Supply Chain Theory: Argos - Case Study Example

Supply Chain theory- Argos Introduction of Company Argos is a digital retailing company situated in the United Kingdom. It offers more than 33,000 products, which can be found in its website (Argos, 2013). The company has also decided to grow in terms of marketing and promotion as it has mobile channels, telephone sales, stores and Argos TV (De, 2011, Pg 12). It has been realized that it is UK’s largest high street retailer where more than 430 million people visit the website annually. The customers that are usually served yearly are estimated to be 130 million through their 740 stores (Argos, 2013). The financial report released last year showed that the sales of the company were ?3.9 billion with the people employed by the company being 31,000 across the business (Argos, 2013). Being part of the Home Retail Group, it is among the United Kingdom’s leading general and home merchandise retailer. The company came into the limelight in July 1963 and Richard Tompkins was the founding member of the firm. During this time, he had already established the Green Shield Stamp which was based in the United Kingdom. The company started out as a stamp retailer shop but after Tompkins visited Argos City in Greece, everything changed. He embarked on selling gifts on cash. He later decided to rebrand the shop and named it Argos in 1973, July. The shop started out by making sales of ?1,000,000 the same year in November (De, 2011, Pg 25). BAT company purchased the shop in 1979 for ?32 million. It is at this time that the company resolved to always remain relevant in the market by embracing all the new initiatives in order to capture more clients. Literature review The book that gives a clear representation of the subject on chain supply theory is Slack, N., Brandon-Jones, A., Johnston, R. & Betts, A. 2012. Operations and process management. 3rd edn, Prentice Hall/ Financial Times, London. It analyzes some of the processes that have been used by Argos and other companies in inducing the innovations of technology. The mechanism is taken into consideration in terms of social, economic and environmental prospective through the supply chain, which is in accordance with the proposals set to produce a sustainable development (Slack, Brandon-Jones, Johnston, & Betts, 2012 Pg 15). The book continues to implicate some of the roles initiated by companies in building their supply chain. The innovations correspond with new technological developments, which are used in representing the best initiative in promotion of development in companies. The book is also responsible for the avocation of the debate developed in association with sustainability, innovation and supply chain management, which are used in the concept of sustainable innovations (Slack et al, 2012 Pg 32). . The same model is used management, which is used in the gap for differentiating development initiatives and those that are seen to have flopped. The application in the book is used to explain the case studies of Argos and the manner in which the company uses the model to benefit themselves at the moment and the future. In the case study, one will realize that there is demonstration of sustainable innovations which are driven by the company at the focal representation (Jespersen & Skjott-Larsen, 2005, Pg 78). This is seen to be an establishment of engagement of its suppliers in the reduction of the negative environmental and social impacts responsible for life cycle of the product in the market. A thorough examination of the book further explains that there is a possibility of the implementation of the innovations will generate a beneficial concept which is associated with the net environmental and social in all the major players and stages of the supply chain. It is clear that the term supply chain was rampant in the 1980s at the time that majority of the companies were fighting to join the major players in the global trade (Slack et al, 2012 Pg 72). . This has always been a word used in the implication of materials flowing from one organization to another. These are some of the work rendered to the logistical team to ensure that everything is placed in the right manner. It has always been referred to as concept used in companies in the initiatives applied in setting activities and processes, which are integrated to businesses connected to the company. Gurnani, et al (2012) also claim that companies have used this process in extending their logistics initiatives in incorporating all the business processes used in spinning the global market. Companies will then actualize the use of this concept in integrating the business processes in the composition of the supply chain. The end user will be connected with the main supplier of product, which adds value to the organization (Chandra & Grabis, 2007, Pg 26). The main use of a sustainable supply chain is to ensure that its management is implicated through an outcome, which is profitable to all the tiers of the chain and should turn out to be significant to the main players of the global market. Analysis of Supply Chain Characteristics Argos has created a supply chain model that has the ability to enhance the logistics demand for the company. The supply chain model is decentralized and has been influenced by tighter trading partner collaborations, which has forced the company to extend its logistics strategies (Kuglin, 1998, Pg 34). Some of the issues that have been affected include stocking locations, frequency of ordering, and the sizes of the orders and the means of transportation. Argos has implemented the multichannel distribution abilities, configuration plans and distribution arrangements in the company. It has acquired enhanced visibility and fulfillment tools and has focused on the logistics function as an important component of supply chain operations. This has been necessary to curb inefficiencies in warehouse labor transportation and space utilization and failures in inventories and servicing of the client orders. One of the objectives of the company has been to establish a comprehensive cost-effective plan for supply chain logistics. The management has also realized that new technologies are effective in developing effective supply