This document provides a case study on Samsung Electronics and how their supply chain management practices have helped create competitive advantages and resilience. It discusses trends in supply chain management like resilience, value chain networks, and demand-driven excellence. It also analyzes Samsung's practices like extended supplier partnerships, customer collaboration, and how these have contributed to strategic positioning, product innovation, and differentiation. The document concludes Samsung has implemented best practices that view supply chain management holistically and have created competitiveness and market resilience.
For the Copywriting class in the Master in Visual and Digital Media at IE School of Human Science and Technology our group, under the name of our own creative agency, developed a transmedia customer acquisition campaign for IKEA. After thoroughly analysing the market and defining the target audience we designed an activation campaign including online as well as offline initiatives to get Spanish people from the ages of 20 to 55 who currently believe IKEA products to always be the same to visit IKEA stores more frequently by changing their perception of the brand and mobilizing them.
eHarmony Strategic Marketing Case StudyZoe Robinson
For my capstone marketing class at Western Washington we were given a case on eHarmony (from Harvard Business School) and had to decide which strategy they should use for the future.
Tata Motors was losing $108 million annually in its commercial vehicle business unit in 2001 due to market shrinkage. It implemented a new corporate strategy to turn this around. The strategy involved forming a corporate team to design a balanced scorecard approach and coordinate resources across business units. It centralized sourcing to reduce costs and communized parts. This allowed economies of scope where combined production of passenger and commercial vehicles exceeded the total if produced separately, improving profits by over $106 million within two years.
Wal-Mart has been able to sustain its competitive advantage and superior performance over the years through several factors:
1) Efficient distribution capabilities and low-cost partnerships with suppliers
2) Advanced data collection and analysis to improve demand forecasting
3) A customer-oriented workforce culture focused on low prices and continuous improvement
4) Maintaining everyday low prices (EDLP) to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty
To continue this success, Wal-Mart should focus on cost leadership through large scale operations and private label brands, address public relations issues, and enhance worker benefits to protect its reputation.
Tata Motors has a global footprint with operations spanning multiple continents. It has a wide range of commercial and passenger vehicles. It has made strategic collaborations, acquisitions, and joint ventures to expand globally and enhance its product portfolio. Tata Motors invests in research and development and has technical centers in India, Europe, and South Korea to develop new technologies and products. It utilizes process benchmarking, strategic benchmarking, and technological frameworks to improve operations and remain competitive.
Zara follows a vertically integrated business model with an emphasis on speed, flexibility and decentralization to quickly respond to fashion trends, linking customer demand directly to manufacturing and distribution within 3 weeks. While Zara's current DOS-based POS system is simple and cost-effective, the company is considering upgrading to a new system to enable inter-connected stores, real-time data insights and support continued international expansion across over 500 stores globally. The upgrade would require significant one-time costs but is expected to increase operational efficiencies through improved inventory management and analytics.
This document summarizes the history and development of Tesla Motors. It discusses how Tesla was founded by Martin Eberhard and Elon Musk to produce an electric sports car called the Roadster. It describes the personality clashes between Eberhard and Musk that led to Eberhard's departure from the company. The document also outlines obstacles to adoption of electric vehicles like price and range anxiety, and Tesla's strategies to address them, such as creating a nationwide supercharging network. While Tesla had early success with the Model S, the document notes ongoing challenges for the company in achieving sustainable revenues and market share in the automobile industry.
Yushan Bicycles, a Taiwanese bicycle manufacturer, established subsidiaries in Asia, Europe, and Australia as part of its international expansion plan. Yushan Australia (YA) was experiencing quarterly losses due to issues with hiring staff, warehouse space, and delayed deliveries compared to other subsidiaries. The document identifies problems with YA's sales and supply chain strategies and lack of trust between YA and headquarters. It provides recommendations for YA to target new customer segments in Australia, improve communication between subsidiaries, and give Hamilton more time to implement his strategies to prove effectiveness.
For the Copywriting class in the Master in Visual and Digital Media at IE School of Human Science and Technology our group, under the name of our own creative agency, developed a transmedia customer acquisition campaign for IKEA. After thoroughly analysing the market and defining the target audience we designed an activation campaign including online as well as offline initiatives to get Spanish people from the ages of 20 to 55 who currently believe IKEA products to always be the same to visit IKEA stores more frequently by changing their perception of the brand and mobilizing them.
eHarmony Strategic Marketing Case StudyZoe Robinson
For my capstone marketing class at Western Washington we were given a case on eHarmony (from Harvard Business School) and had to decide which strategy they should use for the future.
Tata Motors was losing $108 million annually in its commercial vehicle business unit in 2001 due to market shrinkage. It implemented a new corporate strategy to turn this around. The strategy involved forming a corporate team to design a balanced scorecard approach and coordinate resources across business units. It centralized sourcing to reduce costs and communized parts. This allowed economies of scope where combined production of passenger and commercial vehicles exceeded the total if produced separately, improving profits by over $106 million within two years.
Wal-Mart has been able to sustain its competitive advantage and superior performance over the years through several factors:
1) Efficient distribution capabilities and low-cost partnerships with suppliers
2) Advanced data collection and analysis to improve demand forecasting
3) A customer-oriented workforce culture focused on low prices and continuous improvement
4) Maintaining everyday low prices (EDLP) to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty
To continue this success, Wal-Mart should focus on cost leadership through large scale operations and private label brands, address public relations issues, and enhance worker benefits to protect its reputation.
Tata Motors has a global footprint with operations spanning multiple continents. It has a wide range of commercial and passenger vehicles. It has made strategic collaborations, acquisitions, and joint ventures to expand globally and enhance its product portfolio. Tata Motors invests in research and development and has technical centers in India, Europe, and South Korea to develop new technologies and products. It utilizes process benchmarking, strategic benchmarking, and technological frameworks to improve operations and remain competitive.
Zara follows a vertically integrated business model with an emphasis on speed, flexibility and decentralization to quickly respond to fashion trends, linking customer demand directly to manufacturing and distribution within 3 weeks. While Zara's current DOS-based POS system is simple and cost-effective, the company is considering upgrading to a new system to enable inter-connected stores, real-time data insights and support continued international expansion across over 500 stores globally. The upgrade would require significant one-time costs but is expected to increase operational efficiencies through improved inventory management and analytics.
This document summarizes the history and development of Tesla Motors. It discusses how Tesla was founded by Martin Eberhard and Elon Musk to produce an electric sports car called the Roadster. It describes the personality clashes between Eberhard and Musk that led to Eberhard's departure from the company. The document also outlines obstacles to adoption of electric vehicles like price and range anxiety, and Tesla's strategies to address them, such as creating a nationwide supercharging network. While Tesla had early success with the Model S, the document notes ongoing challenges for the company in achieving sustainable revenues and market share in the automobile industry.
Yushan Bicycles, a Taiwanese bicycle manufacturer, established subsidiaries in Asia, Europe, and Australia as part of its international expansion plan. Yushan Australia (YA) was experiencing quarterly losses due to issues with hiring staff, warehouse space, and delayed deliveries compared to other subsidiaries. The document identifies problems with YA's sales and supply chain strategies and lack of trust between YA and headquarters. It provides recommendations for YA to target new customer segments in Australia, improve communication between subsidiaries, and give Hamilton more time to implement his strategies to prove effectiveness.
The document discusses issues like high turnaround times, declining profitability, and workload imbalances at the Fruitvale branch of Manzana Insurance that are reducing service levels and profitability. It analyzes errors in calculations, priority queues, capacity utilization, and makes recommendations like revising workload calculations and priorities, increasing staffing, and cross-training employees to improve processes and balance workloads.
Zara is a Spanish fast fashion retailer known for its rapid production cycles that allow it to react quickly to new fashion trends. It has over 2000 stores globally and produces around 450 million items per year through a vertically integrated supply chain model. Key aspects of Zara's business model include small production runs that can be turned around in 2-3 weeks, frequent communication between stores and designers, and a highly responsive supply chain that can deliver new shipments globally within 24-48 hours. This approach allows Zara to offer new fashion items to customers much faster than competitors and keep inventory turnover high.
The document provides an overview of three major UK retailers: Marks & Spencer (M&S), Primark, and Tesco. It analyzes each company's business model, products, financial performance, and human resource practices. For M&S, it outlines the company's history and structure. It also provides organizational charts and discusses strategies. For Primark, it describes the company's mission, vision, sourcing and expansion. For Tesco, it analyzes the competitive landscape and discusses strategies like loyalty programs. Financial data on revenues and profits over time is presented for each retailer. The document aims to compare the three companies and their approaches to the UK retail market.
Toyota pioneered the use of just-in-time (JIT) inventory control methods. Under JIT, Toyota aims to reduce or eliminate inventories by procuring raw materials only as needed for production. Toyota traces its origins to a loom invented in 1918 that reduced defects, and it launched its first car in 1936. Today, Toyota uses JIT by keeping minimal raw material inventories at each production node and replenishing them as used. This allows Toyota to respond quickly to demand changes without excess inventory costs. Key advantages of JIT for Toyota include lower costs, less waste, and the ability to adapt production quickly.
Zara has pioneered the fast fashion market with a vertically integrated supply chain allowing new designs from conception to stores in just three weeks. It relies on an outdated DOS-based point-of-sale system with no network between stores. In 2003, the CEO must decide whether to upgrade the system and risk reliability issues or continue with the outdated system unable to support future growth. A cost-benefit analysis shows upgrading all 531 stores would cost over 8 million euros but still result in a net margin above industry average, so the CEO should approve the upgrade.
Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 and is led by CEO Elon Musk. It is a leader in electric vehicle manufacturing and was the first to create a fully electric sport vehicle. While Tesla hopes to drive the market towards electric vehicles, it currently has less than 1% of the US auto market share. Tesla is still developing financially, experiencing losses from 2010-2014 as it invests in R&D. However, if Tesla can lower costs and increase revenues through offerings like the $35,000 Model 3, it has potential to become a leader in the EV market.
1. Phil Harris, the Production Control Manager at Brunswick Motors, wants to illustrate time-phased requirements planning using an example with the company's Model 1000 engine. He prepares a master schedule for the engine over 12 weeks.
