Competitive Advantage Memo

MEMORANDUM

TO : RIORDAN MANUFACTURING PRESIDENT

FROM : CONSULTANT

SUBJECT : COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE THROUGH SUPPLY CHAIN

Impact of Supply Chain to Competitive Advantage

Long (2003 , p43 ) defines supply chain as `a systems of entities that supply the next one . He further describes that said entities can possibly be independent firms , or the supply chain can be the firm . Definitely the credit goes to the supply chain management solutions which have enabled the managers to take a complete 360 - degrees view at the entire business activity , other than just looking at the end

results , which have in turn given business with the needed competitive advantage to maintain business leadership . Proper management of the supply chain contributes to competitive advantage through helping the managers to forecast product distribution , manufacturing needs apart from optimizing the sales circulation by evaluating the key inventory measures . Moreover , the client benefits from enhanced methodical suppleness and improved performance for generating transportation and presentation of supply chain analytics and related reports . It is beyond doubt , that the ability to achieve a competitive advantage is dependent on the amount of synchronization and teamwork that any organization can show within its supply chain

Suggestions for Supply Chain Improvement

For the Riordan Manufacturing firm , the three following suggestions are deemed appropriate (1 ) Align supply goals with operational goals (2 Improve the management of suppliers and the supplier base and (3 Tailor sourcing strategies depending on the risk and value to enterprise operations . These suggestions can be met by leveraging the significant progress that the firm has already made in managing supply chains around aggregate commodities

WORK CITED

Long , D (2003 . International Logistics : Global Supply Chain Management . Norwell , Massachusetts : Kluwer Academic Publishers

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