BUS 500: Global Production and Supply Chain Management Report

This report delves into the critical aspects of global production and supply chain management, providing a comprehensive analysis of key decisions and strategic considerations for global companies. It explores the significance of these decisions, examining how country differences, production technology, and various production factors influence the selection of production locations. The report also investigates the evolving role of foreign subsidiaries in knowledge accumulation and how it enhances their contribution over time. Furthermore, it identifies the factors that drive a firm's sourcing decisions, whether to procure supplies internally or from foreign suppliers. The functions of logistics and purchasing (sourcing) within global supply chains are clarified, followed by a description of the requirements for efficiently managing these complex networks. The report uses examples from companies like Dell and Cisco to highlight key concepts and provide practical insights into optimizing global production and supply chain operations.

Running Head: Global Production and Supply Chain Management 0
GLOBAL PRODUCTION
AND SUPPLY CHAIN
MANAGEMENT
System04121
6/15/2019

Global Production and Supply Chain Management 1
ANSWER1: Explain why global production and supply chain
management decisions are of central importance to many global
companies.
Supply chain decisions are important for any organization or a business. A success of
supply chain totally depends on the connection between the efficient management and the
flow and its design (Seuring, 2013) Example: Dell has a successful planning, operation and
superior design of its supply chain and this has made dell the world’s best manufacturer for
personal computer (Baldwin, & Lopez‐Gonzalez, 2015). The reason behind the success of
dell is their efficient flow of information and the products and funds inside its supply chain
(Wang, Lai, & Shi, 2011). Dell pays high attention to the supply chain decisions as it takes
decisions for the locations, manufacturing and production of the products. Decision making is
also important as they help in organizing, panning, directing and converting all the raw
material into finished goods and products. At every level the managers take various decisions
and implement them too. Decisions related to products are as follows:
Strategic: This involves the decisions that are related to products, process and
manufacturing facilities. These reasons are the most important one as they have a strategic
importance and a long term importance in the company or the organization.
Operating: these include the decisions that are related to the meet the demands of the
customers. The decisions are important as they make sure that the production of the goods
and services are meeting the needs of the market or not.
Control: this includes the decisions that are related to planning and controlling. This
focuses on day to day concerns and activities of the workers and the maintenance of
machines.

Global Production and Supply Chain Management 2
ANSWER2: How country differences, production technology, and
production factors all affect the choice of where to locate production
activities.
All the above factors play an significant role in choice of locating the activities of
production. First of all country differences play an important role as every country as every
country has different transport and infrastructure facilities (Arzu Akyuz, & Erman Erkan,
2010). These 2 things are important for place selection as transportation facilities helps in
timely supply of raw materials to the company and also help in providing finished goods to
the customers. The next thing is infrastructure this is one of main factors while choosing a
country as the availability of basic facilities are needed such as power, water and waste
disposal. Other factors that helps in deciding the location or the place of production includes:
Supply of raw material: it is important for any organization as it is Important to get the
material in the right quality and at the right time so that the production of the product does
not stop.
Labour and wages: The issue that hinders the production of any firm or an organization
is the less number of labours. Importing labour from different countries is a costly thing to
do. That is the reason it is important for the companies to find a country that do not have
labour problems and where the labour is easily available as this will help the organization to
increase its productivity (Shepherd, & Günter, 2010).
ANSWER3: Recognize how the role of foreign subsidiaries in
production can be enhanced over time as they accumulate knowledge.
Foreign subsidiaries helps in gaining various knowledge as different countries have
different technologies, different ways of management and culture (Mikurak, 2011). When

Global Production and Supply Chain Management 3
some of the companies have their subsidiaries in foreign they are able to learn different ways
cultures in the form of new technologies. Some of the countries are way ahead of others in
the matter of technologies subsidiaries helps in knowing new technology and then applying
those technologies in headquarters (Tang, and Musa, 2011) one example of this is Tata
technologies Pte Ltd with its subsidiaries manage development in software internationally
and in Singapore. The company also focuses on engineering provision and preservation
services, as well as computer consultancy and linked services. Tata Technologies Pte Ltd is a
subsidiary of Tata Technologies Limited.
ANSWER4: Identify the factors that influence a firm’s decision of
whether to source supplies from within the company of form foreign
suppliers.
Product quality: this is one of the most important parts of any business. The quality of
any product can affect the cost unit of any product. Hence quality can be an issue in the
product. Poor quality can impact the organization and can also lead to dissatisfaction of the
customers (Sarkis, Zhu, & Lai, 2011).
Logistics capacity: This is important as good and quality of the goods will not matter until
it reaches the market. That is the reason that firm a or an organization should focus on
reliable transportation infrastructure of the country from the sourcing.
Location: location proximity of a country decides the product to be more attractive while
sourcing. Proximity helps in various benefits such as doing business in similar time zones,
common cultural differences and similarities which includes things like language.

