Sustainability in Supply Chain Management

The provided assignment focuses on the topic of sustainability in supply chain management. It involves a literature review of various studies and research articles related to sustainable supply chain management, supply chain risk management, and sustainability-related risks. The assignment aims to understand the importance of sustainability in supply chain management and how it can be achieved through effective risk management practices. It also covers the evolution of sustainability in supply chain management, highlighting its significance in modern business practices. The assignment provides a comprehensive overview of the topic, making it an excellent resource for students and researchers looking to delve into sustainable supply chain management.

Global Supply
Chain
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1. Critical analysis of at key contemporary problems and challenges of Waitrose operating a
global supply chain and logistic network. .................................................................................1
2. Reflecting on current global Supply Chain Management best theories and practice, you are
required to critically analyse and discuss how your chosen organisation manages its supply
chain within the context of the challenges it is facing................................................................5
3. Critically assess the operational deployment of supply chain strategy for organisation to
sustain and enhance its competitive advantage. .........................................................................7
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................9
Compare and reflect on the different ranges of relationships, both internally and externally
with suppliers, partners and outsource provider, across the whole section of global supply
chain logistics management” ......................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Global supply chain management refers to distribution of services and goods by a trans-
national companies global network through which profit can be maximised and waste can be
minimised. In this focus is on trans-national organisations (Beske and Seuring, 2014). It
comprises of planning with respect to ways in which supply chain will work as a co-ordinated
system with an aim to generate optimal level of customer services by offering reasonable cost. In
this Waitrose is taken into consideration, it is a British chain of supermarkets which is
headquartered in Bracknell, Berkshire, United Kingdom. It is largest employee owned retailer in
Britain and has around 353 shops with nearby 52590 employees within UK. They render their
customers with supermarket online shopping and have revenue around £5,400.4 million. This
report comprises of portfolio which includes contemporary troubles and situations in global
supply and logistic network. Furthermore, it also include theories which can be used within
global supply chain management. Apart from this, competitive advantage of organisation is
accessed in relation to data flow, resource scheduling, inventory and transportation. At last,
reflection is given on range of relationship with internal and external suppliers, providers and
partners.
TASK 1
1. Critical analysis of at key contemporary problems and challenges of Waitrose operating a
global supply chain and logistic network.
Supply chain management is a formative network of numerous activities in which buying
of raw material is conducted in order to transform them in usable products and then deliver that

same to customers with the help of distribution systems. As Waitrose is a British supermarket
chain enagage in the process of food retail division supply chain managers of Waitrose evaluate
numerous challenges which hamper company performance( Busse, Meinlschmidt and Foerstl,
2017). Thus, they have adopted efficient and effective supply chain methods to cope up with
those challenges in best effective way. In addition with this company have adopted Advanced
planning and scheduling systems ( APS) in order to utilize their real-time demand forecasting
and formulate strategies to conduct planning for different type of unforeseen circumstances.
Business Process Improvement:
It is important for an organisation to effectively evaluate their business process and
determine consumer role. This will further aid them to analyse customer experience value which
will benefit them to improve their business procedure. Business process improvement acts as an
one of the major factor which acts as an challenge. In context with Waitrose, this challenge will
restrain them to provide their products and services at global scale in best effective manner
which lead them towards decrease in their performance at global market. In in order to cope with
this challenge company is required to improve their business process. For this Waitrose have

