Business Finance Homework Help

The first chapter of the textbook outlines the history of industrial purchasing to demonstrate the importance of supply chain management in general and industrial purchasing in particular.

Please read Chapter 1 before posting your responses.

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1. I have a growing number of students from outside the local area. It is interesting to learn about perspectives from other cities, states, and countries.  Please provide an interesting fact about the community where you live.
2. Please discuss supply chains versus value chains for a manufacturer producing automobiles.
3. Describe the Supply Chain Umbrella for your current or future employer (See Exhibit 1.5).
4. Describe the four pillars of purchasing and supply chain management for your current or future employer See Exhibit 1.6).
5. Please read the Good Practice Example titled “Taking an Entrepreneurial Approach to Purchasing at Babson College” beginning on page 29 of the textbook)? Should purchasing managers become entrepreneurial in other industries? Why or why not?

POST 1

Introduction

Hello all! My name is Kris Rasmussen. This is my 5th semester in the UNO MBA program, and I plan to graduate this coming Spring 2022 semester. I currently work as an Administrative Support Associate in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Agronomy and Horticulture. Upon graduating, I hope to obtain a managerial position, preferably as a marketing manager. One of my favorite things to do in my free time is to play video games.

An Interesting Tidbit about My Community

As an avid gamer, I’ve noticed that Lincoln has a very large tabletop and board gaming community. There are many groups here that meet weekly to play games such as Magic the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons. In fact, there is an annual event here known as the Great Plains Game Festival where people compete in large game tournaments and network with like-minded individuals. I find it comforting and fascinating to know that one of my favorite pastimes has the power to bring people together.

An Explanation of Supply Chains vs. Value Chains for a Manufacturer Producing Automobiles

A supply chain is a link between several organizations that are connected via the integrated process of producing, shipping, and receiving products and/or services from the producer to the consumer. This means that supply chain management encompasses the coordination of processes and activities both inside and outside of the firm. Value chains, on the other hand, are both primary and secondary activities (i.e. human resources, technology development, etc.) that are designed to provide a firm with a competitive advantage. A supply chain is a component of a value chain, but not vice versa. A classic example of a supply chain in your industry is the purchase of parts (i.e. transmissions, engines, brakes, etc.) from producers, manufacturing at car manufacturing plants, and the shipping of automobiles to car dealerships who then make the final sale to the end consumer. Supporting activities in such a process would include marketing cars to potential customers and performing safety tests on manufactured cars for quality control purposes.

An Explanation of Supply Chain Umbrella for My Employer

The Supply Chain Umbrella is a set of interrelated tasks within a supply chain that keep it running effectively and efficiently. We may not realize it, but our department goes through these steps on a regular basis when ordering office supplies. First, we keep an inventory of what we have and need so we can plan a demand schedule (i.e. timing and quantity of supplies) accordingly. Then, when we need more supplies, we use a procurement card (P-Card) to purchase them from our preferred vendors. Once the order is processed, we work with the vendors to determine how the items will be shipped to us (i.e. using vendor’s own personal fleet or contracting a third-party delivery service such as FedEx, UPS, USPS, etc.). Before delivery, the supplies are tested to ensure they meet our quality standards. Once the supplies are shipped and finally arrive, we have certain office personnel receive, handle, and store the supplies in our print room. When necessary, we reach out to the vendor when we run into any issues throughout this process. As you can see, our operations fall within the 10 steps of the Supply Chain Umbrella:

• Purchasing
• Inbound Transportation
• Quality Control
• Receiving and Stores
• Material Control
• Production Planning
• Shipping/Warehouse Distribution
• Order Processing
• Customer Service
• Demand and Supply Chain Management

An Explanation of the Four Enablers of Purchasing and Supply Chain Management for My Employer

Our department’s purchasing and supply chain management practices, including the purchase of office supplies, cannot succeed without the four pillars/enablers. These are 1) capable human resources, 2) organizational design, 3) information technology, and 4) measurement. This means that our department requires competent team members who have the knowledge and skills required to successfully coordinate purchasing and supply chain management, including supplier relationship management and data/cost analysis. Moreover, our department must be structured in a way that supports successful purchasing and supply chain management, including the existence of cross-functional teams and centrally led supply teams. We must also utilize real-time technology that can handle essential supply chain functions such as demand and production planning, order/distribution/transportation scheduling, and materials replenishment. Finally, our department must have systems in place to measure how effectively we are performing purchasing and supply chain management, including analyzing data, assigning ownership and accountability, and determining how closely our process aligns with our business goals and objectives.

