Challenges for Logistics and Supply Chain Management in Slowdown

The supply chain management is considered as a management concept from past two decades as the customers are concerned about timely and safe delivery. The competitiveness has been increasing among the companies to deliver the products as quickly as possible to the customers all around the world. This has made the supply chain management as a vital tool for the management. This is also measured as a competitive parameter for the companies.

The current demand forecasting method is based on qualitative techniques more than quantitative ones. If the forecast is not accurate, the company would carry both inventory and stock out costs. It might lose customers due to shortage of supply or carry additional holding costs due to excess production. If the actual demand doesn’t match the forecast ones, and the forecast was too high, this will result in high inventories, obsolescence, asset disposals, and increased carrying costs. When a forecast is too low, the customer resorts to a competitive product or retailer. A supplier could lose both sales and shelf space at that retail location forever if their predictions continue to be inaccurate. The tolerance level of the average consumer

Barilla, the leading pasta manufacturer in Italy, faces increasing problems related to demand fluctuation. Their distributors also suffer from high inventory holding costs and low service levels on the other hand. This report explains, why the company and their distributors are troubled with this situation and how Barilla intends to solve it. The problem Barilla experiences is called the “Bullwhip Effect”, i.e. that demand variability increases when moving up the supply chain. Several factors enforce this Bullwhip Effect, e.g. high lead times, poor demand forecasting, and batch ordering. In this report we will point out, that exactly those aspects can be identified as the underlying reasons for Barilla’s problems. In a

The customers, wholesalers and retailers may order in large quantities with the expectation that they will receive a greater allocation of products that are in short supply. The impact on the supply chain is significant as the forecasted demand is greatly, and unrealistically, increased with these inflated orders. Eventually orders disappear and cancellations pour in, making it impossible for the manufacturer to determine the real demand for its products

A review of Costco Wholesale Corporation key parameters in supply chain operations with a view to suggesting improvements and operational predictions for better economic impact.

Supply-Chain Management is the activities that procure materials and services, and transform them into intermediate goods and final products and deliver them, through a distribution system (Heizer & Render, 2011, p. 452). DELL is a computer technology corporation that develops sells, repairs and supports, computers and computer related products. DELL has realized that supply chain is becoming more and more important for the success of today’s business world and they work accordingly to keep a competitive advantage in the market. This study will examine to what extent Dell has used supply chain management to gain and retain a competitive advantage in the computer market.

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Also; Citigroup, Inc. another competitor for the GE Company made a total of $64.95 billion in 2011, and when we compare it with GE and SI its earnings where even less in the same year, making General Electric a leader in the industry. With this valuable information GE management can analyze its competitor’s financial statements results and from there they can evaluate their faults and create new ways to increase their annuals earnings and secure their place as one of leading companies in their industry. Another way GE can go forward in the industry is by adapting its services and products to other countries that need them.

However, this study only focus on operations dimension performance not for the supply chain as a whole. The measurement of performance of SCM entities can be improved by using a more balanced perspective as provided for by the BSC framework (Chia et al., 2009). This study apply balanced score card (BSC) approach on the logistics industry in order to measure supply chain performance but the results may not be representative of the individual clusters. In order to deliver a comprehensive performance measurement framework for SME’s, BSC and SCOR model must be integrated (Thakkar et al., 2009). This study relates the performance measurement with several supply chain cycles such as procurement, manufacturing, replenishment and customer order. However, this study does not cover the decision making levels. Supply chain performance has significant relationship with market orientation such as customer focus, competitor-oriented and cross-functional coordination (Lin et al., 2010) but this study only focus on innovation

General Motors is one of the world's most dominant automakers from 1931. After 1980s economic recession the main goal for automobile companies was cost reduction. Customers became more price-sensitive. Also Japanese competitors came into market with the new effective system of production. So market was highly competitive and directed toward price reduction. The case states that in 1991 GM suffered $ 4.5 billion losses and most part of the costs of manufacturing was due to purchased components. GM NA hired Lopez in order to find the way from "extraordinary" situation and reduce costs.

The Global Purchasing and Supply Chain division was responsible for streamlining the supply chain and the year 2013 was a good one for the U.S. automotive market as sales rose 7.6 percent to 15.6 million vehicles. This is a substantial comeback from the levels of 2009-2010 when severe recession forced the bankruptcy of General Motors and other automobile companies and caused many other automakers to lose revenue and profits hence reducing labor and operation costs by massive worker layoffs and downsizing by closing manufacturing plants.

Supply chain aims to meet customer needs and consists of all parties, including manufacturers, suppliers, transporters, warehouses, retailers and customers. (Chopra & Meindl, 2016) Firstly, in GDM’s own country, GDM is the largest refrigerator manufacturers. GDM focus on three models’ refrigerators that designs, promotion and manufacturers by themselves. Secondly, GDM depends on some suppliers, including the key suppliers in US and some local suppliers. Then, in GDM, there is not has a high concern between the procurement and supply chain function, and they ignored the information system and sophisticated techniques. In addition, GDM is short of internal collaboration because individual departments usually make decisions by themselves. Finally,

The concept of demand forecasting more accurately measures and predicts the changes and opportunities in the supply chain.

7. Supply chain efficiency. Cargill’s supply chain shows a highly efficient performance. There are few other companies in the world

Supply chain management is currently an important aspect in Management Information System. So much technology and brainpower have been used to improve the performance. In this decade electronic data interchange has made the process flexible, automatic warehousing and rapid logistics. Every organizations are trying to make their supply chain management more accurate using quick response, efficient customer response, mass customization, lean and agile manufacturing. (Fisher, 1997)