Wgu Supply Chain Recommendation Strategy

Vertical integration is a concept in which a company develops or acquires production units for outputs which are

Westminster Company is a giant Global manufacturer of health products whose brand has been recognized by the world. As the company they have three different operations which produce and distribute different product lines. Their main strategy on which they are working and which is a major success for them is decentralized management. Now they are re-evaluating their traditional supply chain strategy because the company is getting too much pressure from their large domestic’s customers and global customers. Now the company has to study on

The strategy of forming a formal buyer-supplier partnership was a relatively new one. As these two companies explored the idea, it became obvious that a complementary common strategic vision existed between the two companies, which could make such a partnership a reality. This common vision was based on the fact that the Whirlpool Corporation needed to sustain a competitive advantage and support its direct customer relationships, while Inland needed to manage the transition inherent in a customer-focused market strategy. Thus, Whirlpool Corporation sought to work with Inland Steel to realize reduced costs vis-à-vis the competition, and Inland sought to obtain a major share of Whirlpool’s steel contract. While this initial concept seemed straightforward, it required almost seven years to make it a reality.

Just like the other industries such as apparel, electronics, and consumer goods, the automobile industry has accelerated its foreign direct investment, cross border trade and global production. The automobile industry has increased outsourcing and bundled value chain activities in major supplier chains. As a result, more developed countries that serve as suppliers have increased their involvement in trade and FDI. With these increased supplier capabilities, large national suppliers have become global suppliers and are now controlling multinational operations. This is because of their increased capability of providing good and services to various lead firms all over the world. The automotive industry has a distinct firm structure. This

It is at first hand not understandable why many companies proceed in such an irrational way although their goal should be profit-maximization especially today where most markets are commodity markets and cost advantages are low (Christopher, Ch.1). Companies in the pre-outsourcing time used to be very successful in profit terms and the change in strategic policy must have more reasons than just an increased flexibility to compensate the “abdicated” advantages.

Four Star Industries is facing a number of problems. Their sales have fallen from $9 million to $6 million, their customer service fill rate has fallen from 70% to 60%, and their employees are leaving the company and becoming increasingly disgruntled. The root cause of these issues is demand variability driven by SKU proliferation. Four Star has gone from offering 13 SKUs in 1996 to 230 SKUs in 2002. The market for mattresses has become much more competitive at the retail level, so retailers are in turn demanding customized products to distinguish themselves from competitors.

The findings from the case studies indicate that the purchasing function is strongly determined by the policies of cooperation with suppliers, by the extent to which decision-making is centralized, by the choices made in other logistic functions and by external factors. Companies Beta and Delta seek to establish policies for relationships with suppliers which aim at obtaining economies of scale from the volume of goods purchased, responsiveness in the delivery of raw materials, storage of raw materials purchased, reductions in lead-times for orders and stability in the price and delivery of raw materials – this last item considered in relation to the quantity demanded by the companies. On the other hand, the lack of a policy for dealing with partnerships creates certain problems for companies Alpha and Gamma, such as low

In this case, the company has demonstrated its powerful position in respect to the suppliers and workers, thus being able to create the conditions where the costs are quite low, and the revenues are generated. On the other hand, some researchers agree that such large retailers as Wal-Mart are able to maintain strong control over the suppliers and this may be considered as benefit for the suppliers (Bloom and Perry, 2001). It was revealed in the recent research that the suppliers that manage only small market share tend to demonstrate poor organisational performance in contrast to the situation when they have Wal-Mart as the primary retailer (Bloom and Perry, 2001). Consequently, this implies that Wal-Mart contributes to the strong supplier performance as well as their stable and strong position on the market, despite the financial pressures that Wal-Mart puts on the suppliers (Bloom and Perry, 2001). This way, Wal-Mart contributes not only to the generation of its own revenues but also to the stable ad ongoing supplier revenue generating process in an indirect way (Turner, Katz and Hurd, 2001). From the economic perspective, this activity contributes to the national economic performance of the domestic market, namely USA (Turner, Katz and Hurd, 2001). This implies that stability of the strength in the position of

ORGANIZATION? Yes, KCOM as structured their organization around the distinct markets they serve to deliver a high quality customer experience.

The different pressures on suppliers to reduce costs have caused tensions and distortions. It is for this reason, companies find it difficult to establish long-term relationships with suppliers. Nonetheless, most buyers still uses this direct approach to reduce costs, and many Chinese factories will do whatever is necessary to satisfy.

Transfer some of what are traditional internal activities and resources of a firm to outside vendors, making it slightly different than the traditional make-or-buy decision. Outsourcing is part of the continuing trend toward utilizing the efficiency that comes with the specialization. The vendor performing the outsourced service is an expert in that particular specialty, and the outsourcing firm can focus on its critical success factors – its core competencies.

purchasing. Complex procurement could involve finding long term partners – or even 'co-destiny ' suppliers that might fundamentally commit one organization to another. Obviously, procurement becomes a more vital element of value creation in economic activities, when (worldwide) fragmentation of production increases. In a global market procurement decisions are directly linked to sourcing strategies, so that procurement, in abroad sense, becomes an integral part of the general management of an internationally operating company or organization. The next section (section 2) discusses

This idea of cooperation between organizations is not recent. Some Japanese companies used sogo-shoshas, a group of companies with common ownership and leadership that is vertically integrated. Another similar approach is virtual organization, that consist in independent organizations forming a temporary network with a common goal to share skills and cost. This derives from another Japanese’s concept, Keiretsu: a collective organizational based on mutual shareholding and cooperation that includes different companies as finance, trading, suppliers (Rey, 2002).

• Forward vertical integration in which the vender can start to manufacture the product it was selling, for example the cloth maker starts to make readymade garments, or the television picture tube maker starts making television sets. In such case there is loss of a customer.

(II) An Analysis of Existing Gaps in the Industry Supply Chain, Investment Niches, and Prospective Foreign Investors................7 (III) Major