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• Tactical level – this includes decisions with a medium-term effect that does not
influence the supply chain as a whole, such as the purchasing and production
plans of individual businesses, procedures for negotiating the transport
conditions of individual carriers and logistics companies, procedures for
determining inventory management in individual companies.
• Operational level – this refers to everyday specific decisions in selected companies,
such as creating schedules for the order of supplies, obtaining of transportation,
routing.
Processes in supply chains (especially those associated with material flow) can also
be broken down by the timing of their implementation in relation to the demand of end
customers. This classification is essentially done as following [41]:
• Push processes – Processes implemented in the push system are implemented
before the expected demand of customers based on demand forecast. They
are also referred to as speculative processes as they are based on speculative
customer demand.
• Pull processes – Processes performed in the pull system are performed on
already accepted orders. At the time when the processes are carried out,
customer demand is known. They are also referred to as reactive processes
because they respond to real customer demand.
A different approach to systematically classifying the supply chain management
processes has been taken by the Global Supply Chain Forum, which identified eight key
cross-functional business processes that make up the core supply chain management [14]:
• Customer relationship management – includes processes which provide the
structure for how the relationships with customers will be developed and
maintained.
• Supplier relationship management – include processes which define how
companies interact with their suppliers.
• Customer service management – includes processes which provide the customers
with real-time information on promised shipping dates and product availability
through interfaces with the company’s functions such as manufacturing and
logistics.
• Demand management – includes processes which balance the customers’
requirements with the capabilities of the supply chain.
• The order fulfilment – includes all activities which are necessary to define
customer requirement and to design a network and a process that permits
a firm to meet customer requests while minimising the total delivered cost
as well as filling customer orders.
• Manufacturing flow management – includes all activities which are necessary
to move products through the plants and to obtain, implement and manage
manufacturing flexibility in the supply chain.