2. Phil considers two components for the engine, the gear box and input shaft. He includes their manufacturing lead times and product structure. The gear box takes 2 weeks to produce and the input shaft takes 3 weeks.
3. Phil plans to use MRP worksheets and make assumptions about starting inventory levels and scheduled deliveries for the gear box and input shaft. He will calculate net requirements and planned order releases using lot-for-lot ordering.
Tesla has achieved great success through understanding market environments, targeting multiple consumer segments, and innovating their marketing mix. They produce high-quality electric vehicles to meet consumer needs while furthering environmental sustainability. Tesla's strategic focus on the customer experience, rather than lavish marketing, has helped them build loyal customers. Reinventing sales channels and reducing overhead costs has also contributed to their competitive edge over other automakers.
Here are my thoughts on these questions:
1. If I had 1 million euros to invest for 20 years, I would invest in a solar power company rather than an oil company or wind energy company. Solar power is one of the fastest growing renewable energy technologies and has significant potential for further cost reductions and scaling up over the next 20 years. Oil companies face challenges from transition away from fossil fuels to meet climate goals. While wind is also growing, solar has fewer geographical constraints and is modular, allowing more distributed deployment. First Solar in particular seems well positioned as a technology and cost leader currently.
2. Given changes in the renewable energy market and First Solar's strong position established in the US through vertical integration, I don't think they
Kering is a luxury conglomerate that owns brands like Gucci, Saint Laurent, and Balenciaga. It recognized the need to grow its online presence to compete with online retailers. However, expanding luxury brands online posed issues around maintaining exclusivity while appealing to new customers. The document recommends that Kering segment its brands online, offer personalized shopping and trial experiences, leverage social media and mobile apps, and address counterfeiting to successfully grow its digital presence while protecting brand images.
General Motor Strategic Management AnalysisRashid Javed
Best report of Strategic Management . We apply these tools strategic formulation, implantation and evaluation on general motor very effectively. we hope u will got help from this report. .
TiVo allows users to pause, rewind and record live TV and faces challenges in gaining widespread adoption. The document analyzes TiVo's business model and competitive threats. It recommends that TiVo lower prices to attract mainstream consumers, emphasize the pause and recording features in stores, and partner with TV providers to boost exposure and sales.
Carrefour is the second largest retailer in the world. It was founded in 1959 in France and has expanded worldwide. The document provides details about Carrefour's founders, key executives, store numbers globally, and gives overviews of Carrefour's history, products, and focus on customer needs through offerings like organic and gluten-free products.
General Motors is one of the largest automakers in the world. It was founded in 1908 and has a history of acquiring other brands like Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and more. The document provides an overview of GM's history, mission, vision, strategic objectives and products. It discusses key dates and details about brands like Chevrolet, Buick and GMC. The strategic analysis also includes sections on financials, SWOT analysis, recommendations and conclusions.
This document summarizes McDonald's operations globally and criticisms against it. It discusses McDonald's large presence with over 31,000 restaurants in 118 countries. It outlines criticisms over unethical practices, health concerns of its food, exploitation of children in advertisements, and low wages. The document also discusses the impact of the McLibel case in the UK and McDonald's fight back through menu changes, nutrition information, and sponsorship. It questions whether McDonald's approach in Asia shows true commitment to health over just appeasing critics.
The document discusses the automobile industry in India. It is the 4th largest automobile producer in the world and the industry is growing rapidly, second only to China. It analyzes the industry using Porter's Five Forces model. It finds that the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers is moderate to low, the threat of new entrants and substitutes is low to medium, and competitive rivalry in the industry is high.
Mind Tree is an international IT consulting and services company headquartered in India and New Jersey. It operates through two units and was founded in 1999. Mind Tree has over 15 offices globally and focuses on product engineering and IT services. The company emphasizes a culture-led approach and places significant importance on its values, with culture comprising 40% of employee appraisals. Mind Tree utilizes various knowledge management practices like communities of practice, a knowledge portal called Konnect, and a holistic approach involving people, organizations and their interfaces to effectively manage knowledge.
The Apple App Store case study document discusses the following key points:
- The Apple App Store was launched in 2008 and allows users to browse, download, and purchase apps on iTunes. It has since generated billions of downloads and $250 million in revenue for Apple in 2010.
- Apple owns and controls the App Store, taking 30% of revenues from app sales while developers receive 70%. It reviews and can reject apps from companies.
- The App Store audience includes people of all ages from different socioeconomic groups. It offers a wide range of apps for various uses like work, entertainment, education and more.
- Apps are exhibited and distributed through the App Store platform which is organized by categories. This
The project is a study on how Vertical Integration as a supply chain strategy has worked for Zara in emerging as a fast fashion system. It also focuses on analyzing the competitive advantages and the challenges of implementing Vertical Integration for Zara.
Simulation in the supply chain context a survey Sergio Terzia,.docxbudabrooks46239
Simulation in the supply chain context: a survey
Sergio Terzia,*, Sergio Cavalierib a Politecnico di Milano, Department of Economics, Industrial and Management Engineering, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy b Department of Industrial Engineering, Universita` di Bergamo, Viale Marconi 5, 24044 Dalmine, Italy Received 29 January 2003; accepted 13 June 2003
Abstract
The increased level of competitiveness in all industrial sectors, exacerbated in the last years by the globalisation of the economies and by the sharp fall of the final demands, are pushing enterprises to strive for a further optimisation of their organisational processes, and in particular to pursue new forms of collaboration and partnership with their direct logistics counterparts. As a result, at a company level there is a progressive shift towards an external perspective with the design and implementation of new management strategies, which are generally named with the term of supply chain management (SCM). However, despite the flourish of several IT solutions in this context, there are still evident hurdles to overcome, mainly due to the major complexity of the problems to be tackled in a logistics network and to the conflicts resulting from local objectives versus network strategies. Among the techniques supporting a multi-decisional context, as a supply chain (SC) is, simulation can undoubtedly play an important role, above all for its main property to provide what-if analysis and to evaluate quantitatively benefits and issues deriving from operating in a co-operative environment rather than playing a pure transaction role with the upstream/downstream tiers. The paper provides a comprehensive review made on more than 80 articles, with the main purpose of ascertaining which general objectives simulation is generally called to solve, which paradigms and simulation tools are more suitable, and deriving useful prescriptions both for practitioners and researchers on its applicability in decision-making processes within the supply chain context. # 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Parallel and distributed simulation; Supply chain management; High level architecture; Survey 1. Introduction Modern industrial enterprises operate in a rapidly changing world, stressed by even more global competition, managing world-wide procurement and unforeseeable markets, supervising geographically distributed production plants, striving for the provision of outstanding products and high quality customer service. More than in the past, companies which are not able to revise periodically their strategies and, accordingly, to modify their organisational processes seriously risk to be pulled out from the competitive edge. In the 1990s, companies have made huge efforts for streamlining their internal business processes, identifying and enhancing the core activities pertaining to the product value chain, and invested massively in new intra-company information and communicat.
The document discusses issues like high turnaround times, declining profitability, and workload imbalances at the Fruitvale branch of Manzana Insurance that are reducing service levels and profitability. It analyzes errors in calculations, priority queues, capacity utilization, and makes recommendations like revising workload calculations and priorities, increasing staffing, and cross-training employees to improve processes and balance workloads.
Zara is a Spanish fast fashion retailer known for its rapid production cycles that allow it to react quickly to new fashion trends. It has over 2000 stores globally and produces around 450 million items per year through a vertically integrated supply chain model. Key aspects of Zara's business model include small production runs that can be turned around in 2-3 weeks, frequent communication between stores and designers, and a highly responsive supply chain that can deliver new shipments globally within 24-48 hours. This approach allows Zara to offer new fashion items to customers much faster than competitors and keep inventory turnover high.
The document provides an overview of three major UK retailers: Marks & Spencer (M&S), Primark, and Tesco. It analyzes each company's business model, products, financial performance, and human resource practices. For M&S, it outlines the company's history and structure. It also provides organizational charts and discusses strategies. For Primark, it describes the company's mission, vision, sourcing and expansion. For Tesco, it analyzes the competitive landscape and discusses strategies like loyalty programs. Financial data on revenues and profits over time is presented for each retailer. The document aims to compare the three companies and their approaches to the UK retail market.
Toyota pioneered the use of just-in-time (JIT) inventory control methods. Under JIT, Toyota aims to reduce or eliminate inventories by procuring raw materials only as needed for production. Toyota traces its origins to a loom invented in 1918 that reduced defects, and it launched its first car in 1936. Today, Toyota uses JIT by keeping minimal raw material inventories at each production node and replenishing them as used. This allows Toyota to respond quickly to demand changes without excess inventory costs. Key advantages of JIT for Toyota include lower costs, less waste, and the ability to adapt production quickly.
Zara has pioneered the fast fashion market with a vertically integrated supply chain allowing new designs from conception to stores in just three weeks. It relies on an outdated DOS-based point-of-sale system with no network between stores. In 2003, the CEO must decide whether to upgrade the system and risk reliability issues or continue with the outdated system unable to support future growth. A cost-benefit analysis shows upgrading all 531 stores would cost over 8 million euros but still result in a net margin above industry average, so the CEO should approve the upgrade.
Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 and is led by CEO Elon Musk. It is a leader in electric vehicle manufacturing and was the first to create a fully electric sport vehicle. While Tesla hopes to drive the market towards electric vehicles, it currently has less than 1% of the US auto market share. Tesla is still developing financially, experiencing losses from 2010-2014 as it invests in R&D. However, if Tesla can lower costs and increase revenues through offerings like the $35,000 Model 3, it has potential to become a leader in the EV market.
1. Phil Harris, the Production Control Manager at Brunswick Motors, wants to illustrate time-phased requirements planning using an example with the company's Model 1000 engine. He prepares a master schedule for the engine over 12 weeks.
2. Phil considers two components for the engine, the gear box and input shaft. He includes their manufacturing lead times and product structure. The gear box takes 2 weeks to produce and the input shaft takes 3 weeks.
3. Phil plans to use MRP worksheets and make assumptions about starting inventory levels and scheduled deliveries for the gear box and input shaft. He will calculate net requirements and planned order releases using lot-for-lot ordering.
