Supply Chain Performance Analysis
This article brings to light the supply chain performance analysis of Dow Jones Industrial Average Indexed Firms and the top fifty supply chain firms and the importance of supply chain to students as well. The firms analyzed ranged from chemical, food/beverage, high-tech, and retail. Notably, the article highlights that the information derived from this analysis would easily be used in discussing the industry characteristics as well as supply chain classification. Moreover, the article explains the importance of integrating supply chain and accounting, which goes a long way in helping students both to generate supply chain metrics such as ITR and DOR and, more importantly, in computing the supply chain metrics. The article asserts that the DJIA firms evaluated by Gartner only consists of the 30 largest listed in the New York stock exchange and it does not take into account and financial institution because they don’t engage intangible products.
Most importantly, however, the article explains that the importance of the analysis is that it helps students in understanding the differences and supply chain strategies among industries since the analysis takes into consideration all the industries. In addition, the article explains the importance of basic accounting principles (balance sheet and income statement) in determining the size of the firm. At the same time, the article gives a clear picture of the supply chain classifications. It further differentiates clearly the difference between the most common manufacturing strategies that firms often engage in, and they include; Make-to stock, Assemble -to-order, and Make-to-order. Lastly, the article explains the two types of products, which are the functional and innovative products, as well as the tasks to be accomplished by the instructors, which includes theoretical discussions, data collection, and discussions on the cost structure.
The article resonates or rather relates well with the operations and supply chain topics. The article addresses the strategies used by the top 50 firms in a bid to expand its market share. The article also looks into or rather explains the importance of background knowledge, and this clearly depicts what we learned on the operations and supply chain topic.
As an operations manager, the article’s explanation on the need to integrate accounting skills with the supply chain as well as the supply chain strategies brought forward by the article will go a long way in helping me develop and come up with the best strategies and in determining the size of the firm.