Why Purchasing Managers Should Become More Entrepreneurial in Other Industries

While an entrepreneurial approach may not be effective in every industry, I would argue that purchasing managers should generally become more entrepreneurial in other industries. This story had a great impact on me since I have worked in the higher education industry for several years and see first-hand on a daily basis how my institution’s traditional and bureaucratic approach to things leads to unnecessary inefficiency. This makes my job more difficult and frustrating since I must frequently answer students’ questions that more efficient systems could easily address. Moreover, as 1-2 (A New Competitive Environment) in the textbook outlines, today’s business climate is more competitive than ever with more high-quality and worldly competitors, increased customer demands, social media influence, development of artificial intelligence, and enhanced technology. To stay competitive, purchasing managers will need to rethink their traditional operations and come up with creative solutions and processes that will make their firms more valuable in the long run.

POST 2

Summer Rivera

1.

Name: Summer

Expected Graduation date: May 2023

Current Job: Office assitance ( help in the chassis department) at TSL.

Hobby: Hiking with my 10 year old dog, yes she is old but still beats everyone else.

2.

I live in Omaha, which an interesting fact about Omaha was orginally know for the railroads in the late 1800’s.

3.

Supply chain for manufactorers producing automoblies may focus more on defects. They may improve there systems with in the warehouse and maybe outside to make sure all final products leaving the warehouse have zero defects to meet. Out all of the cars that pass throught they strive for zero defects. Also planed for what works best for the facility rather it is JIT delivery or they is storage that they can use. While these system help bring value to the company they are not like the value chain. The value chain for automolie may focus on the cars looks. Adding leather seats verus cloth seats can help add the value to that car. Also different colors are more popular therefore more value. Here in Nebraska if paint the car red the value goes up due to high demands for red cars. ( can tell why nebraska number 1 car color is red?).

4.

For my current emplorer, being an intermodal transportation company we are all about material handing. We move for all sort of things including chicken for tsysons. More into the supply chain umbrella. TSL, has to purchase materials and equipment to be able to move for our customers. We make our very own chassis which I often help schedule when we should use them. Someone else, schedule to material to make them, produce them, and send them out to our yards. We also need to buy trucks and gensets to power our refer containers.Since we are a service, quality control is more based off on making sure we are on time and driving safely on the roads. Our safey team make sure our drivers drive safe and our CSR teams handle any complaints on not being on time. CSRs also help with the customer service. We do track all off our drivers and chassis to keep track where they are. It is up to the dispatchers to plan out the schedules for the drivers. now for the easy part, inboud and outbound transportation. We move raw materials and final products for differnt customers and their different needs.

5. The four pillars are evident in TSL. HR does have a hard time finding talents so they always show up to UNO career fairs and other colleges. Also offer internships to college students to learn about the company while getting an degree, aka me. They even go as far as offering postitions to highschool students apart of millard business logistics managements to reach them early on. I started at tsl in highschool through this program. For Organzational design, in TSL we are actually about four different companies that do different things. We have the trucking side, ILI whichare forwarders for overseas, brookage of Accutran and are terminals. Each companies is split on to help cover our customers need for transportation, rather they use boat, train , or truck. We also have our CSR teams they help customer navigate where containers are and when they be delivered to them. Next is our information technology. We use two system for our trucking side and overseas logistics side. These systems help keep a schedule of when and what is being used. Also on what is being charged or each trip and what is being paid to us. These systems help with the next pillar measurements. In our department we use the numbers from our systems to see how much money we are spending on chassis and each month we try to use our chassis and rent out chassis more proficently. I myself has created a company wide resource to help ensure that everyone has access to chassis rules to keep human error on a low. This also kept cost of usage low.

6.

I believe that adding an entrepreneurial atosphere is not adheretly bad idea or good idea. I do believe it is more on the side of an good idea to take this approach while can lead to very risky choices. The purchasing process at any industry can improve, like the book said mostly these processes have been the same for decades. Therefore if we want to improve our margins we can help the cost of goods by learning better ways to purchase our materials. Using more improved methods like the centralize buying efforts said in text can reduce cost, Not sure if would work with every industry out there but for sure can help out a few industy to take the entrepreneurial appoarch.