Tesla has achieved great success through understanding market environments, targeting multiple consumer segments, and innovating their marketing mix. They produce high-quality electric vehicles to meet consumer needs while furthering environmental sustainability. Tesla's strategic focus on the customer experience, rather than lavish marketing, has helped them build loyal customers. Reinventing sales channels and reducing overhead costs has also contributed to their competitive edge over other automakers.
Here are my thoughts on these questions:
1. If I had 1 million euros to invest for 20 years, I would invest in a solar power company rather than an oil company or wind energy company. Solar power is one of the fastest growing renewable energy technologies and has significant potential for further cost reductions and scaling up over the next 20 years. Oil companies face challenges from transition away from fossil fuels to meet climate goals. While wind is also growing, solar has fewer geographical constraints and is modular, allowing more distributed deployment. First Solar in particular seems well positioned as a technology and cost leader currently.
2. Given changes in the renewable energy market and First Solar's strong position established in the US through vertical integration, I don't think they
Kering is a luxury conglomerate that owns brands like Gucci, Saint Laurent, and Balenciaga. It recognized the need to grow its online presence to compete with online retailers. However, expanding luxury brands online posed issues around maintaining exclusivity while appealing to new customers. The document recommends that Kering segment its brands online, offer personalized shopping and trial experiences, leverage social media and mobile apps, and address counterfeiting to successfully grow its digital presence while protecting brand images.
General Motor Strategic Management AnalysisRashid Javed
Best report of Strategic Management . We apply these tools strategic formulation, implantation and evaluation on general motor very effectively. we hope u will got help from this report. .
TiVo allows users to pause, rewind and record live TV and faces challenges in gaining widespread adoption. The document analyzes TiVo's business model and competitive threats. It recommends that TiVo lower prices to attract mainstream consumers, emphasize the pause and recording features in stores, and partner with TV providers to boost exposure and sales.
Carrefour is the second largest retailer in the world. It was founded in 1959 in France and has expanded worldwide. The document provides details about Carrefour's founders, key executives, store numbers globally, and gives overviews of Carrefour's history, products, and focus on customer needs through offerings like organic and gluten-free products.
General Motors is one of the largest automakers in the world. It was founded in 1908 and has a history of acquiring other brands like Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and more. The document provides an overview of GM's history, mission, vision, strategic objectives and products. It discusses key dates and details about brands like Chevrolet, Buick and GMC. The strategic analysis also includes sections on financials, SWOT analysis, recommendations and conclusions.
This document summarizes McDonald's operations globally and criticisms against it. It discusses McDonald's large presence with over 31,000 restaurants in 118 countries. It outlines criticisms over unethical practices, health concerns of its food, exploitation of children in advertisements, and low wages. The document also discusses the impact of the McLibel case in the UK and McDonald's fight back through menu changes, nutrition information, and sponsorship. It questions whether McDonald's approach in Asia shows true commitment to health over just appeasing critics.
The document discusses the automobile industry in India. It is the 4th largest automobile producer in the world and the industry is growing rapidly, second only to China. It analyzes the industry using Porter's Five Forces model. It finds that the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers is moderate to low, the threat of new entrants and substitutes is low to medium, and competitive rivalry in the industry is high.
Mind Tree is an international IT consulting and services company headquartered in India and New Jersey. It operates through two units and was founded in 1999. Mind Tree has over 15 offices globally and focuses on product engineering and IT services. The company emphasizes a culture-led approach and places significant importance on its values, with culture comprising 40% of employee appraisals. Mind Tree utilizes various knowledge management practices like communities of practice, a knowledge portal called Konnect, and a holistic approach involving people, organizations and their interfaces to effectively manage knowledge.
The Apple App Store case study document discusses the following key points:
- The Apple App Store was launched in 2008 and allows users to browse, download, and purchase apps on iTunes. It has since generated billions of downloads and $250 million in revenue for Apple in 2010.
- Apple owns and controls the App Store, taking 30% of revenues from app sales while developers receive 70%. It reviews and can reject apps from companies.
- The App Store audience includes people of all ages from different socioeconomic groups. It offers a wide range of apps for various uses like work, entertainment, education and more.
- Apps are exhibited and distributed through the App Store platform which is organized by categories. This
The project is a study on how Vertical Integration as a supply chain strategy has worked for Zara in emerging as a fast fashion system. It also focuses on analyzing the competitive advantages and the challenges of implementing Vertical Integration for Zara.
Simulation in the supply chain context a survey Sergio Terzia,.docxbudabrooks46239
Simulation in the supply chain context: a survey
Sergio Terzia,*, Sergio Cavalierib a Politecnico di Milano, Department of Economics, Industrial and Management Engineering, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy b Department of Industrial Engineering, Universita` di Bergamo, Viale Marconi 5, 24044 Dalmine, Italy Received 29 January 2003; accepted 13 June 2003
Abstract
The increased level of competitiveness in all industrial sectors, exacerbated in the last years by the globalisation of the economies and by the sharp fall of the final demands, are pushing enterprises to strive for a further optimisation of their organisational processes, and in particular to pursue new forms of collaboration and partnership with their direct logistics counterparts. As a result, at a company level there is a progressive shift towards an external perspective with the design and implementation of new management strategies, which are generally named with the term of supply chain management (SCM). However, despite the flourish of several IT solutions in this context, there are still evident hurdles to overcome, mainly due to the major complexity of the problems to be tackled in a logistics network and to the conflicts resulting from local objectives versus network strategies. Among the techniques supporting a multi-decisional context, as a supply chain (SC) is, simulation can undoubtedly play an important role, above all for its main property to provide what-if analysis and to evaluate quantitatively benefits and issues deriving from operating in a co-operative environment rather than playing a pure transaction role with the upstream/downstream tiers. The paper provides a comprehensive review made on more than 80 articles, with the main purpose of ascertaining which general objectives simulation is generally called to solve, which paradigms and simulation tools are more suitable, and deriving useful prescriptions both for practitioners and researchers on its applicability in decision-making processes within the supply chain context. # 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Parallel and distributed simulation; Supply chain management; High level architecture; Survey 1. Introduction Modern industrial enterprises operate in a rapidly changing world, stressed by even more global competition, managing world-wide procurement and unforeseeable markets, supervising geographically distributed production plants, striving for the provision of outstanding products and high quality customer service. More than in the past, companies which are not able to revise periodically their strategies and, accordingly, to modify their organisational processes seriously risk to be pulled out from the competitive edge. In the 1990s, companies have made huge efforts for streamlining their internal business processes, identifying and enhancing the core activities pertaining to the product value chain, and invested massively in new intra-company information and communicat.
The document outlines a thesis proposal on designing a supply chain for MEAD Food Complex Company to minimize costs. The objectives are to evaluate the company's current supply chain strategy, assess supplier locations and numbers, determine optimal transportation methods, and design an optimal distribution system. A literature review identified challenges in supply chain design and coordination across organizations. The methodology will use a multi-criteria decision-making approach with data collection from company reports and site visits to model and analyze the supply chain network. The results aim to provide a new optimal supply chain design to reduce MEAD's costs and improve customer satisfaction.
This document discusses the concept of a responsive supply chain (RSC) and provides a framework for developing an RSC. It defines an RSC as a network of firms capable of reacting quickly and cost-effectively to changing market demands. The key enablers of an RSC are identified as a network of partnering firms, information technology and systems, and knowledge management. The document reviews literature on agile manufacturing and supply chain management strategies and identifies strategic planning, virtual enterprise, and knowledge/IT management as important factors for developing an RSC. It concludes by proposing a framework that combines the strengths of agile manufacturing and supply chain management to achieve responsiveness, flexibility, and cost objectives.
This document discusses the concepts of agile manufacturing (AM) and supply chain management (SCM) and proposes a framework for a responsive supply chain (RSC). It defines RSC as a network of firms capable of reacting quickly and cost-effectively to changing market demands. The document reviews literature on AM and SCM and analyzes case studies to identify factors for developing an RSC framework. The proposed RSC framework integrates AM and SCM approaches to achieve agility, flexibility, speed, and cost objectives through a virtual network of partner firms enabled by knowledge management and information technology.
Serialized Optimization Of Supply Chain Model Using Genetic Algorithm And Geo...Jonathan Lobo
• “Serialized Optimization Of Supply Chain Model Using Genetic Algorithm And Geometric Predictions” in international journal for science and advance research in technology Volume 2,Issue 10 in October 2016
Gaining Competitive Advantages Through Supply Chain Management:Success StoriesLijo M Loyid
This document discusses how effective supply chain management can create competitive advantages for organizations. It provides success stories of Zara, Dell, FedEx, and Walmart as examples. Zara gains advantages through rapid production, local sourcing, and frequent deliveries. Dell reduces costs and lead times through vendor managed inventory and information sharing. FedEx improves transparency and customer service through innovative technology and data availability. Walmart was an early adopter of barcodes and IT to reduce costs and offer low prices. Overall the document shows how supply chain integration, information technology, and waste reduction can help firms compete.
Download Link > https://ertekprojects.com/gurdal-ertek-publications/blog/a-taxonomy-of-logistics-innovations/
In this paper we present a taxonomy of supply chain and logistics innovations, which is based on an extensive literature survey. Our primary goal is to provide guidelines for choosing the most appropriate innovations for a company, such that the company can outrun its competitors. We investigate the factors, both internal and external to the company, that determine the applicability and effectiveness of the listed innovations. We support our suggestions with real world cases reported in literature.
Reading Assignment Report-IIPlease thoroughly go through the R.docxcatheryncouper
Reading Assignment Report-II
Please thoroughly go through the Reading Assignment posted under Chapter 8 on Moodle (Vanteddu et al., 2006, Research Publication) at least twice.
Please make a summary of the research article in your own words that is at least two pages in length, clearly identifying the purpose, research contribution and conclusions of the research. Provide appropriate citations of the works referred to in your summary. Your summary must be typed. Please use appropriate font and 1.5 line spacing.
The material posted on our course website;
Understanding the concepts;
Want to have a one-to-one demonstration of solving a given problem;
Questions about your grade and where you stand at a given point of time in the semester etc.
