This essay discusses the effectiveness of the supply chain process of Amazon and the extent to which it is creating value for them. Key issues such as sourcing from China and lack of flexibility are identified, and recommended steps are discussed.
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Running head: SUPPLY CHAIN PROCESS Supply chain process Name of the student Name of the university Author note
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1SUPPLY CHAIN PROCESS Introduction In the current business scenario, effectiveness of the supply chain process determines the extent to which the business entities will be able to stay competitive in the business. This is due to the reason that competitive and flexible supply chain management will help the business entities in coping up with the rapid change in the market and offer the maximum value proposition to the customers (Yu et al. 2016). Conveniences of the customers are also being determined by the effective process of supply chain management due to the reason that time consumption between the distance of production and consumption can be reduced with the help of supply chain process. Amazon is the largest e-commerce retailer in the world with their global presence and huge array of products and services being offered. Thus, they are also having the requirement for proper supply chain process to reduce the time in sourcing the goods and getting it delivered to the customers (Ellram and Cooper 2014). This essay will discuss about the effectiveness of the supply chain process of Amazon and the extent to which it is creating value for them. In addition, the key issues will also be identified and based on these issues, recommended steps are discussed. Supply chain Supply chain process of Amazon is being managed by both in-house and outsourced partners including the logistic partners. Amazon also maintains its own warehouses across the world and these warehouses are located in metropolitan cities with well connectivity. This is helping them to reduce the geographical distances between the different regions and less time incurred in transportation process (Carter, Kosmol and Kaufmann 2017). In addition, the major global logistic partners are also being involved in the supply chain process of Amazon and in
2SUPPLY CHAIN PROCESS some areas such as in India; the supply chain process is being outsourced to these external partners. This is ensuring the last mile connectivity for Amazon and further reach in the market. Moreover, with the help of the outsourced process, the cost and liabilities in the supply chain process complexities for Amazon are also getting regulated. The supply chain process of Amazon involves a few steps of which the first step is the inbound process of inventory followed stocking them in the warehouses based on the demand trend. In the next step, customers order the products and it is followed by the outbound logistics. The end of the supply chain process of Amazon is by customer services for dealing with the customer queries. In the sourcing process, products are being sourced majorly on the basis of market adaptability. This is due to the reason that preferences for the products in different regions are different and based on that, goods are sourced. Supply chain management In the recent time, Amazon also ventured in the online streaming services, which are morepronetochangesinthepreferencepatternofthecustomers.Thus,inthiscase, determination of the customer analytics is getting important in suggesting the options for the customers. Moreover, customer analytics are being used by Amazon in sourcing of the goods. This is due to the fact that based on the customer analytics and big data, the preference pattern of the customers can be identified and accordingly the goods are being stocked (Sanders 2014). Thus, it is helping Amazon to have the round the clock availability of the products to be bought by the customers from a certain regions. This is also helping them in reducing the waiting period of the customers due to the availability of the products. Thus, it can be concluded that big data and customer analytics are helping Amazon in enhancing the efficiency of the entire supply chain process (Leveling, Edelbrock and Otto 2014).
3SUPPLY CHAIN PROCESS Issues One of the major issues for Amazon is the sourcing of mobile phones majorly from China. It is identified that majority of the mobile phone brands available in Amazon are from China and they are imported by Amazon in delivering to the customers from different countries. However, the recent trade dispute between the United States and China is affecting their supply chain process due to the fact that tax imposition on the imports from China is increasing the cost for Amazon in their sourcing process (Ittmann 2015). However, in terms of sourcing of majority of the electronic gadgets, Chinese companies constitute the major part. Hence, it will create supply hindrances for Amazon in the long term. Another issue being identified is the lack of flexibility in the supply chain process of Amazon. This is due to the fact that goods already stored in the warehouses of Amazon are being bought from the OEMs and thus they should be sold irrespective of their demand in the market. In this case, changes in the preference pattern in the market will pose challenge for Amazon in clearing their stock. Recommendations It is recommended that sourcing against order concept should be promoted by Amazon. This will help them to reduce the stocked items in their warehouses and the risks related to the unsold stocks will be reduced. Moreover, with the help of the sourcing against order concept, flexibility of Amazon will get increased in meeting the changing trend in the market (Chopra and Sodhi 2014). In addition, it is also being recommended that diversity should be maintained in terms of OEMs in order to reduce the dependency from the Chinese vendors. This will help Amazon to also bypass the trade dispute between the United States and China. Conclusion
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4SUPPLY CHAIN PROCESS Thus, it can be concluded that the supply chain process of Amazon is complex and extensive considering their global operations. However, the supply chain process is effective enough in enabling Amazon to deliver the products at minimal time to the customers. However, on the other hand, a few limitations are also being discussed in this essay in regards to their supply chain process. These issues will have long term impact on the business viability of Amazon and will also affect their global operation. On the basis of the identified issues, a few recommended steps are being identified and discussed in this essay.
5SUPPLY CHAIN PROCESS Reference Carter, C.R., Kosmol, T. and Kaufmann, L., 2017. Toward a supply chain practice view.Journal of Supply Chain Management,53(1), pp.114-122. Chopra, S. and Sodhi, M., 2014. Reducing the risk of supply chain disruptions.MIT Sloan management review,55(3), pp.72-80. Ellram, L.M. and Cooper, M.C., 2014. Supply chain management: It's all about the journey, not the destination.Journal of Supply Chain Management,50(1), pp.8-20. Ittmann,H.W.,2015.Theimpactofbigdataandbusinessanalyticsonsupplychain management.Journal of Transport and Supply Chain Management,9(1), pp.1-9. Leveling, J., Edelbrock, M. and Otto, B., 2014, December. Big data analytics for supply chain management.In2014IEEEInternationalConferenceonIndustrialEngineeringand Engineering Management(pp. 918-922). IEEE. Sanders, N.R., 2014.Big data driven supply chain management: A framework for implementing analytics and turning information into intelligence. Pearson Education. Yu, Y., Wang, X., Zhong, R.Y. and Huang, G.Q., 2016. E-commerce logistics in supply chain management: Practice perspective. Procedia Cirp, 52, pp.179-185.
6SUPPLY CHAIN PROCESS Appendix Fig: 1 (Supply chain process of Amazon)
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