Supply Chain Management (SCM) has drawn high attention and been discussed and under investigation for over two decades. However, how Hong Kong manufacturing firms carry out SCM is still unclear. In order to open the myth on what essentials are critical for SCM implementation, a large-scale questionnaire survey was conducted together with Expert Interviews in 2003. A SCM framework was then developed in which all the critical factors were summarized, categorized and prioritized to come up with a foundation for a self-assessment system for improving SCM performance.