Question

Critical Thinking

The global marketplace has witnessed an increased pressure from customers and competitors in manufacturing as well as service sector (Basu, 2001; George, 2002). Due to the rapidly changing global marketplace only those companies will be able to survive that will deliver products of good quality at cheaper rate and to achieve their goal companies try to improve performance by focusing on cost cutting, increasing productivity levels, quality and guaranteeing deliveries in order to satisfy customers (Raouf, 1994).

Increased global competition leads the industry to increasing efficiency by means of economies of scale and internal specialization so as to meet market conditions in terms of flexibility, delivery performance and quality (Yamashina, 1995). The changes in the present competitive business environment are characterized by profound competition on the supply side and keen indecisive in customer requirements on the demand side. These changes have left their distinctive marks on the different aspect of the manufacturing organizations (Gomes et al., 2006). With this increasing global economy, cost effective manufacturing has become a requirement to remain competitive.

To meet all the challenges organizations try to introduce different manufacturing and supply techniques. Management of organizations devotes its efforts to reduce the manufacturing costs and to improve the quality of product. To achieve this goal, different manufacturing and supply techniques have been employed. The last quarter of the 20th century witnessed the adoption of world-class, lean and integrated manufacturing strategies that have drastically changed the way manufacturing firm’s leads to improvement of manufacturing performance (Fullerton and McWatters, 2002).

Consult chapter 7 of your text book or secondary available data on internet and answer the following questions.

Question:

1. Due to COVID 19 emergency do you think agile supply chain is the right concept in this kind of situation? Give reason with example.

ANSWER IN 1 PAGE

please provide the reference

Answer 1

This is a great question to understand the impact the COVID19 situation has had on supply chains across the world.

In an increasingly global marketplace, there is no 1 source nation/location for a particular raw material. For example, if you are a paper manufacturer, you might get your machinery from China, Pulp from Europe, Wood from Africa, and Chemicals from the U.S.A. As the supply chain has become more global, the world has shrunk into a smaller entity. With today's multi-modal transportation methods available, it is relatively easy to ship goods from one part of the country to another.

The COVID19 situation, however, has completely tilted the scales. This situation has exposed the cracks in many countries. The dependency on China has come out starkly. Since countries which are being increasingly affected by the virus are shutting down their borders, it becomes tricky to transport goods outside these countries.

This can put serious cracks on various manufacturing industries if contingencies are not in place. This is exactly where an agile supply chain will come in handy. If you have most of your sub-dealers/manufacturers in the vicinity, then it becomes much easier to source your raw materials. For instance, if you look at the automotive industry, if you have your steering wheel manufacturer, tyre manufacturer, steel supplier, all in the same country, then during the COVID19 scenario, it becomes easier to continue operations.

If you are dependent on a country outside your national borders, it becomes an issue as the Governments would prioritize the health of its citizens first, before allowing in any foreign goods. This carries an additional cost, effort, and time to sanitize and check these supplies.

This is the reason, important industries such as the pharmaceutical industry, medical equipments industry, and the chemicals industries should have a contingency where they have a quick-fix agile supply chain readily available which can quickly adjust to such global level disasters, to ensure business continuity.