Supply Chain Concept: A Case Study

Supply chain management knowledge has been dramatically growing in the past few years. The traditional concept of management with the aim to maximize profits and minimize cost of a company’s functions, is being replaced by the concept of supply chain management (SCM). The principal idea of a supply chain builds on companies partnering together to create mutual confidence and in addition to this to synchronize the performance of a single partner with the whole chain. The empirical study we present in this paper shows that Slovenian companies have theoretical knowledge of supply chains, however, they rarely apply it to their benefit. The research also shows that there are significant differences between service and production companies as well as big and small companies. The key to faster growth and bigger competitive advantage is to find and understand the obstacles that prevent a company to apply the concept of supply chain management. SCM thus represents an important field of academic research with the aim of implementing the global networking process.