How To More Holistically Understand Supply Chain Management?

In the global competitive environment, enterprises can survive in the long term by permanently improving their business. Usually, enterprises have limited resources and they face hard conditions; but they can significantly improve their business results if they manage their working better. The new challenges require from them a thorough innovation of management in general, including supply chain management (SCM). Most generally, we can define SCM as concept for managing the entire chain of raw material supply, manufacture, assembly and distribution to the end customer. But under fast socio - economic changes , SCM has faced the demand to develop and adjust cont inuously in order to cont ribute to efficient and successful work of the enterprise at stake. The fast development of the theoretical basis and the business practice of SCM open many questions connected to understanding and the definition of SCM. Therefore, in theory and business practice, we can find different approaches to research of SCM and different de finit ions of SCM. In the same time, the modern management is faced with the dilemma how to more holistically define SCM and how to more holistically understand different definit ions of SCM. Based on above mentioned cognitions, our contribution discusses two research questions: 1) How to more holistically understand general framework of SCM, and 2) How to more holistically understand the methodological framework of SCM.