Global Production and Supply Chain Management 4
Trade Regulations: Government regulation have high impact on doing the business
easily. Apart from making the sourcing decisions, it is important for the company to evaluate
the incentives and restrictions by the government.
Responsiveness of a Supplier: Another important factor of the sourcing decision is to
market the good on a timely manner. If the competitor of the firm has goods that are made
more quickly than the other firm then there are high amount of chances that the company can
lose its revenue that is why it is important for the company to choose a receptive supplier
who can adapt to the environmental changes (Klibi, Martel, & Guitouni, 2010).
Communication: In order to keep information about what have been shipped and where
have the products reached, it is important to have a good channel of communication among
the buyer and the supplier (Cao, & Zhang, 2011).
ANSWER5: Understand the functions of logistics and purchasing
(sourcing) within global supply chains.
Sourcing plays an important role in acquiring the raw materials and components of an
organization or a company from the suppliers in order to execute the operations.
 Sourcing is a form of process that helps in setting the business
 Sourcing also permits the manufacturer and the supplier to work composed on
designing the mechanisms for the final creation. Design collaboration confirms that
the designs variations are connected efficiently and are also elaborate with the
manufacturing and designing of the product.
 Sourcing helps in reducing the surplus of supply chain, reduces cost of inventory and
brings various other benefits for the firm (Pettit, Fiksel, & Croxton, 2010).

Global Production and Supply Chain Management 5
 Example companies like cisco outsource a fraction of their capacity which puts great
amount of pressure on the firm in order to advance lower costs and the suppliers
 Example of dell can be taken as it outsources its products directly to the customers in
order gain profit and to keep the retail function in-house.
ANSWER6: Describe what is required to efficiently manage a global
supply chain.
Explain buying patterns and supply chain: it is important to set clear goals,
expectation in order to do these good needs to handle the forecasting of sales. If the goods are
sourced overseas then shipping of the goods can take time and that is the reason it is
important to know the current demands for the inventory and also the ways to forecast it in
the future.
Do not rely on one supplier: Redundancy is an important thing when it comes to
effective supply chain and management of inventory. Redundancy helps in having back up of
suppliers and it also helps in managing the logistics issues (Flynn, Huo, & Zhao, 2010).
Build Goodwill: Building good goodwill with the suppliers helps in building good
relationships with the customers which gives various mutual benefits to the organization. For
example: Cost cutting, flexible delivery schedule and offering alternative product lines.
Save costs and reduce risk: Global supply chains are a risky part of any business that is why it
is important to make minimum amount of orders for importing. Sourcing of goods helps in
meeting the demands of the customers quickly and it also helps in reacting to the market
demands. It is common for any business to invest in the supply chain.
For Example: Dell, it has a very effective supply chain. The main aim of dell is to work with
its suppliers as a team in order to reduce the line of customers order and to keep the supply

Global Production and Supply Chain Management 6
chain moving because of this thing dell is able to provide its customers with fast and better
solutions. Apart from this the direct customer selling supply chain model gives dell a
competitive advantage over the other firms.

Global Production and Supply Chain Management 7
REFRENCES
Arzu Akyuz, G., & Erman Erkan, T. (2010). Supply chain performance measurement: a
literature review. International Journal of Production Research, 48(17), 5137-5155.
Baldwin, R., & Lopez‐Gonzalez, J. (2015). Supply‐chain trade: A portrait of global patterns
and several testable hypotheses. The World Economy, 38(11), 1682-1721.
Cao, M., & Zhang, Q. (2011). Supply chain collaboration: Impact on collaborative advantage
and firm performance. Journal of operations management, 29(3), 163-180.
Flynn, B. B., Huo, B., & Zhao, X. (2010). The impact of supply chain integration on
performance: a contingency and configuration approach. Journal of operations
management, 28(1), 58-71.
Klibi, W., Martel, A., & Guitouni, A. (2010). The design of robust value-creating supply
chain networks: a critical review. European Journal of Operational Research, 203(2),
283-293.
Mikurak, M. G. (2011). U.S. Patent No. 7,957,991. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office.
Pettit, T. J., Fiksel, J., & Croxton, K. L. (2010). Ensuring supply chain resilience:
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Sarkis, J., Zhu, Q., & Lai, K. H. (2011). An organizational theoretic review of green supply
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1-15.

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Seuring, S., 2013. A review of modeling approaches for sustainable supply chain
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Shepherd, C., & Günter, H. (2010). Measuring supply chain performance: current research
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Tang, O. and Musa, S.N., 2011. Identifying risk issues and research advancements in supply
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Wang, F., Lai, X., & Shi, N. (2011). A multi-objective optimization for green supply chain
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