Supply Chain (summary and suggestions) - Essay Example

Article Summary: Services are very important part of the corporate world. Over the years, they have grown into a strong conglomerate for income, as a result of which the economy is no longer dependent on just the manufacturing sector. It is important for services supply chain to be efficient. For too long, service-based companies has over-looked the importance of having separate chain of rules for services supply chain. Service sector varies across different industries. It is important to design a supply chain that is specific to each industry.

As the service industry grows, the need for more efficient service supply chains will also rise. The article offers a comprehensive insight into how the importance of services supply chain and how services supply chain by practitioners is incumbent for improvement cost control and minimizing value leakage. It plays a huge role in extracting margins from these companies. The article also offers recommendations for the services supply chain. It explains how attention is needed to be given to the services supply chains by employing various measures such as-educating and training future practitioners and conducting research.

It offers information pertaining to best practices and trends when managing services supply chain and how implementation of these best practices and trends will give the firms their competitive advantage. The author focuses a lot of management in the article. He claims that improving the overall management of the services may mark the next major forte of cost reduction and value enhancement for organizations. Article 2: Summary: The article focuses more on some successful SCM strategies each of which result in varying parameters of organizational performance.

It asserts the fact repeatedly that every service industry has to be dealt separately and should use SCM practices which are specific to that company. It points out the impact of different strategies of SCM on different levels of organizational performance. The article also does an empirical analysis on the status of eight SCM strategies and their impact on operational and financial performance. The results of the study imply that there are some differences in the degree to which these strategies could be applied across the board in different sectors and each has a different impact on the expected performance.

Last but not the least it goes into the crux of the matter- how are manufacturing and service chains different? How do they help companies undertake informed decisions regarding the strategy that they should pursue in order to bring results home? Supply chain management means there are different levels of integration with a company’s suppliers and distributors. Relative importance and prevalence of some SCM strategies within a company is not just affected by its own strategy but also by its supply chain partners.

The article talks about how key supply chain partners affect the organizational performance. However, more research needs to be done in this area. The current literature on the topic is too generic and would definitely have to be elaborated further by more research and introspection. Suggestions and Recommendations: Based on its results, the article offers very lucrative suggestions for supply chain management. For better results in supply chain it is important to give more information leads to the supply chain partners.

Companies should not hesitate from doing this. Information sharing is one of the most fundamental pillars of supply chain management. Thus service companies should share information and the greater the collaboration and transparency, the more the operational performance will improve. More-over it will not disrupt the flow of goods in the supply chain network. Secondly, a bigger strategic importance of the distribution network has a more positive impact on the performance. This is possible as a lot of service companies are geographically dispersed.

Therefore it would be better if facility location, distribution and transportations modes would improve over-all financial performance in companies. Thirdly companies should try customize their products relative to their competitors. Better results will follow in the operational arena, if the companies do this. In order to do this, they should be constantly in touch with the customers about the demand and time. As a result, this will lead to less lead times and more customer satisfaction. Lastly, in order to achieve bigger efficiencies in the supply chain, the employee force should be increasingly empowered.

As a result of empowerment, employees feel more connected to the organization, they perform well and their motivation levels run high. In the process the operational and financial performance of the supply chain is greatly improved. Thus the employees should be leveraged to take decisions on their own. (Simpson) Works Cited L, B. (1985). Strategy and Environment: A conceptual study. Porter. (1990). Competitive Strategy. NY: NY Press. Simpson. (2002). Business Studies. London: Cambridge University Press.