Global Scm

Executive Summary

This paper discusses recommendations to globalSCM addressing the company’s opportunity to provide the technology solutions to the logistical supply chain industry. An account of some statistics provides quantitative evidence of the impact of globalSCM in the private third party logistics (3PL) market. The main focus of the study is the examination of globalSCM’s internal supply chain to uncover opportunities in which the company should improve upon in order to become a leading SCM technology solutions provider. The paper provides recommendations on this within the context of competition with other solutions providers in the market.

Background

This paper focuses on how globalSCM might influence the logistical supply-chain management sector. A bulk of the references cited in this work comes mainly from various online resources and reports that discuss about supply chain management. Moreover, it is hereby assumed that globalSCM is currently among the biggest players in the technology solutions market.

Logistical SCM

A corporation’s supply chain is a continuous flow of interrelated processes that spans from its suppliers to its end-users. It consists of many sub-chains that operate in harmony to carry out the key processes within the organization (Kavanagh, 2001, p. 2). Kavanagh (2001) further discusses about the popularity of supply chain management solutions to manufacturing corporations:

Research shows the return on investment in supply chain management solutions can run from 30% to 300% (source: AMR Research). Hardly surprising then that so many manufacturing companies have turned to technology to enhance their supply chain solutions (p. 2).

Impressive gains resulting from the use of a management system demonstrate the possibility of coordinating organizational components and consolidating flow of information and planning endeavors within a supply chain (Stadtler & Kilger, 2005, p. 1).

Supply chain management has an effect on most, if not all, goings-on of a company. In the point of view of Knolmayer, Mertens, & Zeier (2002, p. 6), “[supply chain management] concentrates on the form of the cooperation between organizations or organizational units and the associated interfaces.” The tasks that can be assigned to supply chain management depend on the whether the focal purpose for its use is directed inwards or outwards. Moreover, these tasks can be categorized into being strategic or operative, as shown in Table 1.

Orientation Strategic Operative

Internal focus  Strategies for product and process development

 Strategies for providing products and services

 Make or buy decisions

 Quality