"The most pervasive issue in Supply Chain is that everyone in the same industry tends to do the same thing, with rare exception.  If your strategy is the same as everybody else's, and your execution is the same as everybody else, the best case is that you will not be any better than anybody else.  In such a case, from the big picture business perspective, the maximum value Supply Chain adds is to just keep up - not good enough when compared to the option of producing a competitive advantage for your organization by doing better than the others."        

Nigam Arora

Specification Development — procurement — inventory — warehousing — transportation — are all components of Supply Chain.  Vendor Analysis — Vendor consolidation — Vendor managed Inventory — Just in time — Total cost of ownership — Information Technology Systems to support the function — Alliances — Collaboration — Reverse Auctions — eCommerce— Globalization — Standardization — Commoditization — Sophisticated forecasting and planning — Centralization or decentralization — Outsourcing — Quality ratings — Evaluated receipts settlements — Managing risk — are the concepts of Supply Chain you may be working on.

Rewards are plentiful, so are the pitfalls.  The biggest challenge is usually the change management or change in the visibility of Supply Chain  — change within the Supply Chain department — change in sponsorship of the senior management — change in operating units — change in Engineering — change in Accounting — change in Legal — change in Vendors — change in processes — change in systems — change in collaboration — and so on.