Supply Chain costs represent one of the biggest areas where companies can improve these days. In some industries, it is genuinely one of the only areas where companies can make some real savings.

It is for this reason that Supply Chain management has become a very important management princinple in today's business world. With globalization and the emergence of China and India, companies have to think global and manage their operations on a global level. With such huge costs associated with transportation across the word, inventory holding costs, warehouse costs, associated working capital costs, and also the administrative costs and risks associated with managing a global supply chain - it is becoming more obvious to companies around the world that analyzing your supply chain costs is an absolute must.

Now when we talk about supply chain costs, it can vary depending on the business or industry we are talking about. Generally the supply chain costs can fall into the following categories:

-Transportation Costs from suppliers to plant

-Transportation Costs from factory to customers or customer warehouses

-Import taxes, import duties, export taxes, export duties

-Administrative costs for order processing, for invoicing, for customer service center, and arranging the administrative aspects of the supply chain.

-Warehousing costs including warehouse rent cost, utility costs, warehouse equipment costs like forklifts, and warehouse personnel costs

-Domestic and International shipping costs

-Working Capital costs incurred as a result of all the inventory in your company

-Insurance costs related to transportation and inventory stock

-Packing and Packaging costs including the materials and the logistic costs to get them where they need to be

This list above is a good summary of the general costs of a supply chain. What you need to do is make sure that you track of all these costs for your company in each factory or entity you have and also make sure to differentiate when different product segments or tonnages of equipment are involved. Its important to standardize the data as much as possible when analyzing your supply chain costs.