A Case Study Analysis on the Strategic Alliances of Audio Duplication Services, Inc. (Ads)

Although current interest in supply-chain management overlooks certain transportation/distribution issues, substantial savings are realizable by carefully incorporating a shipment strategy with the stock replenishment decisions for VMI systems. This impact is particularly tangible when the shipment strategy calls for a consolidation program where several smaller deliveries are dispatched as a single load, realizing scale economies inherent in transportation. Formally, shipment consolidation refers to the active intervention by management to combine many small shipments/ orders so that a larger, hence more economical, load can be dispatched on the same vehicle (Brennan 1981, Hall 1987, Higginson and Bookbinder 1995). The main motivation behind a consolidation program is to take advantage of the decreased per unit freight costs due to economies of scale associated with transportation.

So now the issue left that if the company cannot avoid small shipments then how to minimize the cost associated to the shipment of such small shipments. As of now the company is using a freight forwarder which consolidates small shipments to fill 20-feet or 40-feet containers.

There is also need for maximum utilization of the company’s resources. Currently local delivery trucks only operate at 80% full while trucks run at 70% of capacity. Similarly in most cases only half of the terminal space is usually utilized. If the company is to operate at capacity then there would be increase in revenue.

This is an individual assignment as a single report in two parts. Candidates are encouraged

Comparing the supply chain for private label eBags and manufacturers, major competitive companies, in particular, JanSport, Eastpak, American Tourister, and the global manufacturer Samsonite, all with significant share of the traveling pleasure and business markets. Products are produced for status conscious, consumers’ preferring high end, and full-featured, designer products, middle markets prefer differentiated features, and the low-end unbranded, private label, consumers’ preferred minimum features. Each level meeting market expectations of quality, usage and price. High, middle and low-end products are shipped to the designated specialty, major retailers, large retailers and discount stores according to the quality of luggage and accessory products where consumers would purchase the items they required and wanted where the bullwhip effects the performances of the supply chain and the risks. (Hou, B; 2013, February 19).

Westminster Company is one of the largest manufacturers of consumer health products, based in US. Their distinctive name and company logo are recognized throughout the world. Westminster was originally founded as a family-owned pharmaceutical supply business in 1923, the company has expanded, by virtue of aggressive new product development, into a global provider of health care consumer products. It consumes three wholly owned subsidiaries, manufacturing grocery product, drugs, and mass merchandise. Intense rivalry in the market, and distresses of having an effective supply chain, made the company evaluate its supply chain and logistics. The primary focus of its research was the key clients of the three companies. To understand logistics the company must first know what logistics is and how it works. Logistics is defined as a business planning framework for the management of material, service, information and capital flows (Logistics World , 2014). Logistics is an important function of the business and without a proper logistics system, all the manufacturing, marketing and other activities would fail, overall resulting with the company failing to reach its full potential. After thoroughly analyzing the case study of, Westminster Company, to improve their current logistic strategy, they would need to implement the following strategies: developing and analyzing a new system to focus on strategic effort to ship their products in a timelier, efficient and in a more accurate

The guide lines of this approach were very simple. It established that the regional warehouses should be eliminated in order to reduce inventory to zero. However, that place would be used like an “exchanged spot”, which means that the trucks were filled up in the central warehouse and unloaded to small local trucks that would deliver the

Strategic alliances advantages and disadvantages can be many different things when it comes to business partnerships. Strategic alliances can be for a good or bad partnership, where two or more firms choose to work together, to combine corporation ideas and technologies for mutual benefit. We call this a cooperative strategy to advance creating a relationship with trust between corporations. The alliance creates an opportunity to make mutual benefits with cost reductions of shared fixed costs, combined resources, and research possibilities with both corporations working together as a team. Cooperation is usually always the best way to achieve goals. If corporations have the willingness to work together they can accomplish goals, but that

Therefore, the company’s distribution plan of products is required to be flexible since each product has to be moved around the world and forecasting is an important key in logistic activities. The shipper must be able to adjust and deal with a swing in business activity. This may require a versatile transportation plan to keep the global supply chain moving smoothly. Moreover, the company also focuses on the cost of every painstaking aspect of the shipping process. The smaller the product packaging means the higher number of items that can fit into an individual case. The more cases that can fit into the shipping container means a larger number of items that can be shipped at one time. This cuts down on the transportation costs of fuel, paid driver hours, and vehicle maintenance cost. All these savings can be passed on to the customer who comes back to the manufacture and the shipper with customer loyalty.

During 1980s, most global firms focused on quality management in product design and internal process improvement in order to achieve competitive advantage. Today, the spotlight shines on transferring value to customers instead (Mentzer & Williams 2001). Therefore, logistics has turned to be the primary marketing instrument for increasing and sustaining competitive excellence. While comparing to the past, logistics was only taken as a function regarding the higher productivity objective (Hutt & Speh 2011).

Wal-Mart is very famous for its low price, which may be brought about by the low cost strategy by making the logistics cost always low. Wal-Mart reduces the costs in the process of logistics operation as far as possible, saving the costs to make the goods’ prices lower to the consumers. And this is Wal-Mart’s consistent management tenet and a key component of its success. While in the process of logistics, logistics distribution

It is known to us, “in each industry, the customer is god, is operator's food and clothing parents.” This tells us that customers are important to organizations. With the current intense competition in logistics nowadays, most companies can provide high quality goods, even are willing to cut down prices if reasonable. However, how can suppliers gain a competitive advantage when high quality is expected and price must be maintained at a level to generate a reasonable return? In our views, it is no doubt that how various supplier service activities are valued by customers, more specifically, that is, the ability of logistics

1. How can Design for logistic concepts be used to control logistic cost and make the supply chain more efficient?

Following the paradigm shift on the role of logistics management in the recent decades, there has been a wide recognition of this as a very important aspect a business strategy in general. However due to the numerous factors promoting complexity of logistics management companies have adopted the idea of outsourcing their logistic activities to Third Party Logistics (3PL) providers. Hence, 3PLs have taken a critical role towards supply chains of heir customers.

ZHANG Chaoying, WEI Xiao Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology, P.R.China, 102600 zhangchaoying@bipt.edu.cn Abstract:Hong Kong SASA International Holdings Limited is the largest and leading cosmetics retailing and beauty care service group in Asia. Its sale prices are much lower than those of exclusive stores and counters because it adopts the strategy of bulk purchase throught the world and marketing many brands comprehensively. This thesis, through field research, systematic analysis and hierarchy analysis,will analyze SASA’s secrets of success and challeges confronted today according to its supply chain and logistics system. Two conclusions have been drawn from