, where businesses are negatively affected by breaks or security problems in the rings of this chain. Therefore, risks need to be identified and managed correctly.
ISO 28001 Supply Chain Management System is a management system published in 2007 by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) on risk identification and management. The ISO 28001 standard describes the requirements of the system and provides a management model to businesses that wish to implement it.
Thanks to the system, it is ensured that the enterprises in the supply chain are easily negotiated. This also lowers the costs of enterprises, increases profitability and efficiency. The quality of products and services increases. In parallel with these results, the reputation and competitiveness of the business increases and the market share expands.
ISO 28001 Supply Chain Management System is also a system that can be easily integrated into the following and similar management systems and enables effective management of supply chain risks:
- ISO 9001 Quality Management System
- ISO 14001 Environmental Management System
- ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System
- ISO 27001 Information Security Management System
Nevertheless, the ISO 28001 Supply Chain Management System standard is a system that can be installed and implemented alone in enterprises. The entity is not required, for example, to have ISO 9001 Quality Management System certification. Since the system is designed based on management systems standards, it is a risk assessment based management system and businesses can easily implement this standard.
The Supply Chain Management System covers different levels of management across the supply chain:
- Management of the internal supply chain integrating business activities in the material and information flow within the enterprise
- Management of bilateral relations with close suppliers
- Management of the chain of enterprises that are suppliers of each other
The main objective of the ISO 28001 standard is to reduce safety risks and ensure that products are delivered smoothly and on time. The basic principles of the system are:
- Proper establishment and management of supply chain
- Identifying security vulnerabilities and reducing security risks
- Delivering products and materials smoothly and on time
Particularly in times of financial crisis, it is important to deliver the supplied products at the right time and in the right way. Determining the risks and taking the necessary precautions in this regard is important for the continuity of the enterprises.
