No doubt that the efficient management of the Supply Chain is crucial for any business, but the grasping question always comes is how does it create value for the firm? More still, how can that value be better managed so as to create competitive advantage for the firm?
While the Value Chain analysis as developed by Michael Porter in 1985 argues as being efficient for creating a sustainable platform for value generation for firms so that they may achieve competitive advantage in the industry, the proposition is not without major limitations, like all other popular frameworks in strategic management literature.
Theory of Economics is one of many possible ways to define and measure value.
While operationalizing the definition of value, it is crucial to note whether the exchange that creates this economic value is between business entities i.e. Business to Business (B2B) – or between a firm and a consumer – i.e., Business to Consumer (B2C).
Since Supply Chain is intrinsic to creation of economic value between business entities only, we focus on B2B value creation. There are 3 forms of value that is created in B2B type economic transactions that is widely accepted in strategic management literature focusing on Supply Chains.
- Technical value, which is intrinsic to the resource being provided and occurs in almost every economic exchanges.
- Organizational value, which is built upon the context of the exchange, and may derive from a range of factors such as ethical standards, prestige, reliability, and association. This may help the organization get more than the normal economic value from the transactional point of view, in terms of helping the same to achieve some degree of competitive advantage.
- Personal value, which is derived from the personal experiences and relationships involved in the exchange of resources and the benefits provided to the entities associated with the firms bounded by the economic exchange.
Value in supply chain gets created through the following processes:
- Supply chain modeling must be done quantitatively and objectively. Understanding of the goals objectively is crucial for its success.
- The major challenge in an excellent supply chain network is not to build a model but to model the sensitivity of one variable against others optimally. A simple model can work fine in many cases. However, supply chain experts (OR & Analytics Professionals) should be involved immediately when doing multi-layered inventory strategies, industrial engineers and operations.
- The fundamental building blocks of work are the methods and standards for the tasks. Value creation occurs when the changing business dynamics can be effectively modeled regularly to drive maximum benefits. (remember the Theories of Constraints?)
So creating value from supply chain should be a major focus for all manufacturing companies.
This is crucial to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of not only the supply chain in particular, but for the overall firm productivity.
By the way, did you read the following articles?
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