Sustainable Performance and its Impact on Costs - Annotated Bibliography Example

Sustainable performance and its impact on costs s Submitted by s: Annotated bibliography Al-Odeh, M. and Smallwood, J. 2012, Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Literature Review, Trends, and Framework. International Journal of Computational Engineering and Management, 15(1), pp.85-90. This article articulates the importance of sustainable supply chain management in assisting the organization to improve its overall performance. It goes further to provide a short literature review associated with sustainable supply chain management that demonstrates that the effect of strategies are not yet clear and may result in either positive or negative performances in terms of the economy. Thus, the research paper goes further to present an all-inclusive definition of the sustainable supply chain management along with its limitations and benefits in order to develop clarification concerning the ambiguity that is evident in this particular field. Linton, J., Klassen, R. and Jayaraman, V. 2007, Sustainable supply chains: An introduction. Journal of Operations Management, 25(6), pp.1075-1082. This article provides an overview of the concept of sustainability, its definition and application to popular culture in terms of supply chains. It goes further to provide graphs that demonstrate the number of articles existing in various fields that have previously considered sustainability and how consideration of the term is becoming synonymous with management literature. It explains at length the associations that exist between sustainability and supply chains while specifically touching on product designs, the by-products associated with manufacturing, the by-products that are realized during the use of the products as well as the extension of a product’s life. Masoumik, S., abdul-Rashid, S. and Olugu, E. 2014, Gaining Competitive Advantage through Strategic Green Supply Chain Management: From a Literature Review towards a Conceptual Model. International Journal of Supply Chain Management, 3(3), pp.49-57. This article covers the connection between green supply and competitive advantages as a subject that is increasingly being considered by both academics and practitioners. It goes further in attempting to evaluate the circumstances that are required for green supply chain productions to attain sustainable competitive advantages. The article comprises of a literature review that tries to answer a series of logical questions that seek to analyse the connection between GSCP and CAs. By using this method, a better appreciation in terms of the nature of this relationship can be attained and the mediating dynamics that influence this relationship can be acknowledged. Other sections present the research process used for the study and a literature review discussing the effect of GSCP on CAs. Sher, M. and Kim, S. 2014, Supply Chain Coordination with Quantity Discount for Seasonal Demand. International Journal of Supply Chain Management, 3(3), pp.7-15. This article addresses the coordination between manufacturers and multiple buyers, and the critical problem that results in relation to supply chain management. The paper develops a supply chain structure in an arrangement characterized by a principal manufacturer, which provides periodic products to a cluster of consumers. The paper goes further to develop a framework that is applicable to non-agricultural seasonal commodities especially the ones that are produced in a manufacturing environment. Further, the paper comes up with a twice-stage ordering and production structure approach that can be utilized by the dominant manufacturers and their multiple buyers. The model that is developed in this paper creates different scenarios that aim at creating a better understanding of the coordination between manufacturers and multiple buyers. Singh, G. and Wahid, N. 2014, Supply Chain Risk Management: A Review. International Journal of Supply Chain Management, 3(3), pp.59-67. This article introduces the concepts and structures of supply chain risk management through reviewing various literatures with an emphasis on the definitions of all the components that exist within the SCRM. It goes further to create a link between these components in order to develop one of the models applied by the worldwide supply chain industry. It explains the manner in which the international companies have focus on supply chain risk-management in their daily operations, as these chains are prone to various different risks that may occur at any stage of the supply chain. The literature review of the paper also dwells on the manner in which organizations should identify the main SCRM issues and the need to carry out a self-assessment of the risks the company might face. Background and overview of activities of Dell Dell Inc is a privately owned multinational company that deals with computer technology whose head offices are in Texas in the US. Michael Dell established Dell Inc., which is among the largest technological corporations in the globe with more than one hundred thousand employees. It sells PCs, servers, devices that store data, switches for networks as well as printers and other electronics that are produced by other companies and manufacturers. The company is recognized for its innovations especially in supply chain management and e-commerce such as its direct sales model, build to order as well as configure to order methodologies in regard to manufacturing and the delivery of individual PCs that have been configured to the specifications of the customer. For a long time, the company dealt with the sale of hardware, but when it acquired Perot Systems in 2009, it diversified into IT services. Since this time, the company has continued to make more acquisitions in storage and networking