Current Even Paper - Assignment Example

CURRENT EVENT PAPER- SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT Affiliation This chapter focused on supply chain management, which is simply the management of the facilities, functions and activities of a business or organization. These functions and activities are used to produce and deliver goods and services to the consumers. The ultimate goal of supply chain management is to enhance customer value and gain a competitive advantage. Two of the key issues of supply chain management are being able to manage customer relationships and bring new products and services to the market.

In an article by Suzanne Kapner and Ben Fox Rubin (2014) appearing in the Wall Street Journal, the authors highlight some of the supply chain problems facing Dog Lululemon, a yoga-gear maker. the chief financial officer, John Currie, said that the company witnessed a sharp decline in sales at the start of 2014. The source of this decline is attributed to the recall of its popular yoga pants which were found to be see-through. In addition, this decline was caused by the negative publicity offered by the then outgoing chairman Dennis Wilson when he suggested that the problem was caused by overweight customers.

While the company has focused on improving the quality of the recalled pants, it has failed to bring to the market new products. This has led to a sharp reduction in the volume of customers at the stores. One of the key issues supply chain management attempts to address is the quality of products and services. In addition, an organization must be able to bring new products and services to the market in order to remain competitive. In the above article, it is shown that Dog Lululemon’s problems stemmed from its inability to bring new products to the market.

This has led to a lack of newness in its stores. Furthermore, supply chain management involves managing of customer relationships. In the above article, the then outgoing chairman of Dog Lululemon failed in this aspect, and this further compounded the problems. ReferenceKapner, S & Rubin, B (2014, January 13).Supply-Chain Problems Dog Lululemon. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304549504579318120467741330