Supply Chain Integration - Coursework Example

Part Bidding The bidding process was a tough one for us as BackPackers. The start was quite good, and we were prepared to deal with our competitionat all levels. The idea was to gain as much attention from the company so that our bid would manage to be the lowest amongst all the 21 bidders. The journey saw us carry out several detective works to ensure that we had all the facts about the bidding company and its expectations from all the competitors. The competition as stiff because the rest of the companies understood what this opportunity meant to them. As a team of bidders, the process was ideal for shaping our competitive advantage and making different realisations that would place our team at the top position (Team 9, "Backer packer Hotel bidding strategy”). To meet these demands and use our competitive advantages to appeal to the buyers, we designed a presentation that would propel our aims to the prospects and come up with new ways of designing the best platform for everyone involved. The goal was to get the best deal and achieve the niche representation platform for the sake of generating new qualities that would boost our presence in the market (Team 9, "Backer packer Hotel bidding strategy”). Amongst all the hotels that were present, our hotel took a price differentiation route that made us the cheapest and well budgeted. We knew that the rest would not match our rates, and that gave us a chance to compete at a higher level. We also realised that there were 4-and-5-star hotels amongst the competitors but it was difficult to allow them to dampen our passion. The progress of the bid would be based on fair play and we knew that they would not wish to go down on their prices, as we were willing to. This advantage was always resonating with us and allowed use to make better choices for the sake of meeting the needed goals. Nonetheless, we were not able to win the bid despite having the lowest prices amongst all the competitors. In fact, the criteria to win the competition, as well learned later, were not only about the pricing strategies. It also involved the quality of the services provided and the environmental ratings that would please the buyer. Further, the level of the hotel in the rankings would also play a huge role in determining the way the bidding process would result. The bidding process was a learning moment for the company and my team members as well. We used this as a time to reflect on what we did wrong and the best way of making it better next time an offer was up for grabs. It was noted that the bidding steps sometimes become complex for those who are unwilling to learn about the entire process. The idea is to generate as much from the sequel and make as many changes as possible to become more competitive and appealing to future clients. The idea is to work on the main principles of procurement, which are equal treatment and transparency. It was a good moment that saw our hotel lined up with the four and five star hotels as we all competed for the same opportunities. This moment allowed us to also make contacts and networks with the other big hotels and learn a few things from them. It was a great opportunity that allowed us to learn so much about the procurement process, the bidding and the dictates of the entire process. We lost because we were not at the top in terms of quality provision. Every client wants a guarantee that the services paid for are the services delivered. In every area of growth, it is possible to generate new principles that can assist in boosting the company’s portfolio, but the learning process is one that matters the most. Any company that can capitalise on its strengths and work on overturning its weaknesses will take a step towards generating the compliance required to convey the required value of the process in place. Another aspect that made us lose on the bid was our published rating scores. In fact, our rates were the lowest amongst all those companies, and that was a reason the buyers used to deny us the chance to work with them. The society takes pride in being associated with the best and the only way of meeting this is by creating new platforms that will boost the way the organisation is viewed from the outside. It was important that we generate better understanding of our position and recreate new platforms that will improve our ratings, making our assessment better and within the terms of quality that will boost our chances in the future. Many people do not realise that their position is based on the reputation created after interacting with others, yet the best can only be recognised by allowing the society to improve on accreditations while also improving on the opinions noted regarding the company. It was a moment that our team took to align our thoughts and needs to what was required by the rest of the society, and make choices that we would benefit from. Our intentions after the bidding process were to improve on the way we did business, and create more avenues that would boost not only our services but also our presence in the market. Competing with five star hotels brings about so much pressure epically in terms of resources and personnel. We were just a hostel that was aiming at getting a huge contract from one of the best partners we could have imagined of. However, our resources were not enough to convince the buyers that were ready for the task. The environment our business was in was not conducive for a luxury hotel, and that meant giving in to the pressure of those who were able to compete on better terms than we did. It was almost impossible to match their prowess, and the only thing that was putting us down was the ease at which they could carry out the presentation without feeling pressured (Team 9, "Backer packer Hotel bidding strategy”). Part 2 Supply Chain and Future Integration Today’s economy requires a company that will boost its services by making the best use of the available resources. In the growing technological environment, any company that seeks to succeed must first capitalise on generating more wealth and resources that will boost its supply chain and create better integral opportunities that will extend its growth. In many of the companies that lack the integration of the business, technology, processes and people in their strategic processes, the failures are more than the successful ventures (Jacoby 2009: 123). It is understood that the best way of meeting the intended goals in any of the working environments around the organisation is by meeting the