The Case Company Supply Chains

In this chapter, the background to the two case companies and the reasons for their choice are explained. The details of data collection from both companies are described, and the case companies SCs are mapped and compared. Finally, the SCM issues in the case companies are identified. 

Fourteen SMEs in China were contacted. The research involved the collection of primary data and required a considerable effort from the case companies, whilst companies were often very sensitive to data confidentiality and had limited human resources and relevant technologies to support data collection. Consequently, the choice was limited. However, two agreed to give their full support to the data collection. These companies are reasonably representative because their SCs include multiple functions and parties (e.g., many suppliers, manufacturing, private warehouse, transport companies, and many customers) in different markets. More importantly, the SC structure in the two case companies is similar in terms of information and material flows and their associated characteristics, for example, multiple uncertainties, although the scale of some uncertainties may be different. Additionally, these two manufacturers are located in the north and south of China, respectively, which represent alternative local economic and societal influences. The two companies are in different industries, and therefore, the investigation of their differences and similarities can contribute to the process of model generalisation. 

Case company B was founded in 2003, and its headquarters are located in Jiangxi province in Southern China. It was a Sino-foreign joint venture specialising in the manufacturing of fine chemicals, pharmaceutical intermediate, pesticide intermediate and dye intermediate. It had about 150 employees with annual sales of 10 million. The SC chosen as a case study was one of the company s production SCs (requiring three main raw materials), the finished goods supply for many other chemical companies. Case company B s SC was more complicated because of the special requirements of the raw materials storage and transportation. This case company also had an international SC, which interacted with its domestic SC. 

The data was collected through its SCM application. The cost data was collected by the cost application. The case companies issues and SCs were investigated by interviews and manufacturing management application. 

The interviews involved 63 questions, which were based on an imderstanding of the general information of the case company and the SC process mapping requirements, for example, the information flows, material flows, financial flows, the SC members, coordinated management, SCP and SC uncertainty. Meanwhile, in order to collect the cost related information, the companies were asked to complete Table 4.1. 

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This chapter builds on the Chapter 10 case study company. Acme, as an example where QFD can aid the design of supply chain processes. For... 

The many activities to be conducted on the performance Y, such as order logging, order clarification, design, work preparation, allocation, selection of suppliers, procurement, incoming merchandise, quality assurance, preparation of all production documents and inventory, planning and readiness of capacity, production, storage, assembly, start-up operation, acceptance, shipping, transport to the customer, and in the case of single item producers, also the set up, start-up operation and acceptance on site are to be understood as the performance processes to be accelerated, i.e. the intra-corporate supply chain. Each of these activities are to be implemented and coordinated so as to ensure that a maximum overall company result is achieved. 

Another path proceeds up the vertical axis. Supply chain partners lay out rules for cost sharing before any move to implement the policies. This situation is most likely to occur in the case of cooperating, coequal companies in the supply chain. A new jointly developed product requiring considerable investment by each partner is an example. 

The case company s growth and evolving supply chain requirements have mandated that the company take the following actions ... 

The supply chain risk profiles identified by the researchers have been validated in a workshop with the case company representatives. In addition, the requirements for the methodology have been derived. All four partners agree that any practical and useful approach to managing risks in their supply chains must be designed to meet their specific needs. These risk requirements can be classified into those related to the scope of the approach, its objectives and implementation. Table 13.2 summarises the complete list of requirements. 

In the given case study, it is possible to introduce additional terms into this comparison which may look at energy implications such as process machinery and infrastructure life cycle energy costs, warranty repair, supply chain PSS, for example, depending on the company s scope and business model. 

The case study demonstrated how the company can use the developed model in decision support. Having implementing the global value chain planning process and model the company could significantly improve overall profitability of the business. Specifically, the spot price mechanism used to better coordinate sales and supply decisions showed a significant impact for the company. 

Even on the basis of these very rough distinctions, the possibilities for action and restrictions on action for companies can be better comprehended in the case studies, by looking at the markets in which they are active. These competitive conditions constitute a broad scope for impact and vulnerabilities for companies or supply chains with regard to external factors that are closely related to effects arising from their position within the supply chain. 

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