Sustaining Competitive Advantage

Sustaining competitive advantage in the face of the dynamic global environment is difficult. As a supply chain expert, evaluate the opportunities and threats of supply chain strategy in the global business environment. Outline how these threats can be mitigated.

1.1 An overview of Globalization, Supply Chain Management and Competitive Advantage.

Globalization to a large extent has taken charge in today’s business communities from all fields of business. Globalization is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas and other aspects of culture (Available at: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization [Assessed on June 6th, 2015]). In today’s struggle to become the best when it comes to effectively and efficiently moving businesses to a level where a business becomes absolutely untouchable has become almost impossible due to the fast growing economy at large.

The linkage between globalization and supply chain creates a more serious issue as supply chain runs through all forms of business in today’s business such that the absence of an effective supply chain management system creates huge problems both in meeting business goals and satisfying customers. Supply chain is a network of entities that starts with the suppliers’ supplier and end with the customers’ customer for the production and delivery of goods and services (Lee and Ng, 1997). It is very important to note that issues of proper supply chain management are taken seriously as it;

• Adds value throughout the entire organization’s business processes

• Creates competitive advantage

• Decreased time to market and reducing logistics costs (Fawcett et al. 2008).

• Cuts off wastage and enhances a cost effective business operation

• Improves quality and timely delivery of finished goods

• Helps in the creation of good outsourcing strategy

• Helps to tackle economic fluctuations (Heng et al., 2005)

• Helps an organization to effectively focus on...