Basic Supply Chain 
A basic supply chain consists of a supplier, the focal firm and then immediate customer directly linked by upstream and downstream flows of products, services, finances and information.
Supply Chain Flows 
The following are the directional flows of supply chain: 
Information 
Material 
Finance
Decisions in Supply Chain 
Supply chains decisions can be classified based on temporal that are dependent on time and functional considerations.
What is Analytics?
Analytics is the discovery and communication of meaningful patterns in data.
Category of Analytics 
Descriptive Analytics 
Predictive Analytics 
Prescriptive Analytics 
What is Big Data?
Big data is a field that treats ways to analyze, systematically extract information from, or otherwise deal with data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data-processing application software
Design Options for Distribution Network
The following are the design options for distribution network: 
Manufacturer storage with direct shipping
Manufacturer storage with direct shipping and in-transit merge
Distributor storage with carrier delivery
Distributor storage with last-mile delivery
Manufacturer or distributor storage with customer pickup 
Retail storage with customer pickup