Strategic sourcing research paper sample

Abstract

Introduction
Organizations are always made to earn economic profit and strategic expansion. There are certain things that come under the ambit of organizational productivity and among them, taking effective economic and strategic decision is one of them, in fact the most important ones as well. It is not an easy task for a company to increase its financial belongings without having a strategic alliance with other peer companies. There are numerous examples available in which organizations have been seen effective in terms of initiating the strategic alliance with the companies which are operating in the same line of business or having identical products and services.
Strategic Alliance is another thing, but taking over and mergers are something else, and all of these provisions are more than important for the sake of an organization. Most of the time, it has been the consensus that organizations which have homogenous services and products would try to take over from different bids (Sollish, 2011). There are certain departments which usually work in an organization and among them, the name of Supply Chain Management (SCM) department is one of them, which has its own recognition and importance lies in a broad nutshell. The main perspective of this assignment is to select a topic on the basis of Supply Chain Management and the topic which has been selected for the same analysis is,

“ Towards the Sustainability Supply Chain Management in the Agricultural Sector” written by Normansyah Syahruddin and Matteo Kalchschmidth

Both of the individuals worked wonderfully well to cover the things accordingly and effectively (Syahruddin & Kalchschmidt, 2011). The paper has all sorts of effectiveness like, introduction, literature review, methodology, discussion and analysis, conclusion and then the referencing section.

Analytical Review

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the management of the flow of goods. SCM is a function includes the movements and storage of the raw materials, inventory and raw material to make the goods as the finished goods. It makes the products effective in terms of starting it from the manufacturing process and end on the level of making the goods at a final level. In the current environment of globalization, companies are now leading and pursuing to the investment in different parts of the world due to a number of reasons, including low labor cost, low cost material, strategic locations and relaxed regulation based.
The paper which has been selected identified the importance of Supply Chain Management in particular and its effects on the financial position of the company in particular. The paper revealed that due to the supply chain consequences, the global supply chains are typically characterized by greater and effective use of the transportation with different and obvious implications in particular (Sollish, 2011). The paper analyzed that proper utilization and usage of supply chain management certainly enables an organization to decrease their labor cost and become economically proper in particular and that is the main thing why companies throughout the globe are now using the essence of supply chain management in order to enhance their productivity from different sections. It is also mentioned in the analysis that the effective utilization of Supply Chain assists the organizations to sustain the same for a long span of time and initiate a growing attention and attraction for the end consumers in order to bring fragility as well as sustainability.
The paper has diverted its attention towards the effective utilization of Supply Chain Management on the companies and their positive impact over the financial position of the companies. There are certain aspects which deem positive and effective from the utilization of Supply Chain Management. The paper analyzed that there are certain sectors wherein the utilization of Supply Chain Management is quite high and effective and among these sectors, the name of Agriculture sector is one of them. There is a very less attention has been given to the agriculture sector in terms of supply chain management and it is needed to be included the same section. The management of the Supply Chain is merely made to identify the extent of the discipline in this field to highlight the areas in which it is required to have further research in particular.

Sustainable Agricultural Supply Chain (SASC)

The study conducted by Muller and Seuring (2008) stated that the process of agricultural products supply chain is supposed to be executed from the initial stages of supply chain however, Linton et. Al (2007) argued that the practice of supply chain should be taken into consideration from the starting stages of production to the delivery of products. Sollish & Semanik (2003) empirically investigated and provided the vital responsibilities of farmers, peasants and relevant association towards transparent exchange of goods for enhancing the level of sustainable supply chain in the global market.
In order to attain sustainability in regard to agriculture, the three challenges ought to have taken into consideration that comprises of:

Profit:

Reinforce and strengthen the vitality and combativeness of the agriculture industry
Planet:
The focal point of all practices to encourage good environmental practices of ecological challenges
People:
It is directed towards the societal challenges that pose optimistic impacts over lifestyles and bring economic occasions in countryside areas.
Therefore, considering above three challenges, the legislative authorities such as CAP has a vital role to play in order to encourage the sustainable supply of agricultural products and fulfill the expectation of the market as well as government.
As reported by Nisbeth (2005), the exercises for making sustainable agriculture sector not only help in strengthen the agriculture supply chain but also minimize the risk of negative environmental consequences and to provide public assurance and remote place by pro-active measures of the chains.
As far as employment matter is concerned, Rogers (2008) empirically analyzed the study that showed the effects of Bio energy plants portray considerable impact on employment level of rural areas in comparison with traditional plants. The author also highlighted that the impact is not only placed to decrease the unemployment ration from rural areas but also originate opportunities in different sector like transportation, production of feed stock and in supply chain operations. The sustainable supply chain of agricultural products helps in promoting and creating sustainable agricultural sector to ensure the delivery of organic and safer products. Moreover, the nature may also be protected from these countermeasures and practices of the bio-diversity element.
The technical issues have also been playing a vital role in maintaining the sustainable agricultural supply chain of products for a few years. Pullman & Wu (2011) observed that the negligence of technological aspects in agriculture sector may obstruct in achieving the sustainability approach in agricultural activities.

