Managing the Value Chain

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Importance of learning culture in organisational development

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Introduction

In the globalized era when most of the business organizations are involved in different business activities it has become inevitable for the firms independently perform all the functions . Most of the companies do not operate their supply chain and rely on other firms to perform the multi-faceted tasks . The successful and efficient combination of the operations of these firms provides the company with the competitive edge in the market (Cook , DeBree , and Feroleto

, 2001 . Lummus and Vokurka (1999 ) points out towards the need for the managers to understand the performance of all the stake holding firms in the supply chain According to (Pohlen , 2003 , this insight in the performance of each firm will enable the managers to develop measures in to fulfil the demands of the customers . The main task of the supply chain management is to develop a strategy which can cater the need of the customers and is aligned with the company objectives (Pohlen , 2003

In this lieu it is important for the mangers to keep on measuring the performance of different parts of supply chain (Deloitte , 1999 . It has been a proven fact that the improvement in the company 's performance cannot be undertaken with out improving the performance of its suppliers (Lummus , Vokurka , and Alber , 1999 . The planning and information taking activities can be easily performed by the operations managers and senior executives it they have an up to date information regarding the performance of different supply chain firm and stake holders and the resources available to the firm

Authors (La Londe and Masters 1994 Lambert , Stock , and Ellram 1998 Mentzer et al . 2001 ) regard a supply chain as a set of firms involved in the upstream and downstream flows of products , services , information and /or finances . Mentzer et al (2001 ,

. 4 ) described a supply chain as "a set of three or more organizations directly linked by one or more of the upstream and downstream flows of products , services , finances and information from a source to a customer " Thus , the nature of a supply chain is comprehensive so that membership is not limited to a supplier , a manufacturer , and a distributor , but open to any firm that performs various flow-related services (Mentzer et al . 2001

The term `Value Chain ' was used by Michael Porter in his book "Competitive Advantage : Creating and

Sustaining superior Performance (1985 . The value chain analysis describes the activities the organization

performs and links them to the organizations competitive position

Value chain analysis describes the activities within and around an organization , and relates them to an

analysis of the competitive strength of the organization . Therefore , it evaluates which value each particular

activity adds to the organizations products or services . This idea was built upon the insight that

an organization is more than a random compilation of machinery equipment , people and money . Only

if these things are arranged into systems and systematic activates it will become...