Case Study : Supply Chain Integration

Supply chain operations focus on demand planning, forecasting, and inventory management. Forecasts estimate customer demand for a particular product during a specific period of time based on historical data, external drivers such as upcoming sales and promotions, and any changes in trends or competition. Using

Arntzen, B. C., G. G. Brown, T. P. Harrison, L. L. Trafton. 1995. Global supply chain management at Digital Corporation. Interfaces 25(1) 69-93.

Recognized as one of the leading computer manufacturers, Dell uses an astonishing supply chain through pull-to-order procurement and just-in-time inventory management. Their strategy is highly efficient and drives costs to a minimum while allowing for minimal lead times and production times of under 4 hours for each order as their suppliers maintain levels of inventory based on forecasts within Dell warehouses near Dell assembly

3. How can supply chain design and integration help John Wolf reduce investment and space requirements while maintaining adequate service levels?

Success for many organizations depends on the firm’s ability to balance product and process changes while exceeding customer expectations for improved cost delivery and quality. In lieu of these issues firms have started to implement principles of supply chain management. Supply chain management mainly involves managing the flow of incoming materials, manufacturing operations, and downstream distribution has to be in alignment that is responsive to change in customer demands eliminating a surplus of inventory.

In order for IKEA to achieve design and sustainability objectives, they follow and balance four dimensions of design. The four different dimensions followed are form, function, quality, sustainability, and low price (Rafiq Elmansy, 2014). IKEA has already made changes by using cotton and water from sources that can be renewed. IKEA did this while posting strong sales figures. In 2014, its sales increased 5.9 percent from 2013 to $32.1 billion (Pantsios, 2015).

India 's gems and jewellery industry had a market size of Rs 251,000 crore (US$ 40.58 billion) in 2013, and is expected to reach Rs 500,000-530,000 crore (US$ 81.61-86.51 billion) by 2018, according to the FICCI-AT Kearney study 'All that glitters is Gold: India Jewellery Review 2013 '.

Supply Chain Management : The vertical integration in the supply chain led them to achieve shorter time frame of release and also helped them to

For Customer service, supply chain is all about proving the logistics of delivering the right products at the right time. Sounds simple but there are factors such as: reordering the product, supplier inventory is not enough, no consignment storage, delivery time not met, redesigning the planning. This challenge is effective and significant on both downstream and upstream of the process it affects the downstream as business partners are the one being effected upon the ordering and delivery of the product as without the product delivered they can’t start the next phase of their process; as for upstream this is extremely effective not just as revenue stream but to honor the continuous partnership shipping and delivering the product to customer is critical. Cost control of operating expense in direct and indirect commodity costs, logistic agile costs under pressure upon rising fuel/energy and freight cost, global business partners, technology investment, labor cost of recruits and manufacturing floor, and always the

The global supply chain needs to be flexible, responsive and agile and empowered to deliver goods to consumers on demand. Retailers and manufacturers need to be positioned to respond to this dynamic demand. The only way to effectively achieve responsive order fulfillment is through an automated supply chain, powered by comprehensive real-time software.

Amazon.com is beginning to aggregate other e-commerce that are linked via strategic placement and investments. The vision is to make it so customers don’t have to go elsewhere to shop very often especially online (Scally, 2000). The reputation it has is so strong that any association with Amazon.com helps create an impression of validity and success for anyone that chooses to partner with them. Amazon has one of the most-sophisticated supply-chain systems in the world, and it was all built from scratch. Homemade applications handle nearly every aspect of its supply chain: warehouse management, transportation management, inbound and outbound shipping, demand forecasts, inventory planning, and more. In the last four years, Amazon has worked to minimize the need for human intervention in its supply-chain processes, such as manually inputting sales forecasts into an inventory-management system (Bacheldor, 2004). Today, Amazon 's supply-chain apps communicate in real time, a rarity when most companies have to integrate

As director of Supply Chain Systems, Teri Takai recommends implementing virtual integration strategies from companies like Dell to portions of Ford’s supply chain strategy. Although there are several key differences between the companies, the restructuring plans of Ford 2000 have set a viable foundation to implement Dell’s virtual integration strategy in inventory management, customer service and support and suppliers’ management. The redesign of the process must include design not only of the supply chain but also of fulfillment, forecasting, purchasing, and a variety of other functions that historically been considered independently within the Ford hierarchy. Teri

The class text states that Supply chain management is frequently divided into supply chain planning applications, supply chain execution applications, logistics management, and warehouse management. Often when companies fail at implementing an efficient supply chain because of the planning section, or inaccurate demand forecasts. The text states electronic data interchange is one of the earliest uses of information technology for supply chain management, Electronic data interchange is the use of the Internet for everyday business transactions. “In this era of information a firm’s supply chain should operate at speed of thought and this is possible only by enhanced e-speed communications and information sharing with their critical partners.” (4)

The marketing department, responding to customer demand, communicates with several distributors and retailers as it attempts to determine ways to satisfy this demand. Information shared between supply chain partners can only be fully leveraged through process integration.

Supply Chain coordination has become a critical success factor for Supply Chain management (SCM) and effectively improving the performance of organizations in various industries. Companies are increasingly located at the intersection of one or more corporate networks which are designated by “Supply Chain”. Managing this chain is mainly based on an 'information sharing ' and redeployment activities between the various links that comprise it. Several attempts have been made by industrialists and