Procurement and Supply Chain Management: Article Review and Analysis

This report critically reviews a newspaper article published in the Australian Manufacturing Newspaper, focusing on Boral's decision to sell its US concrete and quarries business. The report analyzes the article's strengths, such as its overview of the company's strategies and business expansion, and its weaknesses, including the lack of detailed information on supply chain management, logistics, and manufacturing technologies. The reviewer argues that the article should have provided a more comprehensive analysis of the company's supply chain procedures, export/import strategies, and the impact of the sale on its overall business operations. The report highlights the importance of objectivity, detailed reporting, and a more in-depth exploration of supply chain aspects in future articles. The student provides a critical assessment of the article's content, structure, and the depth of its analysis, concluding with suggestions for improvement in future publications.

Running head: PROCUREMENT AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Procurement and Supply Chain Management
Name of the University:
Name of the Student:
Author Note:

1PROCUREMENT AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
To,
The editor
The Australian Manufacturing Newspaper
Date-13/08/2018
Subject: critical review of the newspaper article.
Dear Sir,
This is to bring to your kind notice that I was reading the article on, “Boral to sell its
US concrete and Quarries business” last day when I explored so many faults in the article.
In my view an article should not only state the events but it should also narrate the
source of the event and all other aspects related to the event. The article on Boral explores
one single angle of the topic. It states the event when Boral agreed a deal of 127 million in
order to sell the concrete and business in Denver, Colorado to Brannan Sand and Gravel
Company. Few stones were left unturned in this. The article includes the strategy that has
been applied by Boral. It lacks the consequences that might arise due to this action. The
article ends at an abrupt point. It does not have an organized and structured ending. It is
extremely subjective in style and it defies the usual format and style of writing the article.
There is a lack of creative language. It makes the article boring and the readers might not find
any interest in reading this article. It lacks the complete information related to the company.
These can be considered as the drawbacks of the article. The editor should have looked for
more information related to the event so that the article would not seem to be an abrupt one.
Moreover, the topic has least information about the supply chain and manufacturing. The
article has been published under the name, Australian manufacturing but it lacks ample
amount of information regarding it.

2PROCUREMENT AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
The main argument in the article is the event of Boral selling the US concrete it has
along with the Quarries business. The strategy of the company has been the key point in the
article. The publication name of the article is in contrast to the key points that have been
mentioned in the article. It does not consist anything related to the Australian manufacturing.
The key factors and the main argument of the article might mislead the readers. The argument
relates to the key concept of sale of Boral. This includes the decision of the CEO and the
managing director of the company. The article gives instance of the debt of the company.
Apart from all these ideas the key concepts of the article include, the concrete and quarries
operation, the fly ash business and the acquisition of the headquarters. The value of the
company is the central idea of the article. It however has certain pitfalls in the same. The
pitfalls lie in the format and the style of the article related to the topic. The article has a
formal approach while presenting the key concept and not stating the other factors that should
have been included in the article that requires more research.
The key points that are being discussed in the article is about a company named Boral,
who has agreed upon US$127 million deal to sell is business of Concrete and Quarries in
Denver, Colorado to the Brannan Sand and Gravel Company. Brannan Sand and Gravel is
one of the most respected as well as largest asphalt paving contractors of Colorado. The
newspaper article has discussed about the company’s successes regarding its operations. The
company has owned Colorado constructions operations, since 2004 and moreover, it has been
the only concrete as well as quarries Operations Company in the United States of America.
The company’s CEO as well as Managing Director has stated that the proceedings of the
business’ sale will go towards reducing their debts. The newspaper article discusses about
few points related to its strategies of the growing business and how the company carry out its
supply chain management procedure. Being a business oriented newspaper; the article has not
mentioned anything related to the supply chain management or the manufacturing

3PROCUREMENT AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
technologies adopted by the company. However, the newspaper article mentions about how
the company strengthens its businesses as well as deliver synergies from Headwaters
acquisition. Moreover, the company’s brick business and other factors related to the
Australian timber division are also not explored. In addition to this, the company’s strategies
regarding logistics, is also not reviewed in the newspaper. Therefore, it can be said that the
newspaper has failed to cover the major parts of the company’s supply chain management
procedures and logistics.
The strengths of this article are that it gives a detailed overview of the company and
how it is managing to sell its business to some other reputed organization, just to clear its
debts. The newspaper article has given a brief overview of the strategies, the company has
undertaken. Moreover, it has also mentioned how the company has grown or expanded in the
business aspects, giving a brief analysis on the company’s operations and success. In addition
to this, the strength of the newspaper is that it is a reputed business oriented newspaper,
which has managed to win the hearts of its target readers. It has always given authentic news
on manufacturing, printing, packaging or other related information. It is the most circulated
newspaper in Australia and the readers are satisfied, with the way they covers business
related news and their presentation. However, the weaknesses of this particular article are that
it failed to comment on the logistics or supply chain management of the company. The
newspaper has managed to give an overview of the company and how it is selling its
Concrete and Quarries Business. On the other hand, it failed to mention regarding their
supply chain management procedure, which is an important part of manufacturing. Several
parts remained unexplored in the article like logistics, supply chain plan and management,
company’s expansion procedure, export and import business strategies and others.
In order to improve the articles related to supply chain management, the
newspapers need to be more specific regarding their stories and present them in a detailed

4PROCUREMENT AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
manner. Moreover, journalists and editors need to be unbiased regarding news collection
and interpretation. Objectivity is a major factor, which improves the credibility of the
newspapers. Therefore, as per my opinion, the newspaper needs to be more particular
regarding these factors and present the news in more detailed manner, so that we being the
readers, get an overview of such important news.
Yours faithfully,
Monica Simpson

5PROCUREMENT AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Bibliography
Australianmanufacturing.com.au (2018). [online] Available at:
http://www.australianmanufacturing.com.au/53130/boral-to-sell-its-us-concrete-quarries-
business [Accessed 13 May 2018].
Chae, B.K., 2015. Insights from hashtag# supplychain and Twitter Analytics: Considering
Twitter and Twitter data for supply chain practice and research. International Journal of
Production Economics, 165, pp.247-259.
Chkanikova, O. and Mont, O., 2015. Corporate supply chain responsibility: drivers and
barriers for sustainable food retailing. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental
Management, 22(2), pp.65-82.
Christopher, M., 2016. Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.
Tatoglu, E., Bayraktar, E., Golgeci, I., Koh, S.L., Demirbag, M. and Zaim, S., 2016. How do
supply chain management and information systems practices influence operational
performance? Evidence from emerging country SMEs. International Journal of Logistics
Research and Applications, 19(3), pp.181-199.
Theconversation.com (2018). [online] Available at:
https://theconversation.com/us/topics/australian-manufacturing-3605 [Accessed 13 May
2018].

6PROCUREMENT AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Appendix
Figure: News Article