Supply Chain Management and the Business Model of the 21St Century
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Technological University Dublin ARROW@TU Dublin Practitioner Journals National Institute for Transport and Logistics 2001-12-01 Supply Chain Management and the Business Model of the 21st Century Edward Sweeney Technological University Dublin, [email protected] Randall Faulkner Follow this and additional works at: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/nitloth Part of the Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons Recommended Citation Sweeney, E., Faulker, R.:Supply Chain Management and the Business Model of the 21st Century. Logistics Solutions, the Journal of the National Institute for Transport and Logistics, Vol. 4, No. 5, pp. 8-12, December 2001 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the National Institute for Transport and Logistics at ARROW@TU Dublin. It has been accepted for inclusion in Practitioner Journals by an authorized administrator of ARROW@TU Dublin. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License new challenges ’ ISSUE 5 2001 / 12 scm and the business LOGISTICS SOLUTIONS LOGISTICS ‘ model of the 21st century If Ireland is to truly become the logistics hub of Europe, we need to think about supply chain management in radically different ways, say EDWARD SWEENEY and RANDAL FAULKNER These changes require governments was driven by the need to supply BACKGROUND - to adopt new perspectives in relation products which consistently THE CHANGING in economic and industrial conformed to customer requirements development. From the point of view in terms of functionality and reliability. INTERNATIONAL of individual companies there is a need Whilst this is still of vital importance it ENVIRONMENT to adopt new strategic outlooks. These has become more of an order qualifier new approaches need to be informed Recent years have witnessed by the context in which firms operate - SCM IS significant changes in the global the changing, and increasingly business and economic environment. internationalised, business and ‘FUNDAMENTALLY The growth of trade blocs, particularly in economic environment. From a supply Europe, North America and Asia has chain management (SCM) perspective CONCERNED WITH resulted in an increasingly integrated these changes have brought with them world economy. Increased levels of many new challenges. This THE ENHANCEMENT inward investment, particularly "International Challenge" brings with it significant in the recent development of both opportunities and threats. The OF CUSTOMER the Irish economy,have accentuated this opportunities relate mainly to access trend. Reductions in the barriers to the to markets in rapidly developing new SERVICE movement of goods and services,capital economies. The threats derive mainly than an order winner in most markets. and people have all contributed to this from competition from new In other words, product quality has fundamental shift. The evolving role of geographical sources. The former become a "given" and, as a result, the the World Trade Organisation, currently requires organisations to build other success factors’ have become with over 140 member countries and international logistical and supply more important. In relation to price, judicial powers to resolve trade disputes, chain capability. The latter requires markets have generally become more is central to these structural changes in organisations to adopt a strategic view competitive with market dynamics, the world economic order. of the role of SCM in order to minimise based on supply and demand, All of these changes have resulted in the impact of the potential threat. determining pricing levels. The room substantial shifts in competitiveness, for manoeuvre in this area is therefore particularly in manufacturing industry.In CUSTOMER SERVICE limited for many companies. The quest developed countries service industries, for price leadership and profitability rather than manufacturing, have AS A KEY ORDER improvement is based on the become ever more important in terms of identification and minimisation of non- economic growth and employment. WINNING CRITERION value adding activities in operations. In Developing countries have increased The traditional view of business this new environment customer their industrial capability and have, in competitiveness has been based on service excellence has become the key many sectors and geographical regions, winning market share based on order winning criterion for more and gained a significant foothold in major product quality, price and customer more companies. market segments. This, combined with service. In the 1970s and 80s product SCM is fundamentally concerned with the outsourcing of many heavily labour quality was regarded in many markets the enhancement of customer service. intensive activities to lower cost as the critical success factor. This Indeed, an understanding of customer locations, has had a major impact on recognition resulted in the adoption of service level requirements in targeted global economic structures and trade quality management initiatives by market segments sets the specification patterns. companies in a range of sectors. This for the supply chain. With customer new challenges ’ Internal network arrangements UTIONS ISSUE 5 2001 / 13 OGISTICS SOL L ‘ companies to think about their businesses in a fundamental way. Fundamental strategic questions about a company's markets, products and organisations need to be asked and answered in an objective manner. Radical redesign requires companies to External network arrangements address the root causes of their problems and to design organisational Figure 1:The Organisational Shape of the Future structures which reflect customer value rather than structures which are primarily focussed on internal operating or administrative efficiency. service excellence playing such an have become more complex as a direct The result is organisations which important role in the achievement of result of their internationalisation. organise around business processes competitive advantage, it is no surprise rather than around traditional that SCM has become increasingly VALUE AND BUSINESS functions. These processes often central to corporate strategy. The contain skills and resources which overall objectives of SCM are to PROCESSES traditionally resided in functional enhance customer service and to The concept of value has long been departments. In addition, key skills and optimise total supply chain costs and an important one in SCM. In essence, a resources and often shared between investments. The importance of the product or service is of value to a business processes in internal network latter has already been discussed; the customer if that customer is prepared arrangements. External customers and latter has the potential to eliminate to pay for it. A key element of SCM is suppliers often form part of these waste, thereby enhancing cost concerned with the identification of processes in external network competitiveness and profitability. For non-value adding activities or NVAs. An arrangements. The latter is particularly these and other reasons, SCM has NVA is an activity which adds cost (or true of companies who have moved become a key strategic issue in most time) to a supply chain without towards increasingly virtual supply world class companies - those necessarily adding value from a chains as a result of key supply chain companies which compete effectively customer perspective. The activities being outsourced. Figure 1 in genuinely competitive international identification of these activities is an shows a representation of the markets over a sustained period of important dimension of SCM. In organisational shape of the future time. The ability of companies to think addition, organisational structures are based on internal and external network about SCM strategically, and to put increasingly being designed based on arrangements with shared services. appropriate supply chain capability the concept of value. A business The definition of BPR refers to into place in advance of the need in a process is a collection of activities dramatic improvements in pro-active manner, has become which add value. One approach to the performance. This is a reflection of the recognised as an increasingly achievement of significant fact that sustaining competitiveness important determinant of business improvements in organisations and for many companies in the new success. Companies who fail to do this supply chains is based on the radical globalised environment means step tend to deal with logistical and supply re-appraisal and re-design of these change for many companies if they are chain issues in a very reactive way, processes - this is known as business to become genuinely world class, as often spending inordinate amounts if process re-engineering (BPR). they increasingly need to, in their time "fire-fighting" in their factories, BPR is "the fundamental rethinking chosen markets. warehouses and transport operations. and radical redesign of business SCM is not the only factor which processes to achieve dramatic WHAT ARE THE KEY determines the competitiveness of improvements in critical, businesses but it has become more contemporary measures of business PROCESSES? important. The effective management performance". There are a number of There is no simple answer to this key of the supply chain has arguably also important words and phrases in this question. However,