chain models in any company. New technologies offer a full combination of services to handle any challenges in cost reduction, return on investment and servicing of client orders (Kuglin, 1998, Pg 46). The company has deployed services similar to those of IBM to develop effective supply chain models. These services have been very effective in warehouse management, transport management as well communication management (Chandra & Grabis, 2007, Pg 49). Warehouse management systems have enabled the company to make critical savings in management of labor, space and auditing activities while transport management systems have enabled the company to make valuable savings on freight audit, carry capacity and contract management in the firm. The main concept is to ensure that the founding document in the sustainable development for the company is followed to the letter. It provides that the consumption and production of unsustainable standards are not allowed. This is the policy driving Argos as they ensure that the products set on their website are of the highest quality (Chandra & Grabis, 2007, Pg 56). This has always made their clientele base to remain the same, as they will always trust their products. Through following this, they have translated their policies to engage the required standards of social, economic and environmental stability. On the other hand, the company has also defined the principle of sustainability to be the actions taking place in the company should not interfere with the social, economic and environmental principles of the company (Kuglin, 1998, Pg 58). This makes businesses to work on an independent world whereby their sustainable corporations in the global market are used in the creation of profits. The initiative is carried out through protection of the environment and improving the lives of the people connected to the company such as stakeholders, employees and the customers. The manner in which such development takes place in the company can be shown in the table below: Conclusions Sustainability as used by Argos is a tool which corporate the different scenarios found in the global market. However, the element of going digital has enabled the company build its supply chain to become efficient and quick. In some cases, it has been rendered to have a shorter life cycle whereby the consumption of energy and resources have been minimized. This is not applicable only to the production field but also in the innovation especially through technology. Argos has ensured that majority of its products are made to reach its clients even if they do not come to buy them personally. They have saved on the amount of money and resources they would have used on promotion and marketing of the products. The innovative methods applied by the organization have also seen that there is trust amongst them and their customers. The debate that is taking place in the global market between their competitors is the way of finding solutions of generating new ideas for global sustainability. However, the case study has already shown that it is feasible to have innovations, which can exemplify the supply chain of the organization. It also shows that the management system of an organization should focus on initiating social and environmental practices. It has also shown that the objectives set in the integration of sustainability made by policies that increase environmental performance in the global market. Bibliography Agrawal, N. M., & Smith, S. A. 2009. Retail supply chain management: Quantitative models and empirical studies, Springer, New York. Argos.2013. Welcome to Argos Online. Accessed [http://www.argosonline.es/wcsstore/argosspain/index.html] Chandra, C., & Grabis, J. 2007. Supply chain configuration: Concepts, solutions and applications, Springer, New York. Choi, T.-M., & Cheng, T. C. E. 2011. Supply chain coordination under uncertainty, Springer, Berlin. De, K.-S. M. (2011). E-Shock 2020: How the digital technology revolution is changing business and all our lives, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke. Dwivedi, A. N., & Butcher, T. 2009. Supply chain management and knowledge management: Integrating critical perspectives in theory and practice, Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire. Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. & Jackson, P. 2012. Management research. 5th edn, Sage Publications, London. Gurnani, H., Mehrotra, A., & Ray, S. 2012. Supply chain disruptions: Theory and practice of managing risk. London: Springer-Verlag London Limited. Hackley, C. 2003. Doing research projects in marketing, management and consumer research, Routledge, London. Harrison, T. P., Lee, H. L., & Neale, J. J. 2003. The practice of supply chain management: Where theory and application converge, Kluwer Academic Pub, Boston. Hutchin, T. 2002. Constraint management in manufacturing: Optimising the global supply chain, Taylor & Francis, London. Jespersen, B. D., & Skjott-Larsen, T. 2005. Supply chain management: In theory and practice.: Copenhagen Business School Press, Herndon, VA. Kuglin, F. A. 1998. Customer-centered supply chain management: A link-by-link guide, AMACOM, New York. Lowson, B., King, R., & Hunter, A. 1999. Quick response: Managing the supply chain to meet consumer demand. Wiley, Chichester, West Sussex, England. Nagurney, A. 2006. Supply chain network economics: Dynamics of prices, flows and profits, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK. Ptak, C. A., & Schragenheim, E. 2000. ERP: Tools, techniques, and applications for integrating the supply chain, St. Lucie Press, Boca Raton, Fla. Scott, C., Lundgren, H., & Thompson, P. 2011. Guide to supply chain management, Springer, Berlin. Simchi-Levi, D., Chen, X., & Bramel, J. 2005. The logic of logistics: Theory, algorithms, and applications for logistics and supply chain management. New York: Springer Slack, N., Brandon-Jones, A., Johnston, R. & Betts, A. 2012. Operations and process management. 3rd edn, Prentice Hall/ Financial Times, London. Sodhi, M. M. S., & Tang, C. S. 2012. Managing supply chain risk, Springer, New York. Voss, C., Tsikriktsis, N. & Frohlich, M. .2002. “Case research in operations management”, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Read More