Question 1
According to Fines (1998), he believed that the supply chain design goes beyond the issues of vertical integration, supplier-buyer affiliations and make or buy. He thought that it should be regarded as being a rich fact of supply chain management. In his definition, Fines stated that the entire supply chain design envelops considerations such as technology, culture, organization, and geography. In order for a firm to fully develop a robust supply chain design, it is vital to come up with supply chains that differ conferring to the intricate set of contemplations recorded above.
According to the conventional view of supply chain design, it encompasses a sequence of processes that facilitate of raw materials from the supplier, manufacturing and changing of the material into finished products and delivering the final product to a customer. In this case, it is an indication that the supply chain design includes three parties the manufacturers, suppliers, and consumers. However, other minor parties such as the transporters, retailers, and warehouses facilitate the movement of raw materials and finished goods.
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I agree with Fine’s perspective on the supply chain design being the “ultimate core capability for a business organization.” The main motive for this is that the current business environment is marred by various factors such as technological innovations, regulations, ecological environments, geopolitical changes and competition that affect its ability to adapt. Additionally, the faster the business environment undergoes evolution, the quicker its competitive advantage becomes temporary. However, in case a firm decides to choose its most valuable capabilities along the value chain and invest in them and develop internally, it has an ability to survive. The capabilities that it deems as being insufficient can be allocated to other suppliers through which it will outsource. From his, it is an indication that the supply chain design can help a firm remain operational for it will always have a temporary advantage over other businesses by focusing on what it does best.
Question 2
It is indeed true that a substantial number of non- supply chain managers does not completely comprehend what supply chain management involves. For most of them, they think that supply chain is just about getting raw material to the business and getting the finished products and services to the final consumers. A large number of them will only think that supply chain management is all about products and raw materials. However, it is much more than just the delivery of products and the acquisition of raw material. Supply chain management also involves managing the cost of the product and raw materials and the customer fulfillment and satisfaction rates. Supply chain management is what ensures all consumer need and wants are met by providing the right raw material for processing products or services. It is evidently learnt that consumers and costs are part of the supply chain management process and should not only be limited to products and raw materials.
The inability of non-supply chain managers to entirely understand supply chain management has had detrimental effects on my organization’s supply chain. Various departments such as the sales, marketing, R&D, and finance have always been on each other’s necks in case of reduced customer fulfillment rates and increased production expenses. What these departments have not considered during this time is that the supply chain department has a huge role too when it comes to boosting customer satisfaction rates and reducing any unnecessary production costs. The management of the supply chain department has been forced to continuously request for financial sales, marketing, product development, resource planning and manufacturing information some of which is not provided in time thus affecting the entire sourcing of raw materials and delivery of final products.
Question 3
During the 1980s, IBM controlled the entire computer industry. The company used its internal capabilities to develop super–sophisticated mainframe products which saw it taking over a considerable part of the market (Fines, 1998). Nonetheless, the PC was affected by a “ Three-dimensional concurrent engineering” challenge that forced it to come up with a new supply chain and manufacturing process that would see it create and produce a new product. The firm decided to restructure its supply design to enable it to increase its market speed while keeping the cost low by outsourcing its product from Microsoft (Fines, 1998). By 1998. The company had developed more than seven microprocessor generations. However, Microsoft had gone ahead and taken control of a huge part of the market and profits despite IBM being an influential, profitable and reputable company. The two suppliers gained millions of customers who cared more about the logo “Intel Inside or Windows 95” rather than the brand name of the firm that assembles and shipped the final product (Fines, 1998). This is an indication of how the supply chain power had shifted. Currently, Microsoft has grown to overtake IBM in the technological market, and as of 2015, IBM sales had declined for the 11 th consecutive quarter by 12% to $24.11 billion while Microsoft’s sales for the same period had grown by about 8% to 26.5 billion. It is an indication that Microsoft has dominated over IBM and only the future can predict whether IBM will one day gain back its glory.
As of 2005, Yahoo was the leading online advertisement platform. The firm dominated a huge portion of the market which saw it accumulate billions of dollars in terms of revenue. However, along the way, the company’s management decided to focus more on turning it into a media website neglecting all of its focus on consumer trends and new user experiences. In 2002, the firm had a chance to purchase Google and increase its dominance in the online industry but the CE at the time declined (Derrick, 2016). Furthermore, the firm had a chance to purchase Facebook in 2006, but the CEO lowered the price requested by Mark Zuckerberg. Currently, Google and Facebook dominate the online industry s they rake in billions of dollars in terms of revenue. The two firms have also taken a considerable portion of once loyal Yahoo customers. If the only Yahoo had restructured its supply chain design by adding the two firms, it would have been the leading online corporation.
References
Schofield , J. ( 2015). Once-tiny Microsoft has overtaken the mighty IBM. CBS Interactive . Retrieved on 5 September 2018, from https://www.zdnet.com/article/tiny-microsoft-overtakes-themighty-ibm/
Derrick , J. (2016 , July 25). Remember when Yahoo turned down $1 Million to buy Google? Yahoo Finance .
Retrieved on 5 September 2018, from https://finance.yahoo.com/news/remember-yahoo-turned-down-1-132805083.html
Fine, C. (1998). Clockspeed, Winning Industry Control in the Age of Temporary Advantage. Reading, MA: Perseus Books. ISBN-10: 0738201537
