Case Study : Supply Chain Management

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

In today’s competitive business world, the best companies have discovered a powerful new source which encompasses on all the integrated activities that bring the product to the market and create satisfied customers and is called “Supply-Chain Management”.

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).

Supply chain management is a practice that involves the planning, supervision, and implementation of strategies and controls to direct the movement of goods and services provided to customers. The intent of this essay is to incorporate a synopsis of existing literature and to provide the reader with a general understanding of how supply chain management correlates with the organizational design and structure of modern firms. The essay comprehensively reviews the components of supply chain management and their integration with functional areas within an organization. The information presented in this essay

"The ability to learn faster than competitors may be the only true sustainable competitive advantage." – Arie P. De Geus

According to Stevenson, supply chain management is the strategic coordination of business functions within a business organization and throughout its supply chain for the purpose of integrating supply and demand management. Supply chains are sometimes referred to as value chains and have two components for each organization: supply and demand. Suppliers, producers and final customers are connected through the supply chain. Global supply chains have additional complexities that may not exist in domestic supply markets. Language and cultural differences, and increased need for trust and cooperation among the supply market are among some of these complexities. There are also risks that exist among

Many companies produce products from parts of raw materials that are purchased from suppliers, till these products are reach the markets and presented for the customers, then you have the supply chain starting from the purchase of raw material from different areas , through the manufacturing steps and stages till is being sold by the consumer. Some of supply chains are well defined and easy to determined, while there are other supply chains complex to analyze. However, supply chains vary with the size of the facility such as; complexities, performance, abilities, flexibility, quality, speed, dependability and cost of preparing goods for manufacturing and the chain length distribution. So the supply chain is a network of wholesalers, retailers, distributors, workers in the transport, storage facilities, suppliers, and manufacturers who participate in the production, delivery and sale of the product to the last consumer. A supply chain is a group of facilities that coordinate activities among it and to avoid the competitors. Moreover, to ensure the supply chain management is operating efficiently and generating the highest level of customer

Supply Chain Management involves the process of managing, monitoring, controlling and constantly coordinating supply related activities among manufacturers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailer and the consumers. All this is done while integrating supply management with demand management, not only within but also across companies. Since all the processes involved in managing supply chain activities require a robust system in place, every company turns to technology for efficient and effective synchronization and smooth deployment of processes along with careful alignment of resources for timely completion of supply related activities.

Quality of product produced and shipped can become weaker when suppliers experience financial issues stemming from contractual performance. This happens primarily when flawed products are shipped to meet present currency requirements. Because of the fact that management is highly interested in cash flow, deliveries start to get behind schedule. Late deliveries or bad quality product is not acceptable so financial ratios must be monitored and acted upon professionally.

The globalization has led to much reliance on the automation and the latest technology in the organizations. No organization can survive today without a pool of latest technology and resources. The oil and gas industry is a key player in the global market. All other companies are somewhere dependent on the oil and gas industry (Lakkad, 2009). Therefore, it is very critical

Supply chain management is a main process in all kinds of companies. That’s because an optimized supply chain results in lower costs and a faster production cycle.

b) For each mode of sourcing that Zara uses (as indicated by your answer to Question 5a), explain why they have chosen this mode, and also indicate when Zara uses it and for which types of items.

In the traditional concept of supply chain, for instance, a paper retailer buys paper from its wholesale supplier. Then this paper company sells them in its retail store. Or a paper manufacturer buys raw stocks from raw stocks suppliers, then turns raw stocks into paper and sells it to others. While, Extended supply chain tends to include the factories where the paper are made, the company that sells the paper, the mill where that supplier buys their raw materials, and other related segment units in this supply chain. Thus, paper retailers may not know very much about which companies originally made the paper, where the paper came from, and how it was transported to the wholesalers, what does the warehouses that store various paper look like. In this supply chain system, retailers may not be capable of reaching Tier-1 suppliers directly.

When supply chain managers are brought together it is the common goal to focus on the process of getting the consumers product though the forward supply chain as quick and efficiently as possible. However, there is a need to focus on the scope of the returns process too. “Companies can no longer afford to treat reverse logistics management as an afterthought. It needs to be a core capability within the supply chain organization. For years, most shippers paid little attention to returns” (Dowlatshahi, 2005). It has cost companies billions of dollars over the years and even harmed some of their brands. Though this may be apparent, the improvement of managing the returns of those goods has become the capstone of completing the full cycle of the supply chain from both forward and revers. In saying that, the attributed on managing the returns process is somewhat similar to that of the forward supply chain. This process is not always easy and convenient. Many known companies have failed because of an overload on return that were mishandled, causing a dilemma when making the attempts to reach expectations. To avoid failure the best practices, in reverse logistics have been proven to give those in leadership positions the functional ability to consider the overall establishment of clearly defining what profits and loss are being made. Technological advancements have too given the use of applications and inventory control analytical procedures to govern the increasing disposition of

Supply Chain Management is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the operations of supply chain with the purpose to satisfy customer requirements as efficiently as possible. Supply chain management spans all movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from point-of-origin to point-of-consumption. It is a cross functional approach to managing the movement of raw materials into an organization and the movement of finished goods out of the organization toward the end consumer.