systems as it attempts to diversify its portfolio from simply offering computers to the delivery of full solutions for the enterprise customer. Dell’s growth in the 90s and early 2000s In the beginning, Dell did not concentrate on the consumer market as a result of the high costs and unsatisfactorily low profit margins associated with selling to individuals and households. Nonetheless, this changed when the internet site associated with the company started in 1996 and while the average selling price to individuals in the industry was decreasing, the prices linked with Dell were increasing as computer buyers who sought relatively powerful computers that had multiple features did not require a lot of technical support when they were choosing Dell. Dell identified an opportunity among the individuals with PC expertise who preferred the convenience of purchasing direct, customizing their PC to their specifications and having them delivered within a few days. In 1997, an internal sales and marketing group was developed by Dell with the aim of serving the home market and consequently launched a product line that was intended particularly for the individual users. Between 1997 and 2007, Dell experience progressive growth and increasingly gained market share from its competitors even during the periods when the industry slumped. In the same period, other competing PC vendors like IBM and Compaq were struggling and eventually exited the market or were acquired by other companies. Dell outshined Compaq to become the biggest PC manufacturer in 2009 with operating costs accounting for only ten percent of its thirty five billion in revenue in 2002. In 2002, when the merger between Compaq and HP was finalized, the newly created company became number one but continued to struggle and Dell eventually regained the lead. The growth of Dell was rapid during the early 2000s in comparison to other companies that produce similar products. The company achieved and continued to maintain a number one rating in PC dependability and customer services all through the nineties up to 2001 prior to the release of Windows XP. Analysis of sustainable supply chain, logistics operations of Dell Dell executes its supply chain systems differently compared to the other PC makers in the industry. The company was among the first to come up with the configure-to-order approach where the customers have access to numerous configurations that allow them to have their PCs customized to their desires. Through a direct approach to sales, the company creates systems to order and this has assisted it in the development of new products and technologies at a faster pace than other companies in the industry have. The unique approach associated with Dell has enabled the company to estimate the requirements of the customer, predicting their demands and producing low cost products for the customers. The weakness associated with this form of business approach is the shipment time of between one and two weeks as the PC are made after the company receives the order from the customer. Because of the evolving trends in the market, Dell’s PC business has faced losses in market share, and in order to deal with this situation, the company redesigned its main principles and came up with a new approach that is referred to as “end user computing”. This growth plan is concerned with the simplification of its business, attainment of new market share through prospective customers, utilizing end-user computing solutions and developing alternate computing solutions. Dell is supposed to establish a ‘smart selection’ initiative that will create the highly common PC structures desired by the consumers and distribute them in a day. With the newer build-to-order approach supplementing the configure-to-order model, the company expects to create a broader array of choices for the customers. This program changes the entire supply chain environment for Dell since it has to consider increasing the capacity of its warehouses as opposed to the initial configure-to-order model, which allowed it to maintain a small inventory space. Nevertheless, the company’s history of direct customer sales provides it with increased customer intelligence and assists it to gain a competitive advantage over other PC makers. Close associations with the customers through direct sales assists the company to deal with the demand while maintaining the lowest possible inventory. Further, since limited structures are manufactured, the components of every single system are known making the process of maintaining less complicated for Dell. With the new approaches to business, Dell is now able to customize their products for various nations and channels and this assists in decreasing the costs while increasing the revenues. The reductions in costs are associated with the supply chain and support and based on this strategy, the company plans to come up with precise approaches for education. Concerning China, the company is optimizing its offerings with varying colours, configurations that are more detailed and slimmer for factors. As a result, the company’s Wyse business, which is cloud-client computing business, continues to grow progressively with revenues reaching one billion dollars and the Dell continues to focus on its Long-term growth. Through integrating the Build-to-order and configure-to-order approaches in its supply chain, Dell has to address a very intricate tool at hand. Apart from establishing a new approach and customer-centric plan, it is vital for the company to be successful with their configure-to-order approach as well as the new unpremeditated supply chain approach. In order for Dell to regain all of the investments it has directed at End User Computing growth approach and to change its entire market losses in to profits, it must succeed in all the departments to