SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Read the case study and answer ALL the questions that follow: [20 MARKS]

Supply Chain Issues in an Auto Component Manufacturing Organization

To face global challenges, most of the manufacturing organizations are trying to integrate their supply chain (SC). To make a SC sustainable under a dynamic scenario is a major challenge for organizations nowadays. The selection of appropriate SC practices plays a very important role in sustainable improvement of organizations performance. Major SC practices are information sharing, buyer supplier relationships, distribution and logistics, long-term partnerships, etc. The intensity of these practices may vary from sector to sector. To analyze these supply chain management (SCM) practices and their impact on performance, a case study on an auto component manufacturing organization has been conducted. A situationactorprocess (SAP)learningactionperformance (LAP) approach has been used in order to perform the case study. On the basis of SAP model, different learning issues have been analyzed in order to determine their impact on the performance of the SC of the organization. It is observed that major challenges faced by this organization are lack of advanced information technology (IT) and manufacturing systems, unreliable suppliers in terms of raw material quality and delivery time and inaccurate forecasting systems. The main SC practices being followed by this firm are collaborative planning and forecasting replenishment (CPFR), customer relationship management (CRM) and integrated inventory management to improve effectiveness of SC for facing global competition. By taking different initiatives, the firm has observed improvement in the overall performance in terms of cost and delivery on time. An important finding is that now Indian firms form their strategies taking sustainability into consideration, which is very important to sustain in global competition. Source: https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150916656692

QUESTION ONE (10 Marks) With reference to the relevant literature and using details and examples from the case study critically discuss the challenges facing supply chain managers in an auto component manufacturing organization.

QUESTION TWO (10 Marks) What advice would you give to Auto Component Manufacturing Organizations regarding choosing the right supply chain software to sustain itself in a global market.