Supply Chain Strategies

Introduction. Basic understanding of stategy. Understanding the supply chain. Decision phases in a supply chain. Integrated supply chain strategy. Intergating the supply chain. Supply chain redesign. Porter’s value chain. Product life cycle (plcCase studies. Conclusion. Reference list.

I could distinguish the main goal of this seminar paper as – discussion about different supply chain strategies. To do this I will collect the information from printed sources and on the Internet to develop as much knowledge about strateging and panning as it is possible. In seminar paper chapters I will discover different strategy types, PLC model and couple of case studies that I was very interested.

Phase number 2: supply chain diagnostic review – first step usually is to develop a cost model. This is necessary because in many companies the traditional cost accounting and measurement systems do not effectively distribute the cost of the activities in the organizations to individual products or market segments. The goal of this step, therefore, is to develop a realistic method of allocating overhead costs of products, markets and activities. At the same time as developing a cost model, effort should be directed towards identifying those activities in the company which mostly affect and impact on the ability to meet customers’ needs. It means, identify what the company must “do well“. Objective: identify activities in the company operations which can significantly impact on the company’s ability to satisfy customer needs. Third step: develop a list of potential improvement techniques for each of the opportunities which have been indentified. First step towards identifying techniques for consideration in developing a supply chain strategy and a final implementation plan.

Phase number 3: supply chain development – the development of a supply chain strategy and tactical plan for implementing that strategy. Objective: develop a strategy for a company based on the done work in two first phases which is consistent for customer desires, management focus, market characteristics and the realities of the organization. The final task is to reduce the supply chain strategy to actionable implementation plans by developing the specific, time-based, tactical plans for implementing the strategy. This involves organizing and prioritizing the list of potential improvements, developed in earlier tasks. The result of this task is a set of time-phased action plans for implementing the supply chain strategy. (Stevens, G., “Integrating the Supply Chain“, 2007).

Operational perspective – it should be concerned with the efficient operation of the supply chain. It focuses on a detailed systems and procedures and ensures that appropriate controls and performance measures are in place. Typically, the company should measure the performance of the supply chain in terms of inventory investment, service level, throughput efficiency, supplier performance and cost (Stevens, G., “Integrating the Supply Chain“, 2007).

Business processes – a set of logically related tasks performed to achieve a defined business outcome. In fact, this definition casts a business processes, like any other process as a transformation function, which can be thought of a using energy to convert inputs and outputs. Extending this concept process efficiency can be defined and measured as a reciprocal of the energy used during this transformation. Equally, process effectiveness can be defined and measured as the frequency with which process outputs conform to their output specifications. A first order model of any business can, therefore, be represented. The practice of BPM (Business Processes Management) concerns the maximization of total process efficiency and effectiveness. BPR (Business Processes Redesign) concerns redesign initiatives aimed at improving process efficiency and effectiveness capabilities. This generic model can be tailored to a particular business process, the management of the supply chain in order to explore its validity. The supply chain process model can in turn be matched with leading edge BPR experience to derive some initial thoughts regarding general BPR and BPM operating principles.