Clearfield Cheese Company is facing heavy competition from the highly subsidized Canadian companies; the managers in the company believe that in order to remain competitive in the company they have to improve their supply chain. This is very true for any company mostly the product based companies (Belvedere, 2017) . If the company does not optimize on its supply chain then the competitors will have the upper hand. Optimizing the supply chain basically means giving the consumers what they need when they want it and spending as little funds as possible (Wang, 2015) . This means that Clearfield has to be efficient is supplying their products to all stores so that consumers can easily find them when they need the product.
Supplying the products when spending as little funds as possible can be done is several ways, they can spend less if the company manages and plans the freight by reducing the cost of goods sold or by reducing the inventory. The best way that Clearfield can optimize supply chain by reducing the cost of goods sold is by negotiating with the milk suppliers. Supplier cost negotiation can help in 10 – 3% savings.
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In order for Clearfield to remain as competitive as possible, they have to ensure that their customers are satisfied customers. It very important that the consumers of the cheese to know that they can always rely on Clearfield cheese company. If the consumers have this mentality without any doubt the company will always have the upper hand when it comes to competition.
There is one thing that Clearfield Cheese Company should really take into consideration pertaining the supply chain management. It should not achieve 100% on-time delivery by overnight shipments with expedite fees, this should not be the business model of any company, and this type of supply chain drives many companies to the brink of bankruptcy (Dyckhoff, 2014) . However, the goal of an optimized supply chain should focus on a hundred percent on-time delivery, but for a company to achieve the success that comes with an optimized supply chain they have to take caution and do a lot of calculations to ensure that the supply chain does don’t cripple the entire company. It is important for the company to negotiate with the transport providers and get the best deals in order to balance its costs (Belvedere, 2017) . The company has to have a well detailed and informed production plan they should also have an effective lead time management and consumer supplier communication.
Lead time basically means the time that a given process starts to the time the process ends, in our case the time the milk arrives from the farmers to the time the consumers receives the final product. The supply chain for Clearfield Cheese Company has to contend with many lead times. The first one being the time it takes the suppliers and merchandisers to take the products, how long does it take for the product to get to the stores, how long is the shelf life of the product. If the company does not know the lead time in the supply chain then the supply chain is not as competitive as the competitors (Dyckhoff, 2014) .
Inventory accuracy is very important, it is very hard to get the companies consumers what they want when they feel that they want it and spend as little funds as possible when trying to fulfill their want. It is even harder if the company does not have inventory control (knowing what is in the warehouse.). Maintaining an effective inventory system depends on a lot of things the major ones being the warehouse personnel, warehouse management system, and the cycle count policy (Dyckhoff, 2014) . In conclusion, in order for Clearfield Cheese Company to be more competitive and retain their dominance in the market they have to optimize their supply chain and ensure that their consumers are always satisfied.
References
Belvedere, V., Grando, A., & John Wiley & Sons. (2017). Sustainable operations and supply chain management . Hoboken: Wiley
Dyckhoff, H., Lackes, R., & Reese, J. (2014). Supply chain management and reverse logistics . New York: Springer
Wang, J. (2015). Information technologies, methods, and techniques of supply chain management . Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference.