produce more revenues while improving its profit margins. The company is also making introductions of the configure-to-order and build-to-order approaches for their growth plan. Evaluation of the sustainable supply chain/demand chain operations in terms of costs and imperative The rapid growth of Dell Computers is mainly attributed to innovations in supply chain as well as manufacturing and the execution of a unique distribution approach. Through vigilant analysis and instigating strategic adjustments in the PC value chain and seizing of the emergent market trends, Dell has become dominant in the PC industry in a shorter time than is needed by many companies to be able to become established. The company began as a direct seller, initially employing the mail-order system while taking advantage of the internet to create an online sales platform. Even before the internet became conventional, Dell had already started developing online order status updates as well as technical support in their customer operations. By 1997, the company’s sales through the internet were an average of about four million dollars per day. Even though most other PCs were configured and assembled in the stores before being sold to the customers, the company provided better choice to the customers in regard to system configurations at extremely discounted prices based on the cost savings linked with eliminating middlemen. This deviation from the traditional distribution models was critical in Dell’s initial growth. An additional benefit of the direct sales that were done through the approach based on the internet was that it created a wealth of market data that was used by the company to successfully predict demand trends and execute efficient segmentation approaches. This data informed the product development attempts and enabled Dell to benefit from information on the value drivers associated with its main customer segments. In terms of manufacturing, the company adopted an aggressive approach of virtual integration as it needed a dependable supply superior PC components but the management did not wish to manufacture its own components. Alternatively, Dell sought to create long-lasting associations with particular manufacturers of PC components. As a prerequisite, Dell suppliers were supposed to create inventory hubs in close proximity to its own assembly plants. This aided the corporation to interconnect with the supplier centres in real time to assist in delivering the exact quantity of parts on a moment’s notice. This low inventory approach decreased the amount of time Dell needed to bring PC models to the market and its outcome was considerable cost advantages when compared to the traditional stored inventory technique. This was influential in a market characterized by cases of old inventory becoming outmoded in a short time (Sher and Kim, 2014, p. 8). The company shared its production schedules, predictions and strategies for new products with its suppliers in an open manner. This form of understanding with the suppliers enabled Dell to take advantage of the benefits associated with vertical integration without the company having to invest a lot of money in establishing its own manufacturing operations. In 1997, the company restructured its assembly procedures, and instead of maintaining prolonged assembly lines with every worker performing the same task repeatedly, it established manufacturing cells. These cells brought workers together in a particular workstation where complete PCs were assembled to the requirements of the customers. This form of manufacturing increased the productivity of the company per square foot of assembly space and decreased the time needed to assemble a product by seventy-five percent. The company also integrated operational and process innovation with a groundbreaking distribution style that generated remarkable cost saving and unparalleled customer value in the personal computer market. Evaluation of Dell’s sustainable operations in terms of sustainable performance and its impact of change Elimination of players in the distribution chain is an uncertain endeavour but may lead to significant decreases in operating costs and intensely improved margins and relinquishing the retail structure enabled Dell to increase margins instantaneously while giving the customers superior prices on their products. This approach also provided the customers an opportunity to configure PCs according to their particular computing requirements. The vivid expansion in regard to customer value that ensued from the unique distribution approach at Dell catapulted the company to a leading market position. The founder of the company acknowledged that the manner in which things were typically done was not the most resourceful manner of running operations at his company. There are numerous instances where people have taken new perspectives at a company process and discovered that there were better ways of executing things. It is important to re-examine work based on process progressively to understand if a change may enhance efficiency. Integrating sustainability into key business approaches is a critical component of success and all the aspects should be considered, from the lifecycle of the product all the way to the operation of the business and its business setting. Long-term value can be attained only when sustainability is regarded with the same emphasis and importance as other core business priorities. Considering sustainability as a key business priority is beneficial and a green approach is a good method of increasing brand favourability as it may provide variation from competitors (Masoumik, abdul-Rashid and Olugu, 2014, p. 49). The sustainability at Dell is entrenched in the fundamentals of the company and is a critical component of worldwide strategy that covers four essential areas