Evaluating Strategic Partnerships in Supply Chain Management

This essay critically analyzes an article discussing the importance of partnerships in supply chain management, particularly focusing on a case involving Nike, Toll, and Stockland achieving carbon-neutral certification. The analysis highlights the benefits of strategic alliances and the role of specializ...Read More

Running head: SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Supply chain management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Introduction
The current approach of the supply chain management process is drastically changing
mainly with the inclusion of newer technologies as well as concepts. Addition of these newer
concepts is important for this sector in order to gain competitive advantages and sustainability.
Gaining the long term sustainability is getting more important for the entities operating in the
logistic and supply chain sector due to the reason that it will provide them long term viability.
There are number of articles being published about the changing scenario of the supply chain
management sector across the world from different perspectives. The chosen article published in
the tandlnews in March discussed about the importance and utility of partnership in the supply
chain management (tandlnews.com.au 2019). This article is being chosen due to the reason that
partnership between different entities in gaining sustainability in the supply chain process is a
coming of age concept and it needs for discussion and analysis.
This essay will discuss about the importance of the chosen article and the content will be
critically analyzed. In addition, the positive and negative elements of this article will also be
identified and recommendations will be discussed based on the negative elements.
Critical analysis of the article
It is stated by the author that the strategic partnership between Nike, Toll and Stockland
led to the facilitation of whole of building carbon neutral certification from the National carbon
Offset Standard. It is further discussed that this warehouse facility of Nike is being designed in
the way, which will have the least impact on the environment and will have least amount of
carbon emission in any forms (tandlnews.com.au 2019). The changes in terms of the
infrastructure being done in the facility are also being discussed in this article. It is stated by the

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authors that green certification of the facilities is helping Nike to add more value for their end
customers and positioning as a sustainable brand in the market. Thus, the major focus of this
article is towards the advantages being gained by the entities from having the green certified
facilities and it is creating value for all the involved stakeholders in the long term. However, on
the other hand, there are number of others elements also being identified being associated with
this article. For example, the information presented in this article helped in indentifying the
importance of partnerships and strategic alliance with expert entities in the supply chain
management (Morgan, Richey and Autry 2016). This is due to the reason that in thus article it is
stated that the expertise of Toll in the logistics helped Nike to have the most effective and
efficient forms of business factors in their supply chain process. Nike is good at their customer
level products but not having the expertise in supply chain process. On the other hand, Toll is
one of the leading players operating in the logistic and supply chain process. Thus, the capital
and economies of scale of Nike and logistic expertise of Toll helped in having the most
sustainable supply chain process.
This can be further criticized that modern day supply chain process cannot be competitive
enough without the involvement of the specialized third party vendors. This is due to the fact that
in the current business complexities, it is difficult for the business organizations to initiate the
both the backward and forward integration effectively. In this case, partnership with the third
party vendors can help in gaining competitive edge (Chen and Notteboom 2014). In the case of
Nike, their strategic alliance with Toll helped in bringing the efficiency in their supply chain
process. This is due to the fact that Toll is having the expertise and specialization in bringing the
sustainability in the logistic and supply chain process. However, on the other hand, this article
lacks the information regarding the cost involved in gaining the green certification of the

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warehouse facility. This is also important because it is stated that changes in the forms of
lighting, conveyor system and facility infrastructure are being initiated by Toll to gain the
sustainability. This obviously involved added cost in the process. However, there is no
information being stated regarding the adjustment of the cost (Angeles 2014). For example, the
LED technology in lighting is much expensive compared to the conventional lighting system.
This cost would have to be incurred by Nike in terms of the pricing of their end products. In this
case, it is being critically analyzed that the premium positioning of Nike is enabling them to
incur and adjust the added cost involved in gaining the sustainability but this is not applicable for
the all the entities out there especially, which are operating in more price sensitive markets. They
cannot afford the increase in their end product as well as incurring added cost in the supply chain
management (Kalinzi 2016). Thus, it can be concluded that the chosen article lacks the
information or recommendation regarding the viable option for all the entities across different
price levels. It is recommended that this article should also have added the cost involved in
changing the infrastructure of the facility and the strategies being initiated by Nike in adjusting
with these added cost. Moreover, it is also recommended that the challenges that are to faced
with having strategic partnerships in the supply chain process should be stated in order to review
the effectiveness of this concept in the supply chain management.
Conclusion
This paper concludes that the chosen article stated about the utility of the strategic
partnerships in the supply chain process and how it is helping in gaining sustainability for the
stakeholders involved. Moreover, the information of this article also helped to identify the
importance of having specialized third party vendors in the supply chain process. However, on
the other hand, a few shortcomings of this article are also being identified, which are further

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critically analyzed. A few recommendations are also being discussed in this essay, which will
help to enhance the effectiveness of the article and covering all the relevant points.

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Reference
Angeles, R., 2014. Using the Technology-Organization-Environment Framework for Analyzing
Nike's Considered Index Green Initiative, a Decision Support System-Driven System. J. Mgmt.
& Sustainability, 4, p.96.
Chen, L. and Notteboom, T., 2014. A cost perspective on the location of value-added logistics
services in supply chains. International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 18(1),
pp.24-48.
Kalinzi, C., 2016. Outsourcing (Logistics) Services and Supply Chain Efficiency-A Critical
Review of Outsourcing Function in Mukwano Group of Companies. Journal of Outsourcing and
Organizational Information Management.
Morgan, T.R., Richey Jr, R.G. and Autry, C.W., 2016. Developing a reverse logistics
competency: The influence of collaboration and information technology. International Journal
of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 46(3), pp.293-315.
tandlnews.com.au 2019. Toll upgrades Nike warehouse to be wholly carbon neutral. [online]
Tranpost & Logistics News. Available at: https://www.tandlnews.com.au/2019/03/12/article/toll-
upgrades-nike-warehouse-to-be-wholly-carbon-neutral/ [Accessed 22 Mar. 2019].

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Appendix

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