...Dell Computer, with close supplier relationships, encourages suppliers to focus on their individual technological capabilities to sustain leadership in their components. Research and development costs are too high and technological changes are too rapid for any one company to sustain leadership in every component. Suppliers are also pressed to drive down lead times, lot sizes, and inventories. Dell, in turn, keeps its research customer-focused and leverages that research to help itself and suppliers. Dell also constructs special Web pages for suppliers, allowing them to view orders for components they produce as well as current levels of inventory at Dell. This allows suppliers to plan based on actual end customer demand; as a result, it reduces the bullwhip effect. The intent is to work with suppliers to keep the supply chain moving rapidly, products current, and the customer order queue short. Then, with supplier collaboration, ell can offer the latest options, can build-to-order, and can achieve rapid throughput. The payoff is a competitive advantage, growing market share, and low capital investment. On the distribution side, Dell uses direct sales, primarily via the Internet, to increase revenues by offering a virtually unlimited variety of desktops, notebooks, and enterprise products. Options displayed over the Internet allow Dell to attract customers that value choice. Customers select recommended product configurations or customize them. Dell’s customers place orders...
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...To meet the demands of their customers, Dell Computer’s has aggressively developed a business model to expand their coverage worldwide. The business problem facing Dell Computers is to ensure that consumer demand is being met and that their competitive advantage and value chain are being maintained. Having multiple manufacturing plants is an example how their competitive advantage is maintained and the value chain is operating successfully. Maintaining a lean production practice and providing a high level of Internet based sales in the personal and business sector are two sources of pride for Dell Computers. Knowing their customer needs and thoughts enables Dell to be on the cutting edge of product design and innovations; delivering their products quickly to their customers and at high level of mass customization. Dell Computers has established a strong relationship with all suppliers, which allows the company to maintain only the needed supplies. Having such a strong relationship with its suppliers, allows the company to focus their research budget on the best way to reach the consumer. The desktop, notebook and other production items are not produced until the order is received from the consumer. Corporations have access to a website that has been tailored specifically to their needs and that allows them complete access to all previous orders with ease. The streamlined production process also has significant accounting benefits. The materials are received as needed...
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...Question 1: How has Dell used its direct sales and build-to-order model to developan exceptional supply chain? Many of the challenges in improving the supply chain come with all of theunknowns. Most companies produce products they think the consumer will want. Thenthey ship these products to the retail stores. The stores then try to sell the products thatare on their shelves to the customers. The supply chain shows down while they arefiguring out what to build. Then they work with suppliers to get the raw materials andcomponents for the products. The chain slows down more while they are building the products and shipping them to the stores. Then the supply chain is still slow while theywait for the products to sell and get paid. Supply Chain Management: An Analysis of Dell¶s Value ChainDell has used its direct sales and build-to-order model to create this exceptionsupply chain by integrating everything from the beginning to the end process. Dell starts by researching customer to find out what they want. As soon as an initial product isdesigned, Dell starts to market that product on the web-site. Dell does not start to produce any of the products until the customer tells Dell exactly what they want and paysfor the product. Only then does the procurement process start. Dell has improved thesupply chain to make it exceptional by integrating the suppliers. The suppliers have aWeb page which informs them of pending orders. This allows the suppliers to plan basedon actual demand...
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...Dell Computer Corporation is one of the world’s largest computer systems organizations. They design, build and customize products and services to satisfy a range of customer requirements, from the server, storage and professional services needs of the largest global corporations, to those customers at home. Dell is a perfect example of how harnessing the power of the Internet can lead to total market dominance. Through the company’s direct sales model, Dell has managed to grow from a $6 million to a $23 billion dollar company in 15 years. This is largely due to their extension of the direct model with information technology and the World Wide Web. The Internet became a worldwide tool for reaching Dell’s customer base and gave the company the ability to directly do business with partners and customers all over the world, one at a time, at no additional overhead. This successful business model put much emphasis on the customers. From the beginning to the end of the transaction, Dell understood completely what the needs of the customers were and this ony led to a network of satisfied customers with the potential to do business again and again in the future. However, the direct-sales business model was merely a tool for Dell to do business. If the success of Dell was based solely on this model, Dell would have not been able to rise to the top of the competition in two decades despite being a late entrant. Many competitors of Dell duplicated the model and tried to do...