core aspects of the society that will help build the company’s position in the market. The competition is very high and the technological growth has made it quite easier to schedule products and services from any part of the world, and achieve unbelievable attributes that were not thought of in the past (Blanhard 2010: 156). The main idea is to create new measures that will boost the transaction of activities from one area to the next while ensuring that the business and the stakeholders are on the same page. This will allow companies to collaborate and the benefits are many. These include: integration, dependability, mutuality, congruence, and compatibility. Integrations The main agenda of providing such avenues for growth is to allow companies to integrate their services with the ideas that will boost compliance to the needs, rules and regulations within the society. Integrations may involve a variety of processes that will assist in generating new results for the growth of the company as well as remove any barriers that could be hindering the proper achievement of the goals set out by the immediate management. Technology has to be compatible with the processes, services and systems within an organisation for them to have a better ability of attaining greater reliance on the present materials (Halldorsson, Kotzab, Mikkola, & Skjoett-Larsen 2007: 289). The idea is to have a technology that will boost the services rather than integrate poor business processes that only result in the automation of inefficient systems, leading to a technology trap. This means that the organisation must first work on improving its services, while at the same time ensuring that it can eliminate any services that do not any value to the company. Compatibility Compatibility will embrace the ability to have seamless interactions across the systems, and thus make better utility of the strengths noted in the workplace. I noted from the Beer Game experience that the only way of improving profitability is ensuring that the technology in use has achieved the level of integration required to accord the business with the best services possible. This also implies generating new attributes that will bring better choices as the company seeks to appeal to different clients through the timely delivery of the products. Congruence One important thing learned from the game was the need for congruence in the outsourcing of services from one company to the next. The idea is to generate as much produce from the rest in a timely fashion and thus create an enabling environment for the sake of gaining a competitive advantage. The strategy is to generate new avenues that will boost supply chain performance while at the same time allowing the business to align its needs to those of the clients (Halldorsson, Kotzab, Mikkola, & Skjoett-Larsen 2007: 291). By having good supply chain congruence, a business can achieve so much in a short while, boosting its performance in positively engaging in a strong business partnership. One good way of achieving congruency is by boosting the ability of the business to understand the business environment, while at the same time creating a competitive advantage that will tailor the needs of the clients into its systems (Movahedi, Lavassani, & Kumar 2009: 79). Many businesses fail because they rarely take time to understand how the delivery and production times affect the company’s position in the market. If a client requests for a product that takes half as much time to deliver compared to other rival companies, the client will be happy and that will imply a new loyal client gained. If the contrary is true, the disgruntled customer will look for a better deal elsewhere (Lavassani, Movahedi, & Kumar 2009: 88). The company will also have to rely on supply chain segmentation to maintain business alignment and retain a better image in the eyes of its clients. The idea is to generate new ideologies that will boost the supply chain management, something that performance management coupled with organisational design have in achieving the best mix. Mutuality Mutuality brings in a new way of thinking that does not allow the business to have any selfish needs while making forecasting attempts (“an introduction to forecasting for demand management” n.d.:1). The aim is to allow the company to measure the potential future business volume in the future, while working on obtaining enough market shares in the medium term. The goal is to achieve better abilities while working on embracing the spirit of mutual benefit for all the stakeholders (Lavassani, Movahedi, & Kumar 2009: 89). The company will also work on meeting the specific demands of the clients in the short term and achieve that which will boost the company’s presence. The idea is to mitigate any losses, while working on establishing a new platform for the sake of better planning (“an introduction to forecasting for demand management” n.d.:1). The role of this is based on the need to share the mutual benefits that emanate from proper alignment of our goals and process to meet the general requirements that boost the perceptions of our clients based on the services we offer. We have also noted that within the simulated platform of the games, it was very easy to create operational decisions that would improve the focus of the systems in the company. These were to act as the primary drivers of the planning and control systems, which were essential in generating the required levels of integration. This has also made it possible to reduce the time taken between production and delivery time (Lavassani, Movahedi, & Kumar 2009: 91). Dependability Dependability is an aspect that defines the way an organisation works operates. In the event that a company has made the best efforts possible and delivered the products on time, clients understand that the systems in place within that company are of a superior capability compared to the rivals. The idea is to generate positive ratings from clients and further rank our suppliers based on the same criteria (Simchi-Levi, Kaminsky & Simchi-levi 2007: 159). The advantage goes to the company that can easily conduct scheduling and sequencing to avoid any backlogs. Any time a company fails to attain a certain level of production it fails to attain the growth required to harness its capabilities. The only way of improving this performance and raising its ratings amongst clients is by having a scheduling system that allows it to monitor the delivery and production of goods and services to fit the customers’ needs (Shaul & Tauber 2012: 365). The only thing left is for the company to attain the required platform that will integrate all its supply chain partners into the same line. The goal is to generate new planning control measures that will lead to better service delivery options for the sake of being a dependable partner (Shaul & Tauber 2012: 366). Dependability will also reflect on the way both the supplier, and the company will treat each other. If a company cannot have a strong dependency rate on its suppliers, it will certainly lose on its clients. If the supplier cannot depend on the client, it will be difficult even to supply products. This type of mutuality benefits both parties, and remains a strong factor in the strengthening of the supply chain (Turban 2008: 459). Further, the sequencing process will have to meet the core demands of the clients, with the FIFO, SOT, LSR, LOT or the EDD rules making it easier to attain the level of involvement required to attain the needed goals. This will also boost performance, reduce redundancy, and increase loyalty amongst the clients ("Sequencing" n.d.: 2-4). Communication The ability to communicate is a good thing for any business that seeks to attain a higher level of integration with its suppliers. Having an open communication system with the suppliers and the clients will always boost the perceptions created because the communication process allows people to capitalise on the systems present to meet their needs. Ideally, the society will only appreciate those people to deem as having met the ratings and levels of growth required as well as improve its consistency (Montgomery 2010: 128). The communication bit will ease the way things take place in the chain, allowing performance tracking to come easily. This will only be noted as having attained the required level when making orders. Further, the objectives of the business will be easy to communicate, and the parties involved will make meet the requirements of the entire process. The communication will ensure that each side understands the needs of the other, generating new abilities that make deliveries easier and faster, minimise as well as optimise on inventory control, capitalise on the utilisation of machines, as well as capitalise on the labour present (Montgomery 2010: 132). This will also allow both parties to respond flexibly to orders as they come, and make changes when need be. The aim is to be the solution that the companies are looking for and make the best out of every interaction. Communication opens up so many things that boost performance and improve on the networking ability of all the partners (Shaul & Tauber 2013: 12). The best way of making money is by working on management of the inventory management. The idea is to generate as much as possible by using what is present and not having so much that it hinders the delivery of the important services. The goal is to create new room for the products while at the same time ensuring that the production system does not fail to capture the needs of all the clients (Grant, Hall, Wailes, & Wright 2006: 10). This will boost the communication process between clients and the company, as well as suppliers and the company. Such interaction will improve on the mutuality of the entire process, and improve on the dependability of each party. The Influence of IT Developments on SCM In today’s world, the life cycle of both technology and products is shortening. It is becoming quite easy to attain the level of development that an organisation requires within the shortest time possible, and is also making it possible for clients to get the goods within the shortest time possible. This reduction of the timeframe has made it important for companies to make better choices in the developments they have within their reach. This also implies getting the right capacity to meet the needs of all their clients (Montgomery 2010: 135). The idea is to meet these expectations within the shortest time possible, hence the need to ease the management of inventory while managing the production systems on the right platforms. Many identify the use of the enterprise resource planning software as an essential attribute in generating the kind of business ease required (Shaul & Tauber 2012: 367). ERP has been taunted as one of the best software programs to utilise in managing the cost of running a business, which implies making proper planning of the products as they are produced. This will lower the costs and allow the management to make better choices in meeting the demands of the clients by monitoring every step of the production cycle. It also allows the data on manufacturing and service delivery to be present, something that allows the company to attain critically the right data for decision-making purposes (Simchi-Levi, Kaminsky & Simchi-levi 2007: 472). This will boost the service provision mechanisms that are present in most companies and required to integrate services with the resources available. It makes it easy to work on information from the marketing department, which is essential in boosting the sales recorded on long-term and short-term calculations. It improves inventory management hence reducing backlogs and allows the management of the shipping and payment processes. The idea is to create a new process that will systematically focus on the delivery process, as well as the needs of the clients at every step of the production process (Relph a: 3). IT has made the company improve on its strengths and leverage itself to ably deal with any weaknesses. The marketing process has taken the best twist in meeting the intended needs of the company to a level that appreciates the strides made to boost the company’s ability to improve its services at all levels of interaction (Relph b: 9). The goal of the ERP process is to improve the implementation of different processes in the company. This implies boosting the performance of all systems while working on streamlining of activities to attain the requisite business needs. The IMI Norgen Presentation The company has been critical in attributing its growth to the way it has attained fluency in dealing with its activities. In everything, it has managed to create a single instance ERP system that has managed to improve the company’s revenue and profitability by a huge margin. This has made it quite easy to capitalise on its new efficacy to generate new revenues and boost its presence in the market. The ability to compete on a global market has provided it with the growth required to meet its ideals as well as promote the efficiency needed to generate the simplification of the processes and attain a better understanding of the intensified competition from other companies. An essential part that has managed to earn the company so much revenue is the ability to use its systems to generate new competitive platforms that have managed to create new supply management aspects and that has enabled the company to handle its resources at reduced costs as well as harness the ideas present to meet its goals. The important thing is to generate new avenues that will improve on the supply and make it benefit from all its interactions and investments in various offices across the world. The model has also simplified the business support system and allowed it to create new platforms that have improved on the sharing of information from all quarters in the company. This is an important step towards its expansion in various markets because it improves congruency and makes compatibility of systems easy across the entire network. The system has played a huge role in optimising the company’s supply chain management, allowing it to reach as many clients as possible. The company has avoided a common problem that plagues a majority of the companies by having a strong system that improves its delivery of services to all its clients. It also creates new roles that improve the quality of the services, attracting more loyalty from the clients. Something that continues to boost IMI Norgen’s position in the market is the ability to reduce its lead times when making its deliveries to its clients. This has improved the way the company has been able to create niche markets as well as filling gaps where its competitors have failed to satisfy. The internal objectives have improved employee morale by making everyone aware of the performance indicators sought after by the company. The main idea is to create new platforms that will improve the visibility and management of inventory, allowing employees to understand where their efforts should be directed. The company’s need to reduce the distribution centres allowed it to have c centralised control of its inventory, and reduced redundancy. Inventories that were obsolete together with the slow moving stocks were done way with, creating space for fast moving stocks and the vital inventories. IMI Norgen has managed to create an ERP system that enables it to have common product coding that in case the inventory and reduces the internal transactions, which take up time when dealing with in normal circumstances. It has been critical to create and entrench the important skills that have led to a reduction in the internal transactions while also reducing the errors that could have made it difficult to meet the general needs of the clients. Improvement of customer services has been achieved and that has made it easier to appeal to new clients, increase its profitability, as well as increase its customer base. It has enabled better business operations and created a single face for the customer to deal with. The reduction of the obsolete inventories has made business integration and optimisation possible. The strategic basis for the consolidation of reports within the company has become easier and that has made the global scenarios easier to handle from a singular point of transaction. Costs have been saved greatly in this project by eliminating clumsy interfaces that embedded inefficient services within the company. This also made it easier to standardise infrastructure, something that the other rival companies can learn from and capitalise on. The creation of competent systems that provide users with the easy utility of the skills present has also been a key implication that has managed to generate new knowledge for the sake of the company’s growth and expansion. This planned expansion requires better harmonisation of business processes while at the same time creating improved service levels. References "An Introduction to Forecasting for Demand Management", Warwick Manufacturing Group "Scheduling", Warwick Manufacturing Group, 1-12. "Sequencing", Warwick Manufacturing Group, 1-8 "Supply Chain Integration- An Overview," Warwick Manufacturing Group, 1-15 Blanhard, D. (2010) Supply chain management best practices, 2nd. Edition, John Wiley & Sons Grant, D., Hall, R., Wailes, R. & Wright C. (2006) "The false promise of technological determinism: the case of enterprise resource planning systems," New Technology, Work & Employment vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 2–15. Halldorsson, A., Kotzab, H., Mikkola, J.H. & Skjoett-Larsen, T. (2007) "Complementary theories to supply chain management", Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 284-296. IMI Norgen. (n.d.) "Global ERP Implementation: Moving from multiple legacy systems to single instance," 1-26. Jacoby, D. (2009) Guide to supply chain management: how getting it right boosts corporate performance (The economist books), New York: Bloomberg Press Lavassani, K., Movahedi, B. & Kumar, V. (2009) "Developments in Theories of Supply Chain Management: The Case of B2B Electronic Marketplace Adoption," The International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management, vol. 9, no. 6, pp. 85–98. Malins, M. & Bradbury, K. (2015) “Supplier Development”, Warwick Manufacturing Group, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 1-17. Montgomery, N. (2010) Two-tier ERP suite strategy: considering your options, London: Gartner Group. Movahedi, B., Lavassani K. & Kumar, V. (2009) "Transition to B2B e-Marketplace Enabled Supply Chain: Readiness Assessment and Success Factors," The International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 75–88. Relph, G. "Capacity and Inventory Management", Warwick Manufacturing Group, pp. 1-29. Relph, G. "Supply Chain Management: A Strategic Overview," Warwick Manufacturing Group, pp. 1-11 Shaul, L AND Tauber, D. (2013) "Critical Success Factors in Enterprise Resource Planning Systems: Review of the Last Decade", ACM Computing Surveys, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 1-35. Shaul, L. AND Tauber, D. (2012) "CSFs along ERP life-cycle in SMEs: a field study," Industrial Management & Data Systems, vol. 112, no. 3, pp. 360-384. Simchi-Levi D.,Kaminsky P., & Simchi-levi E. (2007) Designing and managing the supply chain, third edition, New York: Mcgraw Hill. Team 9, "Backer packer Hotel bidding strategy” Turban, L. (2008) Information technology for management, transforming organisations in the digital economy, Massachusetts: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Read More