Supply Chain Management :: Business Case Studies Essays

In this competitive world every organization is striving hard to be at the top in its own field. The competition in the business environment has become intense. The winds of change are blowing in purchasing and supply. And it is one of the areas that the organisations look into for achieving competitive advantage. The changes in conformance quality standards, JIT approaches to material availability, long term relationships with fewer suppliers and a win-win approach to negotiations have helped organisations to survive and succeed in a very competitive world. It's every organisations dream to have a low cost supplier and a low cost service provider to its customers. In this changing world of competition, globalisation, innovation and technology all organisations are thriving to re-engineer their business processes to achieve a competitive edge over others. These changes have led the organisations to cost effectiveness aspect in every department of business especially supply, purchasing, distribution and management. In terms of tough competition organisations offer similar products in terms of quality, price and features. Customer service differentiation can provide an organisation with a distinct advantage over the competition. The level of service provided to functions such as marketing and production affects the organisations ability to serve the need of the customers. The organisation can achieve competitive success if they satisfy the customers through their services effectively and efficiently. This is achieved if they are capable of retaining their customers. A greater customer satisfaction is achieved by a superior service provided by the organisation. This is achieved if the business functions are well defined and are supported by other functions. This report gives an insight about the various aspects of supply chain management and operational management and also the important strategies involved. It also explains the importance of managing the supply chain in the business perspective. v Before proceeding further its important for us to know what supply chain is and what supply chain is about? Supply chain: In an industrialized or non-industrialized society goods are physically moved from production area to the service area. This exchange takes place when there is discrepancy between the amount and type of goods available and the goods needed. If there is surplus amount of goods in organisation that someone else needs, becomes a basis for exchange. This gives rise to channels where there is an exchange between producers and consumers. The alignment of firms that bring products and services to market is called supply chain.