adopted customer-focused approach in order to develop their metrics to keep of continuously
tracking their service performance. Along with this, company have adopted a method of
blueprinting exercise which will help them to take a proper insight of their action and identify
failure and gain more opportunities for new service development (Ellram and Cooper, 2014).
Improved Customer Service:
Demand of consumers is continuously keeps on growing as per changing scenario which
is acts as an one of the strongest challenge. For this, Waitrose is required to broaden their
company portfolio to increase the ratio of commercially savvy and conscious buyers. Thus, in
order to satisfy their consumers with best services company is evaluating there day-to-day
services including transportation in order to provide their services and products to customers on
just-in-time. Along with this, supply chain managers of company have adopted effective
strategies and future-proof business models in order to realize range of value chain objectives in
best effective way.
Government Regulations:
It is not necessary for a company who deal in global level to get flexible governance in
which they can easily provide their services. This factor acts as an one of the most important
challenge that affect functioning of an organisation in many different ways. As Waitrose is a
large company operating their business functions in different countries at global scale they face
different types of governmental regulations and laws (Giannakis and Papadopoulos, 2016). Thus,
it is bit hard for company to implement all provided challenges by government of a nation.
Therefore, Waitrose supply chain managers hire skilled and potential legal expertises those who
posses efficient qualities and capabilities to deal with governmental measures in best effective
way in order to cope with this challenge and move towards better effectiveness.
Technology Strategy & Implementation:
This is one of the most affecting challenge thus, in order to compete with competitors at
global scale it is important for a company to continuously keeps on innovating their technology
strategy and implement new advanced technological measures on order to effectively fulfil and
meet with ever-changing demands of consumer needs and expectations. In context with this,
Waitrose which is offering their services in global market to effectively adopt innovative
technology and networking system in order to increase their profitability form different channels.
Therefore, in order to cope up with this challenges Waitrose have adopted supply chain

technology that include, optimization, planning, warehouse management and ERP to extent the
effectiveness of company supply chain process (Govindan and et.al., 2014).
Thus in order to effectively manage these concerns in best possible manner Waitrose is
required to have efficient labour force, expertise, capacity and IT system. All these measures will
effectively able to reduce their expenses and benefit them to meliorate their visibility into supply
chain. Along with this it will further aid Waitrose to effectively manage their supply chain while
achieving great sense of regulatory compliance. There are some certain measures with the help
of which company to operate their business operations in global supply chain and logistic
network.
Freight Billing:
In order to effective conduction of business operations in global market it is important for
a company to have well defined and secure billing system. Thus, in context with this, Waitrose
implemented advanced freight billing system and have fully equipped offshore team of
supervisory staff, trained billers and quality control personnel. All these individuals are
specifically trained for the purpose of LTL and parcel billing. In addition to this, remote freight
bill solution of Waitrose offer them a great benefits in which they can have various facilities
like, improved accuracy of bill entry process, increased client experience, proximate and long
term cost restraint, standardization which allow them to meet quality metrics and fully and semi-
automated programs in order to eliminate need for individual intervention (Ho and et. al., 2015).
Freight Rate Auditing:
In order to maintain a strong customer relationship it is important to a company to have a
strong healthy relationship with their customers. For this is required for Waitrose to have
accuracy on their rates. Thus, Freight solutions will effectively help company to conduct proper
examine and verify and adjust their carrier freight bills for appropriate accuracy. This model will
leverage flexibility, scalability, expertise and system compatibility. Therefore, in order to take
proper advantage of this method company is required to combine this method with their trained
staff extensive service capabilities. Thus, for this by equipping their human resource with
knowledge and resources Waitrose can easily able to tackle challenges.
POD Processing:
POD ( Proof of Delivery) method will effectively aid Waitrose to check delivery status of
their product directly form any kind of web browser. This will help company to strengthen their

