Strategic Supply Chain Management Analysis: Metalor Technologies SA

This case study examines the strategic supply chain management practices of Metalor Technologies SA, a Swiss-based international corporation specializing in precious metals and advanced coatings. The analysis focuses on three key concepts: procurement, inventory, and reverse logistics. Regarding procurement, the study identifies issues such as manual approval processes, time-consuming RFQ quote processes, and human errors in PR/PO and GRN processes. For inventory, the case study discusses the general concept and its application within Metalor, highlighting the importance of balancing supply and demand. Finally, the reverse logistics section explores the company's approach to handling returns and waste materials, identifying areas for improvement. The study also compares and contrasts Metalor's practices with theoretical frameworks, suggesting improvements to streamline operations and enhance efficiency. Desklib provides a platform to access this and other solved assignments for students.

Running head: STRATEGIC SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
STRATEGIC SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Notes

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
2. About the Company...............................................................................................................3
3. Concept of Procurement.........................................................................................................5
3.1 General concept of Procurement......................................................................................5
3.2 Concept of Procurement in association with Metalor Technologies SA.........................5
3.3 Issues of the company in terms of Procurement..............................................................6
3.4 Compare and Contrast between the workings of the company and the theory................7
4. Concept of Inventory..............................................................................................................8
4.1 General concept of Inventory...........................................................................................8
4.2 Concept of Inventory in association with Metalor Technologies SA..............................9
4.3 Problems of the company in terms of Inventory............................................................10
4.4 Compare and Contrast between the workings of the company and the theory..............10
5. Concept of Reverse Logistics...............................................................................................11
5.1 General concept of Reverse Logistics............................................................................11
5.2 Concept of Reverse Logistics with Metalor Technologies SA......................................12
5.3 Problems of the company in terms of Reverse Logistics...............................................12
5.4 Compare and Contrast between the workings of the company and the theory..............13
6. Conclusion............................................................................................................................14
7. Reference..............................................................................................................................15

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1. Introduction
With the introduction of different online websites and retain stores for the various
goods and services made for the different types of people around the world, there is an
increase in the popularity for the concepts of procurement, inventory and reverse logistics
applicable to the different parts of the business. The concepts are highly inclusive and occupy
a major part of the business organizations associated. The concepts make sure that the
effective working of the business is done in a proper manner and also to implement multiple
strategies for the same. The company considered in the analysis perspective is Metalor
Technologies SA, one of the major companies of Singapore. The literature review analyses
the company matter along with the concepts of procurement, inventory and reverse logistics
and along with that the comparison and contrast is done for the same. The following
paragraphs also conduct a detailed analysis on the subject which is an important part of
marketing in the modern world.
2. About the Company
Metalor Technologies SA is one of the leading Swiss-based international corporations
that has more than 17 subsidiaries all over the world. The company has been a leading dealer
and manufacturer of precious metals and coating materials which makes it one of the most
sought after companies in the required business field.
The company has a sustainable growth rate with employee as they have an
understanding and effective employee management team who has the authority to make sure
each and every policy of the company and have a better view for the proper utilisation of
resources that the company provides. The employees know that what are the policies of the
company in terms of environmental and social factors and implement them accordingly in the
manner. The employees and the authorities of the organization have the amount of mutual

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understanding that is required in the various process of the enterprise such as procurement,
inventory and reverse logistics. The various departments of the organization have certain
benefit in them to make the people of the company get attracted to it in a specific manner.
The company has specialised teams in the matter to make sure that the process related to the
matters of procurement, inventory and reverse logistics are dealt in a proper manner so that
the people working in the company in the concerned departments can get the better idea of
the same. The following paragraphs analyse the three different concepts mentioned with
required concerns for the three concepts.
The organizational goals of the company are to provide quality precious metals and
products related to plating for obtaining full customer satisfaction. Another goal is the
continuous innovation that is to be done by the company for the improvement of the existing
products and the invention of the new ones. The third goal of the company is to make sure
that that their delivery is on time and the continuous use of the technologies related to
information technology and software to make sure that the organization achieves the goal
with all respect.
The company enjoys major competitive advantage in respect to production and some
of the other factors related to the same. The major competitive advantages of the company
relates to consistent supply of best category of gold, silver and other kind of metals and
plating substances. The company claims to provide maximum application performance with
lowest applied cost including the amount of delivery charge and time needed for the delivery
purpose. The company is known to be the one-stop provider for all the essential supply needs
and also to make sure that the company has an apt amount of investment for expanding the
business and also to make sure that the company is getting larger with time.

