Assignment 1 BALAJI G.P

Assignment SCM
BALAJI GP
32320120
1. Supply chain thinking tied to strategy:
➢ Supply chain thinking comes under functional level strategy.

Strategy is divided in an organization into business, corporate and
functional level strategy.
➢ Business level strategy deals with long range plan to win its business
in the market.
➢ Corporate level deals with action plans and decisions to stay in the
market.
➢ Functional level deals with detailed plan and decisions at department
level. Where Supply chain thinking comes under this level of
strategy.
2. Think of an organization that you are familiar with and identify its strategy,
philosophy, and doctrine, if any.
AMAZON
Strategy:
➢ Amazon Stresses the importance of customer satisfaction instead of
the competitor
➢ Amazon achieves excellent customer satisfaction by offering an ever
expanding and large selection of products and a personalized
experience
➢ Amazon achieves excellent customer satisfaction through speedy
service
➢ Amazon achieves excellent customer satisfaction through
competitive prices
➢ Amazon trains employees to understand the customer experience to
get all employees to understand the customer
➢ Amazon's marketing strategy is providing great service that creates
positive word of mouth and focusing on SEO & PPC.
Philosophy:
➢ Avoid ‘Not Invented Here’ Mentality: Stakeholders can eradicate
the limitation imposed by ‘not invented here’ and learn from internal
and external sources to bring in new and innovative ideas. Although
Jeff Bezos did not invent e-commerce, Amazon is synonymous with
e-commerce.
➢ People Empowerment: From sellers and enterprises to content
creators and developers, Amazon’s philosophy is to empower people
with lucrative options to make a living. Amazon also empowers
customers by providing flexible options to access cheaper products.
➢ The Empty Chair: In the early years, an empty chair was brought
into boardroom meetings to represent the customer and ensure that
their needs and desires are taken into account. Over time, the
philosophy of obsessing over the customers is evident from top to
bottom.
➢ Avoid Bureaucracy: Amazon does not subscribe to the notion of
following the chain of command. Businesses can use either Type 1
or Type 2 . Type 1 are irreversible decisions, while Type 2 decisions
can be reversed. Amazon uses Type 2 to allow all stakeholders to
engage in decision-making without supervision.
➢ Calculated Risk-taking: Amazon values calculated risk-taking.
The founder believes that “failure and invention are inseparable
twins” and has nurtured a strong experimentation culture as a
process of attaining inventive and innovative ideas.
➢ Build the Right Culture: Amazon has built a breakneck-paced and
cost-conscious culture that is perfectly suited for its time-sensitive
Over time, all stakeholders gradually became instinctively aware of
the importance of timely and cost-effective operations.
➢ Shared Economy: Instead of developing your own e-commerce
website, you can use Amazon’s platform as a service (PaaS).
Amazon’s shared economy philosophy has enabled millions of
people around the world to set up virtual stores.
➢ Respect to All: From hiring for diversity to global presence,
Amazon emphasizes the value of treating every person with respect
by offering everyone equal opportunity to pursue their dreams and
aspiration.
➢ Never Settle: Even though delivering millions of packages
worldwide is impressive, all that does not matter if even 1% of the
packages were late or undelivered. Amazon will never settle for 99%
and is not satisfied until it is 100%.
➢ Own It: All stakeholders are owners.
Doctrine:
We want to make money when people use our devices, not when they
buy our devices.
Said by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
3. What are the differences between the push and pull strategies? How do you
choose the decoupling point for a push-pull strategy?
Push Pull
• When launching a new • Ensure long-term business
business or website without growth
a reputation • Maintain dominance in a
• When releasing new specific niche or industry
products • Build a return customer base
• During holidays, or seasonal or improve loyalty
events • To promote brand
• For sales and temporary recognition with customer
promotional campaigns engagement and visibility
• When expanding to a new • Increase social media traffic
niche as well as social media
• To generate cash-flow or sharing
sales quickly • Grow traffic to their site
• To help clear out product across organic, referral, and
stock before the end of a social segments
season • Improve sales and revenue
• To help promote brand affordably, without an
recognition when competing expensive ad budget
against a dominant • Engage with customers
competitor before they know what they
• Just in general, when trying want, at the top of their
to subsidize a multi-channel shopping funnel
strategy
Customer Order Decoupling Point is a Term describing the process or node

