...Case: Dell Inc.: Improving the Flexibility of the Desktop PC Supply Chain It was June 2005, seemingly a good time for Dell Inc. Since the dot-com bubble burst in 2001, the price of the company’s stock had roughly doubled. Both the company’s revenue and net income were reaching new heights. In spite of the confidence and optimism, however, Dell’s desktop PC manufacturing division found that its manufacturing costs had continued to surge. Tom Wilson, one of the division’s directors, revealed: “The recent increase in Level 5 manufacturing is alarming to us at Dell. From Dell’s perspective, this adds cost to our overall manufacturing process. We are not able to take as much advantage as we should of the lower cost structure of our contract manufacturers. Instead, we have to rely more heavily on the 3rd-party integrators (3PIs). Not only do we get lower-quality products because we currently don’t require 3PIs to perform integration unit testing, we also have difficulty forecasting for the 3PIs how much manufacturing capacity they should have available to support Dell’s demand.” History of the PC Industry In the 1960s, the first so-called personal computers (PCs)—non-mainframe computers—such as the LINC and the PDP-8 became available. They were expensive (around $50,000) and bulky (many were about the size of a refrigerator). However, they were called “personal computers” because they were small and cheap enough for individual laboratories and research projects. These computers also...
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...of Logistics volume 14, number 2, copyright 2003. Distributed by Emerald. Reprinted with permission. The manufacturing flow management process Manufacturing flow management is the supply chain management process that includes all activities necessary to move products through the plants and to obtain, implement, and manage manufacturing flexibility in the supply chain. Manufacturing flexibility reflects the ability to make a variety of products in a timely manner at the lowest possible cost. To achieve the desired level of manufacturing flexibility, planning and execution must extend beyond the four walls of the manufacturer. By Thomas J. Goldsby, assistant professor of Marketing and Logistics, The Ohio State University and Sebastian J. Garci’a-Dastugue, director of Research, Institute de Estudios para la Excelenda Competitiva goods sold, in 2002. The proportion of cost of goods sold outsourced in this industry is expected to increase to 42% by 2005.5 In large part, outsourced manufacturing is growing as a result of the need for manufacturing flexibility.6 Manufacturing flexibility enables greater responsiveness to changes in customers’ product preferences and quantities demanded.7 Determining the right degree of flexibility is important to virtually any company involved in the supply, production, distribution or sales of goods, and is at the center of the manufacturing flow management process. While manufacturing activities might be outsourced to suppliers, the commitment...
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...(measurement of all pertinent aspects), universality (allow for comparison under various operating conditions), measurability (data required are measurable), and consistency (measures consistent with organization goals). Besides analyzing the measures based on their effectiveness, benchmarking is another important method that is used in performance measure evaluation. Benchmarking can be useful in that it can serve as a means of identifying improvement opportunities. Camp (1989) provides an excellent, comprehensive discussion of benchmarking. In order to study the large number of performance measures available, researchers have categorized them. Neely et al. (1995) present a few of the categories in the literature, including: quality, time, flexibility, and cost. This categorization is a useful tool in systems analysis. For example, a model may be developed to improve...
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... The headlines are for the sake of classification clarity. Supply Chain Coordination Supply chain coordination issues have been of great interest to researchers for many years especially since 1990s there has been a surge in research in these topics (Burgess et al. 2006). Different perspectives has been proposed on SCC such as “the order, forecasting, procurement, and information sharing procedures among the members of the supply chain” (Therese M. Flaherty, 1996) and “SCC is concerned with managing dependencies between various supply chain members and the joint efforts of all supply chain members to achieve mutually defined goals” (Arshinder, Arunda Kapur, 2007). According to (Omkar D. Palsule-Desai 2012) a SC is perfectly coordinated when the decisions on optimal quantity to be ordered by retailer under decentralized setting equals that of centralized one and yields non-zero profit to both players. There exist two common structures for SC management: Centralized or integrated supply chain with the single decision maker and decentralized with a network consists of multiple decision makers having different information and incentives. Evidence exists that centralized structure is the ideal status of the SC when there are more than two decision makers since otherwise the profit would be less than optimal.( Tirole1990, Corbet and tang 1999,corbet et al 2004) Decentralized decision making gives rise to problems causing sub-optimality: double marginalization (Spengler...