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... Dell Inc. Competitive forces The Competitive forces has five forces which are threat of new competition; threat of substitute products or services; bargaining power of customers or buyers; bargaining power of supplier; and intensity of competitive rivalry. I. Threat of new competition: In the other word, it is the threat of new entrants. For the threat of new entrants, based on the Porter's five forces, a model for industry analysis, " Barriers to entry are more than the normal equilibrium adjustments that markets typically make." (Porter's Five Forces). If a company wants to enter a new market, it should consider about the following factors in the industry which are Government policy, economies of scale, capital requirements, brand identity, absolute cost advantages and Industry profitability etc. II. Threat of substitute products or services: According to Wikipedia, " The existence of products outside of the realm of the common product boundaries increases the propensity of customers to switch to alternatives. Note that this should not be confused with competitors' similar products but entirely different ones instead." (Porter five forces analysis, 2009). Many factors such as switching costs, buyer inclination to substitute, price performance, and trade- off of substitutes should be considered by a company. III. bargaining power of customers or buyers: based on Wikipedia"The bargaining power of customers is also described as the market of outputs: the ability...
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...Major Case Assignment Case: Dell 2009 Concordia University John Molson School of Business July 22, 2010 INTRODUCTION Situation Synopsis After almost 20 years of unprecedented growth and industry leadership, Dell has started losing market share to its competitors: HP, Apple, Acer and Lenovo. Furthermore, its stock price has plummeted from its record 1998 high of US$139.88 to almost US$20.00 in July 2008. Due to poor performance, the founder of the company Michael S. Dell has returned to the company as CEO and has devised a plan to bring back Dell as a market leader in this industry and to improve its stock price. Company’s Current Strategy Vision: To be the world’s leading supplier of computer systems Mission: To enable millions of businesses and consumers to get online for the first time Objectives: Improving Dell’s stock price Corporate/Business Strategy: • Outsource full system manufacturing facilities in China for retail business. • Split product design departments into commercial and consumer teams. • Listening & reaching customers, expanding and customizing their product and service portfolio • Low cost structure - drive costs out of the company’s supply chain and expand into foreign markets • Grow company in consumer, enterprise and emerging markets 1. EXTERNAL ANALYSIS 1.1. General External Environment Demographic: Global commercial and consumer markets; Wide range of income distribution among customers from individual...
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...Group MAX Presentation. Question: What are the elements of Dell Strategy? Which one of the 5 Generic Competitive Strategies is Dell Employing? How well do the different pieces of Dell Strategies Fit together? In what ways is Dell Strategy Evolving? 1. What are the elements of Dell Strategy? (Page C121) a. Build To Order. This concept great reduced cost and risk associated with carrying large stock of parts, components and finish goods b. Selling to customer directly. By bypassing distributors and retail dealers eliminating the markup of resellers and thus passing on the discounts to end user making computer priced low and affordable c. Partnering closely with suppliers. To squeeze and bring down the cost of the entire supply chain d. Expanding into add-on products and services. To capture the a bigger share of the customer’s IT budget e. Providing good customer service and technical support. f. R&D focus on meeting the needs of the customers. g. Standardizing technologies for all product offerings. h. Web Site strategy - prospective buyers could review Dell’s entire product line in detail, configure and price customized PCs, place orders, and track orders from manufacturing through shipping i. Low cost manufacturing to grow sales & market share in both the PC and server segment and expand into other product category such as flatscreen LCD TV, MP3 player, DVD drivers, printers, scanners, modems,...
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...Executive Summary This report endeavors to look at FedEx from the strategic initiative point of view and how it was able to adapt to changing business environment to improve itself. While organisations the world over have come and gone a few leave a lasting footprint on the way they have moved in the particular sector. FedEx with its various innovative ideas has left lasting footprint that has forever altered the scope of service within the logistics industry. From its humble beginnings as a delivery company, it has set itself up a global logistics and business services organisation that has shaken the belief held by behemoths regarding the level of innovation and service that they can offer to the customer base. With its out-of-box approach it has made industrial leaders like UPS, DHL etc, and look like new kids in the block. The strategic initiatives that the organisation has taken during various time a frame has exemplified the leadership ability of Mr. Smith to work toward uncertainly and how to respond to them. Introduction A general assumption regarding strategy is that executives by applying a set of tools will be able to predict a future of any business clearly enough to choose a clear strategy or direction to adopt. This overall scenarios and assumptions made usually led to a layout of vision for the future with assumed precision. However, one needs to remember that when the time ahead looks uncertain this approach is at best only helpful marginally and...
