Effectiveness of the supply chain management system at Tesco
Chapter 1: Introduction
Supply chain management is the management process in which goods and services, including the process of transiting raw materials into the final product in an organization (Christopher, 2016). Hence, supply chain activities are implemented by several organizations to increase the value of customers as well as to attain competitive advantage for their product. Tesco is a British multinational grocery and merchandise retailer situated in England, United Kingdom.
Furthermore, the organization has created and sold several products as a consistent retailer. However, the supply chain and its management have become another concern retail business. Tesco has implemented a network of warehouses and distribution centers as per the product group category in the UK (Heller, 2017). Whereas, its lean management tool is quite helpful to operations processes and management. Henceforth, it is necessary to consider how supply chain management is an important aspect that should be considered by larger organizations such as Tesco.
Importance of Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management (SCM) is a fundamental process for the organization as well as its targeted customers. Walmart and Tesco are the companies who have adopted the process of SCM seriously due to various essential aspects in context with a competitive advantage.
SCM can improvise the services offered to consumers whenever they purchase a product. Supply chain activities could increase satisfaction among customers by making products reach the right place and at the right time (Yu et al., 2013). For instance, Walmart offers products globally and in places where the public often visits. Secondly, it also offers on-time delivery for the products and services to the consumers when the demand is much higher. The better supply chain is also able to produce higher quality products for consumers. As a result, consumer loyalty could be increased due to the organization being more available and visible.
Another critical aspect of the supply chain process is a reduction in operational as well as production costs. These lower investment costs in the purchase and production could upgrade the organization’s financial position with the help of profits and cash flows (A. Smith, 2016). Henceforth, it offers organization benefits to create more useful products in a lower budget. Similarly, supply chain management has actively participated in humanity by reducing issues of environmental, health, and electricity about people (Masudin, 2019). Furthermore, supply chain activities could help increase the economy and standards of living through employment. The supply chain managers will be able to control and manage the product development processes in organizations, including inventory and logistics (Genovese et al., 2017). Therefore, supply chain management is essential as it could increase customer loyalty, human sustainability, and the economic growth of the country.
Lean Management Tools and Techniques
Lean management is defined as “a continuous and never-ending process of improvement” (Urban, 2015). It means a systematic approach is implemented inside organizations to improve their product development process in continuation rather than start-end. As per literature, there are several tools and techniques which are introduced for Lean Management.
- Lean 5s: In this technique, the objective is to minimize production’s time in looking for requirements through 5s, including sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain (McNamara, 2014). The purpose of this technique is to eliminate what is not required and offer improvements in the process effectively.
- Control Charts: Control chart is another lean approach in which a process could be controlled and stabilized. Furthermore, a comparison is made with actual performance to the current performance rate (Warner et al., 2013). Hence, it is helpful to gather different problems in the organization’s product development processes.
- Kaizen (Continuous Improvement): As the name suggests, continuous improvement is made for each process inside organizations. Additionally, the purpose is to take the present situation and analyze so that problems could be detected immediately (Kowalewski, 2016). As a result, organizations reduce some issues or defects in the development and manufacturing processes.
- Muda (Waste): The organization Toyota introduced the concept of Muda in the Toyota Production System. It a tool in which waste management is obtained for the production process. For example, the things which are irrelevant in the production process for customer value are considered wastage or Muda (Manzouri et al., 2014). Some of the Muda waste processes include errors, overproduction, waiting, inventory management, transport facilities, motion, and over-processing of any products.
- PDCA: PDCA stands for plan, do, check, and act model, which is another form of lean management technique. In the first stage, process objectives are planned and decided, followed by implementation in the doing stage. In the next stage, the results from process objectives are analyzed and improve. Finally, in the last stage, actions are taken to improve process objectives, respectively.
Project Objectives
The purpose of this dissertation is to offer insights into supply chain management activities at retail organization Tesco. As the company is massive and offers different sorts of product groups to customers, it is necessary to understand what causes its work process going. Secondly, the SCM process is an useful tool to reduce the issues related to the customer value chain. The customers who purchase products are an integrated entity for the grocery market. Therefore, an effective supply chain will offer customers and their involvement in grocery shopping.
Project Outcomes
Tesco implements a lean management tool to make their supply chain management effective. However, several concepts of the SCM process should be understood for Tesco. Therefore, project outcomes revolve around the understanding of supply chain activities on the organization’s perspectives.
Research Objectives
The research objectives will determine various approaches that are already applied in Tesco for the SCM process. Hence, the following research objectives will undertake a research study.
- Explain and define the concept of supply chain management system at retailer company Tesco.
- Understand the lean manufacturing tool, and it is critical use at Tesco organization.
- Describe what factors affect the system chain management system, and it is processed at Tesco.
- Gather the possible lacking inside SCM activities at Tesco and how those issues could be strengthened in the future.
Chosen Methodology
The qualitative methods of research are the chosen methodology for this project research. The case study research and analysis are considered an critical approach due to data availability. The content is available on the supply chain management system, and it is different processes involved. Henceforth, the chosen methodology will be mostly qualitative research showing concepts of supply chain management.
References
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