Ford Supply Chain Management Strategy Case Study : Ford Supply Chain Strategy

The Ford Motor Company’s Supply Chain Management ABSTRACT The influx of foreign automobiles that flood the United States market is higher than ever before and American companies are struggling to adapt to this decrease in market share. Ford is one of the organizations that has restructured its supply chain strategy to better integrate suppliers into their system reducing cost and

Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Volume 7, Number 5, 2002, pp. 271 – 282;

This essay is to discuss the supply network of a product of a specific brand. The supply network means setting an operation in the context of all the other operations with which it interacts. Ford Motor Company is the best example to illustrate the supply network better. So, before illustrate the supply network, let’s talking about ford Motor Company. Ford Motor Company founded by Henry Ford in June 16, 1903. It is an American multinational automaker. Its headquarters are in Dear-born, Michigan, United states. But Ford Motor Company isn’t the first one to build or make a car. The industry of making a car had a long journey. The automobile industry started in the 1890s. The United States was the leader in total automobile production. After World War II, China was the top in producing automobile. China almost doubled the US production, and Japan was in third place. In the whole world, there were about 806 million cars on the road in 2007. The essay will illustrate everything about the company.

The supply chain management is considered as a management concept from past two decades as the customers are concerned about timely and safe delivery. The competitiveness has been increasing among the companies to deliver the products as quickly as possible to the customers all around the world. This has made the supply chain management as a vital tool for the management. This is also measured as a competitive parameter for the companies.

The topic selected is (Strategic Procurement & Supply Chain Management). For this study, we have selected Toyota Motor Corporations as our company of choice. Toyota is without doubt the best in the world, with its many philosophies and principles on how to make the best out of the least; JIT, lean production and elimination of waste and the desire for continuous improvement are just a few ways how Toyota has become the best in the auto industry. Toyota as a name, a company, and as a brand has become synonymous with Quality.

Nearly from the beginning Ford has been a leader in supply chain. In the early part of the 20th century when there was shortage of materials on account of the world war, it resulted in stalling of the assembly lines.

I spend pretty long time analyzing Ford’s current existing supply chain condition. I immediately became aware of its highly complex environment. This high level of complexity combined with other external and internal factors. These factors push Ford to search for the best solutions in order to overcome the costly supply chain issues that they are facing and may continue encounter in the future. Ford’s major challenges in their current supply chain system is:

As director of Supply Chain Systems, Teri Takai recommends implementing virtual integration strategies from companies like Dell to portions of Ford’s supply chain strategy. Although there are several key differences between the companies, the restructuring plans of Ford 2000 have set a viable foundation to implement Dell’s virtual integration strategy in inventory management, customer service and support and suppliers’ management. The redesign of the process must include design not only of the supply chain but also of fulfillment, forecasting, purchasing, and a variety of other functions that historically been considered independently within the Ford hierarchy. Teri

Ford Motor Company is facing a major decision with regards to its supply chain strategy moving forward. The underlying question is, “how should the company use emerging information technologies and ideas from new high-tech industries to change the way it interacted with suppliers?”. Within Ford, there are 2 major, and opposing views. First, there are those that feel strongly that Ford should follow Dell’s model of “virtual integration” (reaping the benefits of vertical integration without vertically integrating) – using the model to communicate effectively with its suppliers, achieve and focus on inventory velocity, and allow its component suppliers to specialize. The other group believed that the Dell model would not

2) What advantages does Dell derive from virtual integration? How important are these advantages in the auto business?

b) For each mode of sourcing that Zara uses (as indicated by your answer to Question 5a), explain why they have chosen this mode, and also indicate when Zara uses it and for which types of items.

For Peer Review Technological change, information processing and supply chain integration: a conceptual model Journal: Benchmarking: an International Journal Manuscript ID: BIJ-06-2015-0064 Manuscript Type: Original Article Keywords: Technological Innovation, Supply chain management, Research and development, Emerging markets, Manufacturing strategy Benchmarking: an International Journal For Peer Review 1 Technological change, information processing and supply chain integration: A conceptual model • Purpose: Technologies change quickly in the automotive industry.

Supply chain management refers to management of the movement of goods and services from one point to another. It also involves storage and flow of raw materials and manufactured products from the point of production to the point of consumption. There are several concepts and theories in the field of supply chain management. This paper seeks to explore various theories and concepts of supply chain management and how such theories impact various industries.

Unique position in automotive industry: there is public excitement for the vehicles Tesla manufactures. Tesla has a climbing interest among investors as that population continues to grow and the company’s value is increasing with the development of a sound financial strategy for future value. The intangible appeal of the Tesla car product is the high-value of a new company projecting market confidence.

• Describe and critically analyze the supply chain management practices employed by both of these companies.