in the supply chain network where the activities are no longer driven by
individual orders. Managing Customer Order Decoupling Points is a Best
Practice.
Understanding the Customer Order Decoupling Point of a supply chain is

important for Supply Chain Management processes. The behavior of
processes upstream and downstream of the Customer Order Decoupling
Point is quite different:
➢ Upstream processes are driven by forecast based planning

information (blue in the diagram), Materials are pushed
downstream. Optimization is realized by balancing inventory and
capacity.
➢ Downstream processes are driven by actual customer orders (green
in the diagram). Materials are pulled by the order. Optimization is
realized by balancing capacity and lead-times.
4. What are the differences between “order-winning” and “order-qualifying”

criteria?
Order qualifiers Order winners

Order qualifiers are necessary Order winners, however, are the
attributes that a product must ‘winning’ attributes that lead to
possess for it to be entered into customers buying a product.
competition.
5. What are core competencies? How would you identify the core
competencies of a company?
Core competencies:
Core competencies are the resources and capabilities that comprise the
strategic advantages of a business. A modern management theory argues
that a business must define, cultivate, and exploit its core competencies in
order to succeed against the competition.
How to identify core competencies of a company:
➢ Superior quality control

➢ Standardization
➢ Buying power
➢ Customer service
➢ Forward-thinking
➢ Quality
➢ Reliability
➢ Innovation
➢ Flexibility
➢ Superior online presence
➢ Customer targeting
➢ Content delivery
➢ Product development
Dell, Inc.—Push or Pull?

Why does the direct sales model that worked so well in the past no longer work
these days?
➢ Customer Rapport
➢ Greater Inventory Options
➢ Greater Sales Potential
➢ Less Shipping Drama
➢ Benefits for Consumers
Because of these reasons direct sales model no longer work these days.
Does the simultaneous use of multiple sales/distribution channels (e.g., direct
online sales and sales through retail stores) create a channel conflict?
• Channel conflict occurs when manufacturers (brands) disintermediate their
channel partners, such as distributors, retailers, dealers, and sales
representatives, by selling their products directly to consumers through
general marketing methods and/or over the Internet.
• By selling simultaneously in multiple sales it creates channel conflict.
What are the potential problems associated with traditional retail sales?
1. Consumers are choosing multichannel buying experiences
2. Customers expect a seamless experience
3.To attract customer loyalty, retailers need an experience which stands out
4.A siloed marketing infrastructure makes it expensive and unwieldy to get
your message across.
5.So many technologies exist to drive marketing and sales, but they don’t
seem to work together
What managerial changes have to be made to regain market share and become a
global leader of the PC industry?
➢ Dell can do so by taking extra steps to improve its customer service.
For example, it introduced a concierge service for customers in April
2013 that provided personalized and remote services for customers.
Instead of seeking ways to improve sales through retail channels,
Dell could enhance its direct sales model by using social media.
➢ Dell is renowned for its direct sales model that provides lots of
customizability. Taking advantage of this strength, it can delve
deeper into this niche by providing customers with more
customizable options online.
➢ Dell can strive to protect its domestic niches and defend against its
competitors’ global advantage. By responding to local needs, Dell
can reshape its personal computers to suit the consumers’ taste.
➢ To offset competitors’ advantage, Dell can employ defensive
strategies such as lobbying for changes and assistance. In 2007, Dell
lobbied for the Indian government to reduce its PC tax. Finally, it
can also go into mergers or joint ventures with other global MNEs.
For example, it entered into a partnership with one of its competitors,
EMC, that led to sales of more than a billion dollars’ worth of
midrange and entry-level storage products.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
➢ Improve its customer service.
➢ Update and adapt to the present trend.
➢ Take care of domestic customers.
➢ Improve and update the model specifications.
➢ Proper supply chain to reach each and every customers.

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Assignment SCM

1. Supply chain thinking tied to strategy:

➢ Supply chain thinking comes under functional level strategy.

Customer Order Decoupling Point is a Term describing the process or node

Understanding the Customer Order Decoupling Point of a supply chain is

➢ Upstream processes are driven by forecast based planning

4. What are the differences between “order-winning” and “order-qualifying”

Order qualifiers Order winners

How to identify core competencies of a company:

➢ Superior quality control

Dell, Inc.—Push or Pull?

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