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...Pajerski Advanced Logistics BUS 698 Matthew Keogh May 12, 2014 This paper shall discuss the opportunities that exist to improve supply-chain activities; how to better align logistics and the company’s strategic plan, to integrate the supply-chain. In order to improve the movement of goods; identify challenges in integration of suppliers and manufacturers in the logistics management; companies must be willing to adjust their practices to current circumstances affecting supply-chain. Many processes exist on the market today that companies can adopt to increase their values, which affects the supply-chain management on organizational level; and financial implications by reviewing some of the best practices available on the market and improving their own supply-chain management. I have not worked directly in supply chain management for many years however; I spent over 22 years in Logistics on active duty in the United States Air Force and decided to enroll in the MBA program in Organizational Management at Ashford. Furthermore, since there is a lack of experience in a particular supply chain management, this paper will instead break down a theoretical focal company’s strategic management overall and the theories of strategic management of supply chains in particular and how they need to support each other. The three levels of supply-chain that companies used to survive and operate in business are strategic, tactical, and operational. Organization make high-level decisions...
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...– Rapid Fire Fulfillment Donald R. Lile BUS – FP3022_assessment 1_1 Fundamentals of Supply Chain Management 3/2/16 Author Note Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to Donald R. Lile, Student Capella University, 225 S. 6th St. Minneapolis, MN 55402 dlile@capellauniversity.edu Zara – Rapid Fire Fulfillment Ferdows, Lewis, and Machuca, (2004). Zara, a Spanish clothier has been successful because of the ability to sustain an environment that optimizes the entire supply chain rather than each step. This assessment will identify why the company’s supply chain strategy is successful. This research will also examine how the fast response and information infrastructure aids in this success. And finally, and analysis will be completed on how the company’s unique replenishment strategy satisfies customers. Supply Chain Strategy Ferdows, Lewis, and Machuca, (2004). In an industry where the trend is to outsource, Zara bucks the system. Instead Zara keeps almost half its production in house. Zara designs and manages its rapid-fire supply chain by reinforcing three principles: 1. Close the communication loop 2. Stick to a rhythm across the entire chain 3. Leverage your capital assets to increase supply chain flexibility Zara customers can always find new products on the shelves, but they are in limited supply. Zara designers create approximately 40,000 new designs each year. From these new designs...
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...logistics Introduction Supply chain management is a subject which is popular today and most companies have realized the importance of operations management because effective operations management gives the potential to improve both efficiency and customer service simultaneously (Slack et al, 2010). With the development of the world, supply chain has become a key for company to success in every industry. Harrison and van (2008) mentioned logistics can support supply chain to achieve competitive advantage though meeting end-customer demand properly. The company can gain better performance by using suitable logistics system to increase its competitive advantage. The McDonald’s Corporation is one of the models good at using its special logistics system to support the supply chain. The McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 68 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald. In 2012, McDonald's Corporation had annual revenues of $27.5 billion, and profits of $5.5 billion（McDonald’s Corporation, 2012）. McDonald entered China market in 1990 to open the mainland’s first branch in Shenzhen. The emergence of KFC and McDonald inspired many China’s catering enterprise join in the competition of food and beverage chain industry. Some China’s catering enterprise imitate McDonald’s chain expansion mode, but they...
