Mkt1 Supply Chain Network

A supply chain is a net work of firms. Thus, each firm in the chain should build its own supply chains to support the competitive priorities of its services or products. Two distinct designs used to competitive advantage are efficient supply chains and responsive supply chains. Efficient supply chains work best in environments where demand is highly predictable. The focus of the supply chain is on efficient flows of services and materials keeping inventories to a minimum. The firm’s competitive priorities are low-cost operations, consistent quality, and on-time delivery. Responsive supply chains designed to react quickly in order to hedge against uncertainties in demand. Work best when firms offer a great variety of services or products and demand predictability is low. Typical competitive priorities are development speed, fast delivery times, customization, variety, volume flexibility, and top quality. Tables below show the environments and design features that best suit each design.

Supply chains manage the movement of products from the acquisition of raw materials through production and finally distribution to the end user. A properly designed supply chain can create many opportunities to drive down cost and increase revenue opportunities. In order to create a supply chain that is sustainable and flexible it is necessary to identify and align company goals and initiatives with the manufacturing and distribution of products.

A supply chain is a system of people, activities, information, and resource involved in creating a product and moving it their customers. First is the strategic supply chain management. Best value supply chains strive to excel along four measures. Speed is the time duration from initiation to completion of the production and distribution process. Quality refers to the relative reliability of supply chain activities. Supply chains’ efforts at managing cost involve enhancing value by either reducing expenses or increasing customer benefits for the same cost level. Flexibility refers to a supply chain’s responsiveness to changes in customers’ needs. The second component of the strategic supply chain is agility, the supply chain’s relative capacity to act rapidly in response to dramatic change in supply and demand. Adaptability refers to a willingness and capacity to reshape supply chains when necessary. Lastly, alignment refers to creating consistency in the interest of all participants in a supply

Having no insight of how supply chain management works and using the Responsive E-beer Game simulation gave me a keen view on how the supply chains. Team members placed materials orders to their neighbors in an upstream response to demand from their downstream neighbors. The objective of the whole game was to reduce the cost of fulfilling demand. Cost was measured on backlogs and inventory. Retailer, wholesale, distributor, and manufacturer all play their roles in getting products out to customers. Playing several rounds with team mates made me realize that throughout the supply chain that everyone needed to be on the same page on how much product needed to be ordered through the different channels.

Effective supply chain management can provide an important competitive advantage for a business marketer, resulting in improved communication and involvement among members of the chain, increased motivation, and decreased costs. Tracking the movement of and demand for components used to manufacture a product across a variety of potential and actual suppliers, provides insight and the ability to respond instantly to shortages, surpluses, and changes in market conditions. It seeks to optimize production, decrease manufacturing time, minimize inventory, streamline order fulfillment, and reduce cost.

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

The supply chain managers should also understand that data analytics is more than just one type of analytics. The first one is descriptive analytics; descriptive analytics will help the supply chain mangers in to know what really happens in supply chain. Descriptive analytics helps in data visualization and even in mapping. The next is the predictive analytics; this type of analytics helps the supply chain managers to use the available data in making very nice predictions. This

“Supply network design involves configuring the shape and capabilities of one’s own and other operations with which business interacts” (Slack et al 2009)

A company 's competitive strategy clearly spells out the set of customer needs that it seeks to satisfy through its products and services having a defined set of attributes. The supply chain design or supply chain strategy must be in alignment with competitive strategy. A supply chain design can be taken up only after the competitive strategy is finalized and a supply chain needs to be redesigned or modified whenever there is a change in competitive strategy. The supply chain strategy includes supplier strategy, operations strategy, and logistics strategy. Design decisions regarding inventory, transportation, operating facilities, and information flows in the supply chain of a company are all part of supply chain strategy. Business strategy involves leveraging the core competencies of the organization to achieve a defined high-level goal or objective. It also includes the analytic and decision-making process surrounding what to offer, when to offer, and where to offer as a competitive plan. While the business strategy constitutes the overall direction that an organization wishes to go, the supply chain strategy constitutes the actual operations of that organization and the extended supply chain to meet a specific supply chain objective. According to an article Supply chain performance: achieving strategic fit and scope –review notes in Business and Management

: QMJ ZG621 : SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT : Open Book : 60% : 3 Hours : 05/04/2009 (AN)

Herwig winkler (2009). Supply Chain Flexibility can be seen as an ability of a supply chain that helps to gain competitive advantage and improve success. To improve the flexibility of a supply chain we suggest building up and using certain supply chain networks. By configuring supply chain networks it is possible to design and manage an important part of an entire supply chain. Within supply chain networks specific flexibility potentials can be developed to realize a high degree of supply chain flexibility. An improvement in the flexibility of an entire supply chain is necessary to achieve remarkable performance results. (45). by the design and use of strategic supply chain networks significant improvements of supply chain flexibility can be achieved. (45).

In today’s society “technology”, especially the internet has taken an important role in the Supply Chain Management sector of business, and majority of the companies involved in Supply Chain Management have adopted new and improve technologies to gain a competitive edge, and become leaders within their industry. Supply Chain Management has become one of the leading industries in business. Companies recognized that in order to get their products to retailers and consumers on a timely manner they have to implement successful Supply Chain Management strategies. Companies have to identify the opportunities and challenges their organization might face in order to prepare for the future. Moreover, companies have to realize that selecting the

Internet has helped to speed up the goods and information flow between manufacturers, distributors, retailers and customers. By connecting Supply Chain Management (SCM) Systems to the suppliers and buyers, organisations shall be able to better plan the demand, control inventory and fulfil demands more effectively and efficiently. It helps organisations to reduce the risk of under or over stocking

Supply chain performance has never been as important as it is today. In a global economy where supply chains, and not companies, battle one another, how a supply chain performs determines who will win the battle. To achieve maximum benefit from a supply chain, a supply chain must be performing at its best or anything it has gained will be short-lived. Yet, many companies are not aware of how their supply chains are performing or even what supply chain they are in.

The supply chain is one of the primary ways in which an organization adds value to the consumer. Value is gained through this process in several ways. It can come from design, quality, price, or efficiency. Furthermore, supply chains can be optimized for tactical considerations such as turnover rates or economic, strategic decisions such as location or product life cycle management, or even strategic factors such as creating long term partnership or maintaining sustainable practices. Through any combination of these factors, an organization can create a competitive advantage in regards to its operating environment. Thus the supply chain can be one of the most complex aspects to running an effective organization. This analysis will provide an overview and conduct a brief literature review that will highlight some of the factors that MedCom will have to consider to create a competitive advantage in operations management.