Supply-Chain Operations Reference

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Supply-Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) is a process reference model that has been developed and endorsed by the Supply-Chain Council (SCC) as the cross-industry standard diagnostic tool for supply chain management. SCOR enables users to address, improve, and communicate supply chain management practices within and between all interested parties.

SCOR is a management tool, spanning from the supplier's supplier to the customer's customer. The model has been developed to describe the business activities associated with all phases of satisfying a customer's demand. By describing supply chains using process building blocks, the model can be used to describe supply chains that are very simple or very complex using a common set of definitions. As a result, disparate industries can be linked to describe the depth and breadth of virtually any supply chain.

SCOR is based on five distinct management processes: Plan, Source, Make, Deliver, and Return.

Plan - Processes that balance aggregate demand and supply to develop a course of action which best meets sourcing, production, and delivery requirements.
Source - Processes that procure goods and services to meet planned or actual demand.
Make - Processes that transform product to a finished state to meet planned or actual demand.
Deliver - Processes that provide finished goods and services to meet planned or actual demand, typically including order management, transportation management, and distribution management.
Return - Processes associated with returning or receiving returned products for any reason. These processes extend into post-delivery customer support.

With all reference models, there is a specific scope that the model addresses. SCOR is no different and the model focuses on the following:

All customer interactions, from order entry through paid invoice.
All product (physical material and service) transactions, from your supplier’s supplier to your customer’s customer, including equipment, supplies, spare parts, bulk product, software, etc.
All market interactions, from the understanding of aggregate demand to the fulfillment of each order.

SCOR does not attempt to describe every business process or activity. Relationships between these processes can be made to the SCOR and some have been noted within the model. Other key assumptions addressed by SCOR include: training, quality, information technology, and administration (not supply chain management). These areas are not explicitly addressed in the model but rather assumed to be a fundamental supporting process throughout the model.

SCOR provides three-levels of process detail. Each level of detail assists a company in defining scope (Level 1), configuration or type of supply chain (Level 2), process element details, including performance attributes (Level 3). Below level 3, companies decompose process elements and start implementing specific supply chain management practices. It is at this stage that companies define practices to achieve a competitive advantage, and adapt to changing business conditions.

SCOR is a process reference model designed for effective communication among supply chain partners. As an industry standard it also facilitates inter and intra supply chain collaboration, horizontal process integration, by explaining the relationships between processes (i.e., Plan-Source, Plan-Make, etc.). It also can be used as a data input to completing an analysis of configuration alternatives (e.g., Level 2) such as: Make-to-Stock or Make-To-Order. SCOR is used to describe, measure, and evaluate supply chains in support of strategic planning and continuous improvement.