customer-building process. As by implementing this technique organisation can able to provide
intensive services to their customer to access to some facilities that include, Streamline
administrative operations, POD images online that are downloadable and have Up-to-Dates
updates on their shipments (Hofmann and et.al., 2014).
Digital Solutions:
It is important of a company despite of their size or scale to have strong online presence
in order to reach out to maximum customers. In context with Waitrose, company keeps on
regularly updating their sites in order to keep up with newly advanced digital age. This will help
them to launch and promote their product on global market in best effective way. Thus, in order
to update their site according to digital age company hired experienced IT professionals team
along with, Programming, web and application development. IT team of Waitrose are highly
skilled programmers who posses capabilities in writing programs in various different
programming languages that include, iOS, Android, Ruby on Rails and PHP( Mangan,Lalwani
and Lalwani, 2016).
2. Reflecting on current global Supply Chain Management best theories and practice, you are
required to critically analyse and discuss how your chosen organisation manages its supply
chain within the context of the challenges it is facing
For every business organisation it is very much important to follow a proper set of chain
which will help them in manufacturing their products and services along with delivering it to end
customers and services of it. For achieving these tasks and activities in proper manner, it is very
much important for an organisation to perform their operations in appropriate manner and in
proper format. Performing each and every task in proper manner and according to their steps,
organisation can able to achieve their goals and objectives in effective and efficient manner.
Waitrose is one of the biggest super market of UK, which use to provide their products and
services in different part of nation. Therefore for them, it is very much important for to apply
proper supply chain management theory in their operations, so that they can make proper
solutions for the challenges faced by them (Pagell and Shevchenko, 2014). Their supply chain
starts from manufacturing and buying products which they use to offer their customers and ends
with service of those products. Therefore, application of an effective theory in that will
help them in improving their management of supply chain. Also they use to perform their
operations at global level, this also makes it very much essential for them to implement proper

practices in their operations, so that their performance can get improved. Also these will help
them in making solution for challenges which they are facing in functioning of different
operations. Beneath are some practices which Waitrose can implement in their global supply
chain management :-
Collaborative demand planning and replenishment : This is the practice of supply
chain management that can help an organisation like Waitrose in making proper coordination
between demands and process used by them. In this, Waitrose have to come together with their
manufacturers and also need to analyse the demands of their customers, so that they can produce
products which can fulfil the need of them. Also it help them in attaining the global chain
management path which is helpful for them and also help them in producing and providing
products which can fulfil the needs of customers in effective manner. This is done because it will
help them in adopting approaches which will help them in restocking, so that customers needs
and demands can get fulfilled. Also it will help Waitrose in finding the solution of the challenge
faced by them which is related to business process improvement (Rajeev and et.al., 2017). As
using this practice will lead them in making improvement in their manufacturing, and also help
them in enhancing their operations of stocking, so that they can produce products and services
which can fulfil the needs of their customers. Doing all this will help Waitrose in making
improvement to their operations and also help them in increasing the productivity of each and
every function organisation use to perform.
Collaborative production : This is a practice which an organisation can adopt, so that
they can make improvement in their production house, as this will help them in providing good
quality products at effective cost to their customers. Along with this, it will help organisation in
attaining high amount of profitability and also increase their revenue, so that they can attain their
goals and objectives and also can grow and develop their business in future. In this practice,
Waitrose have to make proper collaboration with their suppliers in a manner which will help
them in managing supply of raw materials and production from that raw material. As this all will
help them in reducing the size of stock which they have in their supply chain and increase the
responsiveness of them (Schaltegger and Burritt,2014). This all will also help them in making
proper improvement to their performance, so that they can attaining high profitability and also
increases the revenue generated by them. Along with this, it will help Waitrose in provide their
products and services to ample number of customers, so that huge number of people can attain

the benefits of them. Also it will help them in reducing the problems which they use to face
related to customer services and also to government regulations. As, using this practice will help
them in provide best quality products and services to ample number of customers, by which
customer service get improved and also use to perform their operations in ethical manner by
which regulations of government get followed.
Collaborative logistic planning : This is a practice which help an organisation in
making proper coordination between transportation and warehousing of the products which they
use to produce. In this, Waitrose have to take care they must use proper and appropriate
transportation service, so that they can send their products to warehouse from production house
in effective manner and with less wear and tear. This also help them in providing their products
to their customers in very less time and in best quality. Along with this, it help them in finding
solution for challenge which they use face i.e. technology strategy & implementation. As
technologies used in different nations are not same, and for transportation also technologies use
to play a vital role (Stadtler, 2015). Therefore, adopting this practice and effective transportation,
Waitrose have analyse technologies which are very much popular in respective nation.
3. Critically assess the operational deployment of supply chain strategy for organisation to
sustain and enhance its competitive advantage.
Supply Chain Strategy is an iterative process that evaluates the cost benefits trade off's of
the operational components . Organisations should have effective effective supply chain strategy
so as to manage flow of goods and services in a effective manner so as to gain a competitive
advantage in the market place. It consist of the broad range of the activities required to plan,
control and ensures the products flow from acquiring raw materials and production to the
distribution to the final consumers (Touboulic and Walker, 2015). As Wait rose is a chain of
British Supermarkets which forms the food retail division, under such organisation it is necessary
to have a effective supply chain strategy to make the products easily available in the market and
to have interrupted supply of production. Respective organisation should manage all the
activities related to supply chain such as transportation, inventory, resource scheduling and data
flow activities. These are discussed below-
 Transportation- Transportation refers to the movement of products from one location to
another as its way fro beginning of a supply chain activities. As the supply chain
management activities mainly focuses on purchasing, manufacturing and transporting the

