Supply chain management involves coordinating the flow of materials, information, and finances from suppliers to customers. This includes procuring raw materials from vendors, transforming them into finished goods, and distributing the products to distribution centers and end customers. The goal is to reduce inventory levels while ensuring products are available when needed through effective coordination both within and among companies in the supply chain network.

2. Below is an example of a very simple supply chain for a single product, where raw material is procured from vendors, transformed into finished goods in a single step, and then transported to distribution centers, and ultimately, customers

3. Supply chain management (SCM) is the oversight of materials, information, and finances as they move in a process from supplier to manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer. Supply chain management involves coordinating and integrating these flows both within and among companies. It is said that the ultimate goal of any effective supply chain management system is to reduce inventory (with the assumption that products are available when needed)

4. http://searchmanufacturingerp.techtarget.com/definition/supply-chain-management