Global Supply Chain Management

Introduction:

Balfour Beatty is one of the UK largest company engaged in infra and construction business. In the present research study porter value chain analysis is done and comments are made on it. Further, it is identified whether firm need to outsource or in-source tasks in its business. Backward and forward integration in the supply chain is also discussed from a company point of view. Ways in which supply chain can be made more flexible in the business are also explained in the report. In this way, entire research work is carried out in the report.

Porter value chain analysis:

Porter value chain model basically is a framework which encompasses activities right from purchase of raw material to manufacturing of goods and their transportation to the market. In the model activities can be classified into two parts, namely primary activities and support activities (Van Leeuwen. and Mohnen, 2017). Primary activities mainly include inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales as well as service. On other hand, support activities mainly include firm infra, HRM, technology development and procurement related activities.

Primary activities:

• Inbound logistics: Balfour Beatty PLC has a strong relationship with the suppliers and having a wide distribution network. Supply chain of the goods is quite complex. The firm needs to simplify it so that supply chain cost can be reduced in the business.
• Operations: Balfour Beatty makes the purchase of raw items from its suppliers. When goods reach to warehouse quality checking is done and if it is according to standardize then used for building construction (Chou., 2015). Firm, make use of advanced technology so that operations can be performed at low cost in the business.
• Outbound logistics: This section of the porter value chain model reflects the activities related to collecting, storing and distributing product to varied large size wholesalers who further sale product to retailers and the same reach to customer.
• Marketing and sales: Balfour Beatty does the marketing of its services through its website. Apart from this, it also keeps an eye on Government tenders and by quoting appropriate amount it wins tender and start construction work. The firm need to expand its sales team to market its services on a large scale which will greatly affect client acquisition phase of the firm.
• Services: Firm work in close contact with its client and time to time gives relevant updates to them (Riasi, 2015). At each step of construction detail discussion is done with clients and accordingly project is further implemented. This leads to higher customer satisfaction.

 

 

 

Conclusion:

On the basis of the above discussion, it is concluded that Balfour Beatty needs to improve its marketing operations and infrastructure. HR is very dissatisfied and efforts must be made to develop a better corporate culture in the workplace. The firm does not need to outsource its tasks because it is capable to cut down cost and it is already providing outsourcing services to many firms. Hence, it has in house capability to optimize business operations and cut costs in business. A firm must follow backward integration model because it will assist it to gain more control of supply chain and improving product quality and reducing raw material cost significantly. A firm must follow six sigma approaches to improve supply chain.

 

Reference:

Books and Journals:

Chou, D. C. 2015. Cloud computing: A value creation model. Computer Standards & Interfaces. 38. 72-77.
Font, X., Guix, M.. and Bonilla-Priego, M. J. 2016. Corporate social responsibility in cruising: Using materiality analysis to create shared value. Tourism Management. 53. 175-186.
Glock, C. H.. and Kim, T. 2015. The effect of forward integration on a single-vendor–multi-retailer supply chain under retailer competition. International Journal of Production Economics. 164. 179-192.
Grimshaw, D. and et.al., 2015. Outsourcing of public services in Europe and segmentation effects: The influence of labour market factors. European Journal of Industrial Relations. 21(4). 295-313.
Li, W.. and Chen, J. 2018. Backward integration strategy in a retailer Stackelberg supply chain. Omega. 75. 118-130.
Ravichandran, N.. and Narayanaswami, S. 2019. Security Management at the National Institute of Management: To Outsource or Insource? Cases (A) and (B). Vikalpa. 44(2). 88-94.
Riasi, A. 2015. Competitive advantages of shadow banking industry: An analysis using Porter diamond model. Business Management and Strategy. 6(2), 15-27.
Schniederjans, M. J., Schniederjans, A. M.. and Schniederjans, D. G. 2015. Outsourcing and insourcing in an international context. Routledge.
Shibin, K. T. and et.al., 2016. Enablers and barriers of flexible green supply chain management: A total interpretive structural modeling approach. Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management. 17(2). 171-188.
Tyagi, M., Kumar, P.. and Kumar, D. 2015. Assessment of critical enablers for flexible supply chain performance measurement system using fuzzy DEMATEL approach. Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management. 16(2). 115-132.

 

 

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