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...Defining value chain architectures: Linking strategic value creation to operational supply chain design Matthias Holweg a, Petri Helo b,n a b Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK Department of Production, Faculty of Technology, University of Vaasa, Finland art ic l e i nf o Article history: Received 31 May 2012 Accepted 13 June 2013 Available online 28 June 2013 Keywords: Value chain Supply chain management Operations strategy a b s t r a c t Over the past three decades scholars have developed comprehensive insights into the operational and strategic aspect of designing and managing the supply chain. Reviewing this ample body of knowledge however one cannot help but notice a persistent disunion between the “value chain” view that considers aspects of value creation and appropriation, and the operational “supply chain” view that considers strategies and tools for designing and operating efficient inter-firm networks. Commonly these views do not interact: value creation has the aim of capturing the maximum value-added in financial terms, the supply chain view aims for designing operationally efficient supply chains. In contrast to their treatise within the academic literature, from a practical point of view these two aspects are both necessary (and thus in their own right insufficient) components to a firm's supply chain strategy. In this paper we thus turn to an exploratory case study to identify what such a combined view of the value and supply chain would entail...
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...From Followers to Market Leaders: Asian Electronics Firms in the Global Economy Henry Wai-chung Yeung Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, 1 Arts Link, Singapore 117570 (Tel: 65-6516 6810; Fax: 65-6777 3091; Email: HenryYeung@nus.edu.sg; Homepage: http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/geoywc/henry.htm) Forthcoming in Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Vol.48(1), pp.1-30, 2007. Acknowledgement An earlier version of this paper was presented as the Asia Pacific Viewpoint Lecture at the International Geographical Union Regional Congress, Brisbane, Australia, 3-7 July 2006. I would like to thank Asia Pacific Viewpoint and the editor, Warwick Murray, for inviting and funding me to deliver the lecture. Conference participants also offered some useful comments. The paper was subsequently revised and reworked while I was a Visiting Researcher at the International Centre for the Study of East Asian Development (ICSEAD), Kitakyushu, Japan, 10 July to 9 September 2006. I am very grateful to ICSEAD for its generous Visiting Researcher scheme and ICSEAD colleagues for their comments on an earlier version of this paper that was presented at an ICSEAD public seminar and appeared as an ICSEAD Working Paper (No.2006-16). Further helpful comments from anonymous reviewers are much appreciated. The NUS Academic Research Fund (R-109-000-050-112) supports the research project underpinning this paper. I am grateful to all corporate and institutional interviewees for their generosity and helpfulness...
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...Analysis of Global Production Networks within Consumer Electronic Industry. Introduction A diagnostic characteristic of contemporary globalization is that the component parts of the world economy are increasingly interconnected in qualitatively different ways from the past. Another way of saying this is that the world economy consists of tangled webs of production circuits and networks that cut through, and across, all geographical scales, including the bounded territory of the state. It is too simple to just define the global production networks, that involving a process of production, distribution and consumption of commodities, goods and services, as technical-economic mechanisms (Coe, Dicken and Hess, 2008). More than this oversimplified conceptual framework, Levy (2008) argues GPN as ‘simultaneously economic and political phenomena . . . organizational fields in which actors struggle over the construction of economic relationships, governance structures, institutional rules and norms, and discursive frames . . . GPNs thus exist within the ‘‘transnational space’’ that is constituted and structured by transnational elites, institutions, and ideologies’. In Levy’s theory, we can find out that more than a economic process of productions, GPNs is also a ‘social’ and ‘cultural’ phenomena in which the geographically differentiated political and social cultural circumstance are also shaped (Coe, Dicken and Hess, 2008). Considering the consumer electronic industry in particular...
