Exploring forecasting and project management characteristics of supply chain management

Effective forecasting with the framework of Supply Chain Management (SCM) requires precise and decisive strategic leadership supportive of the roles of such tools. Traditionally, SCM was mainly a task of logistics, confined to supply chain or purchasing managers. Essential questions were sought within the empirical portions of this study: What is the perception of SCM amongst top management? How is SCM linked to corporate strategy and corporate objectives? Surveys were sent to various manufacturing companies in the Pittsburgh, PA region, resulting in 117 completed surveys, measuring business tendencies and practices in regards to SCM, forecasting, and production and supply constraints. Via Principal-Components Analysis (PCA) and factor analyses, several hypotheses were tested verifying these relationships into constructs generated by theoretical constructs from the literature review. Forecasting, a key and sometimes-overlooked component of SCM, was found to be a significant factor in the overall effectiveness of strategic planning.