Crocs Case Study Essay

In 2004, Moros had been thinking hard about what changes could be made to improve the efficiency and responsiveness of the division’s supply chain. Operational performance metrics for the last half of the year revealed average availability for NOS items to be 97.9%, not bad, but still shy of the 100% product availability guarantee.8 Moros was concerned that retail partners such as Oy Stockmann would threaten

Crocs’ competencies are supply chain management and small-retailer level marketing, just in time distribution. Crocs has used its core competencies to build a brand familiarity and popularity and to distribute new models and accessories in mid-season. Their supply chain management has helped the company to create a stronger maturity map for their products, and to extend the maturity map through marketing.

To achieving greater revenue in sales crocs company minimizes their cost of production and expand their market to export their products to other countries. In this case we conclude the best alternatives are Vertical Integration and growth by acquisition to solve the problems : increase market sensitiveness and quickly shared the information to the other supply chain partners and found varied costumer expectation.

The Spanish retail chain Zara has unique supply chain management practices that enable it to gain a competitive advantage over other fashion retailers in the industry. Zara’s rapid response time enables the firm to quickly respond to changing fashions while deliberately under producing products. This strategy, which is supported by competencies in logistic management, design and information systems, allows the company to maintain less inventory and higher profit margins and is a key factor to Zara’s success. The firm should continue to add value by seeking new opportunities to expand in the retail market and maintain their sustainable growth.

Globalization has changed the competitive landscape of all businesses and the footwear industry is no exception. Datamonitor’s profile of the industry estimates that in 2008 the global footwear market was valued at $196.6 billion and projects that figure to grow to 232.1 billion by 2013. How can firms such as CROCS or ECCO succeed in this global market?

The coming in of Snyder and other key executives from an electronics company where he worked before, Challenged Crocs Inc to think of revolutionizing the manufacturing and supply of the products throughout the world. A number of problems faced in this move because Crocs products production and distribution had a long procedure. The supply chain model for Crocs follows various faces from production to distribution to retailers. Raw materials are shipped to a third party manufacturer in Italy. The Italian manufacturer carries out compounding and then shipping back to Foam

Even though direct competition has decreased, the tendency of retailers to get their products directly from manufacturers puts the company in a position of relooking its competitive edge as a distributor. The marketplace is shifting from an individuality to supply chain performance – the ability to meet end-customers needs through product availability and responsive and on-time delivery. Supply chain performance crosses both functional lines and company boundaries. Brunswick must change their way to fill customer orders faster and more efficiently than the competition.

Zappos is a service company that sells products by a core competency focusing on accessible shopping via electronic commerce and effective customer interactions. Company revenue was spent to improve customer experiences at the cost of expensive and inefficient warehouse and product lengthy return windows. Zappos’ service quality emphasised, “the wow factor” to their customers, by under promising and over delivering with effective supply chain management.

As a supply chain solutions company, C1 provides downstream value-added services for energy and industrial markets through a distribution network of more than 250 locations across North America and Europe (company website). C1 stocks more than 90,000 diverse products for customer markets providing them with maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products and has been in the business for almost 100 years (company website). The company’s commitment to quality has ensured that C1’s distribution centers maintain International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certification standards and ensure top quality and service to customers.

My operations management coursework was based on the ECCO A/S – Global Value Chain Management case study which is an interesting paper on ECCO A/S (ECCO) who have been very successful in the footwear industry by focusing on production technology and assuring quality by maintaining full control of the entire value chain from “cow to shoe.”.

Emerging and established companies such as Nike constantly seek a competitive edge to enhance their productive and profit margins as well as to distinguish their firm from the competition in the marketplace. From enhanced marketing and promotional initiatives to outsourcing of production, firms execute a variety of strategies and tactics to bolster their bottom-line. All of these approaches may well translated into better performance for the business. However, one of the more efficacious ways of distinguish is to enhance and refine their supply-chain logistical infrastructure. From partnering with superior vendors and suppliers to streamlining internal processes, addressing supply-chain issues have transformative potential

The company aims at building long term relations with its suppliers and also investing into more automated production which ultimately help them to produce better quality products at lower cost.

The supply chain management basically involves processes and activities which are involved in the planning, organising, controlling and implementing the cost effective flow of goods from the point of origin to the point of consumption. The whole process will have different players like the supplier, manufacturer, distributor, retailers and the customers themselves as the end point of consumption. The supply chain has changed drastically over the years. This days they are very global in nature. Involving various complex interactions and flow of goods, data and funds between companies which are situated in different countries and continents. Even though the companies are spread across the world the manufacturing plants generally follow a similar structure which normally comprises of the suppliers, manufacturing plants, distributors, retailers, inbound and outbound logistics providers. There were a lot of challenges which arose because of the competition which made the companies to rethink their strategies in order to get the product to the right place at the right time at the lowest cost possible. The companies should always look at improving the whole supply chain and every player in the chain should coordinate with one another if they want to increase the efficiency. The organisation should realise the strategic importance of supply chain as it is a key to building a sustainable competitive edge. (Li, Ragu-Nathan, Ragu-Nathan, & Rao, 2006).

The benchmark of their successful company was because of their unique Supply Chain Management which used the ‘Built – to – order’ and ‘Direct Sale Strategies’.

The supply and chain have been defined by Towill, Naim and Wikner as “a sequence of material supplier, production facilities, distribution services and customers which are linked together by the flow of goods and information (Towill, Naim and Wikner 1992). Turner (1993, p.52) argue that “the Supply