CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This study is concerned with examination of the role of communication in supply chain management, it will help organization that are still in doubt as to the contributions of communication to effective, efficient and timely managing of materials.
The role which this communication plays in assisting the supply-chain management team to serve the organization better by making supply available for use as and when needed forms the main theme of this study.
“Without the means, the capacity and the will to communicate, what we know as business government, and community activities could not be (But it is not enough for) people to talk to others. They need to know how to talk with others, too”. This assertion of lee (1952) highlight how important communication is in every aspect of life, then how do people view communication? Looking at it ordinarily, people refers to communication as conversation between two or more persons the word communication how ever entails more than this by dictionary meaning, communication has been explained to be “A process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs or behavior” (Webster 1991). This meaning seems to be in agreement with Kwofie (1981) who defined communication as “Any means by which information in form of ideas, protest.
Supply chain management in any organization seeks to ensure that the goods materials are of the right quality, quantity, though at the right price and from the right source and made available for the organization in use at the right time. These five qualities are of great importance to shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited. Little wonder then why any department embarking on a project usually prepare a supply chain requirement planning and make such available to the procurement department well in advance before the commencement of such project or time period the supply chain will be made use of the procurement department which comes under the human resources and services division of the company headed by a deputy general manager (supply chain and procurement) who reports to executive general manager, the department is responsible for the supply’s, distribution and issuing of all operational and administrative supply chain needed for the company’s operations. And for any public liability company like the shell to improve in its supply chain there is need for all hands to be on deck to make positive thought to happen.
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Every organization develops the need for supply chain. This has be made available on timely basis i.e. as and when required by the organization especially to meet up with production schedule. The function responsible for this is termed supply chain management in several organizations. The nature of the product and the complexity of the organization effect the number of product produced and the amount of money available and spent and sizes of products.
Whatever the case may be, the plain fact remains that a huge sum of money is spent on supply chain department of various organizations, it has been discovered that over seventy percent (70%) of the capital of most business organization are tied up on supply chain management have the need for proper control with this in mind, it is necessary to know in a nutshell what supply chain management is Lee JR and Nobler (1977) Define supply chain activities bound by a common idea. The idea of an integrated management approach to planning, acquisition conversion flow and distribution of production materials from the raw materials state to the finished product state”.
Going a little bit further and looking at it from the point of view of Akindele (1952) who defined management as efficient utilization of resources (both human and materials) in order to achieve organizational aims and objectives. He went further to explain that management, as embedded in the above definition, involves the control and effective use of resources, decision making and achieving result through other people.
This being so, we can in one way look at supply chain management (being a management function) from the point of view of the classical management theorists and as such define it as a function involving planning, organizing and coordinating the activities of people in order to achieve result. This could further be interpreted to mean the efficient utilization of resources (human and materials) through supply chain personnel utilizing everything at their disposal to ensure availability of supply chain personnel utilizing everything at their required by their organization.