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...Table of Contents MODULE TITLE: SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAIN - 1 - DESIGN AND OPERATION - 1 - 1.0) INTRODUCTION - 3 - 1.1) WHAT IS THE ISSUE? - 3 - 1.2) CURRENT STATE OF RESEARCH - 4 - 2.0) SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SCM) - 6 - 3.0) SUPPLY CHAIN OPTIMIZATION (SCO) - 7 - 4.0) SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCE (SCR) - 9 - 5.0) CAN SUPPLY CHAIN BE OPTIMIZED AND RESILIENT? - 10 - 5.1) CONCLUSION - 12 - 6.0) REFERENCES - 13 - 7.0) APPENDIX - 17 - 7.1) VULNERABILITY FACTORS - 17 - 7.2) CAPABILITY FACTORS - 18 - 1.0) Introduction The fierce competition in global and local markets, has forced company leaders to focus more on developing and designing an efficient and effective supply chain network. Pishvaee and Torabi (2010) ascertain that one of the most strategic and important element of SCM is making a strategic decision on supply chain network design. And this design takes into consideration some critical parameters that come with a lot of variability, such as the flow mechanism across the chain, facility locations, sizes and numbers. Because this long-term decision will impact the competitiveness of the company in many years to come, therefore, the designed network should be robust with these uncertain parameters. As a robust SC structure is the source of sustainable competitive advantage in this turbulent economic downtown. Therefore a robust SC is capable of making a firm resilient (Tang, 2006). The remaining part of this write-up is organized...
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...MBA 311:SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SCM) Unit 1. Introduction: Supply Chain encompasses all activities associated with the flow and transformation of goods from the raw material stage (extraction), through to the end user, as well as the associated information flows. Material and information flow both up and down the supply chain. Some Definitions of Supply Chain: A supply chain is a network of facilities that procure raw materials, transform them into intermediate goods and then final products, and deliver the products to customers through a distribution system. Lee and Billington A supply chain is a network of facilities and distribution options that performs the functions of procurement of materials, transformation of these materials into intermediate and finished products, and the distribution of these finished products to customers. Ganeshan and Harrison A supply chain, logistics network, or supply network is a coordinated system of organizations, people, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service in physical or virtual manner from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities (value chains or life cycle processes) transform raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to the end customer. Today, the ever increasing technical complexity of standard consumer goods, combined with the ever increasing size and depth of the global market has meant that the link between consumer and vendor...
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...8 Vertical Collaboration in the Supply Chain Sanda Renko Faculty of Economics & Business University of Zagreb Croatia 1. Introduction Supply chain is a research area which has attracted the attention of many researchers for more than 20 years (Mehrjerdi, 2009) due to costs and time involved in managing materials, information and financial flows from the point of origin to the point of consumption. The simplest definition of the supply chain suggests (Waters, 2003) that it consists of series of activities and companies that move materials through on their journey from initial suppliers to final customers. On that journey each company somehow is adding value to the product. However, due to an increasing competition on the market and due to more demanding and more sophisticated customers, the picture of supply chain is getting more complicated. If we take into consideration that many companies have crossed their borders and have included some geographically separate operations into their supply chain, it is very difficult to successfully integrate and to manage all related activities. In the praxis, it is normally that every company is working for its own benefit resulting in duplicating effort and reducing productivity, lowering efficiency, higher costs and decreasing the level of customer services. However, environmental uncertainty expressed through shortening product life cycle, expanding product proliferation, and more demanding customers requires from...
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...1/13/2015 Solution SCM Ch1 2 Documents Upload (/upload.html) Login (/login.html? back=http%3A%2F%2Fdocslide.net%2Fdocuments%2Fsolution-scm-ch12.html) / Docslide (/) / Documents (/category/documents.html) / Solution SCM Ch1 2 Assignment 1 Supply Chain Management Topic: Understanding the Supply Chain Submitted by: Submitted to: Md. Faisal Hossain Md. Md. Akram Hossain EMBA Spring Semester 2013 Assistant Professor ID: 61120-13-017 MIS, University of Dhaka Date: 23-01-2013 Department of Management Information Systems Gateway Why did Gateway have multiple production facilities in the US? What advantages or disadvantages does this strategy offer relative to Dell, which has one facility? US was main market of gateway No inventory stores direct supply no contract with any shipping company Advantages Low price raw material Cheaper logistics http://docslide.net/documents/solutionscmch12.html 1/8 1/13/2015 Solution SCM Ch1 2 Documents Fly UP Shipping Tax Incentives Disadvantages cost increases Difficult to manage quality Different polices for employees What factors did Gateway consider when deciding which plants to close? The markets which were saturated showing poor results, specially Malaysia plant were have high loses Why does Gateway not carry any finished goods inventory at its retail stores? Gateway was really clever in deciding whether to keep such items in inventory or not. As gateway knew that people don’t wait for FMCG product...
