My Summative Essay: My research, knowledge, and perspective on Supply Chain Management

So, my journey of blogging has come to an end. I learned so much information about Supply Chain Management and even developed perspectives and thoughts about this unusual "piece" of business. This essay is a reflection on what I learned about Supply Chain Management through my research and also about my writing and blogging experience. Hopefully, when I get into the business college, I will be able to continue blogging about the Supply Chain classes that I will be taking and show you all how much I am learning! Thank you all for reading my blog post and hope you all like this very last post!

Learning about my Field
      Through my long extended research on Supply Chain Management, I've learned that this unusual, logistical business field is very demanding and stressful job for Supply Chain Managers. Today's Supply Chain Managers must make sure that the products and goods must be made, transported, and distributed in a effective and efficient manner that will create successful supply chains. This process is done in a logistical manner that only supply chain managers can execute, plan, and accomplish.
        In the process of interviewing my family friends, Ramya and Rajeev, who majored in Supply Chain Management, and also through my online research, I learned many things about Supply Chain Management that I didn't know prior to this blogging project. For instance, I didn't even consider that this profession would have any sort of code of ethics and principles. However, through my research, I discovered that supplier and customer relationships and supplier and demand relationships are important aspects in Supply Chain Management and are considered to be very crucial in the whole process of making, transporting, and distributing the product and good. If these ethics are not met by the supply chain companies, the chains will suffer dramatically, causing no one to buy their product and good, and eventually shutting down their business. Customers must be satisfied and the supply and demand of a particular product and good should also meet the customer's needs in order for the supply chain to be successful. The Supply Chain Manager has a huge role in making sure that the customers needs are being satisfied with the supply and demand of a particular product. They must be able to determine how much of a product is needed, the demand for it, and also how to compromise both these aspects into the customer's needs (ethics blog and scholarly article on demand perspective). In addition, my interview with Ramya, helped me gain a lot of insight on the power that the Supply Chain Manager must have in order to things to be accomplished and the supply chain to move and distribute products and goods. Ramya explained to me more in detail about how supply chain managers must recognize their power and obtain their power over their employees so that they know that things must be done effectively and efficiently. In addition to obtaining and recognizing power, supply chain managers must be self-motivated, a sense of passion, and most importantly being a go-getter. All of these qualities will ensure that a supply chain manager can get the job done and work well with other groups of people in getting what they set out to get done actually accomplished successfully. As a result, this will create successful supply chain companies that can get products and goods made and distributed effectively and efficiently (Interview with Ramya).
             In addition, my knowledge on logistics has significantly improved after this blogging project. Through my research, I realized that Supply Chain Managers have a huge role in the logistics process and how it works in supply chains. For example, the blog on the practical applications of Supply Chain Management demonstrates the inner details of how logistics plays a huge role in supply chains. The process of making the bottled waters, putting labels on them, transporting them to different factories so that they can further be made and processed so that they can be actual water bottles that people can drink, and then finally transported to factories where they are then distributed to vending machines is a clear example of the way logistics works in a water bottle scenario. The process of making sure all this happens effectively and efficiently is once again the job of the supply chain manager. If this doesn't happen smoothly, there will be many problems not only for the supply chain, but for the customers who end up buying the product and good and the factories suffer as well (practical applications of supply chain management- youtube video- ASU).
         To conclude, the fundamental aspects of Supply Chain Management are learned and eventually these aspects, ethics, and principles are then enforced by Supply Chain Managers who make sure that the supply chains are able to make, transport, and distribute products efficiently and effectively.

Learning about your Research/Writing
   Through this blogging project, I learned and observed many stages of the writing process such as distinguishing author bias and writer bias, realizing the significance of credible and useful research, and most importantly revising the blog so it contains useful and accurate information on Supply Chain Management. These skills that I have acquired throughout this blogging project will definitely help me become a successful supply chain manager, or supply chain management professional, in which this profession entails a lot of writing, reading, and most importantly planning.
   From this blogging project, I learned many divisions of Supply Chain Management such as demand management, operation management, and network designing, all related to the logistical process of making, transporting, and distributing products and goods effectively and efficiently. Also, through my interview with Ramya, I learned that these three divisions all play a huge role in tracking and designing the entire process of a product being made from start to finish and also how the product gets disposed. Through these intricate stages of Supply Chain Management, it was interesting to discover how efficient and useful Supply Chain Management is in its way of creating a valuable and efficient way of moving a product.
   Through this blogging project, I was able to successfully comprehend the intricate material on Supply Chain Management, which was that of a graduate level. I was able to break down the information and grasp the essential and fundamental aspects of what Supply Chain Management is all about. However, some of the aspects of this blogging project that I had difficult with were recognizing credible sources and determining whether the content in a particular source was important or not. Throughout this blogging project, it was hard for me to determine if a specific piece of information was either relevant or significant to Supply Chain Management as a whole. From the material presenting itself in a graduate level of writing, it was difficult to determine what was significant and what was not.
    This blogging project definitely helped me learn a lot about Supply Chain Management. Through this project, I learned that Supply Chain Management contributes a lot to the society, which excites me a lot. In addition, I feel privileged to study at Michigan State University, where it is ranked number two in Supply Chain Management, right under Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During my four years here at MSU, I will definitely refer to my blog and perhaps write more about the other information I learn about Supply Chain Management through my classes and the clubs I join.