Case Study: Apple Inc.

 Just in Time is and inventory system which aims at procuring raw materials and labor and
when required without investing in storing.
 Tim Cook introduce JIT to apple in 1999 to reduce flow time during production.
 JIT improve production and efficiency by ensuring production only when the goods are
needed
 The production process begins with sourcing raw materials from suppliers.
 Raw material are them shipped to manufacturing plants in China for assembly.
 The products that move to intermediate warehouses via UPS/ FedEx or warehouses in
Elk Grove California.
 The products then moves to retailers or directly from the manufacture to the consumers.
 The final step the apples supply chain model is Warranty Return and Recycle/Reuse.
 Re-sellers of apple products may double-deal and sell goods from Apple’s competitors.
 Apples constantly runs the risk of inventory becoming obsolete with the introductions of
superior new technology

Case Study #1
 This case study explores the operations and supply chain management at Amazon
 Amazon is a Seattle-based multinational company founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos,
Current CEO.
 Amazons supply chain management depends on the presences warehouses that provide
easy access of goods to the customers.
 The main advantages of selling books via online platforms is the limited need for spaces
and physical locations for running the business
 Amazons supply chain system does not allow the company to stock goods because it will
risk stocking products that are not in high demand.
 Brick-and-Mortar business can enjoy various advantages of using online platforms
include 24/7 availability and an unlimited collection of books.
 Online sales of diapers has an advantage of flexible prices and a disadvantage of the
inability of customers to fit the products they bought.
 The online channel is most effective when retailing mainstream products including
movies, music, videos, podcast, and non-perishable goods that do not require massive
storage.

Case Study #2
 Zara is a Spanish Apparel company established in 1974 with its headquarters situated in
Galicia, Spain.
 The company’s global distribution centre known as the cube controls all the chain supply
management activities including manufacturing and distributions
 The company also depends on different global suppliers to sales its products to different
parts of the world.
 The responsive supply chain of the company puts it at a position of advantage since it
allows it to respond swiftly to the needs of the customers.
 All the manufacturing at Zara takes place in Europe despite Asia being cheaper.
 The company sources its raw material from the local area to facilitate swift response to
the demands.
 The online sales system is suitable for Zara because it enables the company meet the
customer demands

Case Study #3
 This cases study is about the operations and supply management at Toyota.
 Toyota is a Japanese automotive manufacture established in 1937 by Kiicharo Toyoda
and currently the largest car manufacture in the world
 Toyota manufacturing approach take the form of lean manufacturing that Just-in-Time
manufacturing.
 Companies should locates their manufacturing plants in different areas around the world
in case they have redundant factories or natural disasters disrupt normal manufacturing.
 Plants should be expanded to cater for the international market in case demand in the
local market dwindles.
 The main approach to consider when allocate markets to plants is the co-locations
strategy to limit the risks associated with a specific market.
 The flexibility approach that should be considered for a distributions system is that which
provides considers all the market areas.
 The value of flexibility should be primarily measured based on cost reduction and the
limited fluctuation prices.
 Increasing flexibility requires maximizing interchangeability between the market and car
models.

Case Study #4
 This case study explore the supply chain challenges at LeapFrog.
 The company was established in 1995 by Andy Kapur and it is widely considered to be a
top five company that changes the word.
 The company made the right decisions regarding its supply chain management which
resulted in the company making $553 million from its production.
 The company primarily depends on the data on the sates of Toys R Us to makes
forecasts.
 The production moulding process is a part of the productions process that limits the
output levels in the company
 Air shipping and special fast shipping were the primary changes in the company’s
logistics increasing the shipment cost by $10 - $15.
 Finding an alternative shipping approach could provide a solution for the company’s
challenges.

Case Study #5
 This case Study is about the supply Chain Management at W.W. Grainger and
McMaster-Carr.
 Grainger was founded by William Wallace with the primary objective of providing
motors to consumers.
 The company’s business model is structured on a business to business model instead of
business to consumers. Also, the company is a maintenance, repair and operation supplies
implying that it does not have a manufacturing cycle.
 Grainger consumers Purchase products directly from DC/ Retailer/ Retail Store/online
while in McMaster-Carr, DC and retailers are the same.
 MRO centres should use distribution centres as cross docking centres so that suppliers
supply goods to a specific distribution centres.
 Web orders should be handled by integrating the distributions channels of both
companies and develop an electronic data interchange system for sharing sales data
distribution channel.
 Mixed transportations could prove the most effective method given that suppliers will not
charge transit cost if same vehicles are used for transportations.

Case Study #6
 This case study is on the supply and chain management that compared supply chain
management of Apple and Gateway.
 Getaway is a hardware manufacturing company that produces computers and was
founded in 1985.
 Apple is an American electronic company that designs develops and sales electronic
devices.
 Getaway opted not to handle any of its products in its retail store to limit the cost of
inventory management and meet the demand of the consumers in the market.
 Apple chose to carry inventory in its stores to fulfil the demands of consumers at the
instances when the need products.
 The decision of an organisations to hold inventory of finished goods depends on the
preferences of the customers.
 Products that should carried in finished-goods inventory includes those that have low
inventory cost.
 The effectiveness of direct selling supply chain compared to supply chains with retail
store depends on various factors including the types of products and the cost of
developing the IT infrastructure.
 Case Study #7
 This case study is about the operations and supply management at Catharine’s
Confectionaries.
 Catharine’s Confectionaries was established by Catharine Horton an expert cook who
specializes in desserts.
 The primary type of customers that the organizations serves includes business-to-
business, and walk in.
 The decisions to create spaces for walk in customers for her to hire unskilled labour that
require extra training.
 The performance dimensions significantly affected by her decisions the compromise of
quality of services and the wastage of time in training.
 Other performance dimension affected is the flexibility of services and the increase in the
cost of operations.
 Resolving the problems at Catharine’s Confectionaries requires Catherine to develop a
business strategy that reduces the cost of production.
 Catharine’s Confectionaries should also hire skilled labour to restore the quality of
services that guarantees customer retention and reduces time spent on training.

