Chapter 3 Strategic Initiative For Implementing Competitive Advantages

CHAPTER 3

3.1    List and describe the four basic components of supply chain management

3.1.1 List and describe the four basic components of supply chain management

§  Supply chain strategy is the strategy for managing all the resources required to meet customer demand for all products and services

§  Supply chain partners are the partners chosen to deliver finished products, raw materials, and services including pricing, delivery, and payment processes along with partner relationship monitoring metrics

§  Supply chain operation is the schedule for production activities including testing, packaging, and preparation for delivery

§  Supply chain logistics is the product delivery processes and elements including orders, warehouses, carriers, defective product returns, and invoicing

3.2    Explain customer relationship management systems and how they can help organizations understand their customer

3.2.1 Explain customer relationship management systems and how they can help organizations understand their customers

§  CRM is not just technology, but a strategy, process, and business goal that an organization must embrace on an enterprise wide level.  If an organization does not embrace CRM on an enterprise wide level it will have a difficult time gaining a complete view of its customers.  CRM can enable an organization to identify types of customers, design specific marketing campaigns tailored to each individual customer, and understand customer-buying behaviors.

3.3    Summarize the importance of enterprise resource planning systems

3.3.1 Summarize the importance of enterprise resource planning systems

§  Enterprise resource planning systems provide organizations with consistency. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) integrates all departments and functions throughout an organization into a single IT system (or integrated set of IT systems) so that employees can make decisions by viewing enterprise wide information on all business operations. An ERP system provides a method for effective planning and controlling of all the resources required to take, make, ship, and account for customer orders in a manufacturing, distribution, or service organization. The key word in enterprise resource planning is enterprise.

3.4    Identify how an organization can use business process re-engineering to improve its business

3.4 Identify how an organization can use business process re-engineering to improve its business

§  The purpose of BPR is to make all your processes the best-in-class. Companies frequently strive to improve their business processes by performing tasks faster, cheaper, and better. Companies often follow the same indirect path for doing business, not realizing there might be a different, faster, and more direct way of doing business. BPR provides companies with a way to find the different, more direct way of doing business, such as Progressive Insurance.

If your students are unfamiliar with business processes have them review plug-in B2 – Business Processes for a detailed look at common business processes, business process modeling, continuous improvement, and business process re-engineering.