Supply Management

You need supplies for your weekly lemon tea enema. You need lemons, tea, beet root juice, a hose, and a tire pump.
You've got the tire pump from last time, and you washed your usual hose. A couple months ago, you bought a bulk supply of tea bags, so you have plenty of those. Your beet root guy just moved to South Africa; you've been calling around to other places that might have it, but you haven't found an inexpensive replacement supplier yet. You might have to plant some in your garden to make sure you have it for next year. For now, you can just order the expensive stuff online. The lemons...you'll pick those up at the store after work.

Guess what? You're involved in supply management. It's the process of making sure you have everything you need for a particular project. It involves finding the resources and juggling suppliers, as well as having contingency plans and backups. It means planning in advance and keeping stockpiles when necessary, or working out temporary fixes when something breaks down in the usual process.

Supply management is a key function within almost all companies and organizations. After all...no tea, no lemons, no enema.