Supply chain focus dependent safety stock placement
Gangaraju Vanteddu Æ Ratna Babu Chinnam Æ
Kai Yang Æ Oleg Gushikin
Published online: 18 April 2008
� Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008
Abstract Increasing globalization, growing product range diversity, and rising
consumer awareness are making markets highly competitive, forcing supply chains
to adapt constantly to different stimuli. Growing competition between supply chains
(as well as players within them) is also warranting a priority for overall supply chain
performance over the goals of individual players. It is now well established in the
literature that, among the many order winners, both overall supply chain cost and
responsiveness (i.e., supply chain lead time) are the most significant determinants of
supply chain competitiveness. The literature, however, mostly focuses on supply
chain cost minimization with rather simplistic treatment of responsiveness. By
introducing the concept of a coefficient of inverse responsiveness (CIR), we facil-
itate efficient introduction of responsiveness related costs into the scheme of supply
chain (SC) performance evaluation and/or optimization. Thus, our model aids
supply chain managers in achieving better strategic fit between individual business
unit strategies and overall supply chain requirements in terms of cost efficiency and
responsiveness. In particular, it aids in strategic placement of safety stocks at dif-
ferent stages in the supply chain. Our model also offers managerial insights that help
improve our intuitions into supply chain dynamics. The model is more suited for
G. Vanteddu � R. B. Chinnam (&) � K. Yang
Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering, Wayne State University,
4815 Fourth Street, Detroit, MI 48202, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
G. Vanteddu
e-mail: [email protected]
K. Yang
e-mail: [email protected]
O. Gushikin
Ford Research and Advanced Engineering, 2101 Village Road, Dearborn, MI 48121, USA
e-mail: [email protected]
123
Int J Flex Manuf Syst (2007) 19:463–485
DOI 10.1007/s10696-008-9050-z
strategic SC alignment, for example, when dealing with product changeovers or
introduction of new product, rather than for operational control ...
This document discusses supply chain integration and the challenges of coordinating outsourced product design and development across multiple firms. As firms have increasingly outsourced manufacturing and services, integrating contributions from suppliers into a coherent final product has become more difficult. The authors argue that learning and integration should be key principles for supply chain design decisions. Firms must determine which products and design capabilities to keep in-house versus outsource. Maintaining product quality will require effectively integrating outsourced development projects. The authors examine how to break up product development tasks and then reintegrate the pieces to form a coherent whole.
In this paper we present a taxonomy of supply chain and logistics innovations, which is based on an extensive literature survey. Our primary goal is to provide guidelines for choosing the most appropriate innovations for a company, such that the
company can outrun its competitors. We investigate the factors, both internal and external to the company, that determine the applicability and effectiveness of the listed innovations. We support our suggestions with real world cases reported in literature.
http://research.sabanciuniv.edu.
11.factors causing reversed bullwhip effect on the supply chains of kenyan firmsAlexander Decker
This study examined factors that cause supply chain variability, known as the reverse bullwhip effect, along the supply chain of Kenya Pipeline Company. The researchers conducted interviews and collected data through questionnaires from 5 depots along the supply chain. The findings suggested that capacity constraints were a major factor contributing to supply chain inefficiencies. Specifically, the downstream storage capacity was much larger than the upstream utilization capacity, limiting product flow to end sale points. The conclusion was that the supply chain was inefficient due to challenges related to capacity and government intervention. Recommendations included strategies to adjust capacity, upgrade equipment, add manpower and machine hours, and reduce disruptive government intervention.
An integrated inventory optimisation model for facility location allocation p...Ramkrishna Manatkar
This document presents a mathematical model for an integrated inventory optimization problem for a multi-echelon supply chain network. The model considers inventory, transportation and location decisions with the objectives of minimizing total inventory holding and transportation costs while meeting customer service level requirements. The model is formulated as a multi-objective non-linear integer programming problem to determine optimal assignments of retailers to distribution centers, safety stock levels at each facility, regular stock levels, and maximum inventory levels at each echelon. The model is tested on real data from steel industry supply chains to provide practical guidelines for inventory management and distribution network design.
International Journal of Engineering Research and DevelopmentIJERD Editor
Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering,
Information Engineering and Technology,
Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering,
Automation and Mechatronics Engineering,
Material and Chemical Engineering,
Civil and Architecture Engineering,
Biotechnology and Bio Engineering,
Environmental Engineering,
Petroleum and Mining Engineering,
Marine and Agriculture engineering,
Aerospace Engineering.
Issues and Trends in Supply Chain ManagementMiles Weaver
This document provides an overview of key concepts in supply chain management. It discusses how supply chains compete rather than individual companies. Modern supply chain management aims to deliver superior customer value at lower overall costs. Key aspects of supply chain management covered include procurement, logistics, variability and risks, the need for resilience and agility, lean practices, and the importance of integration and strategic partnerships. The document also discusses outsourcing, offshoring, and the need for sustainable supply chain management.
International Journal of Production ResearchVol. 49, No. 1, .docxmariuse18nolet
International Journal of Production Research
Vol. 49, No. 1, 1 January 2011, 269–293
Quality performance in a global supply chain: finding out the weak link
Ebrahim Soltani
a*, Arash Azadegan
b
, Ying-Ying Liao
a
and Paul Phillips
a
a
Kent Business School, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, UK;
b
Department of
Management, New Mexico State University, USA
(Final version received 25 May 2010)
Much has been written on the intensive interconnection between supply chain
management (SCM) and quality management (QM) with a particular focus on
the systems-based view as the common thread between these two operation
management topics. Absent in this debate has been any examination of the
dynamics of SCM and QM practices and the resultant implications for the end
customer in terms of product/service quality at a global level. In consequence, the
nature and extent of their interconnection or interlinking and the resultant
implications for the product/service quality has remained tangential. Using a
qualitative study of two very large branded athletic and casual sports apparel and
footwear manufacturers based in Asia with world-wide suppliers and distribution
centres, this study aims to broaden the debate by arguing that partnering with
suppliers of high QM capabilities in chains of relationships does not necessarily
result in downstream benefits to both the manufacturer and end customers. We
argue that both SCM and QM practices must advance from traditional firm-
driven, fire fighting and product-focused mindsets to a more collaborative mode
of inter-firm relations in that a much greater level of co-operation among both
upstream and downstream chains is regarded as a key to competitive advantage.
Keywords: supply chain management; quality management; supply chain quality
management; case study; Asia
1. Introduction
As organisations link quality management (QM) or total quality management (TQM) to
supply chain management (SCM) and extend their vision beyond their own firms into the
supply chain to manage quality, most current research has referred to such integration and
co-ordination of the two concepts as supply chain quality management (SCQM) to
highlight the paramount importance of quality to a supply chain’s long-term success (e.g.
Ross 1997, Evan and Dean 2000, Robinson and Malhorta 2005, Foster 2008, Foster and
Ogden 2008). This is particularly the case for those firms which operate globally, not least
because, first, their competitive advantage position in one country is significantly affected
by their position in other countries or vice versa, and more specifically and second, to
compete on quality in the global market firms must ensure that their suppliers are on
the leading edge in quality and regarded as high performers (see Chen et al. 2004,
Yeung 2008).
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
ISSN 0020–7543 print/ISSN 1366–588X online
� 2011 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2010.508955
http://www.informaworld.
International Journal of Production ResearchVol. 49, No. 1, .docxnormanibarber20063
International Journal of Production Research
Vol. 49, No. 1, 1 January 2011, 269–293
Quality performance in a global supply chain: finding out the weak link
Ebrahim Soltani
a*, Arash Azadegan
b
, Ying-Ying Liao
a
and Paul Phillips
a
a
Kent Business School, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, UK;
b
Department of
Management, New Mexico State University, USA
(Final version received 25 May 2010)
Much has been written on the intensive interconnection between supply chain
management (SCM) and quality management (QM) with a particular focus on
the systems-based view as the common thread between these two operation
management topics. Absent in this debate has been any examination of the
dynamics of SCM and QM practices and the resultant implications for the end
customer in terms of product/service quality at a global level. In consequence, the
nature and extent of their interconnection or interlinking and the resultant
implications for the product/service quality has remained tangential. Using a
qualitative study of two very large branded athletic and casual sports apparel and
footwear manufacturers based in Asia with world-wide suppliers and distribution
centres, this study aims to broaden the debate by arguing that partnering with
suppliers of high QM capabilities in chains of relationships does not necessarily
result in downstream benefits to both the manufacturer and end customers. We
argue that both SCM and QM practices must advance from traditional firm-
driven, fire fighting and product-focused mindsets to a more collaborative mode
of inter-firm relations in that a much greater level of co-operation among both
upstream and downstream chains is regarded as a key to competitive advantage.
Keywords: supply chain management; quality management; supply chain quality
management; case study; Asia
1. Introduction
As organisations link quality management (QM) or total quality management (TQM) to
supply chain management (SCM) and extend their vision beyond their own firms into the
supply chain to manage quality, most current research has referred to such integration and
co-ordination of the two concepts as supply chain quality management (SCQM) to
highlight the paramount importance of quality to a supply chain’s long-term success (e.g.
Ross 1997, Evan and Dean 2000, Robinson and Malhorta 2005, Foster 2008, Foster and
Ogden 2008). This is particularly the case for those firms which operate globally, not least
because, first, their competitive advantage position in one country is significantly affected
by their position in other countries or vice versa, and more specifically and second, to
compete on quality in the global market firms must ensure that their suppliers are on
the leading edge in quality and regarded as high performers (see Chen et al. 2004,
Yeung 2008).
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
ISSN 0020–7543 print/ISSN 1366–588X online
� 2011 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2010.508955
http://www.informaworld.
Critique on papers related to supply chain management Trushart Wagh
The document summarizes and critiques several papers related to supply chain management. It discusses key topics like:
- Factors that affect the implementation rates of energy and productivity recommendations in small to medium companies.
- How Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) can help small to medium industries improve quality.
- The need for sustainability to be incorporated into supply chain management to create long-term profitability.
- A multidimensional framework that was developed to comprehensively evaluate the performance and sustainability of supply chains. This framework accounts for economic, environmental, social and temporal dimensions.
Hybrid Supply Chains in Emerging Industrial Countries: The Case of the Mexica...Advanced Value Group, LLC
This presentation was part of the conference held by Dr. Cedillo, PhD from ITESM University. This conference was presented for the Institute of Industrial Engineers, Chapter Guadalajara.
