Classmates Responses-

     John Coyle points out that a supply chain directly impacts the financial health of any

organization (Coyle, 2017). Organizations will be faced with a hard decision on how to structure

their supply chain to best meet the needs of their customer and still make a profit for the

organization. For example, if you build your supply chain to rapidly meet the needs of your

customers as fast as possible, then you will have higher logistics costs and a lower profit margin.

On the other hand, if you design your supply chain to save the most money in logistics costs to

achieve the highest profit margin, then you’ll sacrifice some level of customer service.

     Additionally, the level of inventory you maintain in your warehouses will also directly affect

the amount of capital your organization can maintain (Coyle, 2017). If you choose to carry more

inventory with higher levels of safety stock, then you will reduce the amount of capital your

organization can have on hand. However, if you choose to reduce the amount of inventory you

carry and apply a just-in- time logistics approach you will increase the amount of capital your

organization can retain.

     Karen Bursa wrote an excellent article discussing how an organization can balance logistics

costs and customer service (Bursa, 2011). In her article, she points out that a customer’s

expectations are the key to deciding the level of customer service that needs to be provided by

your supply chain to meet their expectations (Bursa, 2011). She discusses how important it is to

provide visibility of the customer’s order to help manage their expectations. In conclusion, by

establishing your customer’s expectations early on, you can design your supply chain to meet

their needs for the lowest possible price in the highest profit margin.

References

Bursa, Karen (2011, September). Balancing Cost and Service. Supply and Demand Chain

Executive. Retrieved from http://www.sdcexec.com/article/10365260/balancing-cost- and-

service.

Coyle, J.J., Langley, C.J., Novack, R.A., & Gibson, B.J. (2017). Supply Chain Management: A

Logistics Perspective. (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

DQ #2: There are seven factors in the successful development of supply chain metrics.

Name them, and select any two to discuss in more detail.

     John Coyle has several suggestions for developing a successful supply chain metrics program

(Coyle, 2017). They are as follows (Coyle, 2017):

1. Develop a metrics program that is a team effort.

2. Involve customers and suppliers, where appropriate, in the metrics development process.

3. Develop a tiered structure for the metrics (Key Performance Indicators).

4. Identify who owns each metric and correlate their ability or inability to achieve the metric’s

goals to their performance evaluation.

5. Establish conflict resolution procedures that can arise from implementing or developing

metrics.

6. Establish supply chain metrics that support corporate strategy.

7. Establish executive level support for the development of a supply chain metrics program.

     Jeff Wallingford wrote an excellent article that discusses how to establish supply chain

metrics that will support corporate strategy (Wallingford, 2011). In his article he discusses the

importance of identifying areas of the corporate strategy that are enabled by your supply chain

(Wallingford, 2011). Once you identify those areas the next step is to establish specific and

measurable goals for your supply chain to meet that corporate strategy. Finally, you must design

and implement performance metrics that will measure the supply chain’s ability to meet those

goals (Wallingford, 2011). In summary, it is important to align your supply chain performance

metrics and the measurable goals of your supply chain with corporate strategy to optimize the

supply chain and grow it with the pace of your the parent corporation.

     Rob Handfield wrote an excellent article about conflict resolution in supply chains

(Handfield, 2004). In his article he points out that procurement activities is where most conflicts

will typically occur in supply chains (Handfield, 2004). Although conflicts can occur in any area

in a supply chain, it is most frequent in procurement of gift giving. The giving and receiving of

gifts between suppliers and businesses is often perceived as a conflict of interest (Handfield,

2004). To combat this, some organizations have clear and defined rules and establish boundaries

as to what is acceptable and what is not. However, to enforce these rules employees must have a

clearly defined procedure to report any violations. Conversely, if an organization does not have

any establish rules for the receiving and giving of gifts, then the potential for conflict is greatly

increased.

References

Coyle, J.J., Langley, C.J., Novack, R.A., & Gibson, B.J. (2017). Supply Chain Management: A

Logistics Perspective. (10th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Handfield, Rob (2004, July). Conflict of Interest – A Hot Topic. Supply Chain Resource

Cooperative. Retrieved from https://scm.ncsu.edu/scm-articles/article/conflict- of-interest- a-hot-

topic.

Wallingford, Jeff (2011, May). Six Steps to Align Supply Chain with Corporate Strategy.

Industry Week. Retrieved from http://www.industryweek.com/leadership/six-steps- align-supply-

chain-corporate- strategy. Stephen,