Iscom 370

Supply Chain Management

Implications of Making a Change

By:

James Anthony

University of Phoenix

Supply Chain Management: Implications of Making a Change

Supply chain management in nearly all organizations must continuously look to the future of the company and stakeholder interests and weigh these factors with the current status of the organizations supply chain. Changes in the supply chain process are unavoidable if a company wishes to maintain the pace of the modern business market. Coca-Cola and Walmart have both become aware of and made changes to supply chain processes to do just that.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola used the same supply chain for 100 years. Individual and smaller bottling companies would bottle and distribute product to individual stores. In 2006, Coca-Cola was receiving many complaints from stores about having empty shelves because of the inability of the bottlers to keep up with demand and having less than adequate logistics for delivery. After 100 years, it was said that “fears of conflict with Wal-Mart, the world's largest supermarket group, is said to have led to the change in procurement methods,” (Supplychainer.com, 2006). Legal and ethical concerns were raised by the bottlers who claimed that Coca-Cola would be damaging their business by taking this part of the supply chain out of the bottler’s hands. However, Coca-Cola representatives pointed out that if the bottler’s had kept up in the first place, the issue would not have surfaced. Globalization has played a large part of this calamity as demand continues to rise as the world gets closer together. This is the cause of the bottler’s problem. Yet, if the bottler’s had taken the time and effort to properly maintain their supply chain management; the companies may have found solutions and kept this portion of the business in their control. E-business solutions for Coca-Cola have not affected the supply chain in the company’s product, but have definitely affected other...