Supply Chain Management Overview

Study Notes

Common platforms include LinkedIn, Indeed, and JobStreet.
Key challenges include fraud/scams that exploit the company's reputation and technological disparities affecting accessibility.
Advantages include:
- Enhanced efficiency and cost-effectiveness in the recruitment process.
- Tools for applicant tracking and screening enable targeted candidate filtering.
- Job applications can be submitted anytime, anywhere, promoting flexibility.
- Transparency in job vacancies, salaries, criteria, and descriptions.

Connect time-sensitive customers with independent service providers, acting as intermediaries.
Platforms like Uber (driver-customer) and Netflix (content-customer) focus on specific services.
Payment is typically processed online.
Characterized by:
- Delay sensitivity; customers expect immediate delivery.
- Agent independence; service providers choose their working hours and payment is service completion-based.
Concerns include job security for gig workers, along with safety and quality control issues.

Key industry factors:
- Low barriers to entry enable new competitors.
- Moderate supplier power and high customer power.
- High existence of substitutes contributing to competition.
Firm-specific factors:
- Importance of value chains through outsourcing and collaboration.
- Leveraging technology and core competencies through synergies enhances market reach and customer engagement.
- Legal challenges arise from reliance on reputation and partnerships with larger firms.

Omnichannel: Integrates online and physical retail for seamless shopping experiences.
Factory-Direct: Manufacturers sell directly to customers without intermediaries (e.g., Casper).
Catalogue Merchant: Retailers showcase products primarily through catalogs.
Virtual Merchant: Operate solely online, no physical storefronts.

Forward/Regular Auctions:
- English Auction: Bidding starts low and increases until no further bids are placed.
- Dutch Auction: Starts high and decreases until a bid is accepted.
- Yankee Auction: Multiple identical items bid together; highest bidder sets the price.
Sealed-Bid Auctions:
- Bidders submit blind bids; the highest bid wins.
- Variants include:
  - First-price: Highest bidder pays their bid amount.
  - Second-price (Vickrey): Highest bidder pays the second-highest bid amount, encouraging truthful bidding.
Double Auctions: Both buyers and sellers submit price-quantity bids; common in stock exchanges like NYSE.

Direct materials are essential for product production, while indirect materials support operations.
Logistics involves the efficient flow of goods and information, requiring Just-In-Time strategies.
Finance and administration encompass financial management, including budgeting and HR activities.
E-commerce enhances procurement through platforms like Alibaba, facilitating supplier transactions and reducing costs.
Supply webs improve efficiency via:
- Internet of Things for transactions.
- Cloud storage for real-time data updates.
- Automation technologies such as RFID and barcodes for tracking and inventory management.

RFID: Uses radio signals for quicker, more accurate inventory tracking than barcodes.
- Active RFID: Contains its own power supply for longer-range detection; offers greater reliability for asset tracking.