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...rain_c02_034-069hr.qxd 28-09-2009 13:18 Page 34 CHAPTER 2 1. Describe the components of computer-based information systems. 2. Describe the various types of information systems by breadth of support. 3. Identify the major information systems that support each organizational level. 4. Describe strategic information systems (SISs) and explain their advantages. 5. Describe Porter’s competitive forces model and his value chain model and explain how IT helps companies improve their competitive positions. 6. Describe five strategies that companies can use to achieve competitive advantage in their industries. 7. Describe how information resources are managed and discuss the roles of the information systems department and the end users. Information Systems: Concepts and Management LEARNING OBJECTIVES rain_c02_034-069hr.qxd 28-09-2009 13:18 Page 35 WEB RESOURCES Student Web site www.wiley.com/college/rainer • Web quizzes • Lecture slides in PowerPoint • Author podcasts • Interactive Case: Ruby’s Club assignments WileyPLUS • All of the above and... • E-book • Manager Videos • Vocabulary flash cards • Pre- and post-lecture quizzes • Microsoft Office 2007 lab manual and projects • How-to animations for Microsoft Office • Additional cases CHAPTER OUTLINE 2.1 Types of Information Systems 2.2 Competitive Advantage and Strategic Information Systems 2.3 Why Are Information Systems Important to Organizations and Society? 2.4 Managing Information Resources ...
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...SG C1 True/False Indicate whether the statement is true or false. __T_ 1. IBM defines electronic business as "the transformation of key business processes through the use of Internet technologies." ___T_ 2. A transaction is an exchange of value. ___F_ 3. A transaction always has one or more activities associated with it, and an activity will always be related to a transaction. __T__ 4. Transferring funds, placing orders, sending invoices, and shipping goods to customers are all types of activities or transactions. __F__ 5. Business-to-consumer electronic commerce occurs when a person sells an item through a Web auction site to another person. __T__ 6. The U.S. government is one of the largest EDI trading partners in the world. __T__ 7. Firms such as Walmart and General Electric have been pioneers in using EDI to improve their purchasing processes and their relationships with suppliers. __T__ 8. A value added network (VAN) is an independent firm that offers connection and transaction-forwarding services to buyers and sellers engaged in EDI. __T__ 9. The increase in broadband connections in homes is a key element in the B2C component of the second wave. __T__ 10. In some cases, business processes use traditional commerce activities very effectively, and technology cannot improve upon them. __F__ 11. The skills of merchandising and personal selling can be easy to practice remotely. __F__ 12. A small-denomination item...
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... Identify the components of the value chain and explain its extended version. * Describe how information systems apply to competitive strategies for business. * Explain how information systems apply to strategy for nonprofit organizations and governments. * Explain why the role of information systems in organizations shifts depending on whether the systems are deployed to run, grow, or transform the business. * Solutions to Chapter Review Questions 1. What are the five competitive forces that shape industry competition? How are these forces interrelated? The five forces that influence industry competition are (1) threat of new entrants, (2) power of buyers, (3) power of suppliers, (4) threat of substitutes, and (5) rivalry among existing competitors. The five forces determine industry structure and how profitable companies in the industry will be. The five interrelated forces are “internal” to the industry. 2. How do disruptive innovations, government policies, complementary products and services, and environmental events affect how the competitive forces operate? Disruptive innovations, government policies, complimentary products and services, and environmental are “external” forces that affect how the five forces operate. For example, certain innovations can flood through an industry, changing everything in their path, forcing every company to change its strategy. 3. What are the components of the value chain? Which components comprise the primary...
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...ssing strategic alliances – both with traditional supply chain partners as well as with long-time competitors. As well, it has proved its worth at companies far removed from the relatively slow-clockspeed, manufacturing-intensive automotive industry. This paper describes the analysis process, the decision model, and the resulting improved process for value chain strategy at GMPT. The value analysis process emphasizes the need to balance quantitative financial considerations with less-easily quantifiable strategic issues. This model not only provided key decision support for value chain strategy, but also formed the foundation of a fast-response capability to emergent and disruptive strategic challenges. We describe why such a capability is of critical importance not only to companies such as General Motors, buy also to companies in very fast clockspeed industries such as on-line music and entertainment. Arvin Mueller, Group Vice-President of GM Powertrain from 1997 through 2001, comments on the Value Chain Strategy and its role in the strategic governance of GM’s global powertrain operations: Without a structured process for value chain strategy and formation, dealing with a rapidly changing business model in a huge, complex, and global industry provides only a hit-or-miss destiny. A systems approach to value chain strategy led to a partitioning of “Knowledge Assets” and “Supply Capabilities” within the vast business of engineering and manufacturing engines, transmissions...
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