Supply Chain Critical Review Assignment help
Is Your Supply Chain Fit?
Critical Review- The evolution of the market and trade openness have allowed companies to form giant multinational subsidiaries based on horizontal and vertical integration. Due to the constantly changing global business environment, the concept of supply chain management emerged for facilitating the process of integration between scattered companies. Amongst the administration foundations that were altered by supply chain management concept, it also hit the way customers and suppliers stay connected with the firms. The customer services and supply chain management courses are found out to be linked closely as an efficient supply chain process would indicate the continuous restocking of inventory at right time and allows the management to obtain accurate and rational prediction for future demand. Moreover, managing supply chain by using digital tools like Cloud and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) can result in reduction in lead time and boost in revenue streams for the different firms. In this regard, the text “Is Your Supply Chain Fit?” has been chosen to be critically reviewed that is originally written by Charles Pauka on 19th October 2018. (Critical review)
I agree with Pauka on the point that customer services should be a company’s top priority because customers are the ones that make companies profitable or can make companies face losses. According to Choughri & Kassem (2018), the companies must look at generating values for its customers by establishing a positive link with them. Naoui (2014) also argued that modern companies need to develop long-term relationships with its customers by considering them as partners. In order to attract new customers and retain the old ones, the companies must provide high class and deluxe products that satisfy the needs and desires of the customers.
The article also pointed out that for delivering differentiated customer experiences, the organization must cope with exponential demand by making its supply chain operations faster and precise. I agree to this statement as well as an efficient supply chain management can allow the companies to gain competitive advantage at international business platform. According to Krzysztof (2017), the supply chain management is about the continuous development of the management philosophy that unifies the production capacity while synchronizing the client information. Such excellence in the supply chain process can become a sole source of generating customer value. Mathu and Phetla (2018) also argued that lean and agile supply chain process allow the companies to cope up with unplanned interruptions to demand and supply. Lean supply chain process can allow companies to reduce the costs, eliminate waste and shorten the overall supply chain lead times. This can be used as competitive advantage by firms that cannot be imitated by rivals in the market. For example, IKEA and Toyota are using lean and agile supply chain management in their operations that allow the companies to respond quickly to unpredictable changes in customer needs through reconfiguration of operations (Mathu & Phetla, 2018).
I agree to the point raised by Pauka that digital transformation will certainly change the supply chains of firms in 2019. Digital tools are continuously being used for obtaining the real-time demand data in order to optimize the deliveries and predicting future demand at right time (Pauka, 2018). The amalgamation of logistics and e-commerce expertise can bring innovation in the supply chain process of a firm. Farahani et al. (2017) also argued that using digital tools for gathering customer data, managing orders and meeting needs of customers can allow companies to interact with global supply chain in an economical way. Pauka (2018) highlighted Carbon to be using cloud for gathering information about individual’s weight, running styles and foot contour so that Adidas can provide athletes with hyper-personalized running shoes with unique soles. Bac Ky Logistics also use the data-driven cloud applications for visualizing its overall supply chain process that allows the company to deliver strong customer service as the scheduling of transportation and delivery time are automatically managed (Pauka, 2018).
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I refute to the point raised by Pauka in the article that only supply chain disruption can aid in driving innovation. I believe that there are several other factors that work in the background while allowing companies to land the mark of innovation. Efficiency and hyper-personalization are achieved by combining the digital applications with the operational changes needed in the firm. According to Gezgin et al. (2017), the full potential of supply chain can only be achieved when the firms have unlocked the potential of digital technologies. Utilization of digital tools in managing supply chain can allow the firms to enjoy the burst of innovation. Gezgin et al. (2017) also pointed out that firms can still face failure even after aggressively opting the digital solutions like ERP processes. An example is of a leading healthcare company that faced declining supply chain service levels even after upgrading itself to ERP until it focused on demand forecasting as well. Technology improvements and revamping operations are two most discussed factors that allow companies to land at innovation mark.
To conclude, I believe that the customer services and supply chain management are linked directly as an efficient supply chain process would allow the management to obtain accurate and rational prediction for future demand as it did in case of Adidas where hyper-personalization of athlete shoes was successful. It is also found that digitalization of supply chain management can allow the firms to obtain real time data of their customers so that the needs and demand of the customers be fulfilled within minimum lead time. It was also found through the article that innovators can use the data obtained by using digital tools to improve their post-sale services while creating additional revenue streams through the new business models. It can also be rightly concluded that the efficient supply chain management is driver of success in this digital age where most of the customers are using internet to buy products. It is recommended for the organizations to gauge their own supply chain and make relevant changes for improving the customer services and other operations of the company.