Similar to Creating competitive advantages through supply chain final (20)
Hybrid Supply Chains in Emerging Industrial Countries: The Case of the Mexica...
Creating competitive advantages through supply chain final
1. Creating Competitive Advantages through Resilient
Supply Chain – Case Study: Samsung Electronics
Kurnia Sofia Rosyada
Department of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the benefit of SCM practices in Samsung Electronics toward
creating competitive advantages and sustainable business to be resilient toward high-uncertainty market
environment.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper adopts the case study methodology. It uses an in-depth case study of
Samsung Electronics, a global leading electronics industry, in particular investigating how the firms apply organize
its supply chain activities to create resilience toward highly volatile market and generate competitive advantages
against its peers.
Findings – Samsung Electronics applied some of the best practices supply chain such as extended value chain
toward its suppliers, collaborative-customer process toward its product development creating resilience and
competitive advantages. Competitive advantages include strategic positioning in the electronics industry value
chain, product innovation, and product/services differentiation.
Originality/value – This paper provides holistic view of Samsung Electronics supply chain management and
analyze how SCM can create competitiveness and market resilience which critical for business survival. The
findings from this study indicate that the supply chain no longer view as logistics and manufacturing management
but rather as a value-chain.
Keywords – Resilience supply chain, Samsung Electronics, SCM creates competitive advantages
Paper Type – Research paper
1. Introduction
Company survival in the ever-changing business environment is now became an issue of supply chain practices
against another (Fine, 1998). Organization began to realize that improving internal efficiencies is no longer enough,
but their whole supply chain needs to be made competitive (Li et al., 2004). As competition intensified and markets
became global, one of the key challenges in managing the supply chain is the products delivery fulfillment to the
customers (Sridharan and Laforge, 1990; Zhao et al., 2001). Much shorter product’s life cycles as exhibit by
electronics industry, as well as frequent changes in production plan can led to schedule nervousness (Peslak et al,
2007; Krajewski et al, 2005) which without proper management will turn into supply chain disruptions. Supply
chain disruptions and their associated financial and operational risks is surging to become single most pressing
concern for the top executives at Global 1000 firms (Green, 2004). Research related to this issues ranging from
supply chain resilience (Sheffi and Rice, 2005), to supply chain vulnerability and company’s sustainability.
Developing supply chain processes and management that expanded towards organization’s trading partner network
will provide resiliency to deliver predictable results despite market volatility. This ability coupled with embedding
innovation, internalize customer’s needs and proactively build customer feedback into supply chain design is the key
1
2. of Samsung’s distinct supply chain practices. Ranked 10th in the recent Gartner’s Top 25 Global Supply Chain
Leaders, Samsung Electronics supply chain management often cited as one of the best-in-class. The study of this
paper will focus on the application of supply chain management in Samsung Electronics which includes the latest
evolution of SCM practices such as extended value chain through supplier partnership, customer relations and
customer service management (Donlon, 1997; Tan et al., 2002; Tan et al., 1998). The objective of this paper is to
understand the benefit of SCM practices in Samsung Electronics towards creating competitive advantages and
sustainable business. Hence, the key research questions that we try to answer are: What are the supply chain
practices in Samsung Electronics and how does it impacted their competitive advantage. Is their current supply chain
management sufficient enough for addressing future challenges and support business sustainability? The answer
should give us a better understanding of creating resilient supply chain management in high-tech industry.
This paper proceeds as follow. In the next section, review of the relevant literature and conceptual framework for
this study will be presented. Then, the paper describes the data collection process and methodology, followed by
case analysis with detailed discussion of the supply chain management practices in Samsung Electronics. Finally,
the paper discusses the findings and present suggestions for future research.
2. Conceptual Background
A supply chain can be defined as an integrated process in which numerous various business entities such as
suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers work together in acquiring raw materials, converting those raw
materials into specific products and deliver it to customers (Beamon, 1998). It is an effective network of firms
performing activities in a particular product/service value chain (Stevenson, 2007). In the high-tech industry, which
can be categorized as innovative product due to its short product life cycle, large variety of products, and high
market uncertainty (Fisher, 1997), supply chain management is a critical area and significant factor for the success
or survival of the electronics industry.
2.1 Trends and Challenges in Supply Chain Operations
We have witnessed several infamous trends of supply chain management in the past decades. In 1980s, just-in-time
production became popular, followed by supply chain collaboration and outsourcing logistic activities concept in
1990. By 2000, internet application changed the supply chain practices according to David Simchi-Levi (Hopkins,
2010). As competition intensified, so did the challenges of getting the product and service at the right time and the
right place (Li et al., 2004). The design of supply chain management became more central to organizational
effectiveness and efficiency in the future than ever before. In particular, there have been some significant challenges
in the highly competitive world market that has made supply chain management (SCM) an essential prerequisite for
staying in the business. These challenges include:
Globalization that increase supply chain complexity and global sourcing, produces long and geographically
diverse supply chain, exposed to numerous threats of disruptions and risks (Xia and Tang, 2011).
Intensified competition and price pressures coupled with high market uncertainty required companies to
built its supply chain resilience towards volatility (Christopher and Peck, 2004).
Shortened and more complex product life cycle, required firm to redesign its product life cycle
management with emphasize on introducing new products, managing product discontinuation and design
manufacturability;
Regulations changes requires companies to consider amount of carbon emission produced in the supply
chain, leads to organization focus on green supply chain and long term sustainability (Xia and Tang, 2011)
The response towards the challenges above has led towards the following trends in supply chain amongst leading top
companies.
2
3. Supply Chain Resilience
The needs for supply chain resilience, which defined resilience as the ability of a system to return to its
original state or move to a new, more desirable state after being disturbed. Implication in this definition
include the notion of flexibility (Christopher and Peck, 2004), although speed, agility, efficiency,
responsiveness and embedded innovation along supply chain remains critical. Companies such as Cisco,
Dow Chemical are creating and expanding this resiliency towards their trading partners as well.
Value-chain network strategy
More companies expanding their value chain, either through becoming more vertically integrated with the
acquisition of their supplier, or through managing an extensively outsourced network of trading partners
which applied by Microsoft and Cisco. Both aim for value chain network strategies that allow better control
of the end-to-end value chain. Example of the extended collaboration have emerged in the Sales and
Operations Planning (S&OP) that include both upstream and downstream value chain partners, in order to
gain better visibility of the whole value chain.
Organization as a value chain
Supply chain organization is not longer limited to either inbound materials management or logistic.
Organizations redefining their supply chain responsibilities to move from traditional functional silos (plan,
source, make and deliver) towards an “end-to-end value chain” perspective, often start from customer and
moving back up through the suppliers base and new product launch. The role of supply managers is
changing, with increased emphasize on supply market intelligence, collaboration, and operational
integration with suppliers (Handfield et al, 2008).
Demand-driven excellence
Adoption of demand-driven focus supply chain to influence and manage demand more efficiently.
Companies are shifting from the pursuit of efficiency (cost minimization in production and distribution) to
responsiveness, matching quantity and variety of products supplied to meet required demands (Kopczak
and Johnson, 2003). The application of this principle required the ability to manage demand rather than just
responds, a networked approach to global supply and embedded innovation in its supply chain operation.
Product life management
Shortening product life cycle required company to adopt product life management (PLM) processes. The
benefit of adopting PLM processes is to help companies design common product development processes
involving collaboration with suppliers and contract manufacturers. Increased parts re-use, declined design
cycle time and reduced time to market are amongst the benefit of applying PLM (Hofman et al., 2011)
2.2 Choosing the Right Supply Chain Strategy to Address Uncertainty
The trends above emerged to address one or combination of the recent challenges. Although there are many new
supply chain concepts and framework designed to address the ever-changing market, successful companies
understand that the right supply chain strategy depends on the two factors. First, the strategy needs to be tailored to
meet specific needs of the customers but also the product should be managed according to its characteristics (Lee,
2002). The “Uncertainty framework”, which Lee expand from Fisher’s framework, can be used to characterize a
product when seeking to devise the right supply chain strategy, looking at both key uncertainties from demand and
3
4. supply perspectives (Lee, 2002). Demand uncertainty is linked to the predictability of the demand for the products.
Electronics goods as well as other high-tech products are examples of innovative products due to its short life cycles,
high innovation and unpredictable demand. Other important uncertainties to determine the right supply chain
strategy is the supply side. Lee defined two type of supply process. A “stable” supply process characterized through
mature manufacturing process and technology, coupled with a well-established supply base. Usually, complexity of
manufacture tends to be manageable. An “evolving” supply process is where the manufacturing process still under
development, rapidly evolve, led towards limited supply base in terms of scale and experience. Often, the
manufacturing process requires adjustments, and experiences unscheduled breakdowns (Lee, 2002).
Despite the tendency for functional products to be more mature and stable supply process, it is not always the case.
Example is the food products. Although it may exhibits a stable demand, but the supply of products may vary
according to the weather condition. Similarly, innovative products such as fashion apparel, may has stable supply
process supported with a reliable supply base and mature manufacturing process. Figure 1 provide examples of
product with different demand and supply process. Lee argued that specific supply chain strategies required to be
tailored to each uncertainty characteristics, to provide competitive advantage for the companies. These strategies can
be classified into four types (Lee, 2002): Efficient supply chain, risk-hedging supply chains, responsive supply
chains and agile supply chains. Agile supply chains, suits to semiconductor and high-tech industries, designed not
only to provide responsiveness and flexibility to meet customer needs, but also hedging the risk of supply shortages
and disruptions. It has “agile” characteristics as it capable to respond toward high-uncertainty customer demands
while minimizing the back-end risks of supply glitches (Lee, 2002).
Figure 1 Uncertainty Framework and its tailored supply chain strategy (Fisher, 1997; Lee, 2002)
Companies with innovative products and continuously evolving supply processes are now moving towards
implementing the “agile” supply chains. Agility according to Christopher and Towill is defined as “a business-wide
capability that embraces organizational structures, information systems, logistics processes and in particular,
mindset” (Christopher and Towill, 2000). A core characteristic of agile supply chain is flexibility. Naylor et al.,
argues that agility means leveraging market knowledge and virtual corporation in capturing profitable opportunities
in the volatile market (Naylor et al., 1991). An example of the implementation of agility is the adoption of
decoupling point strategy where Xilink Inc., a semiconductor company specialized in IC (integrated circuit), formed
very close partnership with two foundries in Taiwan (United Microelectronics Corporation) and Japan (Seiko).