Case Study #8
 This case study is about operations and supply chain at Nike particularly the changes and
challenges in the sportswear industry.
 Nike was founded as Blue Ribbon Sports created between 1964 and 1978 and
headquartered in Oregon.
 The objective of the company was to produce high quality athletic shoes for the US
market.
 The company has undergone significant transformation in different periods of its
operations including before and after the ecommerce era as well as during the social
communication area
 The sales, cost of sales, SGA, and net incomes of the company have significantly
increases with the changes in the different eras of the company’s operations.
 The introductions of ecommerce has be pivotal in the financial success that the company
has enjoyed over the recent years.
 The company’s success can also be attributed to aggressive marketing and the investment
of R&D to create new superior quality products which guaranteed the company a
significant positions in the international market.

Case Study #9
 This case study is about ecommerce.
 Ecommerce involves handling various business through the online platforms
 The benefits of this approach is cost reduction.
 The most critical commitment to ecommerce is developing and ecommerce platform such
particularly a website
 The biggest challenges associated with ecommerce is creating a secure environment for
conducting business transactions.
 The success of ecommerce depend on the maintaining the website to ensure that user
have a pleasant experience.
 The major tips of ecommerce require developing close relationship with customers, use
existing technology and maintaining security in the website.
 The main advantage of ecommerce is saving time, saving cost, and global scalability.
 The downside to ecommerce is security, restrictions and the resistance by customers to
use the new technology a company introduces.

Case Study #10

 This case study explore the implementations of ecommerce at Alibaba.
 Alibaba was founded in 1999 by A Chinese entrepreneur named Jack Ma.
 The company has grown to become the biggest ecommerce platform in the entire world.
 Block chain involves the use of cryptography to provide data security for data shared
online.
 Advantages of the block chain is that the customer participates in every part of the supply
chain.
 Another advantage is that the revenues for organizations significantly increase as a result
of financing working capital
 The final advantages is that block chain provides additions financial services for example
currency exchange.
 The impact of block chain is an increase in sales by 9.66% between 2013 and 2017.
 Block chain can significantly improve the profitability of online commerce.

Case Study #11

 This case study compares the concept of responsiveness and efficient in the supply chain
management at Sports Obermeyer.
 Responsiveness is the capacity of a supply chain to response appropriately and timely to
the consumer needs and changes in the market.
 Sports Obermeyer is a sportswear company located in Aspen, Colorado and was
established in 1947.
 The challenges that Sports Obermeyer faces includes long lead times, global supply
chain, export control laws and, allocation of production factories.
 Efficiency measures how an organization maximizes the use of its resources.
 Reducing the lead time requires that the company merges the design and productions
department under one department.
 Another solution is to limit the number of productions style that organizations uses in its
global operations.
 Case Study #14
 This case study explores the use of ERP in the healthcare environment.
 The main benefits of ERP and EAI is cost reductions by up to 50%
 Another benefits is the improvement of collaboration in the company
 One key issue with ERP and EAI is the cost of implementations of these system
particularly for small companies.
 Implementations was met with initial negative reaction to change because of the
disruptions it caused to the usual operations of healthcare facilities.
 Enough transitions period should be allowed following the introductions of the new
system.
 Top management of healthcare organizations supported the implementation of ERP and
EAI

Case Study #15

 This case study is about the impact of implementing the ERP system in MIE.
 MIE implemented the ERP system to cut the costs of maintaining and managing
resources as well as the cost of managing the initial system used in the company.
 Implementing the system involve the introductions of Microsoft Dynamic 365 to manage
data as the systems that the company used.
 ERP was used in the management of the company’s resources as well as managing the
personnel in the company.
 Most areas in the company have improved resulting from the implementation of ERP.
 Some areas of the company have hardly experiences any significant changed primarily
because of the lack of knowledge of how to use the new technology.
 MIE should concentrate supporting the areas of executions of ERP.

Case Study #18

 This cases study explore the supply management at Pioneer Hi-Bred International.
 The company is an agriculture company established in 1926.
 Supply management in the company depends planning, production and distribution.
 Planning involve making strategic decisions based on the informations gathered
regarding meeting the demand in the market.
 Production involves determine where to grow the seed and then growing the seeds.
 Distribution involves ensuring the products reach the final consumer.
 Activities such as inventory management, transportation and customer services are
involved in the distribution process.
 Pioneer Hi-Bred International should consider reducing 33% carryover rate to maintain a
low cost of production and meet the demand in the market.
 Pioneer Hi-Bred International should also consider growing plants locally instead of
abroad to limit extra cost associated with production in different places.