Doppelgangers?

It was not until watching the Emmy awards that I realized that I really didn't know the difference between Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon. Except that Jimmy Kimmel is the funny one.

That breakthrough led me to consider the confusion that must surely exist when people hear the terms "Supply Management" and "Supply Chain Management." Is there a chance they might think the two are essentially the same, one being slightly funnier?

One is championed by sourcing and procurement practitioners, and their professional organization, ISM. Their positioning is that sourcing and procurement are the real drivers of supply chain managment, with an implication that they are really all about the supply chain. Perhaps the argument has merit if you separate the universe into supply chains and demand chains, one originating with suppliers, and the other responding to demand signals from customers.

But, for those of us who see integrated progressions from farm to fork or from mine to manufacture as holistic wholes, supply chain management is about functional and organizational partners, all of whose voices (including Procurement's) are heard in planning and execution to meet ultimate customer/user needs.

In that view, while both are vitally important, SM and SCM are not nearly the same, nor even comparable. In the end, I suppose that all this will get sorted out. In the meantime, the potential for confusion, both within and without the worlds of supply managment and supply chain manmagement, is real - and significant.

Oh, wait - Jimmy Fallon is the funny one.