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...5137–5155 Supply chain performance measurement: a literature review Goknur Arzu Akyuz* and Turan Erman Erkan Department of Industrial Engineering, Atilim University, Kizilcasar Mahallesi, 06836 Incek Go¨lbasi, Ankara, Turkey (Received 19 February 2009; final version received 2 June 2009) This paper is intended to provide a critical literature review on supply chain performance measurement. The study aims at revealing the basic research methodologies/approaches followed, problem areas and requirements for the performance management of the new supply chain era. The review study covers articles coming from major journals related with the topic, including a taxonomy study and detailed investigation as to the methodologies, approaches and findings of these works. The methodology followed during the conduct of this research includes starting with a broad base of articles lying at the intersection of supply chain, information technology (IT), performance measurement and business process management topics and then screening the list to have a focus on supply chain performance measurement. Findings reveal that performance measurement in the new supply era is still an open area of research. Further need of research is identified regarding framework development, empirical cross-industry research and adoption of performance measurement systems for the requirements of the new era, to include the development of partnership, collaboration, agility, flexibility, information ...
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...companies reduce their costs while improving efficiency and flexibility. Zara, founded in 1975 by Amancia Ortega, is the world’s largest fast fashion flagship chain retailer owned by Inditex Group and is vertically integrated in all aspects of its business. Zara, according to Ferdows et al (2002), has a decentralized communication and decision making process based on an autonomous ordering of clothing and fulfillment method. Zara’s vertically integrated structure of owning everything from the processes of manufacturing and design of its products to the individual stores is due to the fact they produce more of their products in-house, with only forty percent of its activities outsourced. The outsourced activities include the simpler labour intensive quick turnaround activities such as sewing and basic clothing designs while in-house activities are the more complex, complicated and trendy designs for their clothing. Zara’s top management’s opinion on the concept of most products produced in-house is it increases flexibility and speed as the products have a short cycle time. Zara also produces roughly half of its products within their own factories located in different regions around the world. Zara’s governance structure for gaining access to assets is continuous as they leverage their own assets, keeping their supply of materials within their parent company, Inditex Group. According to Ferdows et al (2002) some the supplies sourced and purchased from other Inditex firms include the...
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...Name: Noor Atifah Binti A Wahid Matric number: 2013498534 Group: KBM244 5A The strategic Fit of supply chain integration in the TFT-LCD industry D.Y. Sha, P.K. Chen and Yung-Hsin Chen Volume 13 · Number 5 · 2008 · 339–342 the aims of this study to know in term of cost, quality, delivery and flexibility whether it can satisfy the firm with relationships between complex co-operation, manufacturers, suppliers, and also distributors and to know whether breaking the cost of constraints, can TFT-LCD support the manufacturers and what a types strategies of supply chain integration that can support it. For innovative electronic technologies and prosperous business perspective it will create a great opportunity when TFT-LCD (thin film transistor-liquid crystal display) was come out. Manufacturers, suppliers, and set plants/distributors have relationships that will have constraint of cost and complex co-operation, so that manufacturers of TFT-LCD need struggle to control the price, quality, time of delivery, and flexibility of production. Taiwan TFT-LCD manufacturers was successful in term of cost of constraints and relationship between complex cooperation and their partners to strategic coordination and integration. It was reported in executive of interviews series. The upstream is manufacturing of TFT-LCD supply chain component of features suppliers, midstream refers to manufactures and downstream refers to set plants/distributors in the industry structure was pointed out Venables...
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...Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively. But if we try to look from closer, Mothers are the best managers if one wants to learn from. Here I am taking example of my own mother. She is a doctor so she handles her hospital work and daily routine activities of my house. I have divided the activities performed by my mother on daily routine basis (weekdays) and tried to put them into management functionalities comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading /directing, and controlling our organization (in this case my house). All this is done by resourcing, encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources, and natural resources. |My Mother “The Best Manager” | |Time |Activity |Functionality |Learning | |0500-0530 Hrs |Waking up on time despite of |Planning |Time management | | |working late last night |Organising |Organisational commitment | | | |Leading |Consistency ...
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