products to the ultimate consumers. Its includes decision about which distribution
network. Transportation to use for both the input materials and the finished products.
Respective organisation should practice cost efficient Logistics Management so as to
reduce costs and increase customer service. In context to the Wait rose organisation is a
chain of super markets which deals in food, drinks and recipes, it should practice and
adopt a suitable transportation network to make the products easily accessible to the
customers and to gain the competitive advantage. Retailer should choose the the fast and
efficient transportation system to reduce the inventory and the warehousing cots, hence
speeding the delivery to the end customers. Hence managers of the respective
organisation should ensure that the firms transportation strategy should support its
competitive strategy. Moreover when the managers of the respective organisation doesn't
uses effective transportation to supply its goods, it results in overall reduction of the
profit margins as well as under supplied sales channels can also have a negative impact
on the image of the company (Turker and Altuntas, 2014).
 Inventory- Inventory is the goods or the materials that the business holds for the ultimate
goal of resale. Main function of inventory is to avoid interrupted business operations with
the on going supply of materials. The main role that the inventory plays in supply chain is
of maintaining the balance between the demand and supply. Respective organisation
should carefully analyse the demand of the products in the market so as to maintain a
sufficient level of inventory. Moreover respective retail industry should use Point of sale
data for perpetual inventory management in the retail industry. This will allow the retailer
to analyse which items are depleted from inventory and will assist in reordering of
products and services. This will help the retailers in maintaining a sufficient level of
inventory and assist in the sale of products and services in a effective manner so as to
gain a competitive advantage in the market place and to enhance the profit margins.
Shortage of inventory will allow disrupted flow of goods to the final consumer and will
negatively impacts the impacts the image of the company.
 Resource Scheduling- It refers to the set of actions and methodology used by the
organisations to efficiently assign resources to different tasks, jobs and the projects to
execute them in a proper manner. Proper scheduling of activities and the proper
allocation of resources helps the respective organisation to conduct business activities in

a proper manner. When the Wait rose assigns tasks and allocate resources effectively it
leads to effective production and supply of products properly in the market place.
Managing resources to produce effective on time delivery products at a minimum cost
will enhance the image of the respective organisation and will target large customers.
Thus proper scheduling of the resources in the Wait rose organisation will aid an
competitive advantage by managing all its supply chain activities and will allow the
organisation to sustain in the market for a longer time period.
 Data Flow activities- Under the supply chain management activities goods flow from a
complex series of plants, intermediaries, warehouses and distribution centre, under such
situation data flow diagram is developed to ensure that goods properly flow from one
centre to another. Respective organisation should properly collect information from all
such centres and manage the work accordingly. Data flow supply chain management is a
fully features ERP solution designed for the manufacturing and the distribution
companies (Wang and Cullinane, 2015). Proper data flow activities under the supply
chain of the respective organisation ensures faster response times, leading to increase
benefits in customer satisfaction and retention. It also lowers operational costs, enabling
reduction in the prices of the goods which is passed on to the customers. Thereby it helps
the Wait rose organisation towards improvement in the supply chain network and
eliminate the wasteful processes that increases the cost without increasing the value of
the final product.
Moreover with the operational deployment of all such activities in a effective manner
allow the respective organisation to sustain in the market and enhance its competitive advantage
and leads to effective movement of products to the final consumers.
TASK 2
Compare and reflect on the different ranges of relationships, both internally and externally with
suppliers, partners and outsource provider, across the whole section of global supply chain
logistics management”
Supply Chain Management activities by its nature depends on the relationship and the
connections. There are some important relationship that plays an important role in achieving the
supply chain success. There are strategic relationships, tactical relationships and internal and

