Supply Chain Integration

Supply Chain Integration
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* Adoption of the Keiretsu Network in the Supply Chain
Of the many strategies available for this company, I would recommend the adoption of the Keiretsu network. The reason for this approach is because, the strategy allows manufacturers and suppliers to achieve long-term purchasing relationships, cross-shareholding, intense collaboration, and the exchange of technology and personnel. Literature studies show that the Japanese auto industry is able to share costs and responsibilities between the assemblers and suppliers, thereby reducing costs, having quick response time to the fluctuating demand of the market (Ahmadjian and Lincoln, 2001). In this method, the manufacturers become major financial supporters of suppliers through the share ownership of loans, while the supplier becomes an important part of the company`s keiretsu.
The goal of this relationship is that the members of the network enjoy the benefits of being partners and provide the company with expertise on how to achieve quality production in manufacturing. The same network can be applied down the supply chain by involving the second and third suppliers in the coalition. In the case simulation, the investor group will own the manufacturing and production facilities along with the first tire of the supplier chain that is the distributors. In this network any external distributor where direct or through outsourcing will be part of the keiretsu network by ownership of the supply chain, owning some obligation and support for the supply chain.
The second and third generation suppliers will also have part ownership at a percentage lower than the first tire suppliers will. Combined ownership of the supply chain entails the ownership, management, and obligation of performance of the warehouses, logistics, distribution and wholesale centers, the supply routes, transportation, marketing, and advertisement of the products along the supply chain. This will also make use of a virtual keiretsu, where hard-wired technology will form a link between the manufacturing firm, its distributors, and suppliers on the virtual network cutting across national boundaries.
* Metrics for the Measurement of Supply Chain Performance
Given the integration of the supply chain, the measurement of its performance must entail its operational, tactical, and strategic level. To measure these, the company can consider the planner order procedures entailing the procurement of orders in the downstream activities and inventory levels. This is through the order-entry method, the order lead-time, and path of order traverse methods. The order-entry method gives the manner and the extent to which the consumer specifications are turned into useful information and are moved along the supply chain, it is important for its affects every scheduling activity in the supply chain (Gunasekaran, Patel & Tirtiroglu, 2001).
The order-lead...