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3. Concept of Procurement
3.1 General concept of Procurement
Procurement is defined as the process of finding after agreeing to the various terms
and conditions implied and availing different forms of goods and services from the factors of
external environment (Masterman & Masterman, 2013). The process is one of the major
processes that is being conducted by the process of bidding and tender procurement which is
being done by the authorities of the organization. The process of procurement has a number
of purpose namely to provide the customers with the best possible price allocated for the
clients (Goldman, Rocholl & So, 2013). Another reason for the use of procurement is to
ensure that the clients get the products and services with all the materials of good quality that
is to make sure that each of the companies of the organization get the required amount of
materials they get without any delay in the obtaining of the substances (Edquist & Zabala-
Iturriagagoitia, 2012).
The benefits of procurement lies in the fact that the companies do not have to keep a
huge stock at their disposal and they can obtain the required amount of substances and raw
materials in accordance to the demands of the clients whenever they require it (Baily, 2017).
Another advantage is the less investment that is being done on the part of the company in the
procurement of the raw materials for the better supply of the products to the clients in terms
of need. Procurement thereby helps to reduce the wastage that is being created in the stocks
of the company and helps to know what is being done in the company terms. The
procurement helps to maintain the stocks of the company and also help to know the exact
demands of the customer. When the customer demands for a certain good, the demand for the
same is created and thereby the company procures the goods and supplies the same. This
makes the whole process of procurement easy and accessible.

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3.2 Concept of Procurement in association with Metalor Technologies SA
Metalor Technologies SA is a company that has a major procurement supply chain
which can be dealt in the following paragraphs –
The procurement chain of the company is being stated in the following image that shows that
there is a large process that is involved in the process of procurement. The buyer is the source
of the procurement process who gives order according to the financial stability and the needs
of the client (Piera et al., 2014). The order is then made or procured according to the demand
of the buyer. If the things are available with the people of the company, then that is directed
towards packaging and shipping to the buyer. However, if the product demanded by the buyer
is not with the company in their stocks, there is a chance that they would have to procure it
from the outside source and then ship it to the clients as they would need it (Kolk, 2012). The
payment of the same would be done by the client according to the deeds mentioned in the
deal and would also require the client to make the payment as per the requirements of the
company.

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3.3 Issues of the company in terms of Procurement
The company faces a number of issues in the concept of procurement of the things as
per required by the client. The problems of the clients in the same can be stated as follows –
 There is a major issue in the approval process of the company as the approval process
of the company is done in a manual manner with the help of printed copies that needs
to be transported through human means (Marinis et al., 2013).
 The RFQ quote process of the company is another big issue that the company faces in
the long term as it requires a huge amount of time to procure the quotes and after
delivery the feedback from the customers.
 The PR/PO process of the company is prone to many human errors as it is done in the
manual process by the people employed of the company (Rolland et al., 2012).
 The GRN process that mentions the procurement and the processing of goods is again
something that is prone to human mistakes by the employees as it is done in a manual
manner.
 The invoice of the company and the discharge of the same requires a long processing
time as the matching of the documents and the long procuring GRN process requires a
large amount of time by the people (Bourda, Rolland & Jeandin, 2012).
 The workflow of the company is affected by the manual handling and the huge
amount of paperwork that is being done by the company and the organization. The
process is a lengthy process which requires more amount of human effort and the
consequences which require longer period of time (Jaafar & Radzi, 2013).
3.4 Compare and Contrast between the workings of the company and the theory
The process of procurement requires a long time frame that is one of the basic problems
in the company that needs to be solved with immediate effect. All the problems need to