external relationships among the various members of the supply chain community. As being the
manager within the respective organisation I should maintain effective relations between the
customers and the suppliers so as function the business activities in a proper manner. Being a
manager I should effectively analyse the requirement, needs of the customers and thereby
should provide products according to the demands of the customers. By properly providing
products according to the demands of the customers it assist the organisation in maintaining a
effective relation and thereby effectively aid an competitive advantage in the market place.
Hence it is important for the organisations to maintain a high trust and high communicative
relationship between suppliers. As suppliers play an vital role in the supply chain management
activities by providing the raw materials as well as the finished products. Proper relationships
among the suppliers helps the organisation to supply goods and services and avoid disrupted
flow of production. It creates a positive buyer- supplier relationship in which respective retail
organisation can properly assess the demand of the customers and thereby providing information
to the supplier to provide products according to the demand in the market place.
Moreover before making the external relationships, being an manager within the
respective organisation, its my responsibility to build good internal relationship such as with the
employees within the respective organisation. Company should analyse the issues or the
problems of the employees when they are facing off while conducting business operations in
supply chain. I should jointly plan the business activities as well as jointly solves their problems.
It will create a harmonious environment at the work place and allow the employees to function
properly. It is very necessary to build effective relation within the work place so as to conduct all
the supply chain activities in a proper manner. Hence open and honest communications are vital
forms of the outset and therefore multilevel working relationship throughout the organisation
helps in effectively formulation of strategy and helps in the management of supply chain
business activities (Wieland, Handfield andDurach, 2016).
Hence in this era of competition among the supply chains, success greatly depends on
management's ability to integrate the company's network of business relationships. Under the
supply chain management activities there should be a proper linkage in the internal and the
external relationships in order to supply goods to the final consumer according to their demands.
While ineffective relationship between the internal and the external supply chain will cause the
organisations many problems and would lead to reduction in the profits.

Supply Chain management activities are concerned with effective collaborations between
the internal and the external employees, suppliers, customers and the partners. Therefore being
an manager internally, supply chain activities should effectively collaborate across all the
relevant functions on building and managing relationships and therefore should involve all the
key people across business functions will definitely helps to maximise organisational
performance and therefore would reduce the conflicts and maintains harmony at the work place.
This would led to effective functioning of the supply chain activities from production to
distribution of goods to the final consumers.
Therefore for effectively managing all the activities within the supply chain it is
necessary to make vertical relationships with the customers, suppliers and logistic providers by
sharing the information. This effective collaboration helps to avoid duplicated process and
shortage of inventories so that efficiencies can be achieved. Hence it is necessary for the
respective organisation to make effective relations throughout the global supply chain so as to
make the organisation competitive and sustainable in the market place. Therefore this is the
effective comparison between the internal and external individuals which are associated in the
supply chain management activities.
Therefore in order to compare the horizontal and vertical integration, horizontal
integration is all about the employees working within the organisation and vertical integration
includes the customers, suppliers and the outsource providers, hence being the manager it is my
responsibility to make a proper balance in the relationship to across the whole section of global
supply chain logistics management.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that global supply chain management assist
the organisations to effectively to distribute goods to the ultimate consumers. By properly
analysing the demand of the customers it assist the business towards effective supply of goods.
Moreover by doing operations activities in a proper manner and by choosing the right supply
chain strategy it assist the business to gain competitive advantage and remain sustainability in the
global environment. Hence issues and problems associated with the global chain should be
identified by the organisation and necessary practices should be adopted in order to overcome
such issues.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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