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Ford vs Dell

In: Business and Management

Submitted By kristacantarutti
Words 1490
Pages 6
Executive Summary
Designing and manufacturing vehicles is a very complex business that the Ford Motor Company has excelled in since 1903. Ford can never be virtually integrated like Dell but the Ford Company can adopt some of Dell’s concepts of virtual integration to strive for excellence in supply chain management. As Director of Supply Chain Systems, I am convinced that Ford can implement portions of Dell’s Virtual Integration strategy even though the Ford Company differs in many respects from Dell. A modification of the virtual integration system that Dell uses should be applied to Ford’s supplier base, distribution system, dealerships, and divisions.
Issue Identification
Ford must find ways to improve their supply chain management to compete in a global market and continue to retain its market share in an increasingly competitive, saturated and over capacitated US market. Ford must act now or risk losing market share.
The main issue Ford must deal with is decreasing the volume and complexity of its supplier base as it is plagued with costly inefficiencies. Secondly, Ford must get closer to its customers to better understand their needs and wants and to create better forecasting of demand.
Teri Takai must decide within a week if Ford should model its supply chain strategy close to Dell’s Virtual Integration.
Environment and Root Cause Analysis
The Ford Motor Company is the 2nd largest industrial corporation in the world with revenues of $144 billion. Ford employs over 370,000 employees and has operations in 200 countries. What Ford does best is design and manufacture automobiles for sale on the consumer market. However past practice particularly in supply chain management has created costly inefficiencies. Ford can no longer support these inefficancies and stay afloat in the automobile market.
Ford is currently facing a highly competitive market with the

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