Introduction:

In Supply Chain Management system the inflow and outflow of the products is tracked using a well-developed database, with information connected together. In normal businesses separate information is maintained of each supplier and the products he deals in. In both situations the Company can purchase products from the best-suited supplier, but it is feasible and easy to maintain in the first case.
In Supply Chain Management there is also the facility to keep stock information. On selling the products separate details are maintained of each regular Customers/dealers. Here customers/dealers can go through the shopping cart to order the goods online. Each customers/dealers can be allotted a credit limit beyond which he cannot purchase goods. And much more...

Problems:

In small organizations it is not difficult to maintain the discussed information, but when you start progressing as an organization, then it will become difficult to track down the transactions done by all the Customers/dealers. If you relate the same principal to widespread businesses, where Suppliers and Customers/dealers are not restricted to a small territory. You will be astonished to see the difficulties that creep up …… e.g. When a company wants to decide where to purchase from and at what price a particular product should be sold. If he does not get the information readily then he has to go through the searching process all over again.
If an executive wants to refer or check some documents regarding a particular product then he would ask for a fax, which would be a costly affair and waste of time.

Solutions:

The above information can be handled if the database is uploaded. This will be helpful for someone, situated distant from the office and is in desperate need of the information. The information does not have to be duplicated at another location as the database can be downloaded and used for the required purpose.
Supply Chain Management system maintains up-to-date information of the products of each supplier, which helps a Company to see which supplier is selling at what price and decide whom to purchase it from. Apart from this Supply Chain Management system gives information regarding payment dues, Reorder level, Go-down tracking etc.

Note: The Supply Chain Management system can also be incorporated offline.