The Supply Chain Management of Dell, Toyotas Operations Management Research Paper

The Supply Chain Management of Dell, Toyotas Operations Management - Research Paper Example According to the paper operations management refers to the activity of managing the resources and the coordination of the entire process through which organizations produce goods and services; effective operations management, like SCM, is an integral part of the organization especially because it is a source of competitive advantages. In this regard, every organization has an operations function which is held by an operations manager because each one of them is involved either in the production of goods or services. This paper will examine the supply chain management of Dell, Toyota’s Operations Management, as well as, the competitive advantages gained through strategic SCM and OM by the two companies respectively; it will also highlight the differences between lean and agile SCM. Supply Chain Management (SCM) Supply Chain, the structured network of organizations involved in the conversion of raw materials into finished products and delivery of the same to end users or custome rs, and Supply Chain Management, the optimization of activities across the whole system, are inevitably the most fundamental aspects of doing business in today’s corporate world. As the study outlines the success and survival of every organization in the complex, highly competitive, and fast changing global market environment is dependent, not on the effectiveness of the individual organization’s supply chain strategies, but on the effectiveness of the entire network of players or the supply chain. Superficially, overall supply chains start with the raw materials or factors of production and combine several value-adding activities, then end with the delivery of finished products or goods to the end users; however, the extended view of Supply Chains integrate additional activities in the function, to the satisfaction of customers. Customer satisfaction, for that matter, becomes a crucial yardstick for measuring the effectiveness of the supply chains, and the management of the linking processes; market uncertainties call for supply chains that are flexible and adaptable to changes, thus the need for effective supply chain management to achieve such flexi bility. Overall effectiveness of the Supply Chain Management results to cost savings and enhanced customer service, while improving an organization’s competitiveness even in the wake of increasing competition and increasing consumer demands in the global corporate markets.