Fabricated wafers are then stocked, creating a decoupling point as the banks. The final assembly and testing of the
chips are conducted by other supply chain partners in Korea and Philippines as the demand for specific chips is
4
5. known once customer orders received. This decoupling strategy enable Xilink to be responsive towards its hard to
predict customer demand but also sharing the risk of wafer fabrication processes (Lee, 2002).
2.3 Creating Resilience Supply Chain
However, in the age where supply chains serving global-spanning operations, in a changing world with numerous
unpredictable events such as natural disaster, fast technology evolution which led to supply disruption, being agile is
not enough. Company need to manage its supply chain vulnerability which defined as “an exposure to serious
disturbance, arising from risks within the supply chain as well as external risks” (Christopher and Peck, 2004).
Resilience supply chain is required as the company need to have notion of flexibility to return toward its original
state or move towards desirable state after being disturbed. Resilience supply chain is created to manage risks
identified with supply chain, including internal risks such as process and control, as well as external risks involving
demand, supply and environment factors (Christopher and Peck, 2004). To create a resilient supply chain, the
following frameworks proposed:
Figure 2 Framework for creating resilient supply chain (Christopher and Peck, 2004; UPS and the Economist Intelligence Unit
(EIU), 2008)
2.3.1 Supply Chain Re-engineering
First, supply chain re-engineering required for considering resiliency into objective function of the optimization
process. The basic pre-requisite for improved supply chain resilience is the understanding of the network,
connecting both downstream customer and upstream (suppliers) to identify the critical path and potential risks.
Critical paths in the supply chain may exhibit one of the following characteristics: long lead times, single source of
supply with no short-term alternatives, poor visibility (e.g. no information-sharing) across supply chain, high level
of risk identified. Choosing the correct supply base strategy is also critical, whether to pursue reduction in the
number of suppliers, or single-sourcing, or few lead-suppliers strategy, depends on the risks assessment as well as
5
6. alternate supplier availability. It is also strongly advised to identify whether suppliers also implement risk-
assessment and monitoring. Supply chain design principles for improving resiliency should provide several options
open, able to reduce impact of disruption in the future, although it may not proven to be the most cost-efficient
options in the short term. Re-examine the trade-offs consideration, with the risk-management principle as the base of
the decision-making (Christopher and Peck, 2004).
2.3.2 Agility
Ability of organizations to respond demand changes and supply disruptions in this modern industry no longer tied to
individual companies but much related toward networks. The agility determined by both upstream and downstream
partners of the firm. Two key characteristics of agility are “visibility” and “velocity”. Supply chain visibility enable
organization has a clear view of inventory, demand, and supply along its value chain. Visibility can only be achieved
through collaborative planning with both its customers and suppliers, enabling capture of any alert regarding supply
disruptions. The challenge for building visibility is to create seamless integration view across functions of supply
chain (Christopher and Peck, 2004). Another key component of agility is velocity, which referred to end-to-end
pipeline time. However, for creating agility, the acceleration or rapidness of supply chain react to changes in
demand are also critical. Both velocity and acceleration can be achieved through streamlined processes, lead-time
reduction and eliminating non-value added activities. Enablers are leveraging supplier capability to respond delivery
request quickly, and able to cope with quick changes in volume and portfolio requirements, together with the
information-sharing and inventory management practices (Christopher and Peck, 2004).
2.3.3 Supply Chain Risk Management Culture
Increasing risks due to high-uncertainty market is expected and required culture of risk-management embedded
within organization. Supply chain risks present major threats toward business continuity and required top-down
leadership to drive the risk-management culture change in the organization (Christopher and Peck, 2004). It is also
argued that supply chain risk assessment should be considered during the decision making process. For example,
supply chain vulnerability such as component scarceness and lead times for manufacturing and distribution need to
be considered when deciding to near-shoring one of the production site. To manage the risk, performance
monitoring is essential. Coupled with both internal and external benchmarking of supply chain breakdowns can
provide key lessons for the organization and help identify potential risks (UPS and EIU, 2008).
2.3.4 Supply Chain Collaborations
Supply chain collaboration enables the participating companies to create competitive advantage, achieved through
cost reductions, increase in revenue as well as flexibility to respond toward market uncertainties (Horvath, 2001;
Spekman et al., 1998; Lee, 1997). Supply chain collaboration requires efforts from all parties to ensure the
attainment of potential benefit (Barrat and Oliveira, 2001). As companies move toward closer arrangements with
their partners, they became involved in the evolving process of collaboration (Mentzer et al., 2000). On his proposed
framework of supply chain optimization consisting of four stages of progress (sourcing and logistics, internal
excellence, network construction, and industry leadership), Poirier (1999) reflect the collaborative efforts between
parties in value chain on its two last stages. Similarly, on Polese’s supply chain maturity model reflecting
organization’s operational capability, collaboration is the critical component to reach stage three (external
integration) and stage four (cross-enterprise collaboration). According to Simatupang and Sridharan (2004) the
collaboration involved three dimensions: information sharing, decision synchronization and incentive alignment
with two additional elements: performance system and streamlined business processes. The collaboration involves
sharing knowledge of business process flow as well as trading partner’s planning and execution system, followed by
the agreed collaboration mechanism and its aims. The execution result then monitored and analyze for identifying
improvements.
6
7. Information sharing
Supply chain collaboration begun with information sharing which has objective to capture timely and relevant
information, enabling decision makers to plan and control its supply chain operation (Simatupang and Sridharan,
2004). Data shared includes demand forecast, level of inventory and its related costs, schedule for delivery, and
points of sale (Lee and Whang, 2000) and provide more clear demand view. Moreover, supply chain collaboration
leads to specified market focus, improved corporation for fulfilling sales and demand, as well as minimize risks
related to demand uncertainty, resulted in the better performance of the chain’s participants (Lee et al., 1997;
Whipple et al., 2002).
Decision synchronization
Decision synchronization refer to joint-decision making in both planning and operational contexts. The planning
context includes long-term planning decision and measures such as promotion, customer service level, forecasting
and selecting targeted customer. Meanwhile, operational context relates to order generation and delivery process,
including shipping schedule and product replenishment. Decision synchronization aiming to focus all the chain
members to work toward a common goal of serving end customer, often to reduce delivery time and contributes to
consistent product availability (Ramdas and Spekman, 2000; Bowersox et al., 2000).
Incentive alignment
Incentive alignment refers to the fair sharing of costs, risk, and benefits amongst the supply chain member to
maintain the commitment of each party to the collaborative efforts. Benefits include both financial gains - such as
increased revenue - and performance improvement such as declined inventory costs (Kaplan and Narayanan, 2001;
Corbett et al., 1999). Attractive incentives can motivate the supply chain members to take decision let to the supply
chain profitability (Simatupang and Sridharan, 2002).
Information sharing Decision Synchronization Incentive alignment
•Promotional event •Joint plan of product •Joint frequent shopper
•Demand forecast assortment program
•Price changes •Joint promotional events •Shared savings due to
•Inventory holding costs •Joint development of reduction in inventory
demand forecast costs
•On-hand inventory levels
•Pricing policy consultation •Guaranteed delivery for a
•Inventory policy
•Joint decision on peak demand
•Supply distruptions
inventory •Allowance for product’s
•Order status and tracking defects
requirements, optimal
•Delivery schedules order quantity and •Subsidies for retail price
availability markdowns
•Joint resolution on order •Agreement on order
exceptions changes
Figure 3 Example of Collaborations in Information Sharing, Decision Synchronization, and Incentive Alignment (Simatupang
and Sridharan, 2004)
Strong supply chain collaboration often associated with a mature supply management, characterized by the
following:
Supply market research and intelligence
Supplier integration
7
8. Cross-enterprise integration
Supply management influence
The detail of each capability is summarized below:
•The ability to develop key insights of supply market characteristics: technology, price
Supply market and cost, M&A, capacity requirements, quality and delivery performance and external
intelligence environment scanning (Arend and Wisner, 2005; Carr et al., 2000; Chen et al., 2004;
Handfield, 2006)
•Alignment with internal stakeholder
Supply management
•Formulating strategic sourcing objectives with senior management and enterprise-level
influence strategies (Cousins et al.,2006; Monczka et al.,2000)
•Ability to collaborate with partners, involving them into product development and
Supplier integration design, order management and fulfillment process, all enabled through timely
communication of requirements and continuous improvement (Walter et al., 2006)
•The ability of the sourcing function to actively engage functional decision
Cross-enterprise
making, through carefully tracking stakeholder requirements in both product and
integration process design (Handfield et al.,2009)
Figure 4 Supply Management Practices (Handfield et al., 2009)
2.4 Supply Chain Excellence practices
Apart from creating resilient supply chain, today, companies must be flexible in applying full array of levers at their
disposal, including pricing, sales incentives, promotion and other marketing tools, to stimulate demand for their
most profitable products, as underlined by demand-driven principle. Demand-driven principles is the system of
technologies and processes which responds to the real time demand signals across its supply network of customer,
suppliers and employees. This model has three overlapping areas of responsibility:
Supply management – manufacturing, logistics, supply planning and sourcing
Demand management – marketing, sales, demand planning and services
Product management – R&D, engineering and product development
When these processes work together, the business can respond quickly and efficiently to opportunities arise.
Implementing demand-driven supply chain often required following:
Enhanced demand forecasting tools based on historical sales data
Integration of demand management and forecasting tools with existing supply chain and logistics system, to
enable visibility across the whole value chain
Comprehensive plan created through collaboration between sales, marketing and supply chain operations
Developed a collaborative sales and operations planning (S&OP), which extends from customer end to the
procurement and logistics, to allow customer insight inform all aspects of the business
Aim for profitability as the main objective
2.5 Competitive Advantage
8
9. Creating supply chain excellence will provide the organization with competitive advantages. Competitive advantage
is the ability of organization to differentiate itself from the competitors (McGinnis and Vallopra, 1999). Price,
quality, delivery and flexibility are amongst the example of important competitive capabilities. Koufteros et al.,
described five dimensions of competitive advantages, including: competitive and premium pricing, dependable
delivery, product innovation, time to market, and customer quality (Li et al., 2006). Other competitive advantages
include cost-leadership and talent.
