Gaining Competitive Advantages Through Supply Chain Management: Success Stories
Gaining Competitive Advantages Through Supply Chain Management: Success Storie
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION - 1 - 2. BACKGROUND - 1 - 3. THEORY - 2 - 4. DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS - 4 - 4.1. ZARA - 4 - 4.2. Dell - 6 - 4.3. FedEx - 6 - 4.4. Wal-Mart - 7 - 5. CONCLUSIONS - 8 - 6. REFERENCES - 9 -
1. INTRODUCTION
The business environment has been suffering from fierce competition since the escalation of technology evolution and internet growth had become wildly increasing. To survive in today’s market; the business should be characterized by faster production pace, shorter product life cycles, more innovative and sophisticated, and well-organized. That adds much pressure to the supply chain usability. It should react rapidly, efficiently, and effectively in order to respond to changes happening in the marketplace so as to sustain, and, most importantly, to create competitive advantage.
According to Towill and Christopher (2002) the key success of a supply chain is basically determined by the end customer. Delivering the right goods to the right customers at the right price and time is not a guarantee for companies to stay competitive in the market, but it is an inevitable key to survive. As a result, competition between supply chains has become more important rather than competition between individual companies (Christopher, 1992).
In B2B, an effective supply chain can create a strong competitive advantage for the firms involved within it. A competitive advantage is defined by the capabilities that an organization can develop for defensible position over its competitors (Li et al., 2006). This goal can be reached in several ways, starting by creating a strong collaboration with companies by working together to make the whole supply chain competitive. The backbone of this strategy requires wide use of information technology in order to share information, and also generate future demand. The primary idea in SCM is that the
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION - 1 - 2. BACKGROUND - 1 - 3. THEORY - 2 - 4. DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS - 4 - 4.1. ZARA - 4 - 4.2. Dell - 6 - 4.3. FedEx - 6 - 4.4. Wal-Mart - 7 - 5. CONCLUSIONS - 8 - 6. REFERENCES - 9 -
1. INTRODUCTION
The business environment has been suffering from fierce competition since the escalation of technology evolution and internet growth had become wildly increasing. To survive in today’s market; the business should be characterized by faster production pace, shorter product life cycles, more innovative and sophisticated, and well-organized. That adds much pressure to the supply chain usability. It should react rapidly, efficiently, and effectively in order to respond to changes happening in the marketplace so as to sustain, and, most importantly, to create competitive advantage.
According to Towill and Christopher (2002) the key success of a supply chain is basically determined by the end customer. Delivering the right goods to the right customers at the right price and time is not a guarantee for companies to stay competitive in the market, but it is an inevitable key to survive. As a result, competition between supply chains has become more important rather than competition between individual companies (Christopher, 1992).
In B2B, an effective supply chain can create a strong competitive advantage for the firms involved within it. A competitive advantage is defined by the capabilities that an organization can develop for defensible position over its competitors (Li et al., 2006). This goal can be reached in several ways, starting by creating a strong collaboration with companies by working together to make the whole supply chain competitive. The backbone of this strategy requires wide use of information technology in order to share information, and also generate future demand. The primary idea in SCM is that the
References: Day, G. S. (1994). The Capabilities of Market-Driven Organizations, Journal of Marketing. Hutt, M.D. and Speh, T.W. (2004). Business Marketing Management: A Strategic View of Industrial and Organizational Markets, 8th edition, Fort Worth TX: Dryden. Koufteros, X. A. (1995), “Time-Based Manufacturing: Developing a Nomological Network of Constructs and Instrument Developmen”t, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH. Li, S., Ragu-Nathan, B., Ragu-Nathan, T. S., and Rao, S. (2006). The Impact of Supply Chain Management Practices on Competitive Advantage and Organizational Performance. McWiliams, G., and White, J. (1999). Dell to derail: Get into gear online. Wall Street Journal, December 1, Bl. Stalk, G., Evans, P. Shulman, L. E. (1992). “Competing on Capabilities: The New Rules of Corporate Strategy”, Harvard Business Review. Stapleton D., Hanna J. B., and Ross, J. B. (2006). “Enhancing Supply Chain Solutions with the Application of Chaos Theory”, Supply Chain Management. Towill, D. and Christopher, M. (2002). The Supply Chain Strategy Conundrum: To be Lean Or Agile or To be Lean And Agile?, International Journal of Logistics: Research & Applications. Electronic Sources: FedEx (2013) FedEx (2013). Overview and facts. Available: http://about.van.fedex.com/fedex-overview [2013-02-23].