including energy efficiency, global neutrality, recycling as well as direct engagement with the suppliers and customers. Through these main essentials, Dell has been able to save more than three million dollars through a number of initiatives and achievements. When considering green programs and approaches, businesses should look at all the touch points of their firm. This assists in a better understanding and optimization of environmental performance of the company and its products (Linton, Klassen and Jayaraman, 2007, p. 1078). For example, the corporation employs this lifecycle strategy to sustainability in the resources and procedures it uses in reduction of ecological footprints associated with the portfolios of its products. As component of a shared objective to identify newer means of assisting in the preservation of the globe’s resources, Dell offers reliable and state-of-the-art packaging options. For instance, in 2009, the company began shipping its netbooks in packages made from bamboo, which is a renewable alternative to moulded paper pulp and Styrofoam this is utilized in most packaging. Dell also assists businesses in recycling, recovering and reselling used computers in a protected and environmentally mindful way, which acts in accordance with the local supervisory guidelines. To make sure that the sustainability approach does not lose effect outside the company, businesses should consider the impact of company operations including the effect of owned buildings as well as supplier operations and the manner in which the customers use their products (Singh and Wahid, 2014, p. 65). Dell has addressed these issues through making it necessary for the key suppliers to sustainably manage and publicly reveal their carbon emissions during their business reviews. Regardless of the positive progress associated with Dell’s extended supply chain, some challenges still exist, including the fact that most suppliers do not share similar green values. To deal with this, businesses can create guidelines through reviewing the business and instigating external audits that will put an array of penalties for not being able to meet these requirements. Laws such as WEEE support companies in the drive towards green objectives throughout the supplier base, placing responsibilities on the various components of the supply chain all the way to the disposal of goods. The company should consider more than just the suppliers during the implementation of a sustainability approach as it must also consider how the customer will use the product. It is thus important for businesses make it simpler for customers to decrease their effect on the planet to make sure the sustainability approach does not lose its effect outside the company (Al-Odeh and Smallwood, 2012, p. 86). Companies can be able to achieve this through ensuring that products are more efficient and assisting the customers to decrease their consumption of energy. Analysis of complex sustainable operations issues and viable course of action Since Dell has been attempting to produce new products like printer and servers, their internal operations have to be adjusted. This is because of the fact that the company does not have prior experience in this field and it has to maintain low costs and respond to the customers quickly through implementing the same approaches it has always been applying for its computer products. Dell’s operations have been efficient in regard to the management of inventory levels near zero and requiring their suppliers to build their warehouses near Dell’s assembly units. This has led to enhanced efficiency that has allowed Dell to have low transfer times based on the strict inventory controls and high productivity. Additionally, the effective structure as allowed the company to increase its profits margins through selling products directly to the users, which also enhanced customer relations. The manner in which Dell manages inventories and supplies is extremely popular but the company still has to increase its investment in order to create a reliable system since it plans to deal with other products apart from computers. With an increasing array of products, the company has to carefully observe all the new ranges and execute similar responses as well as their low cost strategies. If Dell continues to increase its product ranges, it will ultimately have bigger demand, and in order to maintain this escalated level of demand, the company must increase and improve the manner in which it distributes its assembled products to the customers as before. The company is renowned for order systems through the internet which assists in tracking the orders from manufacturing all the way through to shipping and this should also apply to the new ranges of products because it one of the strengths the company has over other companies in the industry. Thus, the logistics of distribution have to assessed and redefined to fit the purpose. Bibliography Al-Odeh, M. and Smallwood, J. 2012, Sust ainable Supply Chain Management: Literature Review, Trends, and Framework. International Journal of Computational Engineering and Management, 15(1), pp.85-90. Linton, J., Klassen, R. and Jayaraman, V. 2007, Sustainable supply chains: An introduction. Journal of Operations Management, 25(6), pp.1075-1082. Masoumik, S., abdul-Rashid, S. and Olugu, E. 2014, Gaining Competitive Advantage through Strategic Green Supply Chain Management: From a Literature Review towards a Conceptual Model. International Journal of Supply Chain Management, 3(3), pp.49-57. Sher, M. and Kim, S. 2014, Supply Chain Coordination with Quantity Discount for Seasonal Demand. International Journal of Supply Chain Management, 3(3), pp.7-15. Singh, G. and Wahid, N. 2014, Supply Chain Risk Management: A Review. International Journal of Supply Chain Management, 3(3), pp.59-67. Read More