Procurement/Supply Management - DELL

Abstract

Globalization is one of the greatest motivators that have changed management structure and supply chains in the world. These changes have been gaining ground in global competition among several companies aiming to establish their existence in the world market. Dell Computers has faced a series of victories and has always tried to establish an n integrated framework of supply chains to ensure that its suppliers and customers remain satisfied at all times. With numerous efforts, Dell today is now able to successfully stand in the market and deliver the best to its people. Dell has developed a framework of integrated supply chain that are managed successfully and which has helped the company to be known as the best supply chain manager on the planet. The purpose of this paper is emphasize on the factors and elements for configuration management of supply chains composed of three elements combined, business processes, components and architecture that change according to the changes occurring in the competitive environment and how does Dell effectively deals with its supply chain management processes.

Abstractii

Introduction1

Discussion1

Perceptions about Supply Chain Management1

Opportunities offered by SCM2

Dell Computers2

Stimulating growth with acquisitions at Dell3

Supply chain management at Dell4

Understanding Dell's strategy5

Can this strategy work for small to medium sized businesses?5

Importance of proper information channels6

Tapping into innovation to reach emerging markets6

Dell's Future7

Conclusion7

References8

Procurement/Supply Management

Introduction

The two decades, 1980 to 2000, are marked by revolutionary marketing concepts which brought about a major change in how the organizations operated. With this, came the concepts of lean production, JIT, KANBAN, KAIZEN, QFD etc. These concepts were instantly adopted by the emerging economies as they brought about a big change in the quality and productivity of the outputs (Blanchard, 2010). The integrated logistitcs system emerged in the 80s to cater to the increasing demands of best performance and output in logistics. Still in the evolving stage, integrated logistics system has become an integrated part of the manufacturing organizations in developed countries (Blanchard, 2010). After this, emerged the concept of Supply Chain Management (SCM). On the globe, there are many countries which have been able to successfully implement SCM into their organizations. A few professionals consider this concept an extended concept of integrated logistics, the only difference being the new concept stretches out to the end user (UPS Supply Chain, 2005). With better concepts in Supply Chain Management, Dell Computers has been able to bring about marked success in all of its operations and has been able to capture the hearts of its stakeholders. The following paper discusses the concept of supply chain and procurement and detail with respect to the operations at Dell Computers.

Discussion

Perceptions about Supply Chain Management

From the perspective of customers, supply chains are irrelevant. All difficult negotiations about prices and conditions, all the careful synchronization of deliveries, all delays and difficulties to keep products moving in jail - none of that matters to customers (Blanchard, 2010). Most do not even know what a supply chain is, much less want to know what are the problems involved in its ...