Supply Chain Management: McDonald Restaurant (Coursework Sample)

Supply Chain Management: McDonald Restaurant
Name
Institution of affiliation
Date
Supply Chain Management: McDonald Restaurant
Introduction
McDonald is one of the world’s largest chain of fast food restaurants. It serves around 68 million customers in 119 countries with more than 36,000 outlets. The primary fast foods that McDonald primary deals with include hamburgers, desserts, cheeseburgers, soft drinks, milkshakes, chicken, French fries, breakfast items, salads, smoothies, fish, wraps and seasoned friesCITATION McDml \l 1033 (McDonalad, n.d.). The restaurants are operated based on a franchisee or affiliate operation. The organization makes its revenue through rent, royalties and faces paid by the franchisees. In the year 2012 the company made profits of $5.5 billion CITATION Yah12 \l 1033 (Yahoo Finance, 2012). The company has targeted the customers in the urban working class people who rarely have time to prepare their foods. Order winners of the operation include quality foods, fast service delivery and the global image of the organisation. Quality service delivery, fast service delivery and maintaining its global image are among its core order qualifiers.
Literature Review
Fristedt et. Al 2011, summarised some of the key elements of supply chain management. The first one is the inventory management which focuses on the reduction of redundancy in performance. It focuses on how managers design and implement cost efficient approaches in the supply chain processes. The flexibility of the supply chain approaches helps align the organization performance with customer needs easily. A total cost approach focuses on the best cost effective approaches to use. A well-coordinated supply chain operation under one expenses management helps lower the costs of operation which in the end lower the cost of the product to the customer. The time horizon approaches focuses on long time planning which can be less costly at the end. It includes the establishment of long term relationships with clients and other businesses. Information sharing is necessary for a successful supply chain management as it helps in enhancing collaboration among staff. However, the information should be relevant otherwise it may end up accumulating too much irrelevant information. Such information include the sales data, sales forecast, and performance schedule and performance metrics. Coordination should also be enhanced among channel members, management levels and across all functions. Joint planning helps achieve a plan that can be implemented and accepted by all members of the channels. Cooperate philosophy play a major role in enhancing a collaborative culture among the employees. Supplier base, channel leadership, sharing of risks and rewards and speed of operations are among other key elements in the supply chain management that aid in meeting the customer expectationsCITATION Fri \p 12 \l 1033 (Fristedt, et al., 2011, p. 12).
Janvier-James (2012) carried a thorough literature review into the field of supply chain management. The author agree that there are no specific supply chain management theories or models that are specifically set for the supply chain sector. However the most common models that have helped discuss the supply chain management focus on the organization strategy, individual factors and information technology. These model revolve around these factors as influencing and contributing to effective supply chain management and flow of information within the supply channel. The other theory that has been identified in defining supply chain management such as the systems theory. The systems theory in the supply chain management focuses on how the various processes in the supply chain form one unit called the supply chain. Therefore effective coordination of these processes is necessary in achieving quality service delivery to the customers. Poor coordination of these processes leads to poor performance which in the end affect service delivery to the customerCITATION Jan12 \p 47 \l 1033 (Janvier-Jame, 2012, p. 47).
Jraisat (2011) explored the theories that are crucial in the supply chain management. They include the relationship marketing theory which focusses on building a positive relationship between the buyers and the sellers for sustained business performance. The network theory focuses on the analysis of the business situation by focusing on the creation and the sharing of information between the buyer and the seller. It enables the access of sources and knowledge beyond their abilities. The transaction cost theory focuses on the different expenses within the organization such as the coordinating, contracting deals and information sharing. The transaction theory is an economic theory that emphasizes on minimization of these costs so that at the end the product is affordable to the customerCITATION Jra11 \p 56 \l 1033 (Jraisat, 2011, p. 56).
Park, Nayyar and Low (2013) have focused on the global growth of the supply chain around organization in the world. In their introduction, the authors have emphasized on how profitability became a basic foundation for organization around the world to streamline their supply chain strategies so that they are in line with the needs of the customers. The authors have focused on different dimensions of the global supply chain and its growth emphasising on different models. One of the notable model is the Heckscher Ohlin model which has revolutionized the supply chain field. According to the Heckster model, what a country imports or exports influences their level of customer satisfactions. Countries that have a poor human capital development will supply low quality product which results in low customer satisfactionCITATION Par13 \p 11 \l 1033 (Park, et al., 2013, p. 11).
Gebremichael and Rao (2014, p.16), asserts that supply chain management depends on the business strategies employed by the company, the relationships that the company has with its various stakeholders, plan and the execution of the plan, logistic performance and the information technology and its implementation in the entire business systems. The author argue that all parties that are involved either directly or indirectly in meeting the demands of the customer all make up the supply chain management. According to the authors the supply chain management does not stop at the supplies, sales and procurement departments. The authors present the supply chain as the ultimate process that begins form the moment the supplier supplies raw materials to the organization up to the time the end product is delivered to the customers. The parties that are involved in the supply chain management are the manufacturers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, transporters and even the customers themselves. Success of any business organization relies on its ability to manage and design the supply chain management system so that customer needs are met effectively and efficiently. The authors emphasize that the current world has been affected greatly by information technology in all aspects and the supply chain is no exception. Therefore the implementation of these supply chain management strategies have become a major competitive advantage for organizations in the current worldCITATION Geb14 \p 22 \l 1033 (Gebremichael & Rao, 2014, p. 22).
Ellram and Cooper (2014, p.10) have focused on the supply chain as a set of three or more entities (organizations or individuals) directly involved in an upstream and downstream flow of products, services, finances, and information from customers and return of the same. In their systematic review the authors found that authors have different perspectives about supply chain management which include the process perspective, the process perspective looks at the organisation performance and the relationships that exist between the various organisations systems. It’s also seen as the governance structure that began in the early years of industrial revolution. This perspective establishes the boundaries and relationships which members of the supply chain should have in order to achieve the best result. It’s also seen as a philosophy through which the firm integrates its activities and how decisions impact the organization performanceCITATION Coo14 \p 13 \l 1033 (Cooper & Ellram, 2014, p. 13).
Car, Pilepic and Simunic (2014, p. 207) have focused on the global influence of mobile technologies in the supply management. The authors argue that the mobile technologies and applications have enabled managers to manage their supplies and distributions form remote areas far away from their places of work. These technologies have enhanced smooth information flow in the supply chain systems. Processing and tracking data flow, and sending of notifications to participants in the supply chain has been enhanced by these technological toolsCITATION Car14 \p 212 \l 1033 (Car, et al., 2014, p. 212).
Diaconu and Alpopi (2014, p. 72), focused on the strengths and weaknesses in the supply chain management at the various stages along the supply chain system. In the strategic orientation the authors classified the orientation strategies into manufacturing, outsourcing, channel, customer service strategy and asset network strategies. Strengths in this strategies entirely rely on the abilities of the organization and external influence is very minimal. The next strategies focus on the processes and IT support which focuses on stock, planning, order manufacturing, purchasing. One of the key strengths that have been implemented in this strategy is the use of technology. And one of the key weaknesses is a poor implementation which leads to poor results. Management and organisation focuses on skills, competence and metrics. Cooperation and measurement systems all influence the quality of the productCITATION Dia14 \p 74 \l 1033 (Diaconu & Alpopi, 2...