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be addressed with immediate effect and needs to be implemented to the proper people and
departments for the faster processing.
 The manual processing of the company needs to be automatized so that the
processing of the same should be done with immediate effect. The manual
processing should be disabled and automated process should be conducted in the
company.
 The process of procurement and the subsequent billing should be done in a well-
fashioned manner which should attract the people with immediate effect to the
company (Spagnolo, 2012). The billing section of the company is at a toss which
should be improved.
 The human errors associated with the company needs to be minimised to a level
and the accuracy level of the company should be majorly increased (Nurmandi &
Kim, 2015). The human errors associated with the company should be lesser than
it is presently.
4. Concept of Inventory
4.1 General concept of Inventory
The concept of Inventory states the amount of good and materials that a particular
company holds in the godowns and other places for their ultimate use of reselling, selling or
repairing. The keeping of the inventory by a specific company depends on a number of
factors like the demands at the wrong time and the time required for the dispatch is less in
comparison to the other factors (Axsäter, 2015). The concept of inventory is one of the main
factors of the companies that deal with a large amount of product and services with the
customer dealings for the same. The concept of inventory was introduced for both the
benefits of the seller and the customer at the same time. The buyer can place the order at any

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time of the day and the seasonal demand for certain products are also met effectively by the
companies due to the availability of inventory (Drabek, 2012).
4.2 Concept of Inventory in association with Metalor Technologies SA
The Inventory management of the company is one of the most important ways to cater to the
business of the organization with the fact that the process of inventory management has a
number of measures which come together under one roof and make the process of collection
of the commodities by the company one of the best in the case (Michalski, 2013). The
company collects inbound merchandise and transfers the same to the outbound factors. The
physical inventory of the company is being subjected to the store and then collected by the
people who are into the service (Christopher, 2016). The total work of the inventory
management of the brand is being done by the people and the employees of the organization
to make sure that the people who are interested in purchasing the same from the brand gets
the desired amount of service from the same (Dekker et al., 2013).

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4.3 Problems of the company in terms of Inventory
There are a number of problems that are associated with the inventory of the certain
company of the firm. The problems related to inventory of the brand is subjected to a number
of issues such as the cost associated with the keeping of the inventory, the spoilage alert that
is done with the same and the storage cost associated with the same. The different types of
problems of the inventory keeping is associated with the expiry of the products and also the
retaining cost that is being associated. The company has a number of bad inventory problems
associated which can be stated as follows –
 There is a high cost of inventory in the brand with high stock outs of the products.
 There is a low rate of inventory with a high amount of obsolete inventory that would
be one of the major problems of the company procuring the inventory process
(Adulyasak, Cordeau & Jans, 2013).
 There is a high cost of working capital and storage for the company as there is an
excess inventory in the whole (Terekhov et al., 2012)
 There are certain human errors associated with the inventory process like shipping the
wrong items of the wrong customer and also having multiple defects in the
spreadsheet of the inventory process of the company (Coelho & Laporte, 2013).
 The above inventory problems of the company leads to a mass customer loss of the
company which can result in loss of sales and reduced profit affecting the authorities
of the organization.
4.4 Compare and Contrast between the workings of the company and the theory
 The process of inventory keeping should be automated process and should not be kept
manual which will make sure that the inventory management is done in a concrete
manner. The company does the exact opposite that makes it one of the biggest
problem in the inventory process.

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 The stocks should be kept in a manner so that the seasonal demands of the customers
are met in a proper manner (Akintan & Morledge, 2013). The company does no keep
products for the seasonal demands which should be done.
 The authorities of the company should recruit a team to look for inventory issues and
also make sure that there is no deficit. The company does not have a team at present
which should be appointed.
5. Concept of Reverse Logistics
5.1 General concept of Reverse Logistics
The process and concept of Reverse Logistics takes effect from the final destination
that the things are being placed and ends to the place where the process originally started.
The concept of Reverse Logistics is one of the major concepts of the companies that deals
with the procurement and inventory keeping of the goods (Rushton, Croucher & Baker,
2014). The cause of reverse logistics states that the amount of commodity that is to be
returned to the original destination due to the different types of problems that is being
adjusted by the buyers of the stuffs (Christopher & Peck, 2012). The concept of reverse
logistics is one of the major in the companies that deals with the selling and purchasing of
goods and services. There are a number of pros and cons for the keeping of the reverse
logistics aspect in the business. The aspect makes sure that the customer has full freedom to
return any of the goods that is being labelled as defected. This makes the customers return the
goods in terms of need.