3. Research Methodology
The paper presents an in-depth case study of Samsung Electronics, the global leading electronics company which
ranked 2nd as the World’s Most Admired Electronics Company (Fortune, 2010). Samsung Electronics often became
a benchmark for key competitors in the industry, given its progressive strategy of extended value chain network
toward both suppliers and customers, as well as its embedded innovation along the value chain, and outstanding
financial and technical performance. The study follows guidelines for case research in operations management
drawn from the literature and company’s public data. The theoretical foundation of resilient supply chain and trends
of supply chain in the top leading companies is established early on and will be contrasted with the supply chain
practices in Samsung. Competitive advantages resulted from the implementation of their supply chain practices will
be identified and analyzed to understand company’s resilience toward highly volatile electronics industry. The data
gathering followed and relied on analysis of secondary data including company records such as annual reports, press
releases, as well as published literature regarding SCM in Samsung.
4. Case Analysis and Key Findings
Samsung Electronics, established in 1969 as a TV company, grew to be one of the most prominent electronics
companies in the world. Ranked second as the world’s most admired electronics company, and 32th as world’s most
admired company by Fortune in FY2010, the firm booked KRW 154.63 trillion of revenue, more than doubled its
record on 2007 at KRW 63.18 trillion. The company recorded a KRW 17.3 trillion operating profit, increased by
58% from 2009 performance, and has 190,500 employees worldwide. According to Interbrand, the company brand
value increased from US$ 5.2 billion in 2000 (ranked 43rd in the world survey), to US$ 19.5 billion (ranked 19th) in
2010. During this time, company has maintained profitability and revenue ahead of its peers – Figure 9(Samsung,
2011).
Figure 5 Samsung Electronics Revenue and EBITDA margin comparison against its peers (Samsung, 2011; Google Finance)
Samsung Electronics transformed its supply chain to be one of the company’s competitive advantages through
implementation of extended-value chain network integration, customer-collaboration process in the product
9
10. development stage, all tailored toward creating a resilient supply chain. Overview of the supply chain management
in Samsung exhibits the following characteristics which fit well with the framework proposed (figure 4):
Continuously improving its agility through increase value-chain visibility and velocity achieved through
implementation of supply chain management support system (e.g. Planning and scheduling system), reduce
delivery time through strategically locate its production site (e.g. in Poland for catering EU market
demand), and streamlined processes and lead time reduction using SCM Six Sigma.
Progressive supply chain re-engineering through customer-collaboration process in the product
development and supply chain design.
Mutual-growth supply chain collaboration with its suppliers to enhance their trading partner resilience
and core competency for responding toward volatile market.
Embedded risk-management culture in the supply chain as one of the key strategy for 2012 as mentioned
by Choi Gee-Sung, Samsung CEO as quoted by Korean Times, 2011. Sense of urgency will continue
coloring the Samsung’s operations to react quickly and identify any potential disruptions on its operation.
Samsung Electronics Details Benefit
Supply Chain Focus
Trading partner Value-chain network integration (vertically Strategically placed Samsung as both
networks (Extended integrated with suppliers) OEM and major component suppliers in
value chain to the electronic industry value chain
upstream end) Secure supply access
Win-win partnership programs Mutual growth with key partners create
o CSR supports, HR development better resilience and agility towards
o Innovation and technology sharing changes in the market
o Financial and infrastructure
assistance
Suppliers Management System Achieve economy of scale, cost-savings,
o Secure outstanding suppliers and secure profits
o Conduct fair evaluations
o Concentrate volume to suppliers
with a competitive edge
o Provide predictable information
Customer- Customer-satisfaction (CS) certification Customer collaboration process led
collaboration process program – embedded customer’s input in the towards holistic design product
(Extended value-chain early product development stage Improve and speed up product
to downstream end) Involve customer in the products preview and development process – less time to market,
development through “Prosumer” communities more products offering
o Example: AnyCall Dreamers for Connecting new product development with
mobile phone communities – viral supply chain strategy – better product
products review, user test, marketing offering and supply chain execution
ideas, pool of improvement and
product recommendation ideas
“Quick Delivery 119 Team” – smart and fast Retain customer loyalty
delivery of purchased products
Customer after-sales service innovation Provide in-depth and accurate information
on customer’s needs
o Service center outlet expansion – Product innovation ideas gathering
available in 3100 cities by 2008 Retain and attract customer base and
o Progress control system – track loyalty
customer’s service from reception
for repair
o Service Component Demand
Forecast system (2009)
o Repair Ceiling Schemes – innovative
repair fee ceiling based on product’s
age
Customer Relationship Management system
Demand-Driven SCM Sales Forecast System Reduce inventory level
Maturity Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) Provide greater visibility of value-chain
Demand-Modeling Improve product life-cycle management
10
11. through better understanding of customer
demand
Improve promotional planning and meet
customer expectations
Organization as a In 2010-2011, Samsung undergoes Improve operational efficiency
value chain organizational restructuring for its end-user Accommodate emerging market’s growth
products and global operations potential
o Recent M&A of Samsung LED Technology core-sharing and seamless
o Merging of digital air solution to vertical integration
digital appliances and
telecommunication system into
visual display business
o Consolidation of raw material
procurements, development of key
components and overseas business
unit
o Central and Eastern European
structure established
Partner Collaboration Center placed directly Top-down driven implementation of
under CEO with VP as the head of the center – supply chain
implying the importance of extended network Optimize partnership collaboration
value chain strategy towards Samsung’s
business
Organization culture with sense of urgency, Change-management culture
quality-focus, low bureaucracy and allowing Continuous improvements
innovations driven bottom-up
Supply Chain Adexa’s Enterprise Global Planning System Provide realistic planning and improve
Management Systems (2004): Supply Chain Planning, Factory order fulfillment
Software Planning and Scheduling, Collaborative Demand forecast tools help reduce excess
Demand Planning inventory, generate cost-savings and
Advanced Planning and Scheduling System provide better quality data for decision-
Integrated Sales Document Management making
System (Adobe) Enable intelligent collaboration
Product Data Management Maximize asset utilizations
Global Real Time Management Information Greater plan visibility and flexible view of
System products
Green Movement – Supply Chain Environmental Management Creating sustainability supply chain to
Sustainability supply program meet tighter government and environment
chain o Eco-partner Certification regulation
o Eco-design assessment –
incorporated in eco-friendly product
development
o Eco-label for marketing
Product Lifecycle Standardize parts in different products model Slashed out time to roll out products
Management globally
Alternative supply available from other
region in cases of shortages
SCM Six Sigma Implement six sigma to improve Samsung Provide talent required for SCM
Electronics SCM Provide more systematic and discipline
o Identify supply chain process SCM application
improvements – most notably in the Demand stabilization
inventory visibility, demand Improve inventory visibility led toward
stabilization and better use of cost-reduction
information network
o Six Sigma Academy
Figure 6 Samsung Electronic Supply Chain Practices (Samsung, 2011; Yang et al., 2007; Gartner Top 25 Supply Chain
Companies, 2011)
In this section, we will discuss the key supply chain practices in Samsung Electronics and how it drives the
competitive advantage for the company.
11
12. Trading Partner Networks
Samsung Electronics weathering ups its value chain to include their partners and suppliers on their mutual growth-
program, improving their core competency through providing CSR support, HR development, cost and product
innovation as well as financial and infrastructure assistance (e.g. ERP). Samsung realized that in the globalized
market, competition field no longer exist between individual firm, but rather, among the network. Therefore,
developing its partners became an important strategy on their supply chain management, as the seamless
collaboration will led towards better visibility across its value chain and resilience toward highly unpredictable
market. Moreover, recently Samsung provide opportunity to SMEs that hold core technology to pursue joint-
development projects, generating innovation ideas and aligned product development. Wynstra argued that integrate
suppliers in the new product development process can be a competitive advantage (Wynstra et al., 2001). It will
provide a much holistic designed products and advance innovation process, supporting Samsung maintained its
leadership in technology.
While other electronics manufacturers such as Apple, Vizio, Sony and Panasonic are moving towards outsources
most components, Samsung is notable for its vertical integration with suppliers. Most recent, is their acquisition of
Samsung LED (Bloomberg, 2011). The vertical manufacturing sourcing strategy to keep all in-house is the key for
Samsung to establish itself as both OEM and major component suppliers. Apart from being the main supplier of
digital TV market, Samsung also a dominant supplier in flash memory devices and chips for smart-phone, with
Apple as one of their biggest customer. In the long term, as more Japanese electronics giant (i.e. Hitachi) decides to
join forces of vendor-managed sourcing strategy, this can bring Samsung Electronics to a more strategic presence.
Their major strategy of vertical integration brings not only core-sharing of technology and expertise, but also better
control of supply uncertainty. It also provides economies of scale as they produced not only for within Samsung
Electronics, but also for the whole industry players. However, one disadvantage could be the decreased flexibility.
Customer-collaboration process
Samsung measure its supply chain as the way customer experience it. It developed capability to incorporate
customer needs into the product design stage and proactively build customer’s recommendation into their supply
chain operations. This can be seen through the current customer-service innovation program that Samsung
Electronics launched, such as quick delivery system, progress control system, and even Service Component Demand
Forecast. Those initiatives provide competitive advantages such as holistic and appealing design products as well
as product differentiation through its after-sales services. Moreover, by embedded customer’s perspectives early on,
Samsung able to create attractive product offering, speed up product development process – hence less time to
market, and improve its supply chain execution. On the longer term, the tailored supply chain will result in the
customer loyalty. Due to its progressive customer-collaboration process, it should not come to our surprise that
Samsung is one of the electronics giant who able to launch many products simultaneously and according to Yoon
Boo Keun (executive VP in-charge of TV and Display business), they can launch products twice more often than its
peers (Bloomberg, 2011).
Demand-driven maturity
Samsung Electronics has often been cited as the best-in-class in applying Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP).
