Strategic Supply Chain Management for Converse

Running head: STRATEGIC SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Strategic Supply Chain Management
[Converse]
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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STRATEGIC SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Abstract
The main purpose of this report is to analyze the strategic supply chain management plans of
Converse and recommend a few points of suggestions to the company. The company as
mentioned in the presentation file currently faces a range of supply chain challenges. These are
ineffective demand forecast, ineffective cost and quality management of inventories and delivery
speed to market. These issues are real concerns for Converse considering that it is a part of
Nike’s business, which itself enjoys a globally popular supply chain. Hence, an ineffective
supply chain at Converse may also result in reputational damage to Nike. These issues are
problematic also because Converse might not be able to hold the competitive advantage it has
and nurtured for so many years being in operations. Hence, the strategic supply chain
management is being analyzed from relevant scholarly articles. These articles delivered a few
important tools and techniques as repairing options to the damages being done so far. The
findings of these articles are being compared with the current practices and the future supply
chain strategies at Converse. By conducting comparison as such the report does, it helps to
identify the best supply chain strategy to sort out its current issues. The paper recommends
‘Lean’ over ‘Agile’ and so recommends making a few amendments to the proposed supply chain
model at Converse.

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STRATEGIC SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Objectives of this assignment................................................................................................3
1.2 Rationale behind selecting the company...............................................................................3
1.3 The brief structure..................................................................................................................3
2. Appropriate focus on few of highlighted areas in the presentation.............................................3
2.1 Strategies................................................................................................................................4
2.2 Current directions, decisions and possible challenges...........................................................4
3. Extensive appropriate theoretical and literature underpinning the case study.............................7
3.1 Identification of relevant theories..........................................................................................7
4. Critical evaluation and in-depth analysis to promote argumentative discussion.......................10
4.1 Theory vs. practice...............................................................................................................11
4.2 Pros vs. cons........................................................................................................................13
4.3 Contributions vs. limitations................................................................................................14
4.4 Current vs. proposed model (s)............................................................................................14
5. Conclusion and Recommendations............................................................................................14
Recommendations......................................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................16

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STRATEGIC SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
1. Introduction
1.1 Objectives of this assignment
Following are the main objectives of doing this assignment:
 Evaluating the full set of supply chain management at Converse while emphasizing on
speed to deliver products to market
 Recommending strategies for improvement to help company be able to dominate the
market
1.2 Rationale behind selecting the company
Converse represents the fashion industry, which is getting disrupted from range of
technological innovation such as AIs, digital data and so on. In addition, the disruption can affect
one of the best supply chain management companies, Nike Inc., which is also the parent
company of Converse.
1.3 The brief structure
The report first and foremost tries to identify three strategies to produce the challenges
these are facing currently. Afterwards, it underpins the challenges being identified from relevant
and peer reviewed articles. The findings of this section are then being applied practically to the
case study company. It is followed by proposing new strategic planning or models. Then after,
the recommended strategies or models are being critically analyzed to promote an argumentative
discussion. The report ends with concluding remarks, which summarizes the entire report and
establishes the practical implications of the recommended factors to the case study company.
2. Appropriate focus on few of highlighted areas in the presentation