Process Strategy (Essay Sample)

Process Strategy
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FedEx is an industry giant, involved in the global courier services. The American company has its headquarters in Memphis within Tennessee. Over the years, the company has grown rapidly to take on the mantle of the world’s largest courier company in terms of sheer size and customer base (Heizer & Render, 2001). There are more than 600 aircrafts and close to 50000 vehicles under the company’s air and ground fleets. The company also has quite a number of ships on its fleets for the sea hauls, serving continents in a moments notice. The services offered cover small packages to large packages, making its market one of the largest. Managing such an enormous market requires elaborate process strategies, thus the operations manager is at liberty to practice several directions (Heizer & Render, 2011).
One of the process strategies that the operations managers at FedEx use relate to, is the product focus. This is derived from the fact that all the companies that are listed under the mother company are all focused on delivering a certain product to the customers. The FedEx Freight, one of the companies affiliated with the mother company deals in heavy and large cargo, while the FedEx Express deals in much smaller packages that are required the next day (About FedEx, 2014). All the companies deal with high volumes on a daily basis and the only restriction to the variety of their products is the size as well as the destination of the products involved. Moreover, the company also applies the process strategy in its operations and business activities. This implied by the fact that the company offers a number of services. The different packages require to be hauled over the sea, aircrafts and trucks. Packages that are much smaller are distributed from the company stores, while the larger and bulky cargo is distributed from larger warehouses. The repetitive focus in reality falls in between the process and the product focus. Different packages have to be scanned, labeled and tagged before they are released on to their respects courier platform. This is an operation that is carried on modules which are continuous as the parts and the components of the various products are taken through the process (Mir, 2013).
With the headquarters of FedEx being stationed in Memphis, it also acts as the main distribution hub for all of the networks. However, it is important to note that the company understands the need for an elaborate network that will help its client to plan with precision. The company as such, does not solely rely on the Memphis station, it has many distribution centers across the states and the globe. This increases it ability to influence its operations with much less efforts that it would have if the headquarters were the central hub. Having more than one hub or distribution centers assists the company in improving the performance of the supply chains across the globe (Fedex.com, 2014). At the same time, the company is in a position to reduces the investment on capital and minimize the level of risks. Deployment of the assets that the company has is also much easier and the resources can easily be distributed with precision to boost efficiency and effectiveness. Having a central distribution ce...