S&OP in Samsung is a critical operation component, providing visibility of the supply chain for its top management,
supported with massive amount of data allowing decision maker choose quickly and efficiently after analyzing the
complex tradeoffs it has (Gartner report, 2011). Similar to P&G and Kimberley-clark, Samsung focus its S&OP for
creating strategic trade-offs decision. Inventory is seen as the buffer for demand-volatility rather than target for cost-
savings. The system provide Samsung Electronics with better stock-inventory control and enable quick management
decision, something that is critical in this ever-changing market.
Organization as a Value Chain
Samsung Electronics leverages its organizational structure to drive the supply chain implementation, such as
partnership collaboration by putting it directly report to CEO. In addition, the merger and acquisition of its major
12
13. supplier aims to accommodate operational efficiency and enabling core-technology sharing as well as seamless
vertical integration. In addition, its sense of urgency and risk-managing culture enabled the company to always
aware of the market changes, responds to it quickly and at the same time, nurtures the innovation-led culture on their
employees. Organization no longer acts as a hurdle but rather, as a value chain, creating resilience and
responsiveness on adapting toward market uncertainties. This is contrast with the Sony Corporation, of which their
consensus-style decision making is criticized slowing the urgent decision-making, led towards lagging performance
in the industry.
Near Shoring Strategy
Aligned with its goal to be a market leader in the EU market, Samsung Electronics implement near-shoring strategy
to Eastern Europe, moved away from sourcing its production in China and SEA, often perceived as low-cost
manufacturing regions. Similar strategy applied for its LCD production, being produced in Mexico to cater its
customers in North America. The savings are noted up to four-week reduction in order lead times, beside reduction
in distribution costs, bringing competitive advantages of time-to-market and cost-efficiency.
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
Designing products which share common operation, or materials not only reduce risks of write-offs but also speed
up time-to-market for launching products globally. For instance, Samsung used same circuit boards for both LCD
TV 32-inch (sold in EU) and 60-inch plasma TV. This effort reduced the minimum roll-out time from sixteen weeks
in 2005 to just four weeks in one-year time.
Supply Chain Management Systems Support
Prior to using Adexa’s Enterprise Global Planning System, Samsung Network Division faced challenges in reducing
its COGS, and pressure to increase both asset utilization and market share. The issues arose include lengthy
forecasting cycles, supply shortages, bottlenecks and rush order delivery. For electrical industry, characterized with
increasingly stringent product life cycles, most manufacturers need accurate and timely information on assisting
their design, planning and production process, while also reducing excess capacities and non-value added cost (Lynn
et al.,1996; Blanchard, 2008). Therefore, synchronizing the scheduling and planning tasks of supply chain is critical
to achieve high performance (Kadipasaoglu and Sridharan, 1997; Pujawan and Kingsman, 2000). Software system
support used in supply chain enabled Samsung Electronics to enable intelligent collaboration, provide better
visibility, realistic planning, improve order fulfillment as well as enabling reduction in inventory. Especially in the
electronics industry where price falls on breakneck pace, often electronics channel giant such as Best Buy and
Circuit City charged manufacturers for gap compensation due to old and new price differences in their store
inventory.
Supply Chain Management-Six Sigma
Samsung Electronics implement combined approach of six-sigma principles towards its supply chain management,
developing methodology that enhanced its current global operations. The six-sigma applications is expected to
create a systematic and methodical supply-chain management, while at the same time developing the necessary HR
talent to applied it on Samsung’s operations and providing better quantitative data which will be useful for decision-
making process. The final approach is DMAEV – Define, Measure, Analyze, Enable and Verify. The six-sigma
application on its SCM able to identify three key issues: inventory visibility, demand stabilization and web-user
interface design for inventory management (Yang et al., 2007). This approach is built to overcome challenges of
sustaining results of successful project after completion, which often called as “Closed-loop”, one of the important
issue in SCM and particularly for manufacturing planning and control system (Vollmann et al.,1997; Yang et al.,
2007). Six-sigma fulfill this needs through its “control” stage, or in this case “verify” stage.
Conclusions and Future Research
13
14. Analyzing supply chain management in Samsung Electronics, author concluded that their SCM implementation
contributes to the following competitive advantages:
Reduce time-to-market – Customer collaborative approach coupled with engaging supplier earlier on the
product development stage enable Samsung launch its product in a timely manner, addressing challenge of
short product life cycle in electronics industry
Cost leadership – Inventory cost reduction and elimination of non-value added activities through
Samsung’s combined approach of SCM Six-sigma, coupled with strong software supports to manage the
entire value chain
Product and services differentiation – The collaborative customer approach on the design stage as well as
the company’s innovative services enabled Samsung distinct its brand as a premium brand, creating
customer loyalty
Innovation – Innovation creation in the company leverages both suppliers and customers, through
extending their value-chain to both downstream and upstream
Strategic market positioning - as both OEM and major supplier in the electronics industry value chain
Talent – Six-sigma black-belt certified employees are the critical enablers of continuously evolving supply
chain management in Samsung. They led the top-down approach for resilient and sustainable supply chain
One question remained. Is current supply chain practice in Samsung sufficient to address future challenges and
highly volatile market changes? Author recommends the following:
Continue application of collaborative approach SCM Six Sigma as it helps company identify potential
improvements and address critical issues
Explore state-of-the-art supply chain practices in the industry to improve Samsung Electronics supply
chain such as:
o “Customer Value Chain Management” organization in Cisco which brought together sourcing,
production, logistics, customer service, quality and new product launch under hard-line reporting
function
o Apple’s strategic sourcing, vendor negotiation and distribution networks
o Dell’s segmentation of value chain
Improve its risk management capabilities and resilience through creating stronger risk-awareness
culture, strengthening their preemptive response system and improving their risk management system
Continue embedded innovation along its supply chain and create distinct positioning against its peers
This paper studies the impact of resilient supply chain practices in Samsung Electronics towards creating
competitive advantages against its peers. Further study across industries using the same methodology may help
identify whether supply chain practices drive different competitive advantages. Contrasting Samsung Electronics
with its peers also can provide insights of key success factors of supply chain excellence and how it helps company
create outstanding financial and operational performance. Other interesting future study is to explore the concept of
supply chain quality management and comparison of vendor-managed supply chain which now adopted by most
electronic giants against vertical-integration concept implemented by Samsung Electronics.
References
Blanchard, B. (2008), System Engineering and Management, Wiley-Interscience, Singapore
Chopra, S. and Meindl, P. (2001), Supply Chain Management, Strategy, Planning and Operation, Prentice-Hall,
Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Fisher, M.L. (1997), “What is the right supply chain for your product?”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 75 No. 2,
pp. 105-16.
14
15. Garfamy, R. (2003), “Supplier selection and business process improvement: an exploratory multiple case studies”,
available at: http://selene.uab.es/dep-economia-empresa/Jornadas/ Papers/reza.pdf (accessed 27 June
2005).
Gunasekaran, A. and Ngai, E. (2007), “Build-to-order supply chain management: a literature review and
framework for development”, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 23 No. 5, pp. 423-51.
Gunasekaran, A., Lai, K.C. and Cheng, T.C. (2008), “Responsive supply chain: a competitive strategy in networked
company”, International Journal of Management Science, Vol. 36, pp. 549-64.
Heikkila, J. (2002), “From supply to demand chain management, efficiency and customer
satisfaction”, Journal of Operations Management, Vol. 20, pp. 747-67.
Ketchen, D.J., Hult, T.M., Rebarick, W. and Meyer, D. (2008), “Best value supply chains: a key competitive weapon
for the 21st century”, Business Horizons, Vol. 51, pp. 235-43.
Kim, Y.D., and Wagner, S.M. (2011), “Supplier Selection problem revisited from the perspective of product
configuration”, International Journal of Production Research pp 1–13
Mason-Jones, R., Naylor, J.B. and Towill, D.R. (2000), “Lean, agile or leagile? Matching your supply chain to the
marketplace”, International Journal of Production Research, Vol. 38 No. 17, pp. 4061-70
O’Marah, K. and Hofman, D. (2010), The AMR Supply Chain Top 25 for 2010, Gartner Research Publication,
Stamford, CT.
O’Marah, K. and Hofman, D. (2011), The AMR Supply Chain Top 25 for 2011, Gartner Research Publication,
Stamford, CT.
Pujawan, I.N. (2004), “Assessing supply chain flexibility: a conceptual framework and case study”, International
Journal of Integrated Supply Management, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 79-97.
Pujawan, I. (2004), “Schedule nervousness in a manufacturing system: a case study”, Production Planning &
Control, Vol. 15 No. 5, pp. 515-24.
Pujawan, I. and Kingsman, B. (2000), “System nervousness and inventory locations”, Proceedings of the 31st
Decision Science Institute National Meeting, Orlando, FL, pp. 1174-6.
Rajagopal, P., Zailani, S. and Sulaiman, M. (2009), “Assessing the effectiveness of supply chain partnering with
scalable partnering as a moderator”, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistic Management,
Vol. 39 No. 8, pp. 649-68.
Samsung Electronics, 2011. “2011 Sustainability Reports”. *online+ Samsung Electronics. Available at:
<http://www.samsung.co.uk>
Stewart, G. (1997), “Supply-chain operations reference model (SCOR): the first cross-industry framework for
integrated supply-chain management”, Logistics Information Management, Vol. 10, pp. 62-7.
Soon, Q.H., and Udin, Z.M., (2011), “Supply chain management from the perspective of value chain flexibility: an
exploratory study”, Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management Vol. 22 No. 4, pp.506-526.
15
16. Stevenson, M. and Spring, M. (2007), “Flexibility from a supply chain perspective: definition and
review”, International Journal of Production Management, Vol. 27 No. 7, pp. 685-713.
Tan, K.C., Lyman, S.B. and Wisner, J.D. (2002), “Supply chain management: a strategic perspective”, International
Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 22 No. 6, pp. 614-31.
Watts, C. and Hahn, C. (1993), “Supplier development programs: an empirical analysis”,
International Journal of Purchasing & Materials Management, Vol. 29 No. 3, pp. 11-17.
Wei, C.C., Sheen, G.J., Tai, C.T. (2010), “Using Six Sigma to improve replenishment process in a direct selling
company”, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal Vol. 15 no. 1, pp.3-9
16