Research Methodology

Methodology is one of the most important sections of a research report as it defines the basic strategy to complete the research in an effective and well organized manner. There are two different kinds of methodology which particularly are secondary research method and primary research method, which also known as Qualitative Research Method and Quantitative Research method. There is a need to have a perfect research methodology in particular and the research methodology which has been used in this particular analysis is showing that the researcher have used the analysis of Secondary research in which all of the data have been collected through the utilization of interview and other important prospectus. In the research methodology, the researcher has identified that supply chain management has a relationship with the social based relationship along with the environmental and economical performance of the companies in particular. It is one of the most important things from the viewpoint of an organization which has been identified accordingly. The integration of effective Supply Chain Management (SCM) with the companies would certainly bring positivity and effectiveness to the sustainable development in particular.

Analysis & Discussion

The transportation channel is usually directed through land medium and is reflected from most of the cases based on supply chain management. Using different modes of transport is mainly dependent on the transportation network, supply of spare parts and oil cost. The typical and effective form of agriculture supply chain usually comprised on different transportation means. Therefore, it can be observed from the farm’s view point that the farmers are required to transport their crops towards the collector by using road transport as the air transport operations will be more expensive. The air transport mean is useful for those companies whose dealings and operations are managing all along the way from domestic market. Apart from it, if the market is local, then the road transport is the best choice for transportation of goods. Shipping mode of transportation is also utilized for cross border transportation of items. As far as self consciousness and market claim, the fleets are likely to be partial for the majority of company up till now, and it could be a severe issue in managing the transportation means that would paint a negative picture of a company’s performance.
Profit Maximization, employee’s productivity and effectiveness are some of the major heads on which the sustainability of the companies depends upon. According to the main crux of the analysis, it is also found that strategic sourcing of supply chain management is important for a company and different challenges could be resolved accordingly with the help of taking decisions on the basis of supply chain management. Improvement in the sustainable management is possible with the help of applying effective readily material over the supply chain management stance and that is the main thing why big and multinational companies used the same.

Conclusion

There are numbers of departments come under the ambit of an organization and every department is responsible for the economic growth and strategic competitiveness of an organization. Among a number of departments that deem important for an organization, Supply Chain Management department is one of them. Most of the organizations are very much familiar with the Supply Chain Department along with its productivity as well. The main perspective of this assignment is to select a topic on the basis of Supply Chain Management and the topic which has been selected for the same analysis is,
“ Towards the Sustainability Supply Chain Management in the Agricultural Sector” written by Normansyah Syahruddin and Matteo Kalchschmidth

References

Lichtfouse, E. (2011). Sustainable agriculture. Dordrecht [u. a.]: Springer.
Pullman, M. & Wu, Z. (2011). Food supply chain management. New York: Routledge.
Sollish, F. (2011). An Overview of Global Strategic Sourcing. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Sollish, F. & Semanik, J. (2011). Strategic global sourcing best practices. Hoboken, NJ.: Wiley.
Syahruddin, N. & Kalchschmidt, M. (2011). Towards Sustainable Supply Chain Management in Agricultural Sector. 5. [report] Pom learning, pp. 2-12.
al, L. J. (2007). Sustainable Supply Chains : An Introduction. Journal of Operations .
Muller, S. S. (2008). From a Literature Review to a Conceptual Framework . Journal of Cleaner Production. Vol. 16. , 1699 – 1710.
Nisbeth, A. (2005). Variation in Stakeholder Opinion on Countermeasures across Europe. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity. Vol. 83 , 371 – 381.
Rogers, D. (2008). A Framework of Sustainable Supply Chain Management : Moving Toward New Theory. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, Vol. 38, No. 5 , 360 – 387.