Supply Chain Integration - Assignment Example

Supply chain integration Identify and discuss the critical issues in making the first steps towards improving the supply chain and future integration. Consider in this discussion that the company may not have large resource. Bagchi and Skott-Larsen (8) view supply integration in terms of information and organization integration. According to the two authors (9), information integration requires that we examine operations in terms of whole and not in a fragmented manner. The two authors add (9) that information technology will link suppliers and consumers for many business activities like orders, transactions, billings, and payments. Drawing on the work of The Global Supply Chain Forum, Lambert says that the eight key chain management areas are: 1) customer relationship management; 2) customer service management; 3) demand management; 4) order fulfillment; 5) manufacturing flow management; 6) supplier relationship management; 7) product development and commercialization; and 8) returns management. The Global Supply Chain Forum conducts and supports research on business applications. Although the Forum is based in the Fisher College of Business of the Ohio State University, it conducts research worldwide. In the United Kingdom, a Supply Chain council exists that serves the same functions as the Global Supply Forum. Like the Global Supply Forum, the Supply Chain Council of the United Kingdom has several counterparts all over the globe. Frome say (2) that supply chain integration essentially means connectivity. This implies that complete integration requires connectivity in the eight key chain management areas. Connectivity requires communication, physical and non-physical fit, and smooth physical and schedule interface. Cultural factors play a role but the universal language is value, revenue, profitability, and mutual benefit. In our global world, people understand more the language of profit rather than the language of the multinational tongue. So long as integration means revenue and profit, there will be an inevitable movement towards integration. Education will only hasten and optimize integration but integration will happen nevertheless even if integration is not discussed among academics. According to the Aberdeen Group’s 2006 Global Supply Chain Benchmark Report Executive Summary, the most critical areas are supply chain visibility given the demand for transparency and velocity of global activities, business-to-business collaboration for supply-demand synchronization, compliance to laws, and management of risks. Frome (6) advises that integration must not be a one time-event, implying that integration must be continuous and with low vulnerability to disruption. Meanwhile, perhaps an intuitive approach to the question is this: the critical step to make in supply chain and future integration is to manage information well and keep the market structure as competitive as possible. We must be able to assess supplier capability in terms of supply quality, output capacity, schedule, and flexibility. Suppliers must be assessed in terms of capacity to supply based on variable consumer demand given market fluctuation, seasonal demand changes, business cycle flows and ebbs, and technological change. The said information must be available to all market players so suppliers in the supply chain can be in good fit with each other in the supply chain train. Suppliers downstream must study the market structure of the market upstream. It is possible that the market upstream is not a competitive market or that the market arrangements upstream enable one or a few suppliers to have control on the market. When possible, downstream suppliers must convert the supply market upstream to be a competitive market because when this is not the case, upstream supplier can have unwanted leverage on their market. Thus, suppliers downstream must strive to make the supply market structure upstream competitive. This can be demand by exerting efforts to develop alternative or multiple suppliers to one’s requirements given supply quality and quantity requirements. The past has been replete with rapid technological change and it is only logical to expect the future will remain so. Integration with the future requires that all suppliers are forward-looking. Suppliers must continually look into the future and anticipate changes in consumer demand and requirements the future will bring for suppliers. Even if a firm does not have a large resource, today’s business and market climate require that technology must be accessed to enhance and promote integration with both the community of suppliers and community of consumers. In the first place, today’s access to computer technology is both cheap and technically feasible even at low budget. While it is true that even large firms are not fully automated and computerized, today’s integration requires access to the computers and the internet. 2. Before doing this question, could you please do a research on a company called Xerox, and understand the companys supply chain integration strategy. Then imagining you are currently involved in trying to improve/achieve integration within the supply chain of your company; identify and discuss which aspects and learning you would find useful from Xerox and why. According to Gutknecht, Xerox implements a product information supply chain. Gutknecht claims that the product information supply chain of Xerox resulted to reduced delays, reduced costs, improved consumer satisfaction, improved service and support, reduced litigation and warranty claims, and improved productivity of research and development and publication. Gutknecht says further that product information supply chain strategy was developed based on an understanding of the challenges confronting Xerox. Among such business challenges are that business cycles are becoming shorter, resources and vendors are scattered across wide geographies. Lack of integration was diagnosed to be the heart of the problem. In response, Gutknecht says that Xerox developed strategies that enabled technology writers to write at the right time because writing too early or too late implies costs. Lack of integration was seen as the culprit and Xerox solved the problem by innovating on its product information supply chain. According to Gutknecht, Xerox established a product information supply chain by implementing decisive steps. First, Xerox assessed the situation. The assessment revealed areas for improvement as well as gaps in technology and process. Second, Xerox developed strategies based on its assessment of the situation. The strategies include linking technological publication with productivity, standardizing technological publication, and innovating a technological supply chain process. The standardized technological publication reduced content as Xerox observed that they are producing 30% more content compared to the competition. By linking with suppliers more closely, Xerox reduced the number of suppliers and profited from economies of scale. Perhaps nothing is really so distinct with the so-called supply-chain integration strategies of Xerox. The basic point worth highlighting is that the supply chain integration was a product of a head-on analysis of the problems confronting the company. Supply chain integration solutions were developed based on problem identification and, thus, the supply chain solutions developed responded to the problem. Trkman and Groznick highlights that supply chain can be enhanced by the inclusion of all tiers in the supply chain (1). This is something useful in the experience of Xerox as well as the other firms. Xerox has applied this by including its technology writers in the search for improvements in their system (6). 3. Using an industry of your choice (not that of Xerox), explain what the current situation is with regard to supply chain integration and what future trends maybe. CASE: Supply Chain Integration in the Education Industry. Developing a practical supply chain and future integration require grasp of the present and a sound anticipation of the future. In the present, for example, we see that good quality video and audio technology have become so cheap and have become accessible to many. Lectures today can be videotaped and professors and instructors can be around even if remote several miles and kilometers away to respond to questions. Books and materials can be reproduced so inexpensively via portable document formats. If not for copyright, electronic books could have become so cheap. Thus, a good grasp of our present suggests that we are heading for a future in which a global university would be feasible. Students can be in Asia and the professors can be in Europe or vice versa. There can be a single main lecture and several supplementary lectures in computer file video/audio format. The global classroom can have one lecturing professor with several assistant professors following-up on the lectures with discussions, assistance on solving exercise sets, and addressing class questions. Students can also have access to discussions on sub-topics as well as discussions in digital videodisks (DVD) or even in USBs of video recording of discussions on anticipated questions. Thus, a look at our supply chain indicates that technology of both supplies and consumers are on a revolutionary leap. An educational system can emerge based on the technology available to us today. There is no other direction possible but for this technology to become extremely better and cheaper. Thus, the educational system of the future would involve a global university in which both the students and faculty are physically remote but virtually closely-knit and integrated. References can be very cheap and someone must take the initiative to make all the books accessible in PDF format and extremely cheap. The educational leader of the future is that leader who is keenly observant of today’s technology and aggressive in applying the technology available for education. Both demand and supply for education will be large arenas. We will have millions if not billions of suppliers and consumers for many types of knowledge products. Clearly, there is a need to integrate supplies and in the education market and integrate both consumers and suppliers in the emerging global and electronic market for education. Other than connecting suppliers and suppliers and consumers, integration of the education market will require a system for monitoring, information, transparency, quality control, accreditation, maintenance of quality standards, and reliable testing system. Integration will also require harmonization of government policies on standards and education quality control. Technology would make possible the linkages and the technology will be cheap. The library system will also change in the coming years. Unavoidably, the world will probably move towards an integration of its library system in the comings. Today, many libraries are doing the integration within their respective schools and they connect is campuses over a wide area through its integration of campuses and libraries. However, inevitably, the world will move towards the integration of libraries worldwide. Will there be a growth of unemployment in the universities? Probably not because teaching assistants or assistant professors would have to assist the students in the learning process. However, there would also be instructional materials in CD formats and tutorials. Work Cited Aberdeen Group. Global Supply Chain Benchmark Report. ______: _____, 2006. 24 June 2009 < http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/igs/pdf/aberdeen-benchmark-report.pdf> Armstrong, Jr., Lloyd. “Who are our customers for education I. The employer as customer.” n.d. 25 June 2009. Bozarth, Cecil and Robert Handfield. Introduction to Operations and Supply Chain Management. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2006. Craig, Knoblock and Steven Minton. “Building Agents for Internet-based Supply Chain Integration.” California: University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute, n.d. 24 June 2009 < http://www.isi.edu/integration/papers/knoblock99-ecommerce.pdf> Frome, Jim. Best Practices for Extending the Breath and Depth of Supply Chain Integration. Minnesota: SPS Commerce, 2002. 24 June 2009 http://www.emory.edu/BUSINESS/scv/BestPractices.pdf Gutknecht, Matthias. “Maximize Your Market Advantage: Gaining an Edge Through the Product Information Supply Chain.” ________: Xerox, 2008. 25 June 2009 Lambert, Douglas. “Eight Essential Supply Chain Management Processes.” Supply Chain Management Review. 1 September 2004. 25 June 2009 Skjott-Larsen, Tage and Prabir Bagchi. “Challenges of Intergration in Supply Chain Networks: An European Case Study.” American Consortium of European Union Studies Working Paper 2002.1. August (2002). 24 June 2009 Trkman, Peter and Ales Groznick. “Measurement of Supply Chain Integration Benefits.” Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management Volume 1 (2006). 24 June 2009 . Waters, Donald. Logistics: